News from AJ and Aven, OMF Missionaries in Japan

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, Acts 16:25

Greetings dear supporting friends. Perhaps like Paul you are facing a difficult midnight situation. In the midst of salary cuts, job losses, sickness and death we still have an eternal hope that never fades. Paul and Silas believed this and because of that they did not succumb to the prison blues but were able to sing praises during their dark night. I have been encouraged to like Paul, continue in prayer and praise, for it is in the darkness that our faith has opportunity to shine. We still fail all too often, but by grace we are able to stand and continue to pray and sing praises to our Lord Jesus. We pray that by God’s grace you too, will be able to sing during your own midnight lockdown.

It is our privilege to share some news about how the Lord has been at work over the last few weeks.

Church life
We continue to receive wonderful training from the Japanese pastoral couple we were placed under. We are also feeling that we are slowly getting to know more folk from church and are much more at ease than when we first started. I am involved in plenty of church activities such as preaching, leading prayer meetings, assisting the youth ministry and being part of the music ministry. Although it is enriching and I am learning a lot, it is still very stressful and frustrating at times because I am not completely comfortable in Japanese yet. If you would like to learn more about what it's like for me to prepare sermons in Japanese check out my latest blogpost here…https://calledeast.com/2020/07/17/preaching-good-sermons-with-intermediate-level-japanese/

Aven has been spending time with young ladies in the church and has started an English lesson/Bible class with one non-Christian lady who has started coming to church in recent months. The pastor’s wife also joined and a 1 hour scheduled lesson turned into a 3-hour time of discussion where the lady was able to ask many Bible questions that she had in Japanese. English classes can be a good way to help break the ice and lead to more spiritual conversations.

Holiday
August is right in the middle of Japan’s summer and the time where schools close and many families go on holiday. It is also when Obon is celebrated, a traditional holiday where many go back to their home towns. According to Japanese religion, Obon is when the souls one’s ancestors return home and so many festivals and dances are performed to welcome them. We spent half our holiday with 2 other missionary families in a seaside cabin OMF owns. They are also in their training phase so it was great to share stories and encourage one another. The second part of our holiday we spent at home.

Our new ride
We initially planned to go somewhere else for our holiday but we started getting car trouble. At the beginning of the year we received a car from a fellow missionary who went back home and we hoped that the car would survive until we go back to South Africa but sadly it bit the dust. It would be too expensive to fix and so we prepared ourselves for life without a car. Not impossible, but certainly far from easy. (Where we live in the suburbs, public transport is not as convenient). But very soon after, our pastor told us about a Christian car salesman he knows from Kyoto (about 6 hours drive from us). He sold us a nice Toyota Prius at a shockingly low price which we were able to buy using funds we had set aside for road worthy inspection fees cars need to undergo every 2 years. He drove the car up to us, and was also kind enough to take our old car and dispose of it. I also learned a lot about buying and registering a car in Japan. A long and stressful process but somehow, we managed to get it done!

Tokyo summer
I thought I would also just mention something about the intense heat in Tokyo. Pretty interesting when compared to the intense cold and snow we experienced in Hokkaido. Every day the temperature is getting up to 39 degrees C with very high humidity. It’s no joke as 3 people have already died from heat stroke this year. Just going out for a walk feels like some kind of torture, especially since you need to wear a mask. All you feel like doing these days is being inside where there is an aircon. Hopefully it will start to cool down after a couple of weeks.

Some of the interesting items shops sell to help combat the heat.

Other news

Aven's balcony garden has been bringing forth crops in spite of the summer heat. We have been eating many tomatoes lately!

That’s it for our news update. Finally, please consider praying for these requests…

1 Non-Christian man AJ is meeting with weekly online and a non-Christian lady Aven is meeting weekly. Also, for one more non-Christian lady whom Aven hopes to start meeting with from September. Pray for Aven preparing English and Bible lessons.
AJ’s preaching/teaching opportunies: 23^rd, 26^th, and 30^th August.
Continued wisdom as to how we ought to minister during a global pandemic.
That we will be disciplined in learning Japanese and not get overly discouraged.
Financial support to return to 100%

Forward

"Refuse to be average. Let your heart soar as high as it will". AW Tozer

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