In June 1984 we arrived in Japan to begin our missionary life there under first the Evangelical Free Church of America mission (now ReachGlobal) and then the EFC of Canada mission (now ServeBeyond).

The Lord has been gracious to us through his people and we are thankful. With his help we think we have a few more years to go!

We enjoyed 2023 Christmas in Maine USA, hanging out mostly at our house with our children and grandchildren. As Ann likes to say, we now have 9 children: the 3 she gave birth to have each married (=6) and 2 of those units have 3 children (=9).

Ann’s mother celebrated her 95th birthday in December! That gave us a chance to have a small family gathering at our house in Maine, just down the street. We were able to take a few pics of Mom Maxwell with her four children—an unusual opportunity in the Maxwell (and Bamford, Little) clan!

It was great enjoying some precious summer family time with our children and grandchildren at our house in Maine!

After living in our apartment in Tokyo for 10 years we moved out in Dec 2022. We took some stuff to our vacation house in northern Japan, which we made our official Japanese legal residence. And we shipped about 22 boxes to our house in Maine, which is now our primary residence. The rest we discarded.

Starting Jan 2023 we carry out our ministries remotely from Maine for 8-9 mos/yr and in-person in Japan and Asia for 3-4 mos/yr from our house in northern Japan.

The memories… Read More…

On July 28 Matthew & Kristy welcomed their first baby, a girl they named Kaylee Hiroko. Kristy gave birth at 41 weeks. Kaylee’s middle name, Hiroko, was Matthew’s mother’s middle name.
So we now have one granddaughter along with two grandsons.

On March 19 Bryan and Jessica welcomed their second baby boy into their lives. Baby Owen joins big brother Kasen (2 1/2 yrs).
So we now have two grandsons, with a granddaughter on the way.

In mid-June we returned to Maine USA for several months for ongoing medical treatment for Dale. The gradual reduction of medication for his auto-immune disease is going well and he hopes to be off meds later this year. Medical follow-up in Maine will be required every six months for a year or two.

Read More…

We enjoyed being with all of our children for Christmas once again this year in Maine USA!

In September our daughter Kristy Fujiura started a new position as one of the resident therapists at Alongside in Michigan, a counseling center for missionaries and pastors. Read More…

On June 18 Bryan and Jessica welcomed a baby boy into their lives. Kasen (rhymes with Jason) Little came three weeks early at 6 pounds 12 ounces (3062 grams) and is growing fast.

We are excited to be grandparents!

With TMC’s Dec 24 Candle Service our busy time of Christmas ministry in 2018 came to a close. So we flew “home to Maine” the next day, Christmas day. We each had a full row of empty seats to ourselves so slept a lot on that long flight across the Pacific. During the next 10 days we enjoyed post-Christmas and New Years with our six children (3+3) who were all able to join us for some of that time. We had a wonderful vacation!

On May 24 Dale was naturalized as a US citizen in Portland Maine. So Dale and our three children are now dual citizens of Canada and the US. Read More…

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!

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)!

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.

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!

Bryan married Jessica Lange on December 18! The bride was beautiful and the groom handsome!…but we might be biased. Their God honoring, warm, and family friendly wedding was held in St. Charles (greater St. Louis, Missouri), with the reception nearby.

Bryan and Jessica met in 2012 at their church (First Evangelical Free Church in Manchester MO) after Bryan began working as an engineer at Boeing in St. Louis. Jessica works as an occupational therapist in the school system.

Over a sixteen month period all three of our children have or are getting married. In May 2016 Kristy gave us a wonderful son-in-law, Matthew Fujiura. Jessica just became our first daughter-in-law. And we are looking forward to adding a second lovely daughter-in-law in August 2017 when Matthew Little marries Victoria Azagoh.

We are pleased to announce that our son Matthew Little became engaged to Victoria Azagoh on June 11 in Fullerton, California!

Victoria is from the New England states. In July after completing their studies at Biola University (greater Los Angeles), they moved to Burlington, Vermont where Victoria began a management job with Abercrombie & Fitch. Matthew continues much of his movie production and marketing work online (check out The Unknowns), but is also seeking local employment.

We look forward to Matthew and Victoria's wedding in the summer of 2017! And we are praying that God will meet all their needs as they together seek how to become God's blessing to the nations.

Our Kristy became Mrs. Matthew Fujiura in Diamond Bar, California, on May 29, 2016. It was a wonderful, friendly, God-centered, and beautiful outdoor wedding—but maybe we are a little biased! The wedding perfectly reflected Kristy and Matthew, with family from both sides affirming that they were made for each other. Kristy and her Matthew are looking into new options for their life and work as together they seek the Lord in becoming a blessing to the nations.

See many more pics here.

So we now have three sons and one daughter. But we might be getting another daughter-to-be soon!

From Oct 6 to Dec 10 we connected with 7 of our 27 supporting churches and a number of personal supporters, sharing about our church planting ministry at TMC: four in Connecticut, one in Arkansas, one in Wisconsin, and one in BC. Our next home assignment will be for 6 months beginning late 2016 or early 2017 (dates yet to be decided) for visiting our Canadian supporting churches.

We particularly enjoyed time with our children, Kristy, Bryan, and Matthew. A highlight was celebrating US Thanksgiving with all of them at Kristy’s apartment in California!


It was also good to visit Ann’s mom (87 yrs) in Maine and Dale’s dad (91 yrs) in BC. In addition, we spent a little time with each of our siblings.

Kristy and her boyfriend, Matthew Fujiura from California, visited us in Tokyo for two weeks in late August. This was his first trip to Japan. Kristy enjoyed showing Matthew around and being his interpreter.

On Aug 24 Matthew popped the question, and Kristy gladly said “yes!”

The romantic event took place outside our vacation house at "Takayama by the Sea" in the Sendai city area of Miyagi-ken where we were enjoying a few days with them and doing some tsunami recovery ministry.

Kristy told us that Takayama had been her dream place to get engaged, but that she did not expect it on that particular day. Matthew managed to surprise even Kristy!—with a little help from us.


We are expecting a spring 2016 wedding in California.