Hi Gang,
This year’s Bible verse, “The heart of the king is in the Lord’s hand. He directs it wherever He wills.”
Ponder that for a while and I’ll post more soon.
arlen
Application forms are now available. Click on the link above to download, fill out on your computer and submit digitally.
arlen
We’re beginning to recruit for this year’s missions to Japan.
Tokyo in June is looking good. We’ll continue with our emphasis on College ministry.
Shizuoka in July is also looking good. We are planning a Children’s Camp and Hawaiian Luau at the Matsuri (festival).
Interested in this year’s mission? Get a few friends together and let’s talk about what this year might like if you and your buds were to come along.
Blessings,
Pastor Arlen
Call me with the link in my previous post.
Hi Friends,
Here are some reflections from the team.
Andrew- God was powerful. He healed us and protected us from sickness.
Caitlyn- Although I didn’t have a connection with the Japanese kids, it was really easy to connect and interact with them. We have to come back and see the next part of the story of our friends like Kaito.
Sheri- Kaito’s mom was curious after seeing the change in her son since last year. And she was able to pray with her even though she didn’t want to receive Christ. Normally Sheri wouldn’t pray for them right there, but she was bold to pray for her and bless her.
Caitlyn and Andrew want to be missionaries. Caitlyn wants to go to harder places to reach.
Arthur- At the healing service on Sunday, the person I prayed for got better.
I shared some things that God did at Wednesday’s service (which I posted earlier as Kids Camp Day 2).
Ryan- The people here have so much faith and trust. One example is the woman who lost her husband last year to illness and lost her job this year. But God is providing for her. Sometimes we worry about the smallest things and miss the big things. We have a big God and we serve Him and not people.
Brian- God made it all happen. (Sheri said it’s because of the team. Everybody serving the Lord made it all work great!)
Courtney- The kids here are the same as in Hawaii. They want to have fun, but you can teach them while having fun. And I got to know the kids a lot better this year.
Matthias is one of the boys. He was the first to say he was a Christian and encouraged his friends in their faith. He’ll be instrumental in the future of the youth group. As a side note, last year the team spent a lot of time with him, including a few days homestaying with his family.
Jeff Miyazawa always says that the most effective part of missions is returning so they get to see you again.
Brittney- Has a true servant’s heart. Even if she hasn’t done something, she’ll jump in and help.
Daryl- Thanks for everyone’s faithfulness. God will bless them for their faithfulness. Here’s a testimony… Paulo also lost his job, but the manager where he works temporary work at wants to keep him. When he got his first job, God blessed the company and he was able to work more and God in turn blessed him.
We’ve got a lot of stories and God did so much in just a few days. But I hope this gives you a glimpse at our hearts in this mission.
Blessings!
Pastor Arlen
PS- it might help to learn a little bit of Japanese, and I suggest this excellent website to assist you.
Hi Friends,
This morning, we started off with a brief talk with the Kids camp leaders to help them institute some discipline with the kids. They’re having a lot of fun, but needed to know that they need to sit still and listen during the Bible story times.
And it worked! The kids were more behaved but still lots of fun.
Today, we had a difficult BIble story to communicate. The Bible story emphasized the power of sin. It was the story of the 10 plagues during the Exodus. I did a pretty good job of narrating and making sure the kids got the point but knew they would not be punished in a similar way.
Then we played a game of Turtle Freeze tag. It was awesome fun and we didn’t break any church furniture (Pastor Dennis appreciates this). Then when all the crazies left… a nap.
That evening we had an Evening service. I talked a little about healing, answered some questions and then ministered. Fun Fun Fun!
One lady healed of back pain since 6 years. Today her pain was even more severe. That would have stopped some people from coming to the service. But why is that so? We need to be in the presence of God if we expect God to move. And guess what, we didn’t even pray. She was just healed in Gods presence. I told her it was done and she as surprised, but she was healed! Yeah God!
For the next person, I had Tetsuo, one of the youth, prayed for man and he was healed of hip pain.
Thelma will be healed of painful water spot. Pain left. Now the spot will disappear. When I first asked her if she had pain, she said yes because the spot was still there. But actually the Lord took the pain away although the spot remained. She looked for the pain again and found that it was gone. We have to believe first and then see. That’s how faith worked.
God healed a lady of shoulder pain after a quick prayer. She requested earlier that we meet with her so I assisted Pastor Dennis in an inner healing session with her. She said she felt so light after she canceled some of her ungodly decrees.
All in all, I just had a great time doing and teaching as Jesus did.
Blessings!
Pastor Arlen
PS- it might help to learn a little bit of Japanese, and I suggest this excellent website to assist you.
Hi Friends,
Sorry, we don’t have internet at the hotel, so my posts have been infrequent. But here’s post #2 for today…
Non-stop action! That’s all I can say about kids camp. We’re trying to teach 5 days of crafts, games, Bible stories, English translation, snacks, and a whole lot more into just 2 and a half days.
Day one started off with a bang. We had puppets, skits, Bible stories, crafts galore, songs, and more.
I worked on some Japanese translation and printing out the Bible points.
Shot some video footage and photos.
Planned a few games that were a blast once the instructions were translated into Japanese and understood…
And I did an impromptu summary of the Exodus story.
Ah yes, blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape.
Then we had a fabulous time at the pool. It’s not just a pool here… It’s a hot spring, cold water pools, whirlpool jacuzzis flavored with everything from wine to fragrances. Very relaxing and rewarding after a long day of ministry.
Oh and the day wasn’t over yet. After showers and dinner, we had a song and craft time to review what we’ve learned today.
More fun at camp tomorrow and I’m ministering at their Wed. Night meeting. Come Lord Jesus come.
Blessings!
Pastor Arlen
PS- it might help to learn a little bit of Japanese, and I suggest this excellent website to assist you.
Hi Friends,
So, Sunday, we had a blast. It was really busy, but God blessed everyone who attended. It started in the morning prayer meeting. We arrived early enough to open up the church with Pastor Dennis and Kaku. The gang went to setup for Promiseland and I went to the morning prayer meeting. I had a chance to pray for a couple of people and I”m waiting to hear what the Lord has done for them. One man I prayed for has problems with his gums. So I prayed and expect God to heal him there. I also prayed for a woman with the typical Japanese problem… lower back/hip/knee/joint pain. One of her legs was out of alignment and as I prayed, her body came into alignment and her pain was gone. Some people call this growing a leg out, but it’s really alignment. And one of my church members taught me that you can self-pray for this problem. He just lies on his back and asks Jesus to come and bless him, align his back, and commands healing. He feels his muscles stretch and then relax and the pain leaves him too.
After the prayer meeting everyone went to the sanctuary for church service. Worship was awesome. Once again, we sang English, Japanese, and Portuguese because of the truly international church. That’s when the kids said they really felt the presence of the Lord there.
Sheri and the gang spent the morning ministering to the kids. I’ll have to get the details from them. But they had a good time sharing a typical Promiseland Sunday School Lesson with the kids.
I had a great time sharing about the journey God has me on as I learn about miracles and healing. A copy of the message is on this website. Just click the listen button in the side bar.
At the close of the service, I led the congregation in praying for their own members who desired healing. They prayed for about 14 people and most said their pain or illness reduced or went away. なくなった。 is a phrase I heard regularly. びっくりした。could also be heard from time to time.
I also believe God is looking for excuses to bless people.
Ryan started in on the construction project which keeps snowballing into a bigger and bigger undertaking the further along it goes. Here’s a couple of pics.
That evening we had a fun time at volleyball. Hopefully I’ll get to play again this weekend. Until next time… じゃまたね。
Blessings!
Pastor Arlen
PS- it might help to learn a little bit of Japanese, and I suggest this excellent website to assist you.
Hi Friends,
Let me see if I can summarize what we’ve done this first few days we’ve been here in Shizuoka.
The day after the team arrived, we prepared a wonderful Hawaiian Luau dinner and brief program. And all glory goes to God. Ryan, our last minute addition to the team when another Father-Son pair had to drop out at the came through with gusto! Since last year’s mission, Ryan has been thinking about how to cook Kalua Pork here in Japan (as well as tackle a construction project which will start later today).
Our Hawaiian Menu was this:
Is your mouth watering? Ours sure was…
After dinner, we prepared a brief but powerful program.
Daryl, Sheri, & Ryan each shared a brief Aloha with the 50+ people in the audience.
Caitlin, Courtney, & Tyra danced a couple of Hulas. Caitlin’s last dance was Kanaka Wai Wai which is based on the Bible story of the Rich Young Ruler. So I followed up on her dance by sharing a brief message about placing God first in our lives. We were blessed to have many non-Christians attend the dinner.
Sheri and I went around ministering to some of the women who have been going through some trials recently. We prayed for a few women and the Lord began to lift some of their burdens and stress.
Let me end here and post later about Sunday. Wow! That was another awesome time in the presence of the Lord. The kids made the observation that they could REALLY feel the presence of the Lord at church. I’ll tell you all about it in our next post.
Blessings!
Pastor Arlen
PS- Pray about coming with us next year!
PPS- it might help to learn a little bit of Japanese, and I suggest this excellent website to assist you.
Hi Friends,
Pastor Watanabe just sent us this link to pictures. These were taken at Horizon Church in Machida and Setagaya. These are some pictures of my time with Pastor Dean Fujishima and Wayne Nakamura. We had a wonderful time partnering with God to bring healing, deliverance, freedom, and God’s Kingdom to the wonderful people in these cities. Enjoy the pictures!
Blessings!
Pastor Arlen
PS- it might help to learn a little bit of Japanese, and I suggest this excellent website to assist you.
