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Japan Trip

Thanks so much for your prayers for your Grace Japan team. The Lord showed favor to us in so many ways. Two great things happened before we arrived in Japan. One of our team members was awaiting a passport and it came with less than 24 hours to go before our departure from Cville. The last of our funds for the trip came in on that same day. We knew that good things awaited us in Japan.

Your Grace team included Aaron and Madeline Andreson; Barbara Eppard; Scott, Shannon and Chase Morgan; Ginger Mellott; Nehmiah Rutan; and Don Ward. We were there to serve the Japan Church Planting Institute Conference. “CPI” crosses denominational lines but includes the influence of our Mission to the World leadership in Japan. The organizational goal is to help multiply churches in Japan - churches that are faithful to Christ and loyal to the scriptures.

Our team arrived on a Saturday night and made our way to Honda Chapel - one of the churches started by Grace missionaries Dan and Carol Iverson. Over 60 volunteers from the US were housed at Honda and several other church buildings. We settled in for the night to sleep on roll out mats, which are very common in Japan.

As Sunday morning came, a Typhoon began to roll into the Tokyo area. High winds and heavy rain pelted church goers who braved it to come and worship. I preached at Honda Chapel for the 10:30 AM and 3:00 PM services. Members of our team were scattered about to several churches in the Tokyo metro area. Sunday night included a meal time with all the US volunteers. We met that night and Monday morning again to review the game plan for the week.

Monday, we got on tour buses to ride to the Hotel in Saitama, Japan. We stopped along the way at a sizable Japanese truck stop where we tried our hand at purchasing a meal where English wasn’t spoken. We were all glad to have a few Japanese speakers along to help with food choices.

We arrived at the Hotel Heritage, which is a resort near beautiful mountains that look very similar to ours. Though some of the facility is dated and aging, it was a beautiful location for our conference. We began unpacking and setting up both the main conference area, meeting rooms, and numerous children’s ministry locations.  It was a bit of work, but there was also a bit of time to recover from travel.

Japan CPI conference began with a  pre-conference that started Tuesday @ 3 and ended at noon Wednesday. Tuesday, we helped the team with registration, and the bulk of the Grace team helped with children’s ministry for about 100 or so participants who came the first day. The conference began Wednesday at 3:00 PM, which meant about 350 people needed to register and get their room keys. Aaron Andreson, Chase Morgan and I helped with that process while the rest were getting ready for a large influx of children. It was a busy and often chaotic day as lines nearly filled the hotel lobby. Keys weren’t available till 2:00 pm, which meant lines came off the registration table in several directions.

Because of our roles facilitating the conference participants, Aaron Andreson and I were privileged to be a part of the opening worship service at 3:00 PM Wednesday. We enjoyed bilingual worship with over 400 missionaries and Japanese workers. It was very moving to be a part of the service. Most churches there have under 50 attendees, so it was an encouragement for all to be together.

On the conference side, there were four large group meetings with worship and speakers. Wednesday 3:00 PM through Friday noon were interspersed with the large group sessions, and numerous helpful seminars on topics key to effective church planting in Japan.  These included resilience in ministry, forgiveness, the most unchurched cities in Japan, prayer, and gospel centered church planting (among many). Thursday afternoon included some free time for the missionaries to network with one another, or rest.

All during the afternoon and evening on Wednesday, all day Thursday and half of the day Friday, the rest of our team were caring for children. The parents were so amazingly grateful to be given this gift of some time together without the kids. It was hard work keeping up with well over 100 children over four days.

The time in this beautiful location was not without its blessings. A number of the team took their free time and went to the hot spring that is a part of this resort. This refreshing experience (called an onsen) helped to recharge body and soul for the challenges ahead. One of the missionaries organized a youth group meeting in the evenings, which several of Grace youth enjoyed. The food was unusual, but good.

Friday wrapped up the meetings, and was followed by clean up and packing. The afternoon allowed for enough free time for some to play putt putt on the hotel golf course. The hotel treated us to one of the finest meals of the week the last night.

Saturday was the tourist day for all of the US based teams. It was a rainy day as another typhoon slowly made its way north.  Grace Cville took advantage of the opportunity by engaging missionary Jason Kueh (who has visited GCC in the past) as a guide. Sites included the emperor’s grounds, “Electric City,” the temple ground and shops (where we observed idol worship), and the largest pedestrian intersection in the world. I ducked out a little early since I had two more preaching opportunities, but the rest of the group was able to see the world’s largest city at night. We were blessed together to have Yakuniku (Korean BBQ) and Ramen (amazing noodles in soup).

Sunday was pack up time and on to church. I preached at the 9:00 and 11:00 AM services at Oyumino Church (the Iverson’s first church plant), while most of the US team worshipped at Honda Chapel. Right after church we headed to Tokyo, Narita airport to prepare for the long journey home. We managed to take off just before the worst of the second Typhoon arrived in Tokyo, which both delayed our takeoff, and made the first few minutes of flight quite an adventure. Though our flight across the Pacific featured some of the most intense turbulence in this traveler’s memory, we all arrived none the worse for wear at 11:05 PM into CHO!

I would deem the trip to be highly successful. Our team was able to aid the largest conference in the 23-year history of CPI. Several of our young people are considering a “gap year” in Japan, and some are already talking about 2019 CPI. Everyone carries a heart for the spread of the gospel in Japan. I personally came back with specific prayer updates for some of the people I know there.

We are thankful for your prayers and generosity. Your big-hearted and liberal support helped Grace send missions teams to three locations in 2017. We pray and we believe this will have great impact for the gospel in the years ahead.

Yours in the gospel,

Don

Don Ward

Senior Pastor

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