Japan Prayer Letter

November prayer letter

Dear Friends,

We`re sending you an update on our last month?s prayer letter.. So much has happened already that we won`t be able to combine the 2 months of November and December. We also feel the urgent need of your prayers for us these next few weeks. December is always the busiest month of the year! We thank the Lord for this very special season to celebrate and remember our Savior`s birth. We thank our heavenly Father for the unspeakably wonderful gift He has given us in Jesus Christ! With this we do want to send along our heart-felt greetings to you at this advent season. God Be With You!

Kids Bible clubs ? Last month 27 children attended our Bible club in Watari. Tomorrow we meet with them again, this time sharing the Christmas story. We will make a Christmas craft and decorate cookies Edie has made. We praise God for the good attendance and their eagerness to learn. This Saturday we will have a children`s meeting at Megumi church. Please pray for good response there, too.

Teen time ? Last month we had several new high school guys attend our teen meeting at Megumi. There were 2 Japanese guys, 1 Japanese girl and 1 Chinese young man. This month we are having a city-wide junior-senior high Christmas party, Saturday, December 16. Pray that this will be a time of fellowship and outreach as we seek to focus on the Light of the World.

Yukihisa has been very faithful in studying the Bible and attending worship since coming back from the States. His prayer request recently was ?that I might truly know and believe in God?. He seems so close to the kingdom. Koji Kato, who is in the same Bible study, is also growing in his faith and seeking to disciple a young emotionally disturbed boy in the ways of Christ. God is a t work in these youth.

Mother-daughter cooking classes ? Five mothers and their daughters attended our cooking class last month. We made monkey bread. Last Saturday (Dec. 2) we had 3 more new mothers and their children (The response to some 2000 fliers put in newspapers.) come to make Christmas cookies. The children love rolling out bread and cookie dough! Cal gave a talk on God?s Gift to us and they made a craft related to the theme. As church members joined as well, please pray that these contacts will respond to the invitation to believe and worship with us on the Lord?s day.

Kiki ? Edie met Kiki, a woman in her 40`s, riding the train to Tokyo in October. She and Edie talked for several hours about her concept of God. She is a very earnest Shinto believer. As part of her religious belief, in seeking spiritual unity of body and soul, each year she travels to a special place. This year she has come to Sendai each month. When she came in November we met with her for lunch and a long discussion. She went with us to church on Sunday and had many questions regarding the service afterwards. Please pray for our continuing contact with her as we seek to share with her the one, true, living God.

Edie`s Bible class ? Please keep praying for Mrs. Oh and Chie. Mrs. Oh told her, ?Recently I search for God and read to see what Bible says. God gives me so many troubles to let me believe Him.? In her last Bible study she told her she finally realized that happiness does not depend on having good health but in knowing ?the God?. Chie told Edie she thought the Bible was a good book to teach us about idols. She said, ?I thanks for God cause I was Pharisee. God know everything. I don`t. God forgive me. I want to put myself in God`s love.? These ladies always amaze Edie with their insights into Scripture and what God is teaching them through their study!

Messiah chorus ? Cal is singing in the Messiah chorus this year. He is getting acquainted with some of the men. Pastor Hayashi told him about this opportunity. They will have the concert on Saturday, December 23. Pray for him as he tries to introduce them to the real Messiah.

Prayer requests

Praise

1. Give thanks for the attendance of many children (27 in November) at our Watari children`s Bible club.

2. Give thanks for the good response at our mother-child cooking classes in November and December.

3. Give thanks for Yukihisa?s growing interest in studying God?s word.

4. Give thanks for Mrs. Oh and Chie?s growth in understanding the Bible

5. Give thanks that Christ is the hope of the nations.

6. We thank the Lord for a wonderful, international Thanksgiving day celebrating with 15 others in our home.

Pray that/for:

6. In the midst of our busyness we would take time to prepare our own hearts.

7. The junior-senior high Christmas outreach this month

8 Cal`s witness to the Messiah choir members

9. The Christmas outreach lunch meetings in our home on December 11, 14, 19, 21, 23.

10. The many opportunities to share the Christmas story through the programs in our churches. Even unbelievers like to attend candle light services. As we invite our students they are constantly surprised that non-Christians are really welcome in the churches!

11. Caleb and Lisa`s wedding ceremony and reception would be honoring to God.

12. Safe travel for our children as they come to Japan for the wedding.

Thank you so much for serving with us and being part of our ministry. It means a lot to know that you?re praying for us, and that we?re laboring together for the Lord. Thank you for your faithfulness to Him and to us!

Again, we?re praying for you, and may God bless you as you serve Him and proclaim His name ? no matter where you are!

With thanksgiving to God for the gift of His Son,

Cal and Edie Cummings