Dear Friends,

Thanks for your support. What happens to your World Mission Offering (WMO) gifts? Because of your gifts, we continue to serve at home and in Japan. In August, we visited Seattle to take care of Kiyo, Lee Ann’s Dad, and to meet with friends and family. This year, we were asked to bring Yukari, a Japanese student, along. She is the same age as our eldest daughter, Naomi (13). We included her in all our activities, including visiting the nursing home where Kiyo was residing, attending a retreat with the Japanese Baptist Church Nichigo group, attending Naomi's baptism, and joining a family retreat. During the family retreat, Yukari accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior!

In Japan, Lee Ann serves as an English conversation teacher at Soshin Girls’ School, a private school started by American Baptist missionaries 123 years ago. Each year, she teaches over 350 students, delivers chapel messages, coaches girls for exchange trips and English speech contests, and serves on the Soshin board. Her messages and presence give the girls hope and encouragement. Lee Ann is not limited to traditional ways of serving. She was asked to be in a dance group at the annual Soshin School festival, “Bunkasai,” where she parodied a music video this past week. The girls and staff were awed by her performance!

With your donations, you helped Gordon and Lee Ann served at Soshin Baptist Church as teachers of Christian Parenting. This month they will start another class to help encourage the parents of the Church School children. There are typically 6-8 parents enrolled. They spend 10 weeks sharing from their lives and learning from the Bible about parenting.

Serving the Lord takes all of us pitching in since we are the body of Christ. Your contributions of money and petitions of prayer are changing lives for eternity and giving hope where there was none.

As you give in this WMO window through October, please know that your part in the body of Christ is extremely valuable. Please donate at your local American Baptist church or visit www.internationalministries.org, and see how you can touch lives all over the world!

With God’s Love,

Gordon and Lee Ann Hwang