Dear Friends,
Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu!Happy New Year!
Our prayer for you is that the Lord will richly bless you in this new year of 2004.We don't know what this year will bring, but we know that as we walk with the Lord, it will bring us blessings of his love and grace.
We had a wonderful Christmas here in Japan at the Nishi Okamoto Christ Church, where we have been working for the past few years.Our Christmas worship was on the 21st.We had a worship service with children and adults presenting the Christmas story and the gospel of God's love.It was a service with traditional Christmas carols, with a choir, solos by children and adults, tone chimes (similar to hand bells), wise men, shepherds, even some pre-school aged sheep. Then in the middle, Alejandro and Zully Arias, our members from South America, brought their 6-week-old baby, Carolina Naomi, to be dedicated to the Lord.
We had prayed that the Lord would bless the service as we knew several non-Christian friends would be present.God answered our prayers in a greater measure than we could have hoped.Mr. Yutaka (Richie) Mito, a faithful friend of our church, though he is not yet a Christian, expressed his feelings with these words at the end of the service, "That was the best!"
The New Year holiday lasts from the 1st to at least the 3rd, and many people go to visit family.For many Japanese it is a time to also visit Shinto shrines, to pray for the New Year.So we planned our own day of prayer on the 1st.Asking people of the church to spend at least 15 minutes sometime during the day in prayer for our world, the church in Japan and especially our church. We had sent prayer cards to all members, wherever they live presently, and asked them to join us in spirit if they could not come to the church. We opened the church to let people drop in to pray if they wanted.Many people returned the cards with prayer concerns of their own, asking the members to prayer for them.
Not many people stopped by the church to pray, but several of those who did brought family members who are not Christians with them.It was a wonderful time to share our faith in Jesus Christ, to pray with them, and to get to know them as we shared a cup of tea together.
One of the exciting prayer requests was from Mrs. Maruo, and young mother who has been faithful in attendance over the past year and a half.She asked the church pray for her as she prays about becoming a Christian.
- Please pray for the children of Nishi Okamoto Church, especially for Carolina Naomi Arias and her parents.
- Pray for Mrs. Maruo as she prays about this most important decision to follow Christ.
- Pray for the Nishi Okamoto Christ Church as they seek to be a witness in this community.
Thank you for always praying for the Armagost family.
Grace and Peace,
John and Tomoko Armagost
IM ABC-USA missionaries to Japan