Dear Friends,

"Give thanks to the LORD for he is good. His love endures forever." Psalm 136:1

This is a little late, as I had promised to write sooner about the Christmas worship at Nishi Okamoto. It was special in some planned ways, and in some unexpected ways too. One of children from the Sunday School, Takumi, is a very talented violinist and belongs to an orchestra called, "Super Kids", conducted by Mr. Sado, a well known Japanese conductor. Just before Christmas Takumi was practicing for a concert, and someone from the regular orchestra came up to Takumi's mother and said, "Mr. Sado has asked us to go out and do some classical music promotional concerts. Do you know of a place where we could give a free Christmas Concert?" She said, "Well my church has a Christmas Eve worship service, maybe you could have a concert before the worship service." So about a week and a half before Christmas we found out we were having a string quintet playing before our Christmas Eve service. They were wonderful, a group of 5 from several different countries, including the US, gave a short, 30 minutes, concert leading into our worship candle light service.

Another member who came along but did not play, was from Lithuania, and really came for the worship service. He told Tomoko afterward that he had not had a chance to go to church since he came to Japan to join the orchestra, and was especially glad to have a chance to be in church for worship on Christmas Eve. Our promotion of the event was very limited given the time, but the sanctuary was full with about 80 people in attendance.

That evening my sister Karol, her husband Kelly and their 3 children came to spend Christmas with us. And so we had a special time with family this Christmas.

Christmas was very special service with the baptism of Mrs. Okuno. She shared her testimony during the worship service telling us how her mother died when she was 19 years old. After she joined a gospel choir she came to know the Lord and to put her trust in him. During that time her father became ill, but she shared how the Lord healed the strained relationship she had with him, allowing her to help care for him while he was in the hospital. We give thanks for the growing faith of this young lady. We have been blessed, because she came to us with a strong faith that grew through the Bible Studies in her Gospel Choir. Seeds were planted and watered by others, and we have been blessed with the results.

Of course after worship, we had wonderful Christmas celebration of a potluck dinner (mid-west meaning of dinner, the big noon-time meal). Christmas is not the family kind of celebration that it is in the US. It is not a holiday, though children are usually off from school because of the New Year holiday. This year since Christmas was on Sunday, we made it a whole day of celebration at the church.

More good news is coming in our next newsletter, I just heard some good news from a church member, but can't share it just yet.

• Pray for the church in Japan. It continues to struggle to find ways to reach people. Growth is slow.
• Pray for the Nishi Okamoto Church. God has blessed this church, but there are always challenges that seem impossible.
• Pray for Mrs. Okuno, and new Christian with a wonderful faith.
• Pray for others whom the Lord is calling to follow.
• Pray for Rev. Takahashi whom we work with. Pray the Lord will continue to use him and bless him.

Grace and Peace,

John and Tomoko Armagost

ABC-USA missionaries in Japan