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Dear Prayer Warriors - 

I'm convinced that's what you are!  When we send these updates, you pray, and the Spirit moves.  Every time.    Thanks so much for standing with us in this crazy, Gospel work.  We continue to see encouraging signs of the Spirit's work right alongside so many glaring examples of our own weaknesses.  I hope this update encourages you as much as it has encouraged me to write it.

Here are some stories (and photos!) to help your praying...
I'm happy to report that Yu-san passed a thorough ordination examination with flying colors, and ANF voted unanimously to call him as the pastor of our downtown campus.  The above two photos were taken at Yu-san's ordination service.

Here's another great story of God's providence and grace:  We asked our friend Kevin to drive up from Kobe to preach at the ordination service.  Kevin was one of the original elders at ANF, and he also happens to be the very first Christian that Yu-san ever met!  So, Kevin shared the Gospel with Yu-san, Yu-san became a Christian, and just fourteen years later, Kevin preached at Yu-san's ordination service!  How about that?!?  That should fuel our praying for new (and not-yet) Christians who are hearing the Gospel through our work today.  Join us in praying that God would raise up pastors and elders among those who are hearing the Good News for the first time in Japan!
Yu-san has written a letter to those of you who have supported him through your prayers and financial gifts.  If you'd like to read what he wrote, you can do that here (note: there are 2 pages).
At the same service where Yu-san was ordained, we also installed our friend, Brooks as a new elder at ANF to work alongside Yu-san in leading ANF's downtown campus.  Brooks' family arrived in Nagoya soon after our family, and we've become close friends.  He's a pastor in our denomination with a soft heart for the Kingdom of God - and also for Yu-san's family.  The right hand photo is of the four active elders at ANF:  Paul, Jeremy, Yu, and Brooks.  Please pray for the Spirit to keep us soft to Christ and with one another!
Do you remember that H-san was scheduled to be baptized?  Well, that happened!  It was a time when Christian friends from other churches and teams gathered to celebrate and give thanks for the salvation God brought to H-san's family!  We also had the privilege of baptizing H-san's two children while her husband (K-san, not yet believing) watched from the front row with tears in his eyes.  Afterward, K-san said, "Wow, this group of people really loves my wife!"  I said, "Actually, this group of people really loves your family...which includes YOU!"  He smiled and wiped a tear.  So...now, you can pray for K-san, too (you can see him holding his youngest son in the picture above).  This week H-san and K-san had a new baby!  We'll keep you posted as this family's story continues to unfold.  I think you will be hearing more about them in the future!  :)
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Other updates:
  • Gina recently traveled (alone!!) to Taipei to take part in a training event with Parakaleo.  Parakaleo is an international ministry of Gospel renewal aimed at  church planting wives.  Next week, Gina will help host Nagoya's first, official Parakaleo gathering to offer mentoring, renewal, fellowship, and support to the wives of many of the church planters here in our city.  The response has been great, and it looks like the wives of most of our ANF staff members will attend.  By the way - Gina would love to be able to host some special gatherings for these wives, but right now that's not in the budget...feel free to reach out to her if you'd like to make a special gift to help make that happen!
  • This week, the Church Planting Institute of Japan is hosting our first "Grace Week" retreat presented in Japanese!  The retreat was led entirely by Japanese pastors from Tokyo, and it sounds like it has gone great!  We hope to see future events offered annually in the years to come.
Are you interested in joining a 2-week team coming to Japan in November 2019? Every 2 years, some US partnering churches send a team to help with youth and children's ministry at the CPI National Conference. This year, the team is still short on workers. If you're interested in more details, you can click here for more info (or just reply to this email)!
Bullets for your praying...
  1. Pray specifically for Yu-san and his family as he begins this new season of Kingdom leadership.  Lift up his marriage with Asako, their parenting of Ikoi and Yuto, and also his leadership at ANF.
  2. Pray for our new team of elders  as we learn to work and minister together.  We are currently facing a difficult situation involving church discipline and are asking the Holy Spirit to move in a particular marriage relationship.  We urgently need prayer in that area right now.
  3. Please continue to remember Gina and my marriage and to pray for all three boys.  God has been really gracious this Spring, and our marriage and family is doing well, but we also know we're living on the front lines of a spiritual war.  The enemy is always prowling around like a lion.  Pray against our falling into temptation or despair.  And pray that our hearts would be full of love for Christ and for our neighbors.
  4. Following a very thorough and helpful annual review (my first with Serge), it's become clear that Gina and I need to recruit some teammates to help shoulder the load here.  God is blessing the work, but there's simply too much for us to continue to do alone (in retrospect, that's been true for some time).  Will you pray that the Spirit would provide good clarity for us as I write at least two job descriptions and that He would lead us to connect with some new teammates who are a good fit for the work here?
Thank you, friends!  We love you and are thankful for your partnership with us in this important work!

Jeremy and Gina






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Jeremy and Gina Sink · Otana-cho 3-1-3 · Shatore Otana 402 · Nisshin-shi,, Aichi-ken 464-0835 · Japan

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