(the photo above shows some of the members of our Hosanna Music Team as we gathered at the Akagi Bible Camp for a barbecue on July 11th)
Dear prayer partners,
Although we call this a “monthly prayer bulletin” there have been occasions over the past many years when a month gets skipped. Sorry about July. Was there nothing to pray about this month?! Actually I guess it’s when we’re probably most busy and most in need of prayer that we sometimes don’t find the time to ask for it. Thanks to so many of you who remember us regularly in your prayers even if our bulletins don’t arrive. Allow us to take a few moments to fill you in on recent events and how you can be praying for us over the next few weeks.
Akagi Bible Camp
Much of the last few weeks has been spent up at the camp as I (Tim) have worked with others on preparing for our season which gets under way tomorrow. Please be in prayer about the following camps coming up:
- Elementary Camp for kids (7/27-30)
- Jr./Sr. High Camp (8/5-8)
- Young Adult Camp (8/13-15)
Please pray that many of these young people may meet Jesus Christ in a new way. Please pray for Ken Tsuruki, the camp manager and his family as they organize the workers and staff. Our children Lilla and Sky along with 4 of their friends will be attending the elementary camp from our Isesaki Church. Sam will be going as a camper to the jr/sr high camp.
Gunma Harvest
During June and July we were able to make two trips to the village of Nanmoku, continuing to go door to door and handing out invitations to some special events being put on by the Shimonita Christ Church. This is a church that we have become acquainted with during our efforts to reach some of the rural villages in Southwest Gunma. In the village of Shinto, much closer geographically to where we work, we are planning a 4-session music outreach in an attempt to meet more folks. This will be during the fall (once a month) and will start on September 6th in the afternoon. While our small steps often seem inadequate and scattered we continue to pray that our desire to network with others in reaching the unreached areas of Gunma will be honoring to the Lord.
Family Stuff
Thanks for always remembering our children in prayer. Since July 17th was the last day of school for Lilla and Sky they are now officially enjoying summer vacation. Lilla ended her time at Sanno Elementary on the 17th. Even though the Japanese school year continues through next March she will be switching over to home-schooling as she attempts to get caught up in her English reading and writing. Sky will also wind up his time at the local Japanese school and be joining her in about October if our planning goes as scheduled. We will be heading back to the States in April of next year for a few months and then from September of 2010 Lilla and Sky will be joining their older brother Sam at the Christian Academy in Japan (Tokyo) for an all-English curriculum. These changes involve a lot of adjustments for all of us; for the children as they attempt to make the switch in languages and classrooms, and for us parents as we try to adjust our schedules in order to help them with their home schooling. The education of our kids and our home assignment coming up next spring are big in our prayers right now too. Thanks for remembering these items on our behalf.
New E-Mail Addresses
Our email addresses are always listed at the bottom of this bulletin. We would like to suggest that you change our primary addresses in your records to the following:
tim.johnson@covchurch.org
andrea.johnson@covchurch.org
These are also the ones listed for us in the prayer calendar and all other official “Covenant” communications.
Our other addresses will remain active but we will be trying to migrate most of our communications to these new addresses. It will take us some time to accomplish this but it will be happening eventually! So please take a moment to change your records now. THANKS!
There is so much more to share but this will suffice for now. We look forward to a couple weeks of family vacation time in August as well. Yea! We’ll include some photos next time around.
Your partners in prayer and mission,
Tim & Andrea Johnson
Sam, Lilla & Sky
