At the end of 2017 we had the joy of celebrating Christmas in Maine USA with our own “3 + 3” children! Matthew & Kristy came from Philadelphia PA, Bryan & Jessica from St. Louis MO, and Matthew & Victoria from Manchester NH. We were able to rent the same house as last year.

In Japan, after busy Christmas Sundays of worship and outreach, church life seems to go into slow motion as New Years preparations and family events take priority until the end of the first week of January. So the few weeks after Christmas Sunday provide a good opportunity for us to take a mini-vacation. Perhaps Christmas (or post-Christmas) in Maine is becoming our new Little family tradition!

On Sun afternoon Dec 17 we held our annual TMC Family Christmas event. We welcomed parents and children from our Sunday school, our apartment complex, 2017 summer English program, and Ann’s “Moms and Tots” English class. We shared the story of the first Christmas and sang Christmas songs. TMC young adults taught games and crafts, and served refreshments. It was a lot of fun and we value the personal connections we are making with each family. Read More…

Starting in October, we began to offer Japanese interpretation of English sermons at Tokyo Multicultural Church on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month. Duane, our ReachGlobal church planting colleague, is an excellent interpreter!

This brings us a step closer to launching TMC’s Japanese language worship service.

We are thankful for the encouraging first ever retreat for Japan personnel of our agency, the Evangelical Free Church of Canada Mission, Sep. 19–23. We hosted the 13 people at our vacation house in northeastern Japan.

It was a time of refreshment and connection, providing a glimpse of the EFCCM’s desire to care for its personnel. We were especially grateful that our Tokyo Multicultural Church colleagues from ReachGlobal and the EFC Macau Mission could join us. And we are thankful that our Ministry Fund was healthy enough to cover the housing costs of the retreat.

On Sun Sep 24 Kevin, TMC’s missionary staff member from the EFC Macau, launched TMC’s Chinese Department by hosting the first Mandarin language fellowship and Bible time. The Chinese Mandarin group will initially meet one Sunday afternoon each month. Kevin & Grace joined our TMC missionary staff in March of this year, with Kevin’s primary responsibility being the development of our Chinese Department.

TMC is indeed moving toward creating intentional space for the multiple cultures and languages the Lord is bringing to TMC—China, Hong Kong, Macau, India, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, UK, USA, Canada, etc.—while at the same time reaching out locally in Japanese.

On Sun Sep 10 Ann launched TMC’s twice a month children’s Sunday school in Japanese. Although multiple languages are spoken at TMC, the children predominantly speak Japanese. Ann had three little ones on Sep 10 and two others were sick. She has hoped to start this for some time and loves the ministry opportunity it provides. And she really appreciates the help she is getting from one of the moms.

TMC’s worship service is in English so we have been planning ways to incorporate other languages in our regular Sunday events. Ann’s children’s Sunday school in Japanese is one such non-English event, along with our weekly adult Japanese Bible study taught by Duane. This month we are also planning to begin a monthly Sunday afternoon Chinese language fellowship, led by Kevin. And we are moving toward launching a Japanese language worship service on Sundays, perhaps initially with a few months of Japanese translation during our current English worship service.

Matthew Little married Victoria Azagoh-Kouadio on August 4!

They met while undergraduate students at Biola University in La Mirada, California. After graduating they moved to the Burlington area where Victoria worked in retail clothing store management and Matthew launched his own subscription coffee company, Brothers Coffee.

It was a hot, sunny day for Matthew and Victoria’s outside wedding in charming rural Charlotte, Vermont, just south of Burlington. Dale officiated at the ceremony of the beautiful bride and handsome groom. (No bias there!) They read their personalized vows to one another and exchanged rings in front of family and friends. And then all enjoyed the reception that followed in the nicely repurposed wedding barn.

Matthew and Victoria began their honeymoon with two days in New York city, followed by ten days in Malta, where Victoria has relatives and enjoyed frequent childhood vacations. Within their first year of marriage they hope to visit Japan so Matthew can show Victoria around.

Matthew and Victoria are starting their married life together in Manchester, New Hampshire, where Victoria lived during her high school years. Victoria has been transferred to a retail store nearby and Matthew continues his entrepreneurial business endeavors.

All three of our children have gotten married within 15 months of each other (May 2016, Dec 2016, and Aug 2017)!

During the week of July 24–29 we held our annual outreach English classes at Tokyo Multicultural Church. This year the Forster family from Hillside EFC in Greenbank WA, one of our supporting churches, joined us. Prior to the classes we prayer-walked in our corner of central Tokyo and held orientation sessions. Read More…

In June 2017 Dale began his 15th year of teaching his one semester Contemporary Theology course in Japanese at Japan Bible Seminary (Tokyo). He encourages his students to critically grasp the breadth of Christian theology, with a special emphasis on evangelical theology. He now teaches this course on a modular basis, with one set of classes at the beginning of the semester (June) and another at the end (October), thus reducing his commuting time and increasing flexibility for his students. Read More…

We wrapped up our six month home assignment and returned home to our Tokyo apartment on June 20–21, 2017. We were able to visit 15 of our partner churches, focusing on our Canadian support team. We drove from Maine to California, and then Washington, British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, covering 20,000 mi. / 32,000 km. We took every opportunity given us to share about Tokyo Multicultural Church, teach children, and preach messages on cross cultural missions and Japan’s need for Jesus Christ. We made new contacts, renewed friendships, and added a number of new Facebook friends.

We are so thankful that we had more than adequate funds in our EFCCM Ministry Fund to cover our home assignment travel costs. Any honorariums we received along the way were deposited to our Ministry Fund for our ongoing missionary ministry.

Roads between BC and AB traverse one of our favorite places: the Canadian Rockies! We were able to take time between Sundays for some light hiking and sightseeing in Banff and Jasper. The pic below was taken in late May in Jasper National Park, AB, and is typical of Ann with her tea and Dale with his coffee. We also toured the west side of Vancouver Island in BC for the first time. Open spaces and long stretches of often deserted highways (especially in AB and SK) were a marked contrast to the photos of our Tokyo neighborhood we included in our church presentations. We loved the open feeling!

We also visited the childhood home towns of Dale’s mother (Peace River AB) and father (Rolla BC), as well as Dawson Creek BC on the Alaska Highway where Dale graduated from high school. Dale connected with relatives and did some research on his family history. Discovering his spiritual heritage along the way was an added blessing. Dale’s paternal great grandfather, Lea Miller, founded and named Rolla BC, likening his pioneer journey from Rolla Missouri to Rolla BC to the life of Abraham, who in faith followed God not really knowing where he was going. What a rich heritage! And what fun!

It is no wonder Dale’s father, Rev. Lea Little, who passed away in Feb, used to speak so passionately about “pioneer church planting” in Japan! He himself came from a pioneer family in the Peace River area of BC.

Over our 33 years of ministry based in Japan, the word “home” has acquired several geographic reference points. Currently we consider Sumida-ku, Tokyo our home. We are making plans to retire in Cape Elizabeth, Maine USA (2021? 2022?), where Ann was raised and where we try to gather with our children for post-Christmas each year. So Maine is also home for us. But our ultimate geographic home marker is heaven itself where we will be with Jesus Christ and his followers who worship him from all nations, including those we serve at TMC and our parents who have gone on before us.

Since 2008 Dale has served as the voluntary, part-time President of JAPAN EVANGELICAL MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. At the annual meeting in February 2017 he turned over his JEMA leadership responsibilities to a capable missionary executive team, with Nathan Snow as the new President.

Our leadership team has enjoyed numerous lighter moments!
Read More…

For three weeks in February-March during our six-month home assignment we returned to Tokyo for the annual Japan Evangelical Missionary Association meetings, where Dale passed on the leadership baton (he has been President for 8 years and Vice-President for his final year), and Ann attended the JEMA Women in Ministry retreat.

It was great to be back at TMC for a few Sundays!

We also renewed our Tokyo Multicultural Church rental facility contract for another three years, filed our Japanese taxes, said good-bye to our one year short term missionary Alicia who returns to Ottawa Canada in April, and welcomed Kevin & Grace from the Evangelical Free Church of Macao to our TMC missionary staff.

The portion of our Ministry Enhancement Fund that is set aside for TMC has been helpful in encouraging TMC toward full financial independence from the EFCCM, covering the shortfall of our TMC facility rent that is not handled by the offerings of TMC worshippers. We hope that by the end of this year TMC offerings will fully cover our facility rental costs so that TMC will no longer need to access our Ministry Enhancement Fund, allowing us to set aside some of those funds for launching TMC#2 in the next few years.

Our daughter Kristy Fujiura has been appointed as "Director of Missionary Kid Care" for American Baptist International Ministries, effective May. So in April Kristy and her husband Matthew move from the Los Angeles California area to Philadelphia Pennsylvania. This new position (new for both Kristy and ABIM) aligns perfectly with Kristy’s personal history as a missionary kid, her developing vision, her gifting, and her education as a psychologist.

Furthermore, it would not have been possible without her husband’s unwavering encouragement. Perhaps the two are becoming a "dream team" of sorts, learning to serve God’s third culture kids scattered throughout the world. May they continue becoming a blessing to the nations!

A very brief bio of Kristy can be found at the Narramore Christian Foundation website. Kristy serves on the board. The global ministry of the Narramore Christian Foundation provides Christ-centered training and counseling for pastors, organization leaders, missionaries and their children, member care providers, and other Kingdom workers.

Dale’s father, Rev. Lea Little, peacefully went home to be with his Lord Jesus Christ on Mon Feb 6 at the age of 92.

He suffered a stroke a few days earlier and when hospitalized was also found to have pneumonia. Dad spent his final day in the comfort and familiarity of his own room in the Alzheimer’s wing of Evergreen Baptist Campus of Care in White Rock BC Canada.

All four of his children walked closely with him through the last few days of his earthly life, providing 24/7 care as best as possible. Ann and Dale rushed to his side on Sat from Washington state where they cut short a supporting church visit. His daughters Lynne and Lorraine cared for him through some of his most difficult hours all Sun night. His eldest, Phil, visited often and handled all the legal paperwork.

Dale’s father took his last few breaths while Dale was reading Revelation 21 and John 11 to him from his father’s big study Bible. Dad is now not only with Jesus; he is also with his beloved wife and Dale’s mother, Louise Little. In the almost five years since Dale’s mother died, his father has never stopped asking for her.

Dale’s father was from the Dawson Creek area of northern British Columbia (“Mile Zero” Alaska Highway) and his mother from the town of Peace River in northern Alberta. They met while students at Peace River Bible Institute in Alberta. In 1949 dad began his missionary career as part of the “CIM 49ers,” the last group of new missionaries to enter China with the China Inland Mission. Mom had begun her CIM missionary career in 1947. She was the first CIM missionary educated at PRBI. They were married in Hong Kong in 1951 after escaping from house arrest in their respective Chinese cities, an incarceration forced upon missionaries in China by the Communist government.

In 1953 Dale’s parents began their ministry in Japan with the Overseas Missionary Fellowship, the newly renamed CIM. After Japanese language study in Karuizawa, Nagano-ken, they led the church planting team at Hachinohe Evangelical Church (八戸福音キリスト教会) in Aomori-ken and then became the house parents of the OMF Chefoo school for missionary children in Sendai, Miyagi-ken. In 1965 they transferred to the Evangelical Free Church mission and moved from the Tohoku region of Japan to the Kansai. They were the founding church planters of Christ Community Church (クライストコミュニティ) in the Kobe city area of Hyogo-ken. During his final four years in Japan Dale’s father served in Kyoto as the field leader for the EFC mission in Japan.

After returning to Canada in 1975 for mom’s health reasons, dad became the first executive director of the EFC of Canada Mission, retiring in 1989. Dad’s life work as a missionary and missionary statesman spanned 40 years. Arvid Olson notes in his book "The Historical Development of the Evangelical Free Church of Canada Missions" that dad was the "Father of Canadian Free Church Missions'' (p. 57). (More about Dale’s parents here.)

Dad’s Celebration of Life, followed by a graveside service, will be held at 1PM on Wed Feb 15 at Victory Memorial Park Funeral Centre in Surrey BC Canada. Pastors Steve Doerksen of White Rock Community Church and Ken Klassen of Evergreen Baptist Campus of Care will lead the services.

Since beginning our six month home assignment in mid-Dec, we have driven over 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers).

In early January we started out in Maine on the east coast and ended up in Washington state on the west coast, visiting supporting churches along the way in Michigan, California, and Oregon. During Sunday morning worship services we have the opportunity to share about our church planting ministry at Tokyo Multicultural Church. The Lord Jesus Christ is building his church!

And on our coast to coast trip we got to visit our three children…each in their own places: Vermont, Missouri, and California. After enjoying Christmas in Maine with them and their spouses/fiancees, it was a special treat to see them again!