Weeks 5 & 6 Update

Hello Everyone,

Sorry that it has taken me a couple of weeks since I last updated my blog. Things have began to really pick up and start to become very busy. Once again, I will only be explaining most of the things that you have not heard before in previous updates and small pieces of information from things you have already heard.

On the 9th, the one month exchange students from OC who are on their study abroad trip known as Pac Rim started their time here in Ibaraki. In the group there are about 22 students plus the teacher and his wife and children. I ended up going to Omika Church where I attended when I was an exchange student to try and meet some of them. After church was over, I headed back to Tomobe where we had the memorial for Usami san's one year mark since her death at the cemetery. This is very common in Japan to do for Buddhists funerals but we had a Christian one for her. You can read more about Kimiko Usami in the previous post.

Everyone who showed up for Kimiko's 1 Year Memorial

On the 10th, I went with a couple of members from the Tomobe church to have lunch because it was a holiday. It was a couple of the younger members which turned out to be a great time of encouragement for one another and resulted in me getting a cheap $30 used guitar so that I can connect with some people who are really into it and try to learn how to play. We will began the guitar classes next week.

On the 11th, I began had a Bible study again with the man I mentioned in the previous post. He had already answered all of the questions from the text book we use and didn't take long to get through. I don't think he is all to interested in the Bible so hopefully we can get him more into the Bible part. I also started to study with a new woman. It is very difficult to teach her the Bible through English but I hope gradually things will become more interesting for her.

On the 12th and 18th I went to IC again to do my normal Bible Studies. With the Pac Rim students being here, they have also started about 30 more English Bible studies with new students. I am hoping to pick some of those students up when they leave next month. I also tried to get a couple of guys to come with me on the 12th, but they are scared of the religious building on campus so I decided to go out with them to the ocean and just try to not study the Bible, but question them about why they hate Christianity so much. By the time I had finished they both said they may consider coming to one of my Bible studies. However, this past Wednesday, without even asking, one of them said they planned on joining it. I am hoping that I can reach to him really well and give him a better idea about how great Christianity is and also get his friend to come with him. In Japan, it is harder to convert a man more than a woman.

The guys I talk about Christianity with at the ocean!

Over the past couple of Thursdays and Fridays, my elementary classes have become much easier and my students are finally starting to cooperate and try to learn. They have really been more of a joy to work with than they were before. After my elementary classes on Thursday and Friday, Toru and I did our normal learning about the Bible class on Thursday. However, after one of the other members claimed they wanted to learn more about the Bible too, I decided to make Toru's English classes on Thursday and Bible classes on Tuesday so that we can have more of a Bible type study with more people and the Christians have a better idea about what Christianity is about.

On the 14th, we had our second youth group activity at the church building which was ping pong. It was the best turn out we have had yet when we went from having 4 young people at the activity to 6. Toru invited a couple of his friends to come and he ended up talking about the existence of God. Toru is the teen who wants to go to OC that I have been telling each of you about. The friends he invited are not Christian and I was impressed that he decided to talk about the topic he did. After Toru spoke the guys ended up staying around for another 2 hours hanging out at the church and playing different games which turned out to be a great time. We also have a few other people who have started to become interested in the community and I hope that next time even more people will come.

Pictures of the people who came to play Ping Pong and our Bible Study for our 2nd youth group activity!

On the 14th, the minister and his wife and I went with Toru and his mom to the Oklahoma Christian Eagle Bash which is the way the International Office at OC promotes the college for International Students. Its also kind of a way for all the people who have been involved with Japan/Oklahoma Christian/Ibaraki Christian to kind of have a reunion together which allowed me to see some old friends of mine who came to OC as exchange students when I was at OC. While it was a great time, after seeing the price of OC, it kind of made a lot of people feel that Toru does not have a chance to go to Oklahoma Christian because it is so expensive. If any of you have any way that you could help Toru, or know a way that he could get to OC, please let me know.

Pictures with some old exchange students and OC Pac Rim students.

On Monday and Tuesday, I went to the Ibaraki Preacher's (and some of their wives) Retreat. We spent time learning about the different ways people have been helping with relief work up north, and praying for them as well. We also spent time in worship together as well. On Tuesday we spent time planning for the National Japan Preacher's Retreat that takes place every year in Japan. Next year, it is the Ibaraki Preacher's job to plan the retreat so we spent a lot of time planning for that as well. It was another great experience for me to have a chance to become better friends with some of the preachers in the area.

If you look in the picture however, you can notice something. About 60-70% of the men in the picture are probably going to be unable to be minsters in the next 15 years and Toru is the only one who is in high school interested in becoming a minister that anyone is aware of. This percentage makes up most of the ministers in Japan which makes it vital that people like Toru can go to OC next year so that the church will not die in Japan. This is also why if I plan to stay as a long term missionary next year that I am going to need as much support as I can get. I want you to consider contributing to this great cause as I close this post. Japan really does need missionaries and Japanese ministers even more so because they can connect with their own people better.

Well, that is a look at what has been taking place over the past couple of weeks. If you have any questions about things that are taking place, please don't hesitate to email me at jared.scism@alumni.oc.edu so that I can answer any questions you might have. Please continue to pray for the prayer request below. Thank you all for your support and may God bless all of you.!

1. That Toru and I will be able to work together well enough to get him prepared to go to OC and that he will get the funds to go.

2. My Bible studies at Ibaraki Christian will be a success.

3. The Tomobe Church will find more ways to grow spiritually and numerically.

4. I am considering wanting to stay longer as a missionary rather than becoming a teacher and need to make sure that it is what I need to do. Last night I read about Abraham having a strong faith in God and was rewarded and I feel that as long as I trust in God he will provide the funds I need, however I need to make sure that I am spiritually willing and financially able to do these things.

5. Kimiko's husband may come to know God.

6. Kawasaki san may become more interested in Christianity. (The man I studied with on Tuesday) as well as the woman I started to study with.

7. The woman's husband who comes to special worship may become interested in Christianity and have the desire to become a Christian

8. The guys I go to the ocean with will be more open to Christianity

One Month Anniversary in Japan!

Good evening everyone!

I hope this letter finds you well and each of you are all doing just fine and dandy. This week has been a pretty good busy week overall and I can't express to you how ready I am to hit the bed and get to sleep tonight. Before I get into detail about the week, I had lots of great experiences this week. I think overall one of my favorite things was to help a person quit smoking tobacco. I won't go into heavy detail about them, however I wanted to express my joy about this first and it being one of my favorite things about the week.

Anyways, overall this week has been the same as any other normal week. I feel like overall, each of you have an idea of what my daily routine is on a weekly basis from the past couple of posts and I don't want to keep giving you the same information to always read. Therefore, I am going to just put things that have been progressing from here on out. I will give you a little information about each day but not near as much.

Sunday-We had our church service in the morning, evening English worship, Japanese worship, and our special worship. During the special worship, the woman who normally comes brought her husband again for the third time.

Monday-We had our normal members Japanese Bible study. I continued to learn many new Japanese words. After the meeting we headed to Hitachi Taga church for a camp meeting which was an encouraging and uplifting time through worship and talking about camp.

Tuesday-I started to have a one on one Bible study with a man who has been coming to Tomobe church for years to learn English. He is a very smart man and I hope that he will continue to be interested in these one on one Bible studies. He retired as a school teacher some time ago where he taught English but never thought he knew it well enough as a teacher so came to the church to know more after he retired. Tuesday night, Toru and I did our normal night of learning more things about the TOEFL and I taught him how to write a 5 paragraph essay. We will see how that goes and hopefully I can teach him to be a better writer. It is amazing so many of the mistakes he makes in English that I learned in my Teaching English as a Foreign Language class called Structures of the English Language. Hopefully I can use the tools I learned from that class to help him.

Wednesday-I went to Ibaraki Christian to start my Bible studies. You may be wondering why in the world am I going to a Christian college to have Bible studies. Well, even though it is a "Christian" college, less than 1% of the students who attend there are actually Christians. There is a chapel service on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, but it is during lunch and students are not required to attend. This is the importance of having Bible studies there. Anyways, I am so excited to see the things God has planned for my work there. In some research I have done lately, it stated that most of the people who become Christians in Japan are college students. The only drawback is keeping them interested in it once they leave college. Due to OC study abroad students coming to Ibaraki Christian this month,Chapel normally grows from about 4 or 5 Japanese people to as as many as 30 Japanese sometimes plus the OC study abroad students when they are there. The OC students also normally have a devo on Wednesday nights. This devo normally draws many Japanese people to come because they enjoy the singing. My goal is try and get to know these students who come on Wednesday night and try to get them to come to a small group I will be starting on Tuesday nights once the OC exchange students leave in November. Therefore for the month of October, I will go to Ibaraki Christian on Wednesday for this purpose but will begin going on Tuesday once they leave. Also while I am there, I will continue to have my English Bible studies. This month, our Bible studies are at weird times but once November starts and I began to go to IC again on Tuesday, I will be able to teach up to as many 8 or 9 students who are wanting to be in the classes and I still have 2 or 3 that want to join them that I will talk to tomorrow at church. It is an exciting time and I am excited to see what God has planned here just as much as I am in Tomobe. As I stated before, October is kind of a crazy month to have all the students, but I was able to have 5 in my classes this week who made time to come for a lil bit since Wednesday is not the best for them. In the pictures below you can see me having a study with one group then I had a one on one study with the girl in the second picture. Her name is Kana and she is interested in both English and the Bible. I am excited to see the plans God has for all these people.

Thursday & Friday-Thursday afternoon, I went and had lunch with some girls who went to OC as exchange students. We had a great time just catching up on life. There is also a chance I may have talked them into coming to the church in November to starting another Enlish/Bible class. However, it won't be able to happen until the OC exchange students leave because they will be busy with them. You can see them in the picture below.

On Thursday and Friday I had my classes with my elementary students as usual and my mentoring with Toru. My elementary kids have a hard time knowing how to pronounce and recognize the letters of the English alphabet so I made a bet with them last week that if they could recognize the letters lower and upper case and pronounce them all quickly and not making one mistake I would give them $10.00. Only one of them attempted to do it and he missed two so I am giving him one more chance next week.

My time with Toru also went great as usual as we studied the book of Ephesians and talked about our daily time with God. It is so encouraging to someone else's view point and the way that look at a verse that you would never think of. I really enjoy my time with Toru and learn a lot from him. On Friday, we took a break and Toru and I watched Evan Almighty so he could practice some of his English in a film and learn some slang. Overall it was hard for him to keep up but we both had a really good time watching it.

This morning, we woke up and went to the church building around 9:00 to clean up the outside of the church because tomorrow we will be having a one year memorial for one of the old members who passed away about a year ago.

The woman's name was Kimiko Usami. Kimiko was a dedicated worker for the Lord and was attending OC so that she could receive a Bible degree. However, a few years ago she was diagnosed with cancer and unable to finish her education. However, one of the OC professors, Dudley Chancey, came to Japan every summer to teach her another Bible class that would help go towards her degree. However, she was unable to finish it. While Kimiko has passed, she was a great influence to many people including myself. I was able to meet her when I came to Japan as an exchange student and her faith in God was just so powerful to me. While Kimiko is gone, there are so many people who have not forgotten how great of a woman she was and will always remember her for her strong purpose. In the picture above, you can see Kimiko and me a couple of years ago when I went to visit her at her house. You can also see Kimiko's husband too. Kimiko's husband was not a Christian but he also did not hold her back too much either from doing the things she wanted to do. As of right now, there is a minster who goes to their house to play a Japanese game with him, however he is not fully giving in.

Prayer Requests:

1. That Toru and I will be able to work together well enough to get him prepared to go to OC and that he will get the funds to go.

2. My Bible studies at Ibaraki Christian will be a success.

3. The Tomobe Church will find more ways to grow spiritually and numerically.

4. I am considering wanting to stay longer as a missionary rather than becoming a teacher and need to make sure that it is what I need to do. Last night I read about Abraham having a strong faith in God and was rewarded and I feel that as long as I trust in God he will provide the funds I need, however I need to make sure that I am spiritually willing and financially able to do these things.

Thank you all for the things you do. Keep praying and keeping in touch with what is going on in your lives. I love each and every one of you. May God bless you all abundantly.

5. Kimiko's husband may come to know God.

6. Kawasaki san may become more interested in Christianity. (The man I studied with on Tuesday)

7. The woman's husband who comes to special worship may become interested in Christianity and have the desire to become a Christian

I want to thank each and every one of you for all you do and if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be able to partake in this mission God has given me. Thank you all.

Week 3 in JAPAN!

みんなさんおはようございます！

Good Morning Everyone,

I hope you are all doing well and this update finds each and every one of you well. Things here are going great but are beginning to pick up quite a bit which is also great. I must warn you that I have had many problems writing this post with my sentences going off to different paragraphs and I think I got most of it put back together but please excuse any difficulty in trying to read this post.

Last Sunday, we had our curry and rice luncheon. Every fourth Sunday the church has curry and rice together for lunch which is prepared by a different person every month. After lunch a member of the church from Peru played us some music from Peru after we finished eating. After he finished playing, him and I talked for about 2 hours about different things in our lives and got to know each other better. He only knows Spanish and Japanese so I had to use what Spanish I remembered from elementary school and Japanese to speak to him which was kind of interesting but feel like we were able to communicate and understand each other for the most part. Sunday nights service turned into a larger group than normal and led into a great discussion which led to a couple of people being prayed for in wanting a stronger relationship with God. After the service was over, we also had our special service for the woman who has to work and her husband came once again. Overall, last Sunday was very special.

Monday the church had its own Bible study with two people. It was in all Japanese which I am still continuing to try to learn which ended up being more of a time where I learned a lot more useful words than being able to give anything to the Bible study. All in all, it was still a good time to fellowship.

On Tuesday I headed up to Ibaraki Christian to start trying to begin some Bible studies.

I was overwhelmed in a good way to have such a large amount of people interested in wanting to join the classes. At first, I only planned on about 2 or 3 people to join, but by the time I left on Wednesday I had 7 signed up and was informed last night 3 more people are also interested in coming as well. It is so amazing. God is doing such great things in this ministry and I hope it continues to grow. On Tuesday night, I stayed in the same town as Ibaraki Christian and went to onsen with one of my friends and back to IC on Wednesday to go to a meeting about Pac Rim students and to help with some CRASH work.Due to Pac Rim coming to IC next week, we cleaned out the house where CRASH, the relief group, keeps a lot of their supplies. By the way, I will go into detail about Onsen in another post for those of you do not know what it is. It is a public bath that you can find in many places in Japan. It is a lot better than it sounds. After finishing the CRASH work, I came back to Tomobe and had my English class with Toru which went incredibly well where talked about his desire to do ministry.

On Thursday I had my elementary class students first and then Toru and I met again and had his Bible class. To give you some information on Toru, he is an eager senior high school student wanting to do ministry. He is trying to study hard so that he can pass the TOEFL test(The test that proves your are good enough in English to take classes at university level) to go to Oklahoma Christian next year. He wants to go there to major in Bible and Ministry so that he can come back to Japan. Toru is probably the only Christian in his school and does not mind it one bit. He has a strong passion for ministry and hopefully he will pass the TOEFL soon and have enough money to go to Oklahoma Christian next year to get a Bible Degree. Please be praying that I can teach him English well enough that he can pass this test and receive enough money to go to OC next year. Japan needs ministers, and Toru would be a good man for the job.

On Friday, Marlin and I fixed the roof of the garage at the church because the typhoon had blown part of it off. After a long day at work, with work still to do, I held our first youth group activity. At one time, the church had quite a few young people but recently it has dropped significantly. We came to the church and had a devo and sang a few songs together and then went and played pool together. Toru also invited one of his friends which was really awesome. We plan on having an activity every other Friday and hope that we can grow the youth here at Tomobe church more.

On Saturday morning, Marlin and I woke back up and came back to the church to finish fixing the roof which took a few hours. After we finished, I came back home and got ready and went to a church about an hour away for an activity with some of the students I spent time with when I went to Ibaraki Christian and church with when I was an exchange student. There were also a few other people who came as well and it was another great time of fellowship and eating Korean food together.

All in all, things are starting to pick up and I am beginning to get very excited. However, I am looking forward to the plans God has in store for the future. Please be praying for the following things:

1. That Toru and I will be able to work together well enough to get him prepared to go to OC and that he will get the funds to go.

2. My Bible studies at Ibaraki Christian will be a success.

3. The Tomobe Church will find more ways to grow.

4. I am considering wanting to stay longer as a missionary rather than becoming a teacher and need to make sure that it is what I need to do. Last night I read about Abraham having a strong faith in God and was rewarded and I feel that as long as I trust in God he will provide the funds I need, however I need to make sure that I am spiritually willing and financially able to do these things.

Thank you all for the things you do. Keep praying and keeping in touch with what is going on in your lives. I love each and every one of you. May God bless you all abundantly.