Merry Christmas

Here is a little ministry update over the Christmas period.

1) Ikebukuro HC party
We held a joint Christmas party with Shinagawa HC at the international students' hostel that some of the HC members are staying. These students come mostly from China or Hong Kong, and spend most of their time studying Japanese for admission into universities. The party was a good opportunity for us to reach out to them, and yet also allow the overseas students to interact our Japanese HC members.

There was a good balance of Japanese and overseas students. Furthermore, out of 23 people who came, about half have yet to know Jesus. After the usual rounds of dinner, games and singing, Ken, a Japanese studying in bible seminary, spoke to us about the true meaning of Christmas. We felt vibes that people enjoyed themselves at the party, and we are praying for more possibilities for outreach to both Japanese and overseas students.

2)Tokorozawa HC meeting
Yoshitaka-san preached from Exodus 12, an unlikely passage for a Christmas Sunday morning message. However, he went on to tell us how the Passover is a prelude of things to come through Jesus Christ. God's plan of salvation was already in motion way before baby Jesus was born. After the service, we had a delightful time of potluck lunch and gift exchange with the Tokorozawa HC members.

3) Deck the Mall
The team was remarkably different from the one in Nanae. After 2 weeks of non-stop performances, Unison had become very comfortable on stage, and executed the musical with much poise and confidence. Our 3 Japanese actors, Hideko-san, Tomoho-chan & Ando acted well too. We were especially happy for Hideko-san who was so afraid of fluffing her lines at the final part but didn't. It was a great night for everyone involved, and we are extremely grateful for each person who put in much time and effort into it.

We were a little disappointed however, that we couldn't get more people to come see 'Deck the Mall'. It was such a pity that so many of our friends missed out on a great musical. The musical was held on a Monday evening, but working adults had to work overtime, and families had to stay home to care for their children. We can't help but think that this was a great opportunity for evangelism missed, but the Lord always has His sovereign ways, and we will take this as a great learning experience for future events.

4) Kids' club
This Christmas party was intended to be of a larger scale compared to previous kids' club session. We rented a bigger room, and roped in some HC youth and some girls from Unison to help out. We had a positive and encouraging response that day. Including children, parents and volunteers, there were 50 people who turned up. In particular, 2 dads also tagged along for the event.

We introduced the piñata game to the kids and did some cookie decorations. A church volunteer also told the Christmas story to the kids, and for craft we let them construct their own nativity scene out of paper and sticky tape. We are thrilled that the kids now understand that Christmas is the birthday of baby Jesus.