New Prayer Card

We made it to the US in one piece, our house in Fukuoka is being taken care of by Chris, and after the initial few days of jet lag, general disorientation, culture shock, size shock, variety shock, choice shock, sticker shock, and many other "shock"s, we finally got ourselves organized enough to book a family photo session with Janice, and had a great time taking photos with her at a park nearby in Santa Clara.

After professional help from Janice, Marina, and lots of good advice from friends and family, I present to you the final version of our new prayer card. Ta da~ (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Please make sure you receive one when we come to visit your church! If we don't, make sure you get one from us when you see us. If we don't even do that, send us an email and we'd be happy to send you one.

And as a special thank you to our blog readers, here are a few more of our favorite photos from that day. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

As anyone who's ever tried getting kids to sit still for multiple photos will know, it's not easy!!! As anyone who knows our kids will know, they're really not good at sitting still! There's a reason why we don't have many photos of Sungjae and I promise you it's not because we excluded him^^; It probably didn't help that we were at a new park with lots of things to see and do and it was right before dinnertime... :P

This was a fun family one that started with Juhee and Jiyeon playing peek-a-boo behind the big tree. Obviously not an appropriate photo for our prayer card, but it was (kinda^^;) fun :)

And here below is the one you'll see at the beginning of most of our ppt presentations introducing our family, second runner up for our new prayer card.

It's always cool seeing our old prayer magnets on our friends' fridges when we visit and we look forward to giving you an updated photo! In our last one, Jiyeon was a baby. The one before that, Sungjae was a baby (don't think that one ever got printed/distributed though because it was right before we left for Japan in 2010). The one before that, on our first ever prayer card, Juhee was just over a year old. And now she's 11 and a half...

Many of you have been with us since the very beginning and some have just got to know us. To everyone on both ends of the spectrum and everyone in between, thank you for keeping up with us, your love, and your prayers. We really appreciate each and every one of you!

God bless!

Winter 2019 Newsletter

Here's a link to the newsletter we sent out on March 6th covering November 2018 - February 2019. That's so long... :(

Thank you for always tracking with us and praying for us! :)

2019 Home Assignment

It feels too soon to be going back to the US for Home Assignment as we spent most of 2015 in the US, but after a long time of praying over dates and taking many different factors into consideration, God has led us to go back again this year. Our trip this year will be for less than 5 months and future Home Assignments will probably be even shorter as our kids become older and it becomes harder and harder for them to miss school for long periods of time.

This year seems like it'll be an important year to be there for both sides of our families so we are thankful that God's timing allows us to be there while they go through transitions. From April 2020, Juhee will be entering Jr. High School, so extended absences will become less acceptable and studies harder to catch up on. God has already worked miracles with my naturalization paperwork and we trust that He will finish it during our time there. We actually had to decline our first interview offer because it was in mid-December during one of our busiest periods in Japan. We haven't heard back from USCIS since, but we're praying that we'll hear back from them again soon. When we return to Japan with my new US passport, we will be applying for visa extensions as our current visas expire in November. It'll be good to do have my new visa in my new passport under my new legal name!

Here's our schedule so far:
4/13 - Arrive at SFO
4/14 - Living Stones Christian Church
4/21 - Easter Sunday
4/27 - New Vision Church Early Morning Prayer
4/28 - New Vision Church Combined Youth Service
5/3-5 - Davis Korean Church (Davis)
5/12 - Living Stones Christian Church (I'll be at Dallas Chinese Bible Church)
5/19 - Santa Clara Valley Japanese Christian Church
5/26 - Emmanuel Presbyterian Church
6/2 - Pathway Bible Church
6/9 - Skillman Bible Church (Dallas)
6/16 - Dallas Chinese Bible Church (Dallas)
6/23 - Global Harvest Church (Dallas)
6/30 - New Community Baptist Church
7/7 - LSCC
7/14 - Orange Hill Presbyterian Church am, Chinese EV Free Church pm (LA)
7/21 - TBD (LA)
7/28 - First Light Chinese Christian Church Youth Service
8/4 - Santa Clara Valley Japanese Christian Church
8/11 - Indonesian Evangelical Church
8/18 - Embrace
8/25 - Disciple Church
9/1 - LivingStones Christian Church
9/3 - Depart at SFO

We're still waiting to hear back from a few churches and we haven't started organizing small groups and other non-Sunday speaking opportunities. If you would like us to come share at your church or small group, please get in touch! We would love to share how God has been working through us in Japan as we share the gospel here as your hands and feet.

God worked miracles during our last Home Assignment to provide all of our needs. The Bay Area is so expensive and yet we were able to live there comfortably for 7 months when we were expecting to be $18,000 in the red by the end of our time there. And that was before we realized how low our support income would drop right after changing agencies too! But somehow... No. But through all of YOU, God provided. LSCC off the bat gave us $9,000 for our Home Assignment and many of you were so generous to us!

God has already started providing for our needs during this trip and we know that we will be experiencing His provision again through His people again this time around too.

Looking forward to catching up with you soon! :)

2018 Review

Thank you for your continued prayers and support. Your partnership in our labor in the Lord for the Japanese people is greatly appreciated. 

In 2018, we have been continuing various English outreach ministries in partnership with Pastor Miyauchi at Fukuoka Evangelical Free Church (FEFC) including weekly Kids English classes and a Ladies’ English class, and monthly Moms & Kids classes, Kids’ English class, and Coffee & Bible classes. We also have a monthly College Fellowship, various hospitality outreaches, and various outreaches related to the holidays like Easter and Christmas.

One of the highlights of this year was our Vacation Bible School, held during the summer break. We had 51 kids who participated, with 17 volunteers who came from various parts of the world. Here’s an excerpt from our Summer newsletter.

“Jenny was a bit worried about this year's theme as it seemed like such a difficult one for the children to understand. Every day, each day's theme was something that would be mind-blowing for the 51 students who came from non-Christian families. The first day was about Creation. The second day was about sin entering the world. The third was about the birth of Jesus Christ. The fourth day's theme was Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. The fifth was Jesus' resurrection and the promise of the Holy Spirit. Every day, that day's theme was repeated three times - through the skit in the morning, Kayo-san's Bible time, and Superbook. After watching an anime version of Jesus dying on the cross for their sins on the fourth day, Jenny wanted to take the opportunity to really speak to the students about what they had just watched. She reminded them of the definition of sin. She asked if they believed that they were a sinner. Almost all of them raised their hands. She asked if they believed that Jesus is real. Almost all of them raised their hands. She asked if they believed that Jesus Christ was born into this world, died on the cross, and rose again for their sins. Almost all of them raised their hands.

That afternoon, we decided to do something a bit different on the last day. We decided that Kayo-san would teach them about salvation and ask if they believed and wanted to accept Christ into their hearts during their Bible time. On the final day, 34 children raised their hands to receive Jesus as their personal Savior and Lord. Praise the Lord! We are still in awe of the miracle that happened this summer.”

To follow up with these students who showed a desire to follow Christ, we developed Kids’ English Bible School, which meets about once a month. This is a mini-VBS where the children sing, play games, maybe do a craft, and learn from the Bible, which is led in Japanese by Pastor Miyauchi. Thus far we’ve had anywhere from 6 to 12 students attending this outreach. We continue to pray that these students grow more in understanding and faith, and will lead to deeper discipling relationships. A handful of students have come multiple times and are becoming more and more familiar with reading directly from the Bible and become comfortable with asking and answering questions in a familiar and safe small group setting.

We praise God for the many students and parents who attended our various outreach events this year led by both us and the church. Please pray with us that they will draw nearer to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are thankful for the many questions our friends ask about our faith and lives. We do not take these opportunities lightly. We are also thankful that we are able to say that it is because of our Christian supporters abroad that we are able to be here and keep the cost of our English classes low. Our friends are always amazed that people would give so sacrificially for us to be here!

As for thinking about our ministry for 2019, one major development arose during our last meeting with Pastor Miyauchi in November. He said he appreciated all our work in reaching out to those in the area with the gospel, but felt that the culture of the church (FEFC) was hindering our zeal for evangelism. He suggested we work more independently, without the burden of having to partner with the church. He said we could continue the English outreach ministries at the church building for the time being, and would also help us with any official paperwork such as renewing our visa.

From an outside perspective, our regular ministry will not look too much different than before. The major differences are that we will no longer have regular meetings with the pastor, will not be able to have VBS at the church (unless we choose to limit our numbers to about 30), and we will not be committed to attending Sunday services at FEFC. Also, if the church decides to start a weekly outreach program on one of the days we hold our classes, then we will need to move ours.

So with the dissolution of our partnership, we have much to pray through during this transition. We still sense God’s leading for us to stay in this area of Fukuoka, and utilize English to reach out to the Japanese here. We have developed so many relationships here with our students and their families, our kids’ friends and families, several college students, and our neighbors. We want to be able to follow up with the people we’ve built relationships with and continue investing in their lives for God’s Kingdom, especially as we can sense that God is tugging in the hearts of some of them.

There are also other missionaries and Japanese pastors in the area who have showed interest in partnering with us. We want to be wise and discerning as there are so many opportunities and we have limited resources, time, and energy. We still have the vision to support a local Japanese pastor who has a vision for evangelism, discipleship, and church planting, and would like to see a church planting movement take place in Japan.

So our current ministry focus for 2019 will be to continue our current English Outreach ministries at FEFC. We might need to look into other facilities in the future, but will continue holding classes at FEFC for the time being. Our next steps will be to pray and consider how to draw people who are attending our various outreaches into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.

In 2019, we are also planning on being on home assignment from April 12th to September 3rd. We plan on being based in the Bay Area, CA, and will also visit Dallas (mid to end June) and the LA area (most of July) while Juhee and Sungjae are on summer vacation. We have a vehicle to use in the Bay Area, and LA, but will need a vehicle for Dallas. We have housing in LA, but will be needing housing in the Bay Area and Dallas. Please keep these needs in your prayers.

We look forward to seeing you and fellowshipping with you during our furlough.

Many blessing to you all!

Peter and Jenny

* Update: A family we have never met has offered us housing and the use of one of their cars while we're in Dallas. Praise God! :)

메리 크리스마스 & 새해 복 많이 받으세요!

안녕하세요!
오래만에 짧게나마 크리스마스와 새해인사에 더불어 한글로 소식을 전합니다. 너무 오래만이라 정말 죄송합니다ㅠㅠ
혹시 이메일로 받지 못하신 분은 여기를 클릭하시면 더 크게 볼 수 있으십니다.
새해 복 많이 받으세요!^^

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

A belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you! Can't believe how quickly this year has gone by and how much God has blessed us in so many ways. Next year is going to be a bit of a crazy one, so we'll be relying on your support and prayers and Him all the more!

Summer 2018 Newsletter

Hey!
Here's a link to our latest newsletter. Thank you so much for tracking with us and praying for us. We have a busy period coming up so please continue praying for us!
God bless you! :)

Spring 2018 Newsletter

Here's a link to our latest newsletter.
Thanks so much for tracking with us and praying for us, our ministries, and our friends here.
God bless you! :)

A Day in the Life of

During my Adult English Class every Wednesday afternoon, we have an hour (or so) of just free-flowing conversation time, and a little break to get a cup of tea or coffee, and then a half hour of Bible Time. Our Bible Times usually go over half an hour, and class time usually finishes much later than our 2:30pm end time.

After trying a few different things for our Bible Times, I settled on using our pastor's Sunday sermon summaries as the basis. The students read the bible verses from the church's bibles in Japanese, and then I read them the verses in English. There's a lot of vocabulary that is difficult for them to read in Japanese let alone in English as the names of places and people are all unfamiliar to them. The pronunciation is usually pretty different too, so I read as they listen. 

I don't usually ask them to do this, but last Wednesday, after we read the verses in Japanese and English, I asked them to read the sermon summary to me. I had missed Sunday service that morning as both of our girls had funny tummies :/ It's difficult for me to read on my own, so I took notes as they read it to me. As I was driving home and thinking about our Bible Time that day, I realized how it was exactly what had happened in my life just that week and decided to share about it the following week.

Bible verses and stories are powerful. They are, after all, the Word of God. However, the stories often feel like fables or folk tales and verses often don't feel relevant. But connecting promises of God given to us through His Word with real life stories of someone they know, especially when they've been part of the experience, are very powerful.

This is the story I shared with them...

~ A Day in the Life of ~

The passage

Acts 18:9-11

⁹ During the night, Paul had a vision. The Lord said to him, “Don’t be afraid, and don’t stop talking to people. ¹⁰ I am with you, and no one will be able to hurt you. Many of my people are in this city. ¹¹ Paul stayed there for a year and a half teaching God’s message to the people. (Easy-to-Read Version)

The story

In the early hours of Thursday, April 12^th, I woke up to the sounds of Jiyeon throwing up. I caught some in my hands but it overflowed onto our blankets. Just after Peter and I returned to bed after cleaning up the mess, Juhee woke up feeling uncomfortable and then threw up. Soon after, Jiyeon threw up again! This pattern continued till about noon that day. They had very little appetite so didn’t eat much the entire day and had very little energy. The next day, neither of them threw up, but both of them had diarrhea. They were slowly getting better, but they still weren’t 100%. In the evening, our friend, Ethan, arrived from Dallas, Texas, to spend time with us.

On Saturday, we had our first ever English Robot Programming Class. I had to stay home with Jiyeon so I couldn’t go. I was so sad! I had been looking forward to it for months! I was so thankful though that Juhee was feeling well enough to participate as she’d been looking forward to it too. Both Juhee and Sungjae had a great time and Ethan was glad he was able to take part too!

In the afternoon, we had a Baby Shower planned at our house. After lunch, Peter went upstairs to nap Jiyeon while the rest of us continued to prepare our house for our guests. Everyone had a great time! Until… We were just about to take a group photo when Sungjae went missing. Peter found him curled up in the bathroom in pain with a stomachache and a fever. Oh no!!! I couldn’t believe it! Juhee and Jiyeon were finally getting better, and now Sungjae was sick!

On Sunday, Sungjae and I had to miss church because he was still not feeling well and had a fever. We had two friends from America joining us at church and we had a fun afternoon planned digging up bamboo shoots at Ryoko’s. I really didn’t want to miss it! Peter said he would stay home with Jiyeon and Sungjae while I went with our three friends from America and Juhee on our adventure. We had such a great time! But poor Juhee threw up many times on our way home.

I was hoping that Juhee and Jiyeon would be able to go to school / daycare on Monday. But they were still feeling tired, so all three kids stayed home. I was starting to panic because I still had so much to prepare for the start of English classes on Tuesday but hadn’t been able to work at all since the previous Thursday – eek! And what if Sungjae still wasn’t better? I couldn’t not go to church on Tuesday afternoon!

Thankfully, Juhee and Jiyeon were feeling better and so they finally went to school / daycare on Tuesday morning – yay! Thank You, God! But just as I’d feared, Sungjae was still not feeling well so had to stay home. And then, I realized something. Ethan is here! Ethan can stay with Sungjae while Peter and I are at church! Praise God for Ethan being here! His timing was so perfect!

While I was at church busily preparing the payment envelopes and watching the students, someone came by and said “Hey~”. It was Chanyoung, the young man who had helped us with our Tuesday classes last year from May – December. I’d forgotten that he’d said that he was going to drop by! Wow! So perfect! He watched the kids while I busily finished preparing all of the admin I needed to. I was able to complete everything I needed to, just in time!

Wednesday afternoons are one of my favorite times of the week as I chat in English and Japanese with a wonderful group of ladies. We talk about things that are happening in our lives and discuss the previous Sunday’s bible passage and sermon summary too. The sermon summaries are difficult for me to read and I wasn’t at church on Sunday, so I asked them to read & explain the summary to me. As I slowly came to understand the sermon, I thought “this is great! What an encouraging message to remember!” It wasn’t until after the class was over that I realized God had just shown this to me during the past week.

There was no way that I could have known that I would be in such a difficult position on Tuesday. It wasn’t even something that I could pray in advance about. Life is full of situations where we might feel trapped, but God, who loves us and cares for us, tells us to not fear, for His people will help us. He literally showed that to us on Tuesday – Chanyoung had planned weeks ago that he would be dropping by and Ethan had been planning this trip for months! He also showed us that His people are indeed in this city (like Chanyoung), but also in other cities too (like Ethan), and that God brings many of His people, all around the world, to help us to continue “talking to” and “teaching God’s message to the people”.

Our life, our every day, is evidence of God’s Word being true. We don’t need to be afraid or worry, because God tells us we don’t need to. Why? Because He promises multiple times in His Word that He will always be with us. His Word is just as applicable today as when it was written, thousands of years ago. He uses Scripture to encourage us and counsel us. For this I am thankful.

More verses on this topic: Genesis 26:24, Jeremiah 1:8, Deuteronomy 31:6, Psalm 54:4, Hebrews 13:6, Isaiah 41:10, Hebrews 13:6, Psalm 46:1

God-sent helpers - Ethan taking the selfie, and Chanyoung with Sungjae on his lap

Handouts

After we finished reading my "A Day in the Life of" together and I answered all of their questions ("What's "eek!?", "When do you use "/"?", the different uses of quotation marks, capitalization when referring to God / Him / He, etc), I pulled out last week's Bible Time handout (and they all followed suit) and read the last few sentences to them again. It was so wonderful to hear their very audible oh~s and ah hah~s as they saw the connection between Scripture and real everyday life.

Thank You, God, for always knowing what we need and for always providing help for us, even before we even know that we need help. Thank You for helping us in times of need, even during those times we feel too weak or too flustered to pray. Thank You for giving me this opportunity to share Your goodness through my life with my wonderful students. You are an amazing Father, our awesome God! :)

Easter 2018

March has been a crazy and amazing month with many school events for all three kids, lots of end of academic year / start of new one paperwork and busyness, end of our first year of our weekly English classes, trying to get things ready for the next year, preparing for our first ever English Robot Programming Class in a couple of weeks, Jiyeon’s birthday and her changing daycare centers, inauguration into the local elementary school’s PTA committee for the next academic year and the barrage of LINE messages and meetings and events that comes with joining the PTA, dental check-ups, visa renewals, US & Japanese taxes, the Dun family arriving - and more! 

But the MOST AMAZING part about March was getting to celebrate Easter with so many of our local friends through various events and getting to share with them the true meaning of Easter through Bible stories while having lots of fun! The tomb is empty. He is Risen!😆✝️ 

I think this is one of the most unbelievable facts ever. Unbelievable scientifically, but also unbelievable to think that the God who made me would send His one and only Son to die on the cross for me. 

Unbelievable. 

I think it truly takes guts to believe this amazing Truth.

We are so honored to be able to share this Good News with so many who have never heard it before.

Moms & Kids monthly Friday morning English class's Easter Party. We sang a few of our usual English songs, watched the Easter story, colored an Easter story coloring sheet, had the kids and moms wait out in the corridor while we hid eggs, gave our their little bags, and then they were off!
First ever Easter egg hunt for some of these little ones (and their moms!).

Our kids' one was a bit crazy with more than 40 kids and at least a dozen adults at our monthly Kids' English class's Easter Party. We were so thankful for the BEAUTIFUL Spring weather that God blessed us with for our Easter egg hunt!
So thankful for lots of plastic Easter eggs and yummy Easter treats from the US! 

Monthly College Fellowship Easter Party at our home.
We had a few little ones so was a little nervous, but everyone had a great time and no accidents!

As well as playing our usual games, Peter was able to share the Good News with the students
through a lesson on colors using the Wordless Books that the Pathway team left last summer. We were so thankful that we were able to share the Gospel clearly with our students during the final lesson of our first year of English classes!

Happy Easter everyone!✝️

🎉