It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving and Christmas is just around the corner! Summer lasted a loooong time here in Tokyo! We’re just now starting to see the leaves change in our area, and the transition into gearing up for winter outreaches is in full swing. Our church family is super excited to share the good news of Jesus with everyone around us!

Journey Groups

In this letter, I wanted to give you a glimpse into the life of our church family outside of the regular Sunday Services. What does it look like for us as a church in Tokyo to grow in our faith as followers of Jesus? For the past five years, our church has been doing something that has been deeply impactful in the spiritual growth of our believers. We call them “Journey Groups” where 5-10 people in each group gather together every few weeks. That’s not unusual. But what I feel is unique is that the members of each group synchronize their daily devotions together. For example, one group is reading through the Bible in a three year plan, while another group is reading through Acts, and then reading the New Testament letters as they tie in to the events of Acts. (It helps them to understand Acts more deeply, and at the same time, understand the context of the letters more clearly).

Then, as they gather, the focus of the leader of each group isn’t to teach. It’s to stay quiet. 😊 Each member of the group gets to share how the Holy Spirit challenged them, convicted them, and encouraged them in their daily Bible reading. When questions come up, guided by the leader’s direction, they work through the passage together. Over the years, this has significantly helped our believers grow in their faith. They have learned not just to listen to preaching, but to feed themselves and one another with God’s Word. These groups talk about what they learn for hours at a time!

But there’s another area that this helps us with that while it may not be unique to Japan, it’s a key part of life as a follower of Jesus in Japan. Many of our believers were the first ones in their family to come to Christ. THEY have been the ones who shine the light of the Gospel in their homes, neighborhoods, schools and workplaces. By learning to first share God’s word with other believers in the Journey Groups, the Holy Spirit has helped them to grow more and more confident and capable of sharing the good news of the Gospel to those around them!

We started our first two Journey Groups five years ago. I led a group of couples in their mid-50’s, and Bethany led a group of ladies. Last year our Spanish speaking ladies started a Spanish Journey Group, and a few months ago we had our first young adult Journey Group! This idea has by no means been original with us, and we’ve tweaked things here and there to fit our needs, but they have been life-changing for our church family! By God’s grace, He has been using these groups to bring more of the family and friends of our believers to come to know Jesus!

Please keep praying for us as we share Jesus with those around us! Pray that He will use our church family over the next two months, as they work to prepare for and to reach out to invite people to our Christmas events. Thanks for being faithful in praying for me, Bethany and Asher as we serve our Savior here!

For a printable pdf, please click here.

Our May update was a video update! If you haven’t seen it yet, feel free to check it out here. 
Summer church camps are about to start next week, so we’re excited about that. Pray that those who attend from the different churches will be encouraged and challenged to live their lives for Jesus!

 The “Ebbing”

Throughout the years of serving here in Japan, we’ve consistently seen the “ebb and flow” of ministry: We love to see the “flow” of people who come into our lives to work alongside us as we serve the Japanese. But we also experience seasons of “ebbing” where God moves people away and on to the next part of their journey with Him. For us, the last few months have definitely been an unusually heavy season of “ebbing.” We’ve had to say goodbye to folks we love and with whom we have found great joy in serving Jesus together. Let me introduce several of them to you.

Dan came to our church about seven years ago. Married to a Japanese, he came to our area to do contract work for nearby Yokota Air Base. It wasn’t long before Dan was helping wherever he could, from helping me pick up day old bread at Costco to send to other churches, to getting up early Sunday morning to get the church set up for everyone, to even helping run the computer for the services. Dan has been a consistent faithful servant, and a close friend to me. This May, God called him and his wife to another prefecture to care for her ailing parents. A few weeks after moving, Dan discovered a church to attend right in his neighborhood!

Waichiro and Yoshie operated a small Japanese Christian publishing company for many years while attending their previous church. Yoshie had gone through serious health issues which forced them to move to our city to be closer to their hospital. One day, in 2020, just a few weeks after Japan began opening up from the covid pandemic, they came across our church while going for a walk, just 10 minutes from their house! After receiving the blessings from their pastor, they started attending our church. In their first year here, her health significantly improved! They too became such a huge help to our church family! Yoshie was amazing in welcoming new guests and making them feel at home. Waichiro was so helpful in helping me lead and spiritually care for our church family. On several occasions he preached for our church while I had to be away for quick trips to the States. But also, they were personally a HUGE comfort and encouragement to me and Bethany as we were going through the difficult time of Bethany’s cancer. I will never forget how they both prayed over me as I wept in their living room during a very tough season. God brought us together to be one another’s help, each in our time of need! In March, God provided a better location to meet the needs of their publishing company. And He provided a new church family for them to minister and serve, once again just a few minutes’ walk from their new home!

A year before Waichiro and Yoshie, God brought Ben, Rebecca, Nolan and Eli, a missionary family to our church. It was a time when I was absolutely swamped with ministry work. I needed help badly. Ben and Rebecca were looking for a place where they could serve behind the scenes while they learned the language. What a team we made! God allowed us to work together for many years together. They will be finishing up their ministry here and heading back to the States in two weeks. While we will deeply miss our dear brothers and sisters, we are also thankful for how God is ALREADY bringing new families into our church family to serve together with! Thanks for continuing to pray for us as we look forward to the next season of “flowing!” We sure do appreciate you all!

For a printable pdf, please click here.

It takes a lot of sacrifice and work for the Gospel to be shared with those around the world. In this letter, I wanted to highlight those who are not often mentioned but play an essential role in making it possible for us to do so!

The Unrecognized Ones

There are many people who work together to hold the ropes to keep a missionary on the field. When you read this letter and pray for us, you are one of them. When you give to help us continue the work, you are one of them. And let me say, “Thank you!” Without you, we could not accomplish the mission of reaching people here with the Gospel! Along with you and your brothers and sisters in churches all across the States, there are also specific people who, although rarely recognized, help in ways that are absolutely essential in supporting us and caring for us.

For example, one of the assistant pastors in our home church in the States takes care of making sure your support gets to us safely and without issue each month. He also takes care of any administrative needs we have back in the States. Another one is our home church pastor. There have been more than a few times when I’ve come up against an overwhelming issue that I just don’t know how to deal with. Pastor is just a text or a phone call away, and his wisdom has helped me safely navigate through what could have been very tough issues for our church family here in Japan.

There is another group of people not often recognized for their role in helping missionaries stay on the field: family back in the States. They are ones on whom we rely in SO MANY ways. Over the last few months, Bethany and I have needed to rely on them with very heavy and hard things, and they have been amazing in caring for those needs. Recently, Bethany’s parents have been having some concerning health issues, both at the same time. Bethany is an only child, so we’ve needed to rely on her cousin to care for them in her absence. Last month, Bethany and Asher (our youngest) headed back to the States with the goal of loving and caring for her parents for a while, but during that time of preparing for Bethany to head back, her cousin was a huge help in making sure that her parents’ needs were met and cared for.

I have no doubt there are many people just like these who come alongside their missionaries in ways just like this. They help us reach those on the other side of this planet with the Gospel, and to help our brothers and sisters in Christ here to display God’s glory in their lives. For those of you who do this critical work, “THANK YOU!”

What to Pray For

Here are a few things we would love for you to pray for.

We’ve had several families who’ve had critical roles in our church who have had to leave due to moving for work, etc. They’ve left a big hole in our church. But we are thankful for those in our church family who are stepping up and taking on new roles in caring for the church. Please pray for them as they adjust to these new roles.

I will also be speaking at a nation-wide Baptist youth camp in a few weeks. Please pray that God will use me and the other speakers to encourage the young people of Japan to live for Christ.

Masaru, who was highlighted in our last letter, has been growing in his walk with Jesus in amazing ways! There are five others in our church family right now who are actively seeking to know more about Christ. Keep praying for the Holy Spirit to work in their lives!

Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to pray for them. We sure do appreciate you all!

For a printable pdf, please click here.

It’s always amazing to see the way God works, even behind the scenes where you can’t see! Here’s a story of the amazing way God reveals Himself to those around us, and then the joy we experience when we see that He’s been working all along!

“It’s A Miracle!”

     I don’t hear those words very often, but before the service one Sunday morning this November, Mari, one of our church members came up to me to tell me those very words. The thing is, I had no idea what she was talking about. Mari was one of the ladies who was baptized at Akigawa River last year. She has been steadily growing in her faith and has been witnessing and praying for her husband and young adult son to be saved as well. We’ve had several conversations over this last year about how it seemed that neither had any desire to come to Christ. I encouraged her and prayed with her, but neither seemed to show any interest in trusting Jesus.

     Then, that Sunday morning, as our service was about to begin, Mari comes walking in, beaming from ear to ear, motioning in the back of the auditorium at none other than Masaru, her son who had come to church with her! “It’s a miracle, Pastor Steve!” Boy, I thought, you aren’t kidding! Masaru came to church! The service was about to start, so I ran back and said hi and welcomed him, and then began the service. The sermon was rather a difficult topic in John 16 about Jesus reminding His disciples that they would face suffering and persecution because they were followers of Jesus; and how the world would hate them because they hated Jesus. I remember thinking, “Lord, of all the Sundays, why did Masaru have to come on THIS one!?” But I was surprised to see Masaru sitting in the back of the auditorium fully focused and engaged with the sermon.

     After the service, Mari came up and said, “Pastor Steve, you need to talk to Masaru.” So I went back there wondering if there was some kind of difficult situation that Masaru was dealing with that caused him to want to come to church. As we began talking, Masaru started telling me about a conversation he had with one of his friends who was a Christian earlier that week. His friend was talking to him about Jesus, and something she had said to him clicked in Masaru’s mind. “Pastor Steve, I realized right then that it wasn’t enough to just know about Jesus. I had to trust Him myself. SO I DID!” I was blown away. That was the LAST thing I expected Masaru to say! After picking myself up from the floor, I spent the next half hour making sure he understood what it means to trust Christ, and sure enough, he did. Mari came up to us later and said, “See! It’s a miracle!” I couldn’t disagree.

    Since that Sunday, Masaru has embedded himself into Jesus. Our conversations each Sunday have shown his desire to follow Christ. It’s been fun to walk with him as he embarks on this new journey. Pray for his spiritual growth. And pray for him as he shares Jesus with his friends. He’s already working on bringing several of his friends to our Christmas event this coming Sunday. And pray for his dad too. Pray that the Holy Spirit will one day open his eyes the same way He has for his wife and son.

Masaru is one of many in our church family who has come to know Christ, and is now working and praying to let others know the joy of meeting the Messiah! Pray with us that God continues to reveal Himself to those around us! Pray for the Christmas events, including ours, that will be held all around the world to introduce Jesus to those who have yet to meet Him!

For a printable pdf, please click here.

Summer has been an absolute whirlwind! But it’s been a good kind of whirlwind. 🤣 There has been so much to be thankful for, so many opportunities to see God’s faithfulness and care for us!

It’s Official. We’re Getting Old.

By God’s grace, we have officially become grandparents! In August, our oldest son Tyler and daughter-in-law Morgan gave birth to their first child, and our first grandchild Eleanor Grace Carter! We’re so excited! It’s somewhat surreal to think that we are already at this stage of life. We’re also very thankful that it worked out for us to return to the States to meet our new grandbaby in September. We were in the States for four weeks, and while we were back, we were also able to come see some of you all as well! We were able to visit eight of our supporting churches during the month. There are still more of you that I would so love to see again soon, and as my pastoral responsibilities here in Japan allow, we hope to see more of you over the next few years. Needless to say, thank you for your faithfulness! As we work together to share the good news of Jesus, I pray that God will keep using our labors together to reveal his amazing glory to more and more here in Japan!

Even More Men

Over the last year or two, we’ve had six unsaved men who are now consistently coming to our services. These include young college-aged men who are seeking to know more about Christianity; some are husbands whose wives were saved and baptized last year, and having seen the change in them, are wanting to know more themselves; others are men who have been coming for many years, but are still unsaved. Please pray for these men. I remember asking you to pray for more men in our church about seven or eight years ago, and now we’re seeing how God has wonderfully answered our prayers! These unsaved men who are coming now are being gently led to the foot of the cross by other men in our church who have been saved, baptized and are growing in Christ! On Sunday after services, we often see them in conversation with one another, asking and answering questions, sharing thoughts from the sermon, building stronger relationships. Once again, I ask that you pray for these men. Pray that the Holy Spirit will use our brothers in Christ in our church to help these unsaved men to put their faith in Christ as well!   

Missionaries Sending Missionaries

One interesting aspect of missions is that the sending of missionaries doesn’t simply end at the mission field. Here too, we send out, support, and pray for missionaries who leave Japan to reach those around the world. Even now, our church here in Tokyo supports two missionaries who serve in other parts of Asia, including areas that are difficult for Westerners to minister. This coming Monday, I will be speaking at a regional Missions Conference with pastors attending from the three prefectures (states) surrounding Tokyo. Please pray that God will use this opportunity to encourage both pastors and missionaries here in Japan as we too labor together with Japanese missionaries to share the good news of Jesus to others!   

For a printable pdf, please click here. 

            Japan has five seasons. The fifth season, rainy season usually kicks off sometime in June and lasts for about a month. While many people here dislike the rainy season because of the constant wet, we don’t mind it all. The nice cool showers are a nice respite from the coming intense summer heat. Speaking of showers…😁 God’s blessings have been continually “showering” down on us all throughout these last few months!

Cookout Relaunch

            In the end of April we relaunched our church cookout outreach for the first time since covid began in 2020. Our church family invited many of their family and friends, and we had an amazing turnout! Over eighty people came! Easily more than half of those who attended were guests. More importantly, they were guests who were already connected to people in our church family, which means they have consistent contact with believers in their lives. For some of them, this was their first interaction with other Christians besides the family or friend who invited them. All of them got to hear the Gospel preached simply and clearly to them. It was a big day for us, and we are thankful for how the Lord used us to share the good news of salvation with our friends and loved ones.  

Co-Laborers

Last Thursday, we went to the airport to pick up life-long family friends, Joe and Sierah Pliska and their two children. (Joe’s mom taught Bethany when she was in high school). The significance of this airport rendezvous is that the Pliska family have come to Japan as missionaries out of our home church in Louisville! In fact, they were actually in Japan just beginning their survey trip back when covid started! They were able to raise their support even in the middle of all the chaos of churches struggling to meet during the pandemic. It definitely hasn’t been easy for them, but God has been gracious, and they are now beginning the next step of sharing the good news of Jesus with the Japanese. Please pray for them as they get adjusted to life in Japan (which is NOT easy!), learning Japanese (also not easy!), and building relationships and sharing Jesus with those around them. Also pray for us as we do our best to help them and walk with them through this next stage of serving Jesus!

No Signs

     On a personal note, a few weeks ago, Bethany had her one-year cancer checkup. It’s hard to believe it’s already been a year since we started on this journey. What a year! We’re thankful for God’s grace in walking us through it, and for giving us prayer partners like you who are willing to walk through it with us by faithfully helping to bear the load through prayer. The test results came back showing no signs of cancer. We thank God for his grace and healing! And we thank YOU for your faithfulness and care for us through each step of the way. (And thanks for continuing to pray for her!)

For a printable pdf, please click here.

      Cherry blossom season is just a few weeks away here, and we’re enjoying the gradual change from the cold of winter to the warmth of spring. We’re preparing for several big outreach events over the next few months, and looking forward to seeing the blossoming of new life in Christ as the good news of His Gospel is sown around us!

A Wedding

      Motoharu brought Ami to church a little over two years ago. Motoharu was already a Christian, and Ami wanted to know more about Christianity. For about a year, the four of us, (Motoharu, Ami, Bethany and I) would share a meal together after church and talk about who Jesus was, and what it meant to put your trust in Him and follow Him. During time many questions were asked, and Ami’s understanding of Jesus grew and grew. Then, in May of last year, one Sunday while spending time talking with other believers after the service, she was ready to put her faith in Jesus! The following August, Ami was one of the ladies I got to baptize in the river near our church. Last month, I was blessed to have a part in Motoharu and Ami’s wedding! It’s so special to see the grace of God displayed through the lives of this young couple! Please pray for them as they begin their new journey as a husband and wife who love and follow Jesus! A family in which BOTH PARENTS love and follow Jesus is incredibly rare in Japan!

A Mortgage

     In our last letter I mentioned my parents coming to visit us for a few months. What a huge blessing it was to have them with us! Of course, just the joy of being able to spend time together was so wonderful! And as veteran missionaries themselves, they helped us in so many ways, seamlessly jumping in to provide help in different areas of the ministry. Along with that, we were able to finalize the main purpose of their time in Japan, to finish off the paperwork of the mortgage of our church, and to transfer over the ownership of the property. For our church family this was a huge milestone, because we were able to pay off the mortgage five years ahead of schedule! Our church is continuing to faithfully share God’s word, continuing to grow in following Jesus and loving those around them.

A Recovery

     Many of you have been praying for Bethany as she recovers from cancer. Her strength is continuing to recover and, although she personally would rather be up and running on all cylinders, her body is taking its time. Which is totally ok. Each day is forward progress. Our Father has been very gracious, and we’re VERY thankful for how far she has already come! We expect in a few months for her to be able to do backflips and frontflips effortlessly. Needless to say, we are so thankful for each of you who have prayed for her throughout this journey! You mean the world to us!

For a printable pdf, please click here.

The last few months of 2023 were jam-packed to say the least! And it seems that 2024 is starting off with a bang here in Japan as well with another big earthquake. We’re so thankful for how God is SO faithful in giving us the grace we need for each day!

A Christmas Miracle

Fall seemed to have been non-stop. There have been a lot of moving parts in both the ministry and in our personal lives that have kept us on our toes over these past few months. Our church family has continued to work hard in sharing the story of Jesus to those around them. Most recently, our Christmas services had 35 visitors attend! And this is with literally half of our church being sick with the flu! One of our church family had the great idea of going to church while not feeling too well and ended up sharing the flu with everyone in attendance the Sunday before our big Christmas events. (Yes, I admit. It was me. I was that church member. Sigh.) Even with all of those who were sick, we somehow managed to make it work, and were encouraged to see all the visitors who had come to hear about the birth of Jesus.

Let me tell you about just one of the visitors. One of the ladies who is in our church now had gotten saved years ago at another church. After trusting Christ, she went through a few years of very difficult persecution from her family. Her children, who were young at the time, were shut out of her life because of her faith in Jesus. After many years, God began to bring her now grown children back into her life. This Christmas, for the first time, she was able to bring her daughter and grandson to our Christmas service! This was the first time they had ever gone to any kind of church service! It’s amazing to see how our Heavenly Father patiently works in even the most seemingly impossible situations to display his goodness and grace to those around us! Please remember to pray for our dear sister as she continues to share the Gospel with her family, and pray that her daughter and grandson will also trust in Jesus!

A Much-Needed Visit

One huge blessing for us personally as well as for our church family is that we were able to have my parents, missionaries Dave and Glenda Carter come to Japan to visit us for a few months. The main reason for their visit is to help us finish the paperwork for a long-awaited milestone for our church family. Nearly fifteen years ago, when dad was the pastor of our church, he helped us purchase a small house for our church to meet in. And now, through your faithful giving to our ministry, working together with the faithful giving of our church family, we have come to the point where we are ready to pay off the church mortgage, five years earlier than expected! Praise the Lord!

On a personal note, having mom and dad here with us has been a huge help to Bethany and me, especially in how they have helped to share the load of the ministry and daily life as Bethany recovers from her cancer treatments. After finishing chemotherapy in November, she went through a month of daily radiation treatments that lasted through mid-December (a week and a half before our Christmas events). Mom and dad were able to arrive the day after her treatments finished, and jumped in right away, helping in all kinds of ways as Bethany’s strength begins to gradually recover. This week and next, we will visit her doctors to learn more about how the treatments went, and what her long-term recovery plan will look like.

Please don’t stop praying for her! There is still a long way to go for her strength to return over the next (hopefully) few months. But that being said, THANK YOU for praying for our family through this journey! It’s not been easy, but God has clearly and consistently revealed to us His presence and grace in our time of need. We can’t begin to express our gratitude for so many of you who have taken time to go to our Father on our behalf!

**To download a pdf version, click here. 

The way God works is so captivating. Over and over He reveals to us that He is fully in control of all things, small and large. For you and me, it’s the most wonderful privilege to see Him lovingly, wisely, and powerfully guide each step in our journey of faith!

A God-Ordained Baptism Delay (Continued!)

In our last letter, I told you about how God used a timely case of covid to delay the baptism service for our church. To briefly recap, because of that delay, one of the ladies in our church had the time she needed to overcome certain obstacles that were holding her back from being baptized. It was just the time she needed to join the other three who were getting baptized. 

The long-awaited Baptism Sunday arrived on August 27. What an amazing day it was! That morning our church family gathered together at Akigawa River, the river our church (Akigawa Baptist Church) is named after. We spent the morning celebrating the baptism of these four ladies, hearing their testimonies of salvation, and remembering the purpose of baptism from God’s word. Unsaved friends and family of those being baptized joined us as well. Because this was the last summer weekend before school resumed, there were many people gathered at the river that day. Which was perfect. It was the best way for those being baptized to share the Gospel with others through their act of obedience! I have no doubt that for many of those at the river that day, it was the only baptism they had ever witnessed. And here’s where we see God’s amazing plan revealed yet again.

Not long after our baptism at the river, our church members, Waichiro and his wife Yoshie received an unexpected message from a Christian lady Waichiro had worked with nearly twenty years ago. She asked him, “Did you happen to be at a baptism at Akigawa River?” She and her family had gone to the river that day (of all days!) and had watched the baptism from a distance. She thought she recognized Waichiro but wasn’t sure since it had been such a long time since they last saw each other. Neither Waichiro nor the lady are originally from this area. She told them that she had moved to this area, hadn’t been to church in a long time, and was interested in coming to their church. Come to find out, she was within walking distance of our church! A few weeks later, for the first time in a long time, she came to our Sunday service joining Waichiro and Yoshie in worshipping our Heavenly Father, Who had by His grace, been preparing this meeting for a long time!

An Update on Bethany’s Health (Also Continued)

For all of you that have been keeping Bethany in your prayers, thank you so much! It’s been a very long six months, but we’re so thankful for how God has been caring for us and revealing his plan through this journey. She started her fourth round of chemotherapy last Monday, and it’s been the most difficult round so far. She is beginning to get her strength back this week, so we’re very thankful for that. The main goal of chemo was to get through at least four rounds, and she made it. Please continue to pray for her strength to return, and that the chemo removed any remaining cancer cells in her body. We will meet with the doctor in a couple of weeks to determine the risk / benefit of continuing the two extra rounds of chemo, so please pray for wisdom.

Thank you all so much for all the ways you care for us, by giving and praying. Each of you who give, and who pray are on this journey with us. You are an integral part of the journey! Thank you for walking each step of it with us!

**To download a pdf version, click here.

Wow, these past few months have been some of the more difficult months our family has been through in a long while. But at the same time, they’ve also been a time of inexplicable and unfading joy in the midst of those difficulties. God is so very good!

An Update on Bethany’s Health

Hi, friends! It’s Bethany here! I just wanted to jump in and give you a quick health update. As a quick review, in October of last year, I went in with pain and had a mammogram, which to the best of our knowledge came back clear. However, the pain only grew worse, so I went in again in March of this year and ended up being diagnosed with Stage 2 Invasive Lobular Carcinoma, a less-common type of breast cancer that tends to be sneaky and not show up well on scans.

On June 6, I had surgery to remove the cancer, and praise the Lord, surgery went well, and I was able to go home a few days later. The treatment plan I was expecting from that point included radiation followed by hormone therapy. However, when we got the pathology report back about a month later, due to several important pieces of information in the report, my team determined that I should add chemotherapy to that plan. This was difficult and jarring news to receive, as we’d thought that I would not need chemo, but I’m very thankful to live in a time and place that I can receive it if needed.

So, my current plan is 3-4 months of chemotherapy, followed by 6 weeks of radiation, followed by 5-10 years of hormone treatments. I’m not going to lie, personally that feels daunting; like a long, unwanted climb up a mountain. I had my first chemotherapy treatment on July 31, and have my second scheduled in a few days on August 21. As anyone who has walked this path knows, this is not an easy thing for our family to walk through. But God has been so good and so real to us throughout this entire journey, and I can only praise Him! We can trace His fingerprints all throughout our story, and He has never one time left us or forsaken us! Even in the midst of this storm, His blessings abound! Not the least of which, I’m so happy to report, is that, by the grace of God, with this treatment plan, my prognosis is good, and treatment is considered curative! God has blessed us so far above anything we deserve! We’ve been blown away by the number of people around the world who have reached out to let us know they are praying for us! Thank you all so very much for your prayers, your love, and support for our family!! Our Father hears and answers those prayers, and on behalf of our entire family, thank you! We love and appreciate you more than we can say!

A God-Ordained Baptism Delay

It’s been amazing to see how God uses adversity and difficulties for His glory and for our good! Last month, on July 9, our church was scheduled to have a special baptism service at the river near our church to baptize three ladies who had recently trusted Christ, but God had other plans. I (Steve) got a bad case of covid two days earlier, and we had to postpone the baptism until August 27, but again, God was working through all of this.

A few weeks ago, the topic of the upcoming baptism came up in one of our Bible study groups. A lady named Ayumi, who had been coming to church since March of this year, was in the study group. She had been wanting to trust Jesus but was dealing with a few things holding her back from doing so. When the baptism was mentioned, she asked about whether or not she could be baptized too. I asked her about her faith in Jesus, and come to find out, all the issues that were earlier holding her back were gone! She had trusted Christ! So having confirmed her faith in Jesus, we now have another believer in Christ getting baptized along with the other three! Later that day, she said that when she heard the baptism was delayed because of my covid, she wondered if God did that just for her. I have a feeling she’s on to something there. God always works according to His glorious plan! Thanks for being a part of that plan as you pray for us and support us! We sure do appreciate you!!

**To download a pdf version, click here.