December 6, 2005

To our Friends and Supporters,

Christmas Greetings from Japan! The Christmas season has already begun, and we are already behind. So, along with getting this Christmas newsletter out a bit late, we are in the midst of putting up our decorations, getting out Christmas cards, and preparing for the numerous events we have coming up this month. So we would certainly appreciate your prayer support for strength and health during this season.

Since our last regular newsletter in July, a lot has happened, some of which we have reported in the three email “newsbriefs” we’ve sent out since then (if you’re not on the email list and would like to be added, please send us an email to us here: Tim and Yuko Boyle. Christ’s ministry through us continues to advance on a variety of fronts, which include both community and social action involvement as well as evangelistic efforts.

The Christmas season in Japan is a time when there are many opportunities for direct evangelism that aren’t nearly as available other times of the year. This is because Christmas—at least the commercialized version of it anyway—is very big in Japan. Santa Claus is everywhere to be seen, and so there are many opportunities for at least planting seeds about the “reason for the season,” and we try to take advantage of those opportunities. As we’ve done each Christmas since we came to Tsukuba (This will be our twenty-third!), we decorate the Christian Center in Christmas lights and hold an “open house” for people to come in and share some holiday spirit. Typically, we have a hundred or so people, many of whom have little or no connection with the church, and so it is a good way to make contacts.

Things are really beginning to move towards the development of a full-fledged international school within the next couple of years. With the opening of the new train line to Tokyo, there is a concerted push for development of whole new areas of the city, and several influential people are now giving the establishment of an international school a high priority. The present Tsukuba International School (TIS) will serve as the kernel for further developing the new TIS (They’ll keep our name.), and while we will still help in appropriate ways, it will be nice to hand the baton over to professional school administrators. For the next year or two, however, we expect that TIS will need quite a bit of our attention.

The other project we want to lift up in this issue is something we mentioned in our July newsletter involving the reprinting of Tim’s book in Japanese, Bible Stories Hidden In Chinese Characters. First published in 1994, all copies of the original have been sold out for over a year, and so with a little encouragement, the publisher agreed to do a second edition. The English version, which came out in 2001 (available either directly from us or from this Web site. The book contains several significant characters not included in the original Japanese, and so a new section is being added to the Japanese update. We had hoped that the reprint would be available in time for Christmas, but the preparation process has taken a lot longer than expected—rather similar to our Christmas preparations in general! We’re in the final stages now, however, and so the second edition should be on bookstore shelves early next year.

As for family news, Juji’s hospitalization treatment for neuromyotonia usually takes place twice a year, in spring and fall, but as the previous treatment has lasted longer than before (which is a good thing, of course), she decided to wait until after Christmas this time, and so will begin that course of treatment sometime in January. In the past, doing that in November meant that she was in her best condition during the busy Christmas season, but this time, it is the reverse. She is doing okay most of the time, but does have to take things a bit easier. As always, your prayers for her health are appreciated. Her ministry among fellow patients, of course, continues. We look forward to having Jennifer home for Christmas. This is her final year at Biola University. Lisa is doing internship now as she works towards her degree in oriental medicine.

A blessed Christmas to you all and a happy New Year of 2006!

Love,

Tim and Juji Boyle

The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 252

P.S. Please feel free to visit our personal Web site.