Friday, February 16, 2007

Newsletter Feb. 16, 2007

Happy belated Valentine's Day everyone!

We are so blessed to be living in Japan sharing the one TRUE LOVE with the people of this nation. Thank you for praying for the first meeting regarding our new purity ministry with Afureru! The meeting went REALLY well, and we look forward to preparing the materials for this ministry. As we have talked with other leaders and ministers in the past weeks about this ministry, everyone is so excited to hear that we are taking on this topic and can't wait to get their hands on the materials we develop OR have the team come and do a purity seminar for them. This ministry really has the potential to make a huge impact, please keep praying!

As I have done research over the past couple of weeks, I have been painfully reminded of the devastating consequences of not following God's guidelines for sexual purity. It has hit really close to home for us this week, as we recently found out that a friend is in a very difficult situation regarding this very topic. I can not give the details in order to protect this person's privacy, but would you pray! PLEASE PRAY for this person and the difficult decisions that have to be made.

I want to end there this week and thank you for your prayers and constant love and support of our work here in Japan!

Blessings from Japan,
The Ayatsuka's

Friday, February 02, 2007

Newsletter Feb. 1, 2006

Time just flies by, I'm so sorry it has been an entire month since I posted a newsletter. Just when I thought things were slowing down, we have stayed steadily busy!

Just a couple of prayer requests for you to keep in mind...

The monthly worship meeting called Afureru! that we lead is really being blessed. The leadership team especially is becoming a solid group with strong bonds and unity in our passion for ministering for the Lord. The girls have decided to embark on a new ministry... purity! Last summer when the ballet team from Colorado was here, they lead a couple of purity seminars and we all saw what an incredible need there is for this type of ministry in Japan. The Afureru! leadership team girls will be meeting tomorrow evening to begin to lay the ground work for this ministry. Please pray, we are starting from scratch and need to develop materials, decide HOW to get the word out about the program, when and where to hold seminars, etc.

I have been having a small weekly English preschool group with Hana's friend Corkey and some of his Mom's friends. We are restructuring the preschool meeting to twice a month on Saturdays so that children starting preschool this Spring can still attend English preschool. We are also planning to introduce more intense Bible story teaching, prayer time and some Bible time for the Mom's too. Please pray that the changes will be positive and that all of the currently established group will continue to attend. And of course pray that more exposure to the Bible will reach the children's hearts and especially the heart's of the Mothers. Pray as Yukie, Corkey's Mom, and I, try to evangelize these Mom's!!!

Blessings everyone, we hope to hear from you also!

Thursday, February 01, 2007