August 8-10, 2019 Pastor's Retreat in Tanzawa

We arrived back from Ishinomaki Wednesday night, and headed out to Tanzawa Thursday morning. We had the opportunity to attend the pastors' retreat of Baptist pastors of Kanagawa prefecture.

The beautiful nature of Tanzawa!

We came back from Ishinomaki safely on the night of 7th, praise the Lord the driving was very smooth and it took us less than 8 hours including dinner breaks and restroom breaks!

In the morning of August 8, we left to Tanzawa mountains. We had the privilege to join the yearly retreat for Baptist pastors in Kanagawa prefecture. It was a time for the pastors to spread their wings, eat, rest, and enjoy the nature for two days at a beautiful retreat center by the river. This is one of the only opportunities for some of the pastors to have privacy, especially for those who live on the church property and have members come seeking for help at any hour of the day.

The retreat was mainly for the pastors and their family to get away and rest, so the schedule was very simple with one service, a devotional discussion, games, and lots of free time for fellowship. We saw pastors discussing the future of their church, more experienced pastors were giving counsel, and the younger pastors were giving new ideas. Everyone was encouraging each other with respect. I was surprised by how close the pastors are! We also had the valuable opportunity to get to know the pastors and hear their experiences and raw throughs about the Japanese churches and evangelism.

11 families came this year, each family with their kids. Some of the pastors’ kids (PK) told me that they are happy to be a pk because only pastors’ family can join this retreat:) They played board games until late night, jumped into the river, and caught fish by their hands!

Our beloved mentor with the fish he caught by hand!

Today, we had meetings with our mentor, and visited a local festival where some of our mentor’s student was selling boba tea and cookie cutting games.

We also prepared for tomorrow’s ministry at Yamato Ai Senkyo Dendousho, a Korean Church in Yamato city. Please pray that we can be a wide vessel of His blessings. Tomorrow, Daniel will be offering special praise, and Li and Ai will each give their testimonies.

Prayer Requests

- Next week will be our last week of omp. Please pray that we will be able to run strong until the end.

- Please pray for our ministry at Yamato Senkyo Dendousho tomorrow, and for the blessing of the church.

- Please pray for our ministry at Kids Connection next week from tuesday to thursday. They are an organization that help children and teenagers with disability. The owners are Christians, but the workers and the children are not Christians yet.