Busy Summer Ahead
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
It’s the
lull before the storm. It’s a good lull, and we’re
looking forward to the “storm” of summer activities.
Even at that, it has been a busy lull.
Our children are enjoying the new school year. (In Japan the school year is April to March.) Megan (8th) is attending the local Junior High School, Andrew (6th) and Jacob (2nd) are at the local elementary school, and Noah at kindergarten. This leaves 2-year-old Josiah (with a broken arm) and 6-month-old Isaac at home to “help” Linda home school Daniel, a sophomore in High School. We are also enjoying having an extra “daughter” for the summer. Abby Evans, a recent high school graduate from Albany, GA is here with us for the summer. She is a big help, and a welcome addition.
At the end of May we welcomed Josh and Alicia Crowe to the field as career missionaries. We are excited about their future ministry. Some of you may remember Alicia having been a short-term missionary here 5 years ago. Now, she has not only returned with Josh, but with 6 month old baby Ruby as well. It sure sounds a lot like Rusty and Brenda (and 2 year old Grace) Carney’s story, who arrived this past January. There is still plenty yet to harvest, and we're so thankful for these who have joined us.
This summer we are expecting a number of short-term workers. Caroline Anderson has come to minister with us for the summer. Caroline is from Gateway Christian College in Virginia. She will be helping in children’s ministries, assisting us in managing our summer teams, as well as aiding our newly arrived families as they continue to get settled in. Caleb Dement is still planning on coming for a special 2-year assignment. He continues to travel to raise his necessary support. We had expected his arrival in February, so please pray that funds will come in and he will be able to come soon.
The Hokkaido E-Team will arrive June 17th and will be here for almost 2 weeks. We try to devote the majority of our efforts during this time to front line evangelism. A few days after the E-Team departs, a small team of young people will be coming to us from the Northwest FWB Church in Chicago. Now remember, it was only a few years ago that Northwest was a mission work itself. How exciting to see cross-pollinating and reproducing FWB churches. We are particularly excited about the plans for this group. We will be devoting the majority of their time to broaden our church planting efforts on the eastern side of the island. Currently we have only one Japanese pastor managing two churches there. It has been several years since we have been able to supply any mission personnel there, other than driving 5 to 6 hours to help to fill the pulpit on Sundays. One of these churches is in the town of Abashiri, a city of approximately 40,000. Our church is one of only two Protestant Churches in the metro area there, and neither has more than a few members.
Thank you for praying for the Japanese leaders here. God is answering those prayers. As our mission’s representative, I meet monthly with our national leaders. The majority of our 8 to 10 hour meetings is spent discussing not only how to strengthen our existing churches, but they are very eager to begin partnering with us more and more in church planting. This is such an important and exciting step to see here, especially considering that just over 10 years ago, we only had one national pastor. We praise God for His hand at work. Please continue to pray that God will grant us wisdom as we facilitate the planting of churches here.
This July I will once again have the opportunity to represent Asia as a member of the Missions Committee of the International Fellowship of Free Will Baptists. We will meet in Brazil immediately following the National Association of FWB in Cincinnati. We have been dialoguing here for several months now about Japan’s involvement in the International arena of church planting, and are looking forward to coordinating efforts with other member countries of the IFFWB. The end goal of these efforts is to establish a truly international, viable mechanism that will enable our fields to work together to facilitate the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth. As a side note, to get to Brazil from Japan, you have to fly through North America, so my plans are to attend the National Association of FWB in Cincinnati en route to the meeting. Perhaps I will be able to see many of you there.
While I am gone, there will still be much going on. This will be busy time for Linda and the children. The kids will be getting out for about a month of summer break, and summer church camp and VBS will all happen while the meeting in Brazil takes place, so we would covet your prayers for our family during these days ahead.
We are looking forward to having Bob and Sue MacGill again at the end of the summer. This will be their third work trip to Japan. Our mission center is in dire need of re-siding, and they will be assisting in this project. If you would like to be a part of the September work crew, or would like to help sponsor the project, please contact me at nsnow@fwbgo.com.
We are continuing to see a real interest in God in the young people that God is leading our way. Our older two children, Daniel and Megan, in particular are becoming more and more involved in evangelism and discipleship. Daniel is involved in a weekly children’s outreach program at a partnering church in downtown Sapporo, and Megan has begun a Bible Study with a young lady who has been attending our church for several months now. Please pray that this movement in the lives of the young people in our neighborhood will continue to grow exponentially.
Thank you so much for your prayers and faithful support. It is because of your faithfulness and generosity that we have good news to share!
God bless each of you.
Nathan and Linda Snow
Daniel, Megan, Andrew, Jacob, Noah, Josiah and Isaac
Our children are enjoying the new school year. (In Japan the school year is April to March.) Megan (8th) is attending the local Junior High School, Andrew (6th) and Jacob (2nd) are at the local elementary school, and Noah at kindergarten. This leaves 2-year-old Josiah (with a broken arm) and 6-month-old Isaac at home to “help” Linda home school Daniel, a sophomore in High School. We are also enjoying having an extra “daughter” for the summer. Abby Evans, a recent high school graduate from Albany, GA is here with us for the summer. She is a big help, and a welcome addition.
At the end of May we welcomed Josh and Alicia Crowe to the field as career missionaries. We are excited about their future ministry. Some of you may remember Alicia having been a short-term missionary here 5 years ago. Now, she has not only returned with Josh, but with 6 month old baby Ruby as well. It sure sounds a lot like Rusty and Brenda (and 2 year old Grace) Carney’s story, who arrived this past January. There is still plenty yet to harvest, and we're so thankful for these who have joined us.
This summer we are expecting a number of short-term workers. Caroline Anderson has come to minister with us for the summer. Caroline is from Gateway Christian College in Virginia. She will be helping in children’s ministries, assisting us in managing our summer teams, as well as aiding our newly arrived families as they continue to get settled in. Caleb Dement is still planning on coming for a special 2-year assignment. He continues to travel to raise his necessary support. We had expected his arrival in February, so please pray that funds will come in and he will be able to come soon.
The Hokkaido E-Team will arrive June 17th and will be here for almost 2 weeks. We try to devote the majority of our efforts during this time to front line evangelism. A few days after the E-Team departs, a small team of young people will be coming to us from the Northwest FWB Church in Chicago. Now remember, it was only a few years ago that Northwest was a mission work itself. How exciting to see cross-pollinating and reproducing FWB churches. We are particularly excited about the plans for this group. We will be devoting the majority of their time to broaden our church planting efforts on the eastern side of the island. Currently we have only one Japanese pastor managing two churches there. It has been several years since we have been able to supply any mission personnel there, other than driving 5 to 6 hours to help to fill the pulpit on Sundays. One of these churches is in the town of Abashiri, a city of approximately 40,000. Our church is one of only two Protestant Churches in the metro area there, and neither has more than a few members.
Thank you for praying for the Japanese leaders here. God is answering those prayers. As our mission’s representative, I meet monthly with our national leaders. The majority of our 8 to 10 hour meetings is spent discussing not only how to strengthen our existing churches, but they are very eager to begin partnering with us more and more in church planting. This is such an important and exciting step to see here, especially considering that just over 10 years ago, we only had one national pastor. We praise God for His hand at work. Please continue to pray that God will grant us wisdom as we facilitate the planting of churches here.
This July I will once again have the opportunity to represent Asia as a member of the Missions Committee of the International Fellowship of Free Will Baptists. We will meet in Brazil immediately following the National Association of FWB in Cincinnati. We have been dialoguing here for several months now about Japan’s involvement in the International arena of church planting, and are looking forward to coordinating efforts with other member countries of the IFFWB. The end goal of these efforts is to establish a truly international, viable mechanism that will enable our fields to work together to facilitate the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth. As a side note, to get to Brazil from Japan, you have to fly through North America, so my plans are to attend the National Association of FWB in Cincinnati en route to the meeting. Perhaps I will be able to see many of you there.
While I am gone, there will still be much going on. This will be busy time for Linda and the children. The kids will be getting out for about a month of summer break, and summer church camp and VBS will all happen while the meeting in Brazil takes place, so we would covet your prayers for our family during these days ahead.
We are looking forward to having Bob and Sue MacGill again at the end of the summer. This will be their third work trip to Japan. Our mission center is in dire need of re-siding, and they will be assisting in this project. If you would like to be a part of the September work crew, or would like to help sponsor the project, please contact me at nsnow@fwbgo.com.
We are continuing to see a real interest in God in the young people that God is leading our way. Our older two children, Daniel and Megan, in particular are becoming more and more involved in evangelism and discipleship. Daniel is involved in a weekly children’s outreach program at a partnering church in downtown Sapporo, and Megan has begun a Bible Study with a young lady who has been attending our church for several months now. Please pray that this movement in the lives of the young people in our neighborhood will continue to grow exponentially.
Thank you so much for your prayers and faithful support. It is because of your faithfulness and generosity that we have good news to share!
God bless each of you.
Nathan and Linda Snow
Daniel, Megan, Andrew, Jacob, Noah, Josiah and Isaac