February 5, 2007

Newsbrief

Greetings from Japan in the name of Jesus! We last wrote you in December, asking you to pray for the pastor of the Tsuchiura Church in the city adjacent to Tsukuba. Pastor Yoshioka, who heads up the committee Juji and I work under here in Tsukuba, had a major stroke on December 4. Even though the blockage occurred while he was at the hospital for a checkup (thus allowing treatment to begin immediately), there was considerable brain damage, and his recovery is going to take quite a bit of time. In the meantime, Tim has been pinch-hitting for him every Sunday, and this is scheduled to continue through the end of March. After that, Tim will likely preach two or three times per month at that church until we move to the Osaka area in early October.

We are hopeful that Rev. Yoshioka’s recovery will continue to proceed to a near-full recovery, but even in the best-case scenario (short of an outright miracle, which we continue to pray for, of course), there will likely be significant disability remaining. We take hope from the experience of another pastor we will be working with closely when we move down to begin working with the Buraku Liberation Center. Rev. Tanimoto has been the “spark plug” for the BLC for many years, and in the summer of 2005, he also experienced a similar stroke that left his right side paralyzed and made him unable to speak. He was told that he would likely be confined to a wheelchair at best, but he has proved the pessimistic outlook wrong and has recovered to the extent he is able to walk with a cane and is able to speak almost completely normally. He has even been able to return to active ministry, and has been an inspiration to many, to say the least. We are hoping that Rev. Yoshioka’s recovery will be equally inspiring.

Over the next few months, we will be preparing for another series of lectures to be given by Dr. Hugh Ross of “Reasons To Believe.” For many years, Tim has headed up the Japan branch of RTB, and we have had Hugh over five times before, the last being in 1999. So it has been quite some time. This time, he will be here for nine days, from May 19 to 28, and we are planning a full set of events beginning in Osaka, including an excursion down to Fukuoka, and then ending in the Tokyo area. An important part of this aspect of our ministry is the development of a Japanese Web site that includes an English page with either the English version or the link to the English original on the RTB or other Web site. You may be interested in looking at the latest addition, which has just been posted. It is about some very interesting theories concerning the Exodus and the events surrounding that pivotal event.

Love,

Tim and Juji

The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 249