This month’s prayer items are copied from our December 2023 newsletter—go there to see the context for the items below.

TOKYO MULTICULTURAL CHURCH

• While celebrating the glorious truth that the Word of God dwells with us, please PRAY that he might supply a place in Tokyo for David & Lina to dwell.
• PRAISE THE LORD for newcomers at TMC.
• PRAY for another worker for TMC’s English ministries.
• ASK the Lord to raise up a TMC lead pastoral or missionary couple to take over for us. We cannot fully transition out until then.

OUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT

• ASK the Lord to meet our financial needs. Our ServeBeyond Ministry account (#2-2280) is a bit low but it might rebuild through typically higher end of year donations.

Thank you for Praying for The Littles! – PTL #183

This month’s prayer items are copied from our Nov 2023 newsletter—go there to see the context for the items below.

PRAISE THE LORD for our good ministry trip to Japan, Thailand and Singapore in Sep-Oct. PRAY for wisdom as we set up the next one for Feb.

TOKYO MULTICULTURAL CHURCH (TMC)

• GIVE THANKS that David & Lina have arrived in Tokyo and at TMC with religious activities visas. PRAY that they will adjust well to life and ministry in their new adopted country, and that their two children will learn to love living in Tokyo.
• ASK the Lord to raise up a TMC lead pastoral or missionary couple to take over for us. We cannot fully transition out until then.

SERVEBEYOND REGIONAL COORDINATORS

• PRAY for wisdom as we try to encourage and guide ServeBeyond global workers in Asia.

SUPPORT TEAM VISITS

• GIVE THANKS that we have visited 6 of our 10 supporting churches in the US and have arranged 2 more visits. PRAY that we will be able to visit the remaining 2 in the next few months, and then begin visiting our 11 supporting churches in Canada.

FINANCES

• ASK the Lord to meet our financial needs. Our ServeBeyond Ministry account (#2-2280) is a bit low but it might rebuild through typically higher end of year donations.

Thank you for Praying for The Littles! – PTL #182

PRAISE GOD that Japan Immigration granted religious activities visas to David & Lina and their two children. They arrived in Tokyo via Hong Kong in late Sep to begin their full-time Chinese ministries at Tokyo Multicultural Church. PRAY that they will soon find housing; that they will adjust well to life and ministry in Tokyo; and that their two children will learn to love living in Tokyo.

We are based in Japan Sep 23 - Oct 21.

• PRAY for us to be of encouragement to ServeBeyond global workers in Chiang Mai and partners in Singapore during our Sep 29 - Oct 6 visits.
• PRAY for wisdom and strength as we lead in-person at TMC Oct 7-18.
• PRAY that we will be able to provide David & Lina with helpful orientation and encouragement Oct 8, 17.
• PRAY for good seminary teaching days for Dale Oct 14, 19, 20 at Japan Bible Seminary. These are the last of his six modular classes for this semester (Apr - Oct).

GIVE THANKS that we have been able to visit 4 of our 11 supporting churches in the US and have arranged 2 more visits. PRAY that we will be able to visit the remaining 5 over the next 3-4 months, and then begin visiting our 11 supporting churches in Canada.

As of January 2023 Dale & Ann are based at their house in Maine for 8-9 months/year and at their house in Japan for 3-4 months/year. They travel from Maine to Japan three times a year for 4-6 weeks at a time to carry out their ministries in Tokyo and Asia. The rest of the year they do so remotely.

Thank you for Praying for The Littles! – PTL #181

This month’s prayer items are copied from our Aug 2023 newsletter—go there to see the context for the items below.

TOKYO MULTICULTURAL CHURCH (TMC)

• PRAISE THE LORD for our good trip to Japan in June and PRAY that we will be of encouragement to ServeBeyond missionaries in other Asian countries during our trip in October.
• GIVE THANKS for TMC’s Sunday school staff. PRAY that parents will see the importance of bringing their children to TMC and also teaching them Bible stories at home.
• PRAY that TMC offerings will increase.
• PRAY that Japan immigration will grant David & Lina’s visas.
• THANK THE LORD for Bob & Keiko. PRAY that they will continue encouraging TMC while raising a family.
• ASK the Lord to raise up a lead pastoral or missionary couple for TMC.

We are now based at our house in Maine USA for 8-9 months/year and at our house in Japan for 3-4 months. We travel from Maine to Japan three times a year to carry out our ministries in Tokyo and Asia. The rest of the year we do so remotely.

Thank you for Praying for The Littles! – PTL #180

Since the beginning of this year we have been carrying out our ministry both remotely from Maine USA and in-person in Asia. We are taking 2-3 annual trips of 4-6 weeks each to Japan and other countries in Asia so we can be in-person at TMC, so Dale can teach modular seminary classes in Tokyo, and so we can visit ServeBeyond Asia projects and personnel. Our second such trip this year is to Japan for the entire month of June.

TOKYO MULTICULTURAL CHURCH (TMC)
For this month we are commuting every weekend from our vacation house in northern Japan to Tokyo in order to coach and guide TMC.

• PRAY for Ann & Dale as they meet one-on-one with individuals at TMC each weekend in June. Some just need a listening ear. Others value ongoing direction and encouragement in the Lord.
• PRAY that the children’s ministry team Ann has recruited and now resources will work well together and continue finding ways to creatively teach the Bible to TMC’s small number of children.
• PRAY for Japanese ministries part-time pastor, Moto, as he applies for doctoral studies in Intercultural Studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
• PRAY for new part-time English ministries associate pastoral couple, Bob & Keiko, as they continue to come aboard TMC. GIVE THANKS that the Lord has given them a new place to stay (rent-free!) and a new job for Bob. PRAY that Bob will be able to resume his online studies at South African Theological Seminary.
• PRAY for part-time Chinese ministries associate pastor, Kevin, as he continues his masters studies online at China Evangelical Seminary North America (Los Angeles).
• PRAY that Japan Immigration will soon grant visas for David & Lina to come as full-time Chinese ministries pastoral couple.
• PRAY for one key lay couple that are considering reducing their involvement at TMC and perhaps even changing churches. This is difficult for all of us at TMC. PRAY for wisdom for Dale and the Leadership Team.

THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION
Dale teaches the first part of his modular class on Contemporary Theology this year on June 24, 26, and 27. He has been doing this for over 20 years and enjoys it. But he still sometimes finds it a challenge to teach theology in Japanese.

• So PRAY that he will be able to communicate well.
• And PRAY that in the next few years he might be able to publish a Japanese book on Contemporary Theology, based on his teaching, that might be of encouragement to Japanese theology students.

Thank you for Praying for The Littles! – PTL #179

This month’s prayer items are copied from our Apr-May 2023 newsletter—go there to see further pics and info about the items below—and are mostly about TOKYO MULTICULTURAL CHURCH.

• GIVE THANKS for our financial support team of 22 churches and 25 individuals who empower us to carry on ministry in Japan and Asia.
• GIVE THANKS that Dale was able to baptize K at TMC in Feb!
• GIVE THANKS that TMC members made the difficult decision to reduce the budget. PRAY that the Lord will continue to meet the financial needs of TMC’s part-time, bi-vocational pastors.
• GIVE THANKS for Bob & Keiko. PRAY that they will be encouraged as they come aboard TMC and that they will sense God’s confirmation of his leading them to TMC.
• PRAY that Japan Immigration will soon grant visas for David & Lina and children.
• PRAY that God will continue raising up young women to take over Ann’s children’s ministry responsibilities.
• PRAY that Dale might be able to find ways of encouraging pioneer church planters through his theological reflections about church planting.

Thank you for Praying for The Littles! – PTL #178

TOKYO MULTICULTURAL CHURCH
Our first of our three stints in Japan during 2023 was Feb 21 - Mar 10. We were scheduled to be there from Feb 14 but we both came down with covid about 10 days earlier so had to delay. We are grateful that with quick medical attention, quarantine, rest, and each having had 5 jabs we seemed to be mostly recovered in a few weeks.
We GIVE THANKS that...

• One young lady from South Africa was baptized by Dale at TMC's mother church in Tokyo on Feb 26. During 2022 Ann & Dale had met with her by zoom 4-5 times for baptismal preparation. Her testimony of God’s faithfulness was not only encouraging to the approximately 15 people from TMC who were able to attend the Sunday afternoon celebration. It was also a wonderful opportunity to finally reconnect after covid restrictions with the 15-20 people from our mother church who were at the baptism. We are hopeful our two churches can join together once again starting this fall for events like annual retreats.
• TMC members were able to make a difficult but important decision about reducing the budget until the church achieves more financial stability. Tokyo’s covid restrictions over the past few years have made it difficult for TMC to meet its budget. Dale led the Members’ Meeting on Mar 5 that came to this decision. It was also decided to combine our separate English and Japanese worship services into one joint service and to start using a new decision making structure.
• Bob & Keiko are considering becoming TMC’s part-time, bi-vocational English ministries pastoral couple. We met with them again in Mar.
• Ann was able to pass on several of her responsibilities to some of the young TMC women (children’s ministry, facility cleaning and decorating, weekly worship services line up).

Please PRAY that…

• TMC attenders will continue to grow in their faith as has the young lady who was baptized in Feb.
• TMC members will joyfully and faithfully give of their finances to meet the church budget.
• That the Lord will guide TMC on Apr 23 as members vote about Bob & Keiko.
• That the Lord will raise up more TMC people to carry on the weekly TMC responsibilities.

THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION
Dale read a paper on church planting theology during a Mar 20-22 conference on church planting in England at Cranmer Hall of Durham University. PRAY that this might become part of a future publication of help to pioneer church planters and students of church planting.

Thank you for Praying for The Littles! – PTL #177

At the end of December we returned to Maine USA, then left for Michigan to be with our 3 children, their spouses, and our 3 grandchildren. Never enough time with grandkids! On Jan 10 we returned to Maine.

TOKYO MULTICULTURAL CHURCH
We have been almost as busy church planting in Tokyo from Maine as when we had our apartment in Tokyo! Between email, zoom, social media, etc., “remote work” really is work! We look forward to in-person ministry for about one month when we return to Japan on Feb 15.

• Continue to PRAY that in our new hybrid way of leading TMC (both remotely and in-person) we will learn to encouragingly coach and guide the Leadership Team (Dale) and the Sunday School team (Ann).
• GIVE THANKS for the restart of TMC’s twice a month Sunday School in Jan, and PRAY for Ann’s children’s ministry team.
• PRAY that the Lord would guide Bob & Keiko (and TMC) in deciding whether to become our part-time, bi-vocational pastoral couple for English ministries.
• PRAY that the Lord would speed David & Lina’s visa applications through the Japan Immigration process so they can become our full-time pastoral couple for Chinese ministries. They are coming through Singapore from a third country.
• GIVE THANKS for Moto (Japanese ministries pastor), Kevin (Chinese ministries apprentice), and Jon & Laura Prins (ServeBeyond missionaries).
• PRAY that TMC will become established with its own younger leadership, financial stability, and connection with the EFC of Japan.

DALE & ANN

• PRAY for travel safety (and some enjoyment along the way) during our Feb-Mar trip to Japan. We will serve in Tokyo on weekends while living 4-6 hrs. north of Tokyo midweek.
• PRAY that Dale will enjoy preparing and giving a paper on church planting theology in late March at "The Centre for Church Planting Theology and Research” in Durham UK at Cranmer Hall, Durham University.
• PRAY that during Apr-May we will be able (finally!) to begin visiting our supporting US churches. A few visits have already been arranged.

Thank you for Praying for the Tokyo Littles! – PTL #176