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We are just about to wrap up the summer here in Japan. It has been a wild and memorable one! If you want to read all about it then our "Praise Update" follows.
Camping Photos--Our family just got back from camping with the Yamaguchi family and we have some pictures to share.
Check out: http://www.picturetrail.com/brianandyoko to see the beautiful spot we were able to enjoy for a couple days and a few pictures of our growing girls, Naomi and Sara.
Can we drop in for a visit?--This summer we celebrated my tenth year in Japan reaching out to the Japanese through English teaching and friendship evangelism. Our next "home assignment" was scheduled for 2006. However, we found the following good reasons to come home this fall:
Our Japanese pastor-in-training, Takayuki Asada, just graduated from seminary and will return to Shimonoseki, Japan with his new bride at the end of September. When we realized their plans, we asked if they would be willing to move into our apartment during our home assignment. This helps us in so many ways and Takayuki and Akiko are glad for the opportunity to have a furnished apartment to move into until they can find a place for themselves next year. Takayuki will also assume the administrative responsibilities of the English ministry during our absence. We are excited for Takayuki and Akiko as they begin their new ministry together and the impact they will have on the people God has brought into our lives over the past year and a half. We feel this home assignment is a key one for our family in preparing for the next part of our journey of being on mission with God in Japan. We want to take some special time to re-connect with you, family, and our Lord. We look forward to fellowshipping, serving, and growing with you as we get ready to head back to the "front lines" next May. We look forward to visiting with you or having you come over for lunch or dinner. We will be in touch!
Our monthly support since April 2004 has been significantly lower than the first year and a half. To put it in easy-to-understand terms: we've had about a 23% "pay cut" even though our cost of living hasn't decreased. We need to see our monthly support level back up to what it should be in order to head back to the field.Here's some Broaddus family humor for you from our daily lives: Daddy: Naomi, do you know your mommy is so beautiful and Sara and you too?
Naomi: Daddy you are beautiful, too.
Daddy: Well, thank you, but actually your daddy is handsome.
Naomi: (with puzzled look on her face) No daddy...you're not Samson.
We hope we put a smile on your face, today! Thanks for praying; keep it up, we need it!
Grace and peace,
Brian, Yoko, Sara, and Naomi Broaddus
I've never had writer's block quite like this before. After our last e-mail sent out in May, the summer for our family continued to be one of riding the rapids of one exciting outreach opportunity to the next. Since I'm not sure how to get started, I've decided to take our last newsletter's prayer requests and write down specifically how God answered your prayers. Actually, prayer is what these newsletters are about anyway, right?
Since pictures are worth a thousand words we've uploaded pictures from the summer to the web so that you can see some of the faces of the people that were touched through your prayers. Just click on the link below:
PIONEERS Japan Slide show We have less than two months to go before we will be back in the U.S. for our home assignment We want to finish this term well spurred on by your prayers. So, expect to be receiving weekly brief prayer requests from us again. The first of these will follow this praise update as a separate e-mail. Again thanks, for holding the ropes. You helped us through the last six months when at times we were just holding on.
HOW GOD HAS ANSWERED YOUR PRAYERS
REQUEST: We need to focus more on the simple things and do more abiding instead of being busy about many things. We want to love others well, but our lives and ministry have been more focused on increasing contacts and not on loving people well. We are kind of tired right now...this is not a good thing and we're sensing a dryness of the soul and a growing coldness in our love for God. God has put up the flashing lights; we urge you to pray for us. Thanks! ANSWER: Honestly, we stayed too busy and didn't really take a day off until August. Not really a good thing to do. Thankfully, we've been able to pull back this month and refocus. More time in the Word, more time in prayer, and more time with the people that God has put on our hearts. It has been a refreshing month. REQUEST: Seeking wisdom in administrating our English outreach classes (presently over a hundred students in thirty different classes) and desire earnest, united prayer for these students and their families. Pray for the Takeuchi family. This family are students who have been studying the Bible and heard a basic presentation of the gospel. Presently the father is experiencing a personal crisis and we are praying that God will use this time of brokeness to bring him to Christ. ANSWER: Brian has had some very good times with Mr. Takeuchi and been able to speak God's Word into his life. His story is amazing and at times I just think that God would be please to save this man for His own glory. What a story of a transformed life he would be? What a story of grace? Though he realizes he is a needy man and says "I want to know more about the god.." , he isn't quite ready to trust God or admit His ownership of His life. Mr. Takeuchi, though still ill, plans to move his family to New Zealand next month. REQUEST: Through God's word and the relationships built out of the International Cafe seeker service on Saturday nights (presently we have anywhere from 10-30 people who come) there are four people who are asking questions and one has begun to study the Bible: Yoshino-san (doing a Bible study), Noriko-san, Kana-san, and Jason. One Hungarian lady, Anita, confessed Christ as her Savior at the beginning of this year but has returned to Hungary; prayer needed for her growth as a disciple of Christ and needed fellowship with other believers. One attendee, Keiko, has left for England to study at the Christian language school where I received training last August. It is our prayer that during her time there outside of Japan and away from her family she will be more ready to consider the truths of Christ. Pray for our English teachers, Jennifer and Lena, who are doing wonderful job following up on the ladies who attend the Cafe.
ANSWER: NORIKO-SAN HAS PLACED HER TRUST IN CHRIST!!! She is being discipled by Mrs. Harada and Yoko in preparation for baptism. REQUEST: God has given us a team of six university students who will be coming for seven weeks starting from the middle of May to join us in doing some initial work on reaching out to the students on our city's university campuses. Pray for the following schools and the teachers through whom we are praying God will open doors for us to get to know the students: Shimonoseki Junior College (Professor Keiko--a Catholic believer who commutes by train every day from southern Japan) Shimonoseki City University (Professor Kumagai--someone who taught our missionary team leader Japanese in the past) Baiko University (a liberal mission school who has opposed the ministry of our Japanese church for many years; Professor Ono and Professor Matsuo). Pray that God will give us a oneness of heart and purpose and clear direction as seek to join in what God is already doing on these campuses. Pray that God would put us in touch with just the right families to host these students.
ANSWER: Absolutely unbelievable! We learned sooo much from this team. We sought to guide them in their mission of breaking new ground on the campuses of Shimonoseki, but in the process they stretched us. Imagine: Prayer-walking in the streets and in the churches of Shimonoseki...preaching the gospel to over seventy students at a community college...a movie night where about twenty university students are building relationships with other Christians...college administrators meeting the summer missionaries at the college gate with crossed arms refusing to let them come in. These were just some of the ways we experienced God as we saw Him connect this team and our church with many new young men and women. (Please check out the pictures http://www.picturetrail.com/pioneersjapan ) REQUEST: This summer Community Bible Church of High Point, North Carolina will also be sending a team of five English teachers for about eleven days to help us to do a special week of intensive English outreach classes. We are praying that God would bring together a good number of Japanese English teachers and other students through whom we can build some good relationships and connect them with our church and the Japanese believers. We need host families for these summer team members as well. ANSWER: This church sent us a great team of English teachers. Once set in motion they had an outreach to a whole school of elementary school teachers and over twenty-five new English students, several of which will be attending our regular outreach English classes this fall. (You'll find their pictures at the same place.) REQUEST: Pray that God would enable me to build some good relationships with the nine to eleven men I'm teaching English on Tuesday and Thursdays. Pray for Yoko and her relationship with the ladies at the parenting class at our church and as she helps lead the Bible study with Noriko (Intl' Cafe). Pray for Naomi and Sara that God would continue to teach them of God's love for them and to bless their lives with good friends.
ANSWER: One of the men from Brian's class, Takahiko Sakaue, and his wife came over to dinner and we are supposed to go to their house for dinner next month. Two other men from our English classes, Teruhisa Hamada and Yusuke Nakatsu will be starting a Bible study with Brian this next week. Yusuke also called yesterday and said that he would like to visit us while we are in the U.S. That would be fun!
More: http://www.hsengine.com/s_request+daily+prayer.html
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