Hi folks,

It has been about two weeks since I've been back from my trip to Japan. Much like my previous years to Japan, this year was another year of both challenges and encouragement as the team sought to minister faithfully at Hamadera Bible Church. With this trip marking my fourth time to Japan, I recognized that these opportunities are rare. Even after all these years ministering in Japan, every year back has been a blessing to me.

Much like the previous years, the team served in two main ministries. During the day time, we served as English teachers in the JJ5D ministry. In the evenings, we coordinated different activities in which we hung out with junior high and high school students. Since I feel like I have spoken to you all in person regarding these two ministries, I won't describe the ministries in details again. Instead, I want to share with you the team's effort to make the two ministries more impactful. I hope that this different approach will not be too technical but informative.

With the JJ5D program, our focus was on two areas in particular. Every year, one of the areas that required a lot of administrative overhead was producing the yearly curriculum. In the past, the team would spend a majority of the time recreating the curriculum from scratch. As time went on, it only made sense for us to approach the ministry in such a way that not only addressed the current year, but also contributed to the future years of ministry. Our goal this year was to start a process that in time would give us six years of continuous and integrated curriculum. With the combined effort of all of the team members, we were able to successfully implement the first of six years of curriculum. While this was a major investment in terms of our time and energy, in the future the curriculum will allow us to redirect our focus from creating the curriculum to better teach through the curriculum.

Similarly, we also took the same approach to our music. This year, we stepped back from the typical sets of songs and introduced into the program a set of SEEDS songs. The SEEDS songs are Christian children music with the lyrics taken straight from scripture. This ensured that our songs were always theologically correct and profitable for the students. In addition to the change in song selection, we also decided to experiment with different approaches to song leading. As a sign of the effectiveness of the songs, during my first week in Japan when I had the opportunity to stay with the family of one of the JJ5D students, it was an encouragement to hear the kids sing these SEEDS songs in enjoyment at home.

With the JJ4N ministry, we also had two main focuses. First, improve the overall experience of the program by introducing new events. Second, work on the transition for the graduates of the 5D program so that the 4N program becomes a natural progression. As we started our planning for the 4N events, our original intent was to completely replace one of the four events and keep the other three intact. As we spent more time discussing and brainstorming ideas, we realized that there was a great potential for improvement across all of the nights. As the result, JJ4N felt like a brand new program across the board with positive results.

Over the past year, while the attendance for JJ5D has steadily increased, the attendance for JJ4N has remained consistent because the students who graduated from JJ5D have not progressed to the JJ4N program. While a major reason behind this lack of transition was because of the demands placed on the students by the Japanese school system, we still felt that this was an area that we wanted to focus on and address. This year, we designed one of the evening events with the intention of using it as a way to introduce the 4N program to the older 5D students. At first, we weren't sure how the older/younger students would mix and whether we would be able to come up with an event that would be enjoyed by all. After the joint event, it was encouraging to hear from the older kids how much they enjoyed the joint evening of games, and to hear from the younger kids how they were looking forward to joining us for 4N in the future.

In a nut shell, these were the new initiatives we were able to bring forth this year with this year's team. While our desire had always been to be faithful in our planning, it was on these trips that I saw the grace of God revealed in all of our planning and execution. Throughout the trip, we faced many unplanned obstacles and challenges. As I looked back on our time in Japan--from everything between team members getting sick to unexpected thunder storms--it was comforting to know that God was sovereign over everything. In the 2.5 weeks of ministry in Japan, I recognized that the outcome was the answered prayers of many of our supporters. Thank you for your support of this year's team. I hope that this brief update gives you insight of how your support has made direct impact to the proclamation of eternal truth in the country of Japan.

Patrick Ku

Priscilla here...

Today was the start of our second Joy Joy 5 Days, and also the first day of Joy Joy 4 Nights. This morning, Patrick reminded us of team unity by going through Philippians 2. Our daily devotional time has been really profitable, and Patrick does a really good job of choosing topics that we need to hear and are appropriate for our team at that moment. You can tell that the team is pretty tired, but Okada-sensei encouraged us this morning that these new kids deserve just as much of our energy and efforts as the first group did.

Afterward, we had some prep time, staff meeting, and the children came pouring in. This week's turnout is A LOT bigger than last week. My class has doubled in size, and so have a few of the others. Overall, the day went very well - many of us were talking about how well behaved the kids were this week, which is a blessing. It's just the first day though, so who knows what crazy things will happen later on with them. Although it is harder to manage so many more kids for us, it is a huge encouragement to think about how many more children and parents will be able to hear about Jesus.

After that, our team split up. The Joy Joy 4 Nihgts people started to prepare for the evening events (Icebreaker night). The rest of the team went to Plat Plat (local mall-type place) to run some errands and grab dinner. We ate at an om-rice restaurant - Hannah, Amanda, Patrick, Jaime, Kat, and me. It was a good time to get a lot of necessary ministry things accomplished.

As I blog right now, Kondo-sensei is giving a presentation to the junior high/high school children at JJ4N. I will let another team member blog about how JJ4N went. Thank you so much for your prayers! Here are some updated requests:

1. Pray for sustained energy, strength from the Lord to serve Him, one another, and the children.

2. Pray for the salvation of kids and parents at JJ5D and students at JJ4N.

3. Keep praying for our health - everybody is currently healthy at the moment with some minor headache/tummy-ache type issues

Thanks! We all miss your family and friends from home. One more week left!

 Konbanwa from Japan!  :)  Sorry for such a late update on how our team is doing!  Our team just finished our first week of JJ5D and it went really well and smoothly!  Praise God!  Our team has been greatly encouraged and continues to seek to do all things to bring Christ glory, honor, and praise through our teaching, administrative stuff, planning, etc. 

7 of us on our team were able to go stay at some of our students' houses on Thursday after JJ5D ended.  We went home with the parent(s)/kid and got to hang out with them and come back the next morning with them.  The purpose of doing this was to strengthen the relationships with parents and give the church a good reputation, so that the community respects HBC.  I was one of the people who go to stay over at a host home with a mom and her 2 kids.  One of the kids was my student and I went along with another church member, Leah, to help me translate.  It was super fun, where I got to play with the kids, go to the Japanese supermarket, eat a Japanese home cooked dinner, get dressed in a yukata (summer kimono), and do hanabi (hand fireworks)!  I even got to talk for a long time with just the mom.  Please pray for her and her kids hearts to be softened and that they would be interested in the church and come to believe in Christ.

Today, when Jaime and I went to go buy drinks during a break during church, we saw a boy walking toward church.  I was like..."hey!  that's one of our kids!".  And...it was!  Masayoshi, a little boy, came by himself to church for the first time from JJ5D!  That was so exciting!  He was from the "blue" class, which was Jaime's class.  He had a good time during Sunday school today; please pray that he would keep coming and that the Lord would be softening his heart and have him come to a saving knowledge of Christ. 

Please also pray for our 2nd week of JJ5D this week; this week most of our classes are doubling in size, which will be pretty challenging for all of us.  JJ4N will also be starting up this week at night after JJ5D is over.  This will probably be the most tiring week for us, so please pray that we would remain focused on Christ and seeking to please Him in everything we do.  Please pray for team unity and that we would encourage one another, seeking others interests above our own.  Thanks!!!

p.s.  Here's a video clip of my class's presentation from Week 1 of JJ5D!  :)