Newsletter June 20, 2008

Yaawwwnnn! We are back in Japan and jet lagging! But sooooooo happy to be home. We were welcomed home by rainy season, I don't believe I have seen a blue sky yet!

The trip to the states was so BLESSED!!! We can not begin to express how awesome every part of it was. Time on the computer and access to the internet was sporatic at times, so we appologize for the lack of communication.

To all of you who are new to our newsletter, WELCOME! It was a joy to meet you while we were in the states and we welcome you whole heartedly to our team of supporters and prayer warriors!

So now, a HUGE praise to our Lord and amazing God for how he provided ABUNDANTLY for our ministry through this fund raising trip. The grand total raised in love offerings, donations and CD sales from this trip... $17,000!!!!!!!!! I think I can safely say that is the most we have ever been able to raise in one trip. AMAZING! With gas prices the way they are and everyone talking about prices going up on everything else, I was not sure how well this trip would turn out. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU, to all of you and especially to God!!!

We have been home three days and are already back into ministry. Yesterday we did a chapel service in our neighboring city, we have a meeting at church today and this weekend will be Afureru! worship on Sunday afternoon. We are actually thankful to be staying busy so that we won't nap during the day and prolong jet lag! We all slept through the night last night and are feeling pretty good today.

I will put together some pictures of our trip and other news for you soon. I just wanted to let you all know that we are home and still so amazed at the Lord's rich blessings on us!

From rainy home...
The Ayatsuka's

We are having computer issues... pics coming soon!

The Ayatsuka Family 2008

Newsletter May 23, 2008

Time keeps marching on! We are at my parents' house in Texas and enjoying a LITTLE bit of downtime. I wanted to drop in and post our schedule for the next few weeks...

May 25 - New Home Baptist Church morning worship
June 1 - Littlefield Methodist Church morning worship
June 2 - Lubbock Cowboy Church evening worship

June 5 - 9 Boston Japanese Christian Church (details coming soon)

June 9 - 16 Florida (details coming soon)

June 16 - Return to Japan :( and :)

Support raising has been so blessed. Thank you for your prayers.

To the many we've been able to meet and spend time with, we are so thankful. Your love and support means the world to us. We are so blessed to have so many friends and supporters. Thank you!!!

Love from Texas,
Rocky, Marla and Hana

Newsletter May 14, 2007

Thank you all so much for your prayers while we are Stateside raising support. It has been an AWESOME trip!

We are writing from Texas. We've been here for a little over a week. In West Texas we have already been to one Cowboy church and will head back to that area this weekend to do more. We just finished doing the Asian American Church of Houston this weekend, and we were so blessed there! I think we've formed another great partnership in that area!

We had to say good-bye to Shuhey on Sunday! He flew out of Houston for Japan on Monday morning. I think that means he should be home by now! He was invaluable to the ministry while he was here and we hated to see him go. Everywhere we went, everyone LOVED the accoustic duo and bought up their CD's like crazy! This last month without him won't be the same.

Please continue to pray as we finish off the trip and spend some time with family. We'll post our schedule for that last three weeks soon. And I'll post some more pics soon, when we get them uploaded to the computer!

Thanks again for your prayers and support!
Love from Texas,
The Ayatsuka's

Arizona, Utah, Colorado

Well, we finished in Phoenix, rented a car, and made our way to the Grand Canyon, Utah and finally Colorado. Here's a picture by picture tour of our three wonderful days on the road!!!

On Monday we went from this...


to seeing lots of this...


then four hours later, 20 degrees colder and about 6,000 ft. higher we saw this...


and finally, the moment we'd all been waiting for...


Watching the sunset from the Grand Canyon was our night cap on Monday. Then on Tuesday we explored the Grand Canyon a little more, and then made our way up through Utah. Here is what we saw...



We saw lots of ROCKS!!! It was a beautiful drive. We spent the night near the I-70 in Utah and then made our way towards Colorado on Wednesday morning. Rocky got to see the mountains which are his name-sake... The Rocky Mountains!!!




God's creation is breath-taking. His glory shown in every change of the landscape. his power was evident in ever cliff and canyon. We were awe struck a hundred times or more! WOW!!!

Now we are in Colorado, and spent a couple nights at my long lost cousins' house. Tomorrow we will spend the evening and Saturday morning ministering to a Japanese fellowship. On Saturday night we begin our week with CMA!!!

Our time online has been limited, but this has been such an awesome trip already. We can't believe we've been here for only a week so far. Stay tuned for a WHOLE LOT MORE!!!

Newsletter April 20, 2008

I hope I have the date correct on this blog. it is late and the lights are out so Hana can sleep and I don't know what today's date is, and don't have the energy to find out! We just finished an awesome weekend packed with ministry! Friday evening concert for youth, Saturday evening fellowship with some members of the Japanese International Baptist Church of Tempe, leading morning worship at JIBC Tempe AND sharing this evening at Maricopa Baptist Church! AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME! What a priviledge it is to meet fellow believers, from all over the world, worship with them and share what the Lord is doing in ALL our lives!!!

We are off to see the Grand Canyon tomorrow, and make our way to Colorado the next. ROAD TRIP! It ought to be a blast!

Please keep praying, and thank you so much for blessing us!!!
The Ayatsukas and Shuhey

News from Arizona...

Above: Sunset from the airplane somewhere over Texas!

We made it to US soil!!!!!! I think for the first time EVER, we had a totally eventless, totally ON TIME, unbelievably pleasant flying experience. I was amazed. Your prayers certainly did the trick. Not only was the American Airlines flight schedule on time, but the service was actually GOOD. The food was good (as good as airplane food can be I guess), certainly an improvement on our previous experiences. AND (are you ready for this) the flight attendants were polite and helpful, sometimes even downright NICE! AA has slightly redeemed themselves in our eyes. It’s a long road back for them, with us after all we’ve been through, but this is a step in the right direction.

Since then, it has been a GREAT trip. We have thoroughly enjoyed our time with our family and friends here in Arizona. Tonight, we just came home from an area wide youth event, and it was an incredible meeting! We thoroughly enjoyed the worship and fellowship. Praise God!!!

Tomorrow we are headed to a Japanese church in Tempe, AZ. We’ll spend Saturday evening in fellowship with them, and worship with them on Sunday! We are looking forward to meeting another new group of Japanese believers in America.

I’m off to bed, since we are still SLIGHTLY jet lagging. Hopefully I can sleep through the night tonight and not wake up so early tomorrow morning!

Love from Arizona!
The Ayatsuka’s

Newsletter April 12, 2008

We NEED NEED NEED NEED NEED your prayers desperately!

We leave for the states on Wednesday, and guess who our airline carrier is??? That's right, American Airlines. I can not begin to tell you all the problems we have had with this company over the years. This could be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

If you haven't heard, American Airlines is grounding hundreds of flights a day. We are scheduled to go from Tokyo to Dallas and then Dallas to Phoenix on AA. Probably the Tokyo to Dallas flight will be fine. It is the Dallas to Phoenix flight that has me worried. PLEASE pray that by some miracle, we get there on Wednesday!

You're prayers have done mighty and powerful things in our ministry over the years. Please lift this up before the Father with us!

For His Glory in Japan (and for His GLORY EVEN in D/FW airport if we end up camped out there for a couple weeks, LOL)

The Ayatsuka's (and Shuhey, also joining us for the first leg of the trip)

Newsletter March 15, 2008

Spring is in the air! New life springing up all around us, always makes me even more excited about all the new life God is putting into our lives every day.

I have awesome news! In May of last year we posted this newsletter. In that post I asked you all to pray for a woman whom I'd met at a concert and had a long conversation with about God! I am so happy to let you know today, this woman has accepted Christ as her Savior and will follow the Lord in baptism soon!!! I never stop being amazed at how the Lord changes hearts and lives! This was great news to receive at the beginning of this week leading up to the celebration of Easter! Praise and thanks to our God and Savior, we have a new sister in the family today!!!

Please keep praying for our trip to America as we finalize plans and the time to leave is quickly approaching. Our schedule is as follows, so far...

April 16 - 21 Phoenix, AZ area
* Friday, April 18 - Youth Rally, Desert Sky Baptist Church (Casa Grande)
* Saturday and Sunay, April 19-20 - Japanese International Baptist Church (Tempe)

April 21-24 Grand Canyon and travel to Denver, CO

April 25-May 4 Denver, CO Area
* Friday and Saturday, April 25-26 - Fort Collins Japanese Bible Fellowship (Fort Colins)
* Sunday April 27th - Sunday May 4, details still pending/ministry with CMA

May 5 - June 5 TEXAS!!!!!!!!
Lots of details still pending, OPEN DATES AVAILABLE

* Sunday, May 11 - Asian-American Church Houston
* Sunday, May 25 - New Home Baptist Church

June 5 - 9 Boston, MA
* Boston Japanese Christian Church

June 9 - 15 Palm Coast, Florida

Please don't hesitate to contact us about our trip if we will be near you!

Many blessings and thank you for your prayers!
The Ayatsuka's

English Circle...

One of the ministries that I do is called English Circle. It started with myself and another Christian mom also raising her children in English. We wanted some English time for our kids, kind of like Sunday School where they could get some Bible learning and fun play time in. We told friends about it and we've been meeting for more than a year. We meet on the 1st and 3rd Saturday of each month. Sometimes it is just our two little families and sometimes it is a LOT more, like last month when we had like 15 kids with Moms and a few Dads! It was a mad house, but so much fun. Enjoy the pictures.

Newsletter February 9, 2008

We are going through a cold spell here! I realize some of you in the states are as well. I pray this newsletter finds you all safe and well, and warm and cozy (if you're in a cold place)!

We are doing well, and ministry is just awesome. Rocky is going into his 4th week of a 6 week series Bible study with two men in our church (one a believer and one almost believer, he's sooo close!). They are all really enjoying the study. Once the 6 weeks are up however, these guys' days off at work change and no longer coincide with each other. Will you pray that they can effectively and consistenly find some other time to spend together, maybe continue their Bible study or at least just get some fellowship in on a consistent basis. Continue to pray that A-san will come to a point where he is ready to commit his life to the Lord!

My (Marla's) small group of mother's and children that meet twice a month for English learning and Bible story is going well. We call it "English Circle" and this last meeting there were 9 kids there! One new mother who is so excited about the group and asked if she could continue to come. Several of the mothers are not Christian and interested in the Bible. It is a challenge to fit any meaningful Bible teaching for the mother's into the program for the children. My friend Yukie, who is co-hosting the English Circle with me, and I are trying to figure out how to better get these Moms exposed to the Bible. Would you pray that we would have wisdom on how to reach out to them.

Also please lift our church up in prayer. We were moving towards calling a Japanese pastor but the situation did not work out as planned. Pray for unity in the church, guidance for the leadership council and our missionary and especially for planning the year to come as many things need to/have to change for us to move forward as a church!

Thanks so much for your prayers and support. We will be stateside from around April 17th to mid-June. Our tentative schedule is as follows...
April 17-21 Phoenix, AZ
April 22-23 see the Grand Canyon/drive to Colorado
April 24 - 27th Boulder, CO area
including April 26th 10:30-12:00 Ft. Collins Japanese Bible Fellowship www.fjbf.org
April 27th - May 5 Littleton, CO with CMA dance ministry CMA website
May 5 - June 4th ALL over TEXAS - details coming soon
June 5- 9 Boston, MA Boston Japanese Christian Church
June 9 -??? Florida

If we could see you along the way, or if you'd like us to minister in your church, please don't be shy! Leave us a comment or send us an email!

Many blessings,
Marla, Rocky and Hana

Newsletter January 28, 2008

I just wanted to post a quick newsletter about our Sunday.

We held our monthly bilingual worship event known as Afureru! Earlier this month Ken, a former staff member died in an accident and we took this chance to remember him AND talk about death and eternal life. It was a different atmosphere from the normal upbeat and enthusiastic Afureru! meeting but it was powerful. Many of his friends were in attendance, several of them unbelievers (so far!). Please pray that what they heard about the hope of eternal life in Christ last night takes root in their hearts! Below is a simple slide show we put together in remembrance of him. There are some titles between pictures and I'll type their meaning in English below the video.

Thanks for reading and praying with us. Please don't forget about our trip to the states in April/May. We'd love to see you and share with your church/fellowship group so be in contact with us if you are interested.

Many thanks and blessings from Japan,
The Ayatsuka's



the ocean
life
and Jesus
you loved with all your heart.

that faithfulness
big smile
cute and funny character
you were overflowing with Jesus.

Jesus said "I am the the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will never die but have eternal life."

Ken-chan, until we meet again...

Japanese foods...

I thought some of you might enjoy it if I shared some of the foods we eat here. There are a lot of neat food items in the winter. Especially at New Years. This New Years we were invited to a mochitsuki (mochi pounding) event at one of the kindergartens where I teach English. I thought I'd share that with ya.

Mochi (moe-ch-ey) is a certain kind of rice that when kneeded or pounded becomes a dough. It is traditional eaten at new years time. You can read more about mochi at Wikipedia here.

Rocky (right) joined two other men in the pounding. They use huge wooden hammers and the mochi is in a large marble bowl. It is best to keep a rhythm going and everyone pound at the right time to avoid hitting each other. Sometimes a fourth man is a part of the team and he reaches in to fold the mochi over at his turn. It takes a brave man to do that part, and he better be quick!

This is my plate of mochi! My favorite is the one wrapped in seaweed on the top right and the one in the middle which is covered in soy bean powder. What you see on the plate are as follows (starting from the top left) mochi covered in shredded daikon (a large radish), dipped in soy sauce and wrapped in seaweed, covered in ground black sesame seeds, mixed with natto beans and in the middle is the soy bean powder. I could NOT eat the ones mixed with nato beans. I am still not able to enjoy natto beans, which are beans that have been "aged" or spoiled. They smell terrible and feel even worse in your mouth. The Japanese insist they are good for you? But anything that is grose or doesn't taste good here is always "good for you"! Read about natto here.



And here is a sweet bonus picture of Hana enjoying her mochi. It is REALLY stretchy huh!?

Newsletter January 20, 2008

Happy New Year! (a little late) I did not realize how long it had been since I updated with a newsletter. I hope you all are having an awesome New Year. We are busy in the New Year and excited about all that God is doing already.

2008 began with some quality family time. Rocky's brother and family came to visit from Osaka. We enjoyed several days together and the little cousins thoroughly enjoyed each other's company. As always please pray for our sister-in-law and nephews as they do not know the Lord yet. They attend church weekly with Rocky's brother!

Unfortunately just after the in-laws left we were shocked with the news that a very close friend and brother-in-Christ went home to be with the Lord. Our precious friend Ken, who was very active on staff with our Afureru! ministry for many years was killed in a scuba diving accident at his job. We will miss him dearly. His funeral was a bold testimony of how much he LOVED his Lord Jesus and we believe the Lord will do a great work through his death. As a result, this months Afureru will include a short memorial of Ken, and then we will look at what the Bible has to say about death and eternal life. Pray that Afureru! (January 27th) this month will be an extended testimony of Ken's faith and most of all Glorify our Lord!!!

We are seeing God do so much work in the lives of men, as an answer to YOUR prayers as we have asked you to pray for that many times! We now have several Christian families in our church and one husband of a believer member in regular attendance. He will start a Bible study with our missonary church planter soon. Also, Rocky begins a Bible study this week with the co-worker of one man in our church. The three of them will meet weekly for the next 6 weeks to study Bible basics and how to become a Christian. Would you please pray for N-san, that the Word of God would be clear to him and he would come to faith as a result of this Bible study!

We are planning our trip back to the states in late Spring. We will possibly be in Arizona mid-April, for sure going to Colorado end of April, spending the month of May in Texas, and possibly ending our trip in Florida the first week of June! If you are in any of these areas (or would like us to come to YOUR area) and want us to visit your church or would just like to see us, PLEASE let us know as soon as possible. We are looking for churche and individuals who want to support Aroma Ministries financially and through prayer! If your church loves missions, PLEASE we'd love to share our minsitry with you. If we haven't seen you in a while, WE'D love to meet and get caught up! Please be in touch! Email marla@aromaministries.org or leave a response here on the blog!

We'd love to hear from each of you and we want to thank you for your constant love, prayers and support! Many blessings on you in 2008!

Some pictures of recent ministry for you to enjoy...

A concert in December where Hana joined us onstage for the encore (but she wouldn't sing!)

Rocky playing at the local train station with another pastor as an evangelical outreach. They hand out CD's and tracts to those who stop and listen.


The Ayatsuka Family headed out for a day of fun at the Aquarium


English Circle
Saturday English and Bible time

We studied how God provided manna for his people this week. So the children made their own "manna" for lunch. It was really pigs in a blanket, not really a kosher meal, but it works to get the point across to 3 year olds.

making manna


going into the oven


reading the Bible story


YUM! dig in!

Random pics...

When I was a little girl my Mommy used to wash my hair this way every once in a while. I LOVED it. I don't know why but there was something so sweet and special about it. While we were gone it was easier to wash her hair like this instead of getting in the shower where it was really COLD! She loved it too, and was so happy when I would do this. I loved doing it for her too!!!




SNOW!!!!!


Her eyes looked so sweet when she was eating her ice cream. I love this pic!

Newsletter December 7, 2007

Christmas Christmas Christmas!

Christmas REALLY snuck up on us this year. We did some Christmas concerts over the last week and it doesn't really seem real that it is ALREADY that time of year again. It isn't that cold yet this year, and it just seems like summer was over yesterday. But what a blessing the season has been so far!

I am so thankful for a Christmas party we were able to have with my Bible study ladies from Shionzan kindergarten. Everyone brought something to eat, and we had a great time singing, discussing the story of Mary getting news of Jesus from the Angel Gabriel, and EATING! There is nothing like sharing food to draw a group together for fun and fellowship. Please keep praying for these ladies, they discover something about the Bible and God at each Bible study. And the group is growing! We had 10 in attendance for the Christmas party, when we started the year with just two ladies!!!

We will be having our Kitakyushu Community Christmas worship this coming Sunday! Next week we will do a concert for a Christian hospital facility. Next weekend we will travel a few hours by bullet train to the Okayama area for a Christmas concert, and then it is back home to do several Christmas events in our own church. Please pray that all of these events will be used in a huge way by God so that many Japanese would realize the true meaning of Christmas!

Also praise the Lord with us for his protection during our travels and his incredible provision for us. On our last trip we accidentally left a bag on a train, and it had valuables in it that were important. We were able to get the bag retrieved by a train employee before it was discovered by anyone else and all our belongings were returned to us safely! Thank you LORD! Please continue to pray for safety as we travel some more over the next weeks.

Below are some pictures from our last big trip to Aomori prefecture...


Our friends we met in New Zealand years ago who were the connection that brought us to Aomori! It was so great to see them again!

HALF of the audience at one of our concerts!


The cafe/bookstore attached to the church.


Hana's little buddies! These guys were great entertainment for her all week (or was it the other way around???)

Newsletter November 28, 2007

Fall is moving into winter, and we are moving on into the Christmas part of our concert schedule.

We just returned from one AMAZING week WAYYYYYYYYY up North in Aomori prefecture. It was cold and snowy, but full of blessing and fun. We did 12 concerts in 9 days, and ate lots of lots of Thanksgiving dinner (most of the concerts were dinner parties with turkey and all the fixings)! What a blessing to see the amazing ministry of Martin and Ruth Ghent, their 5 church plants, and more! We learned some of that area's dialect of Japanese too which is sooooo different, I couldn't believe it was actually the same language. But most of all LOTS of seekers and first time attenders were exposed to the Gospel. Please pray for those who were in attendance that God continue to work in their hearts and allow those churches to reap a harvest of many new believers in the months ahead, for the Kingdom and glory of God!

Now we move into December and Christmas concerts. We have something every weekend, and special Christmas meetings on weekdays too. Please pray specifically for the Christmas party with my Mother's Bible study at one of the kindergarten's where we teach. This little group of ladies have really enjoyed the Bible study as we meet monthly and I am hoping that this simple little gathering for Christmas will give us more of a chance to get to know them and share more with them.

We always appreciate your prayers for safety as we travel so much this time of year. May the Lord be glorified in all that we say and do!

For Him in Japan,
Rocky, Marla and Hana

Newsletter October 26, 2007

This week we just want to show you a little bit of us in action! We had a charity concert for Pro-Life Japan and here is the highlight video... ENJOY!!! (oh and please leave us a comment, we love to hear what you think!)

Newsletter September 30, 2007

The weather finally seems to be seriously cooling off for fall this week. Just in time for us to head into our fall concert schedule.

We just finished two days of concerts for a revival at Rocky's parent's church. It was great, and this sort of feels like the starting line. From here on out (until Christmas) we have concerts pretty much every weekend, and some scattered throughout the weekdays also.

We appreciate prayers for health. As the weather cools down, days are comfortable and warm and nights sometimes are cool. This constant change in temperature can sometimes get some of us down with colds. Something we don't need during the busy fall season. And on top of that, for the first time in over two years Marla is suffering from some kind of pollen allergy (we think). Praise God, it has not turned into an infection, but the constant sneezing, stuffyness, sinus pressure is exhausting. It also sort of gets in the way of singing! We survived this weekends concerts but complete and total healing would be our prayer! Would you pray along those lines, that God either heal the allergy or take away the allergen!!!

And last, but certainly not least, since we did not make our regular yearly tour back to the US this summer to tell everyone about our ministry here in Japan, we have begun to run low on support! We praise God for all of you who support us on a monthly basis or with regular special gifts -- THANK YOU SO MUCH! You are such a blessing, we could never express how thankful we are. Usually our yearly trip to the States brings in lots of special offerings as we speak and sing at churches each week. Without that income, this year our funds are lower than we'd like to see them. We would like to ask you to prayerfully consider giving to Aroma Ministries! A special gift, or begin supporting us on a monthly basis, whatever the Lord leads you to do? If you'd like to know more details about our budget needs, please don't hesitate to send me an email... marla@aromaministries.org

If you'd like to give, here is a link to PayPal where you can send support online.

Or send checks to
Aroma Ministries
801 XIT Dr.
Littlefield, TX 79339

Newsletter August 24, 2007

WOW! How do I even begin to sum up all that we experienced on the road the last two weeks!?

We just returned from about two weeks on the road and it was an amazing trip! We made our way, 10 hours by car, up towards central Japan by car and stopped for the weekend to do ministry at one church in Toyohashi. The Sunday morning worship and Sunday evening concert were a huge blessings. We were so blessed to meet and get to know this wonderful church full of really strong believers. God is obviously at work in their church.

Then we made our way 5 more hours by car to Karuizawa, a popular summer vacation spot for the Tokyo area. There in Karuizawa, is a Christian conference center and we were blessed to be worship leaders for a missionary annual meeting there. We had a GREAT week! Karuizawa is supposed to be really cool temperature wise, in the summer, but it was pretty HOT this year. But we had an awesome time of worship and fellowship with the T.E.A.M. missionaries in Japan for almost a full week! What a GREAT mission, filled with incredibly faithful, awesome missionaries. We were sooooooo blessed!

Then we made our way back to Nagoya for 4 days of ministry with our friends Shinichiro and Shoko Saito at Hirabari Baptist Church! WOW, this was an action packed four days! We had morning and evening events EVERY day. From Asanagi and RaM's Voice concerts, to a "Let's Play in English" meeting, a child raising seminar and a cookout! We were so blessed to watch as the whole area Baptist association joined forces to make all those meetings possible. We even passed out flyers every morning at the local train station. In all, over the four days, 200 people total attended events at the church. WOW!!! MORE and MORE blessings!

Thank you for your continued prayers. We are back home and hoping to recover in the next few days! Don't forget to check out Hana's blog if you get a chance, she turned 3 years old on the 22nd! Can you believe she is already three? We can't believe how fast the years have flown! We are still so thankful for this precious daughter the Lord brought into our family!!! She did so well on the trip and had so much fun, she did NOT want to come home!

More news soon! Thanks for reading and praying.
With Love from HOT and HUMID Japan!
The Ayatsuka's