DALE & ANN LITTLE

December 10, 2015

PRAY FOR THE TOKYO LITTLES - PTL #105

FALL HOME ASSIGNMENT, Oct 5 - Dec 10


We are thankful for connecting with 7 of our 27 supporting churches during our fall home assignment. We visited that many in the spring too.

Our focus during our two short home assignments in 2015 has been our US support team.

We will focus on our Canadian support team during our next home assignment in the first half of 2017.

One highlight of our fall home assignment was US Thanksgiving with our children!—the first time we have been able to do that since 2007.

KRISTY

Pray for “Dr. Kristy” as she adjusts to her new California job and living situation, and prepares for both her California Board of Psychology licensing exams and her wedding.

TOKYO MULTICULTURAL CHURCH

At TMC we will be holding a children’s event on the 19th, Christmas Sunday worship and outreach on the 20th, and a candle light service on Christmas Eve the 24th. Pray that that we will see new faces at TMC as a result of our Christmas events.

Continue to pray that the Lord will raise up future leaders for TMC to serve in a dynamic multicultural environment.

We have dipped into our EFCCM TMC church planting start up fund (EFCCM account #2-2302) twice this year when our TMC offerings have been insufficient to cover our CAD$3000 monthly rent. Pray that TMC will be able to become financially self-supporting in 2016.

Thank you for Praying for the Tokyo Littles! – PTL #105

October 22, 2015

PRAY FOR THE TOKYO LITTLES - PTL #104

FALL HOME ASSIGNMENT


Because we do not want to be away from Tokyo Multicultural Church for a long period of time, we are taking two short 2 month home assignments in 2015, one in the spring and the other in the fall. For both we are based in Maine USA.

During our Oct and Nov home assignment we are visiting 7 supporting churches while seeing our children along the way. We return to Tokyo on Dec 10. To visit our Canadian supporting churches we are planning a 6 month home assignment beginning late 2016.

Please pray that we will clearly communicate our Tokyo church planting ministry and that the Lord will give us safety for our many miles of flying and driving.

TOKYO MULTICULTURAL CHURCH

Pray for Duane Dietze, ReachGlobal partnering church planter at TMC, as he leads TMC while we are on home assignment. His ministry responsibilities double when we are away.

Give thanks for leaders currently with us (Nico from Germany) and for those planning to join us soon (Alicia from Canada, Jon from the US, and Kevin & Grace from Macao).

Pray that God will raise up long term future pastoral leaders for TMC’s language-specific departments. Our English Department is the most developed and we have launched our Japanese Department with a Sunday Bible study. We hope our next department will be Chinese (Mandarin).

Thank you for Praying for the Tokyo Littles! – PTL #104

September 16, 2015

PRAY FOR THE TOKYO LITTLES - PTL #103

KRISTY GETS ENGAGED


Kristy came to visit us for a few weeks in August with her California boyfriend, Matthew Fujiura. Matt proposed to her on our trip north to "Takayama by the Sea,” our vacation spot in Japan (and a very romantic spot for a proposal!) In October, Kristy settles into her one year post-doctoral placement at the counseling center of California State Polytechnic University in Pomona CA while her Matthew teaches special needs children in the California school system. We are anticipating something like a spring wedding in California!

Pray for the Lord’s blessing on Kristy and Matthew Fujiura’s engagement, the flurry of wedding planning, the wedding itself, and most importantly, their marriage.

TEACHING THEOLOGY

Dale completed his 13th year of teaching "Contemporary Theology” in Japanese at Japan Bible Seminary in Tokyo this week. He now finalizes his preparation for teaching Church Planting Theology at ACTS Seminaries of Trinity Western University located in greater Vancouver BC. This new course will be
live streamed from Tokyo Multicultural Church. All requirements, including research, can be done online. See more here.

Pray that Dale’s part time theology teaching will continue to contribute to the development of church leaders for Japan, including for TMC.

TMC: SHORT TERM ENGLISH TEACHER COMING

We are looking forward to having Alicia Lim join us at TMC as our outreach English teacher for one year starting Mar or Apr 2016. She comes from Ottawa ON via the EFCCM. Ann’s weekly “Little Lambs English Circle” (moms & tots) and bi-weekly ladies outreach English class, as well as Duane’s weekly outreach English classes starting in Oct all provide a base for Alicia’s English teaching ministry at TMC.

Pray that Alicia will be able to raise all her required finances this fall and that we will be able to secure a “religious activities visa” for her to arrive in Tokyo by Mar 2016.

SECOND TWO MONTH HOME ASSIGNMENT IN 2015

We will be in the US Oct 5 - Dec 10 for our next home assignment. Please pray that visits to our supporting churches will be fruitful and that the Lord will give us safety for our many miles of flying and driving.

Thank you for Praying for the Tokyo Littles! – PTL #103

August 10, 2015

PRAY FOR THE TOKYO LITTLES - PTL #102

TMC SUMMER OUTREACH ENGLISH CLASSES


Our summer 2015 outreach English conversation classes at TMC were a success! We had 4 children and 17 adults register for our Jul 28 - Aug 1 program. Each English class included Bible time.

The 4 children in this summer’s English classes included 2 moms with their tots who were new to TMC. The other 2 moms with their tots have been a part of Ann’s weekly Little Lambs English Circle. Ann was the English teacher for the children’s summer classes, with valuable assistance from 2 energetic short term teachers.

The 17 adults were mostly new to us at TMC. They came through word of mouth or the flyers we had delivered to local mailboxes through a distribution company.

Four ReachGlobal short term missionaries taught our adult summer classes. They helped TMC begin to build personal relationships with people new to us in our corner of Tokyo.

Several adult students expressed an interest in visiting TMC for our Sunday worship time and fellowship. So far, 2 have actually visited. In addition, 4 have signed up for weekly adult outreach English classes that we will begin in October.

Our summer outreach English classes help us lay the foundation for our Japanese Department. They contribute to our “Establishing Phase” (2014-2019), the third strategic phase of planting TMC.

  • Give thanks for our good summer English classes.
  • Pray for growth of our Japanese Department because of these summer classes: new attenders at TMC, new follow up English classes in the fall, new moms & tots for Ann’s classes, and especially new believers.

OUR ADULT CHILDREN

Kristy will be visiting for a few weeks us later this month. We look forward to showing her our corner of Tokyo and driving north to our vacation house at Takayama that all our children have always enjoyed. She is probably most excited about showing Japan to her boyfriend who will be coming with her.

  • Give thanks that Kristy can visit us. Skype is OK, but it just doesn’t quite do the trick! None of our children have seen our Tokyo apartment since we moved here in Jan 2013.
  • Pray for God’s continued blessing on our children’s lives and work in the US—Kristy and Matthew in greater Los Angeles and Bryan in St. Louis.

Thank you for Praying for the Tokyo Littles! – PTL #102

July 16, 2015

PRAY FOR THE TOKYO LITTLES - PTL #101

SUMMER OUTREACH ENGLISH CLASSES AT TMC


Tokyo Multicultural Church is once again reaching out to our community through summer evangelistic English conversation classes that include Bible teaching. Four short term missionaries serving with ReachGlobal in Tokyo this summer will help us with the teaching. We led a teacher workshop at TMC for them on Jul 11. Ann will teach the moms and tots class, and Ann and Duane will be teaching the Bible times.

Classes run from Jul 28 - Aug 1 (Tue - Sat), with the following six classes every day: pre-schoolers & their moms, kindergarten, 1-3 grades, 4-6 grades, and adults (beginners and intermediates). Students will be invited to our Sun Aug 2 bilingual worship service to receive their “completion certificates.”

We have had more than 26,000 flyers distributed in mailboxes and are starting to see registrations come in. The students in Ann’s year round outreach English classes (ladies and moms & tots) are showing an interest in coming, along with some of their friends.

  • Give thanks for the four short term missionaries we are “borrowing” from the Tokyo City Team of ReachGlobal!
  • Pray for lots of students—that we will have a full slate of classes this year.
  • Pray that the students will learn that God loves each of them through Jesus Christ and TMC.
  • Pray that our four short term teachers, Ann, and Duane will have strength and wisdom as they prepare and teach in the summer heat of Tokyo.

Thank you for Praying for the Tokyo Littles! – PTL #101

June 22, 2015

PRAY FOR THE TOKYO LITTLES - PTL #100

This is our 100th monthly prayer update! —stretching over the last 8 years of our 31 years of ministry based in Japan. Thank you for upholding us and our ministry in prayer!

TOKYO MULTICULTURAL CHURCH

Immediately after returning from our short home assignment (two months) we jumped back into church planting ministry at TMC.

We hosted EFC of Canada leaders Bill Taylor (EFCC Executive Director) and Melvin Sayer (EFCC Mission Asia Director). On Jun 7 Bill preached and led a seminar at TMC. From Jun 8-10 we showed them around tsunami devastated northeastern Japan.

(Pic: Bill and Mel accepting a “Thank You!” gift for the EFCC/M from Onagawa Megumi Project.)

On Jun 14 Jon Prins, our interim church planter while we were away, preached at TMC and then returned to the US on Jun 16.

  • Give thanks for TMC’s solid and encouraging connection with the EFC of Canada and for the excellent interim ministry of Jon Prins.
  • Pray that the Lord will raise up a financial support team for Jon Prins who will return to TMC as an EFCCM missionary as soon as he has adequate finances.
  • Pray for TMC’s summer evangelistic English classes, Jul 28 - Aug 1. Pray for a good number of new students, especially through connections Ann has made in her outreach English classes. We are thankful that a few short term missionaries with ReachGlobal’s Tokyo City Team can teach these classes with us.
  • Pray for two moms at TMC who are expecting their first babies. Both are experiencing difficulties in their second trimesters and one is now hospitalized.
  • Pray that the Lord will raise up future leaders for TMC prepared by the Lord to serve in a dynamic multicultural environment. We are beginning to pursue a number of possibilities.

Thank you for Praying for the Tokyo Littles! – PTL #100

May 23, 2015

PRAY FOR THE TOKYO LITTLES - PTL #99

HOME ASSIGNMENT


At the front end of our Apr 7 - Jun 3 home assignment in the US we visited our scattered children in California, Missouri, and Nebraska. And at the end we gathered with them all once again, this time to celebrate the graduation of Dr. Kristy, Psych.D., from Rosemead School of Psychology in greater Los Angeles.

During this home assignment we are visiting six churches on our ministry support team—in ME, VT, MA, NJ, and BC. We hope to visit at least that many more on our next home assignment Oct 5 - Dec 8. We are reporting on Tokyo Multicultural Church and sharing about Onagawa Megumi Project, a gospel centered tsunami recovery project with which we partner.

The “turtleback” Ann is modeling at the Portland Head Light in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, is made by the tsunami survivors employed at the Onagawa Megumi Project. You can order their creative products online at their website: megumiproject.net.

Give thanks for the 27 churches that make up our ministry support team, as well as individuals. The Lord has graciously provided us with 31 years of ministry in Japan through the faithful giving of his people. And most of our supporting churches only see us once every 5 years!

Give thanks that we have been able to enjoy our three children twice on this home assignment. What a treat!

TOKYO MULTICULTURAL CHURCH

During our home assignment Duane Dietze and Jon Prins have been leading TMC. GIVE THANKS for their ministry. Please PRAY that the Lord will raise up future leaders for TMC prepared by the Lord of the church to lead in a dynamic multicultural environment.

THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION

In June Dale begins his 14th year of teaching his one semester “Contemporary Theology” class at Japan Bible Seminary. PRAY for clarity as Dale teaches this class in Japanese and that his students will be encouraged to critically grasp the breadth of Christian theology around the world.

Thank you for Praying for the Tokyo Littles! – PTL #99

April 19, 2015

PRAY FOR THE TOKYO LITTLES - PTL #98

TOKYO MULTICULTURAL CHURCH


Easter Sunday April 5 was our 2nd anniversary at TMC. Duane Dietze, Japanese Department missionary, preached in English (through simultaneous Japanese interpretation). Howard Plucar, who was the pastor of our mother church two years ago, led communion as a visiting pastor. And we enjoyed some special piano music.

In the afternoon we had an international potluck and then viewed some pictures of our first two years. In two short years, the Lord has grown TMC from a nucleus of 6 people to a weekly worship service of about 20. Our worship service includes a Japanese Bible study during the English sermon—the beginnings of our Japanese Department. On a typical Sunday we have people from 10 different countries.

Pray that our Japanese Department might grow. Ask the Lord to use our evangelistic English classes and the personal relationships of our TMC people to bring Japanese people to the Lord and TMC.

APRIL - MAY HOME ASSIGNMENT

All our Sundays in April and May are booked in some of our supporting churches. We hope to visit the remainder of our US supporting churches during our Oct-Nov home assignment.

Pray that the Lord will give us quality opportunities to share about TMC during our home assignment. And give thanks that we have been able to visit our three children, Kristy, Bryan, and Matthew, and that all of us will be together for Dr. Kristy’s graduation in Los Angeles on May 21–22 with a Psy.D. from Rosemead School of Psychology.

Thank you for Praying for the Tokyo Littles! – PTL #98

March 17, 2015

PRAY FOR THE TOKYO LITTLES - PTL #97

TOKYO MULTICULTURAL CHURCH


Ann’s new weekly “Little Lambs English Circle” is enjoyed by four moms with their tots, and one more mom who sometimes attends. Lilly (Taiwanese) from TMC helps Ann teach the evangelistic English class. Whenever possible, the ladies and their children stay around after class. Little Lambs will take a break during our April-May home assignment.

Pray that TMC's Little Lamb’s English Circle and signs will help us connect with people in our corner of the world’s largest megacity. And ask the Lord for wisdom as we lay plans for expanding our outreach English conversation classes.

Many people walk by our store front church. A few have joined us because they have seen us as they pass by. Since putting up two outside signs in March we hope TMC will become even more visible in our community. One of our young ladies from China, an architect here in Tokyo, helped design our TMC logo.

HOME ASSIGNMENT IN APRIL AND MAY

From April 7 - June 4 we will be taking the first of two short US home assignments this year. During that time TMC will be in the capable hands of our colleague, Duane Dietze (ReachGlobal). And Jon Prins will also be coming to help lead TMC during our first home assignment this year.

Pray for Duane and Jon as they lead TMC in April and May. And ask the Lord to give us a fruitful home assignment, reconnecting with some of the churches on our ministry support team.

Thank you for Praying for the Tokyo Littles! – PTL #97

February 25, 2015

PRAY FOR THE TOKYO LITTLES - PTL #96

LITTLE LAMBS ENGLISH CIRCLE AT TMC


In February, Ann launched “Little Lambs English Circle,” a moms and tots weekly class at Tokyo Multicultural Church. The classes include English teaching and songs for 2-3 year olds, as well as a Bible story.

Five moms with their tots have registered. The maximum number is six. One of the moms has attended Ann’s English classes in our apartment complex and our children’s Christmas events there. The others have all come because this one has spread the word: one mom inviting another.

The moms and tots do not want to go home after the classes! One mom even suggested that Little Lambs become a daily class.

This class was to be taught by a short term missionary from Canada beginning April. But due to lack of support funds this couple cannot come, at least for a while.

Pray that the gospel of Jesus Christ will be received warmly by these moms as they listen to the Bible stories. And pray for wisdom for us to know if we should or how we could continue the class during our upcoming home assignment.

JEMA CONNECT 2015

The purpose of Japan Evangelical Missionary Association is to network and equip as many of the 1600 evangelical missionaries in Japan as possible. Currently, JEMA membership stands at a little less than 1000.

JEMA Connect, the annual conference for Japan based evangelical mission leaders and missionaries, was held Feb 23-25 in Tokyo. As the voluntary, part time President of JEMA, Dale once again had oversight of the events. He will be stepping down from his JEMA leadership role in Feb 2016.

Pray that the Lord will lead the JEMA search committee to a new President who thrives on collaborative leadership and will model what it means to lead “for others.”

FIRST OF TWO 2015 HOME ASSIGNMENTS

Plans for our first two month US home assignment in 2015 (Apr 7 - Jun 4) are well underway. A few Sundays are still open. Jon Prins will be substituting for us at TMC during our home assignment.

Pray for Jon’s preparation and two month interim ministry of teaching and leading at TMC. And ask the Lord for a fruitful time of reconnecting with some of the churches on our ministry support team.

Thank you for Praying for the Tokyo Littles! – PTL #96

January 25, 2015

PRAY FOR THE TOKYO LITTLES - PTL #95

TOKYO MULTICULTURAL CHURCH


On Feb 3 Ann begins teaching a new class at TMC called "Little Lambs English Circle." PRAY that this weekly outreach English class for moms and tots will bring some new contacts for TMC’s Japanese Department. So far, one mom has signed up.

Dale has submitted Seth & Sandra Winnipeg’s "Certificate of Eligibility” applications for their religious activities visas to Japan Immigration in Tokyo. Pray that their applications will be approved soon and that the Winnipegs will have adequate financial support to arrive in Tokyo by mid-March. They plan to join TMC while teaching outreach English classes at TMC and another EFC church.

Pray that the Lord will raise up a financial support team for Jon Prins so he can join us full time at TMC soon.

HOME ASSIGNMENT

We take a home assignment in the US from April 7 to June 4. Jon Prins will be an interim church planter at TMC during those two months. Pray that the Lord will orchestrate all the details for Jon’s to join TMC for that interim ministry.

JAPAN EVANGELICAL MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION

Once a year in late February, Japan Evangelical Missionary Association holds a series of events in Tokyo for all evangelical missionaries in Japan. Pray that as voluntary President of JEMA, Dale will be able to carry through well on all the planning for the event (“JEMA Connect 2015”) and that Japan based mission leaders and missionaries who attend will be encouraged.

Thank you for Praying for the Tokyo Littles! – PTL #95