DALE & ANN LITTLE

Disaster and Recovery

Oct 15, 2019

TOKYO MULTICULTURAL CHURCH
* PRAISE GOD for the launch of our Japanese language worship service on Oct 13. On the first Sundays of the month we now have a joint English-Japanese service (followed by potluck) but on all other Sundays we have our Japanese service at 9:30am and English at 11:00am.
* PRAISE GOD for our first Sunday afternoon Wakuwaku Family Time on the same day. This is a monthly outreach event for children and parents that Ann leads.
* GIVE THANKS that we were able to hold both these new TMC events on Oct 13, just after Typhoon #19 (Hagibis). The number of people in attendance was lower than usual, but we and our church people are all safe with very few problems other than power outages.

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JAPAN
Typhoon #19 (Hagibis) with its record breaking rainfall hammered Japan on Oct 12-13. 36 out of Japan’s total of 47 prefectures were hit. Millions were told to evacuate. Even so, there were about 60 fatalities (with about a dozen still missing). 200 rivers flooded and several river levees ruptured in valleys surrounded by higher mountains, inundating residential areas. There have been 140 landslides.
Some of this destruction occurred on the western and further eastern sides of Tokyo, but most was north and northwest of Tokyo. We are located in the central area of Tokyo, where the damage seemed less even though this was the biggest typhoon to ever hit Tokyo.
* CONFESS that God is the mighty Sovereign who holds everything in his hands even though we don’t know why natural disasters bring destruction and death to certain places and countries more than others.
* BELIEVE that God is loving and able to save everyone who calls on his name.
* ASK God to protect us from loving the wrong stuff and to teach us the priority of that which is eternally important.
* GIVE THANKS that “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble” (Psm. 46:1…and the rest of the psalm too).
* PRAY for comfort for the grieving, hope for the survivors, wisdom for community leaders, resources for rebuilding, and that God will make his people in Japan a blessing to the nation.

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Thank you for Praying for the Tokyo Littles! – PTL #147

Sep 8, 2018

RECENT NATURAL DISASTERS IN JAPAN


After August’s record-breaking heat two major natural disasters battered Japan in early September. The strongest typhoon in 25 years made landfall in Western Japan, with its wind and floods wreaking havoc in the cities of Kobe and Osaka. Then a 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck near the city of Sapporo on the northern island of Hokkaido that rarely has earthquakes. This quake actually registered at the top of the Japanese earthquake scale.

* PRAY for protection for believers so that they can show the love of Christ in practical ways to neighbors and friends. Nobody wants to suffer through these kinds of disasters. But when they occur, all within God’s sovereignty even in natural disaster prone Japan, we want to remain faithful. We are thankful to have been able to use our Disaster Preparedness Expansion Fund to stock disaster supplies at two places including TMC.

SUMMER TRAVEL


* GIVE THANKS that we were able to participate in the once every other year EFC of Canada Conference in early August in Lethbridge Alberta. We re-connected with EFCC/M leaders as well as supporting church pastors and leaders. We then enjoyed over one week in Maine with Ann’s mother and several of our children.

TOKYO MULTICULTURAL CHURCH


* GIVE THANKS that several people in two of our supporting churches have expressed an interest in teaching in TMC’s outreach English program next July. Both children and adults attend the conversational English classes.

* PRAY that participants in TMC’s newly started four small groups that meet twice a month will grow deeper in their relationship with Christ and each other. Discussion questions are based on the most recent Sunday sermon.

* PRAY for future leaders who will continue to establish TMC and work toward launching TMC #2. Most of TMC’s current missionary staff will likely retire by 2022.

Thank you for Praying for The Littles! – PTL #136

Jun 25, 2018

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS AT TOKYO MULTICULTURAL CHURCH


* GIVE THANKS for donors who have contributed about US$3500 over the past several years to our Disaster Preparedness project in our Ministry Expansion Fund. That financial project is now complete. So we have purchased helmets, emergency food and water supplies, blankets, lights, toilet alternatives and supplies, two generators, and one storage shed. Some of these supplies require ongoing purchases (water, food, batteries, etc.). The items are stored in three accessible locations, including TMC.

Tokyo, the world’s largest megacity, is prone to disasters such as earthquakes and flooding. In addition, an eruption of Mt. Fuji, an active volcano 100 kilometers west of Tokyo, would seriously affect the residents of Tokyo. It is predicted that there is a 70% possibility of an earthquake directly hitting Tokyo within the next 30 years.

So the Tokyo metropolitan government requires companies and organizations to be prepared for earthquakes, tsunami, and volcanic eruptions by having five days of emergency supplies ready. Our large apartment complex’s Disaster Preparedness Board, of which Dale is a member, has implemented its own plan. We have too.

Tokyo Disaster Prevention Website (English): http://www.bousai.metro.tokyo.jp/foreign/english/index.html
2018_06 Bousai Book
Japanese people are the second largest unreached people group in the world, with the Christian population of Japan being less than one percent. So of the approximately 40 million people in greater Tokyo, over 39 million do not know Jesus Christ and most have never met a follower of Christ. Natural disasters have provided opportunities for sharing the love of Christ in practical and effective ways in Japan.

* PRAY that we will be able to clothe our church planting ministry with practical Christ-centered compassion when natural disasters strike.

Thank you for Praying for The Littles! – PTL #134

February 20, 2016

PRAY FOR THE TOKYO LITTLES - PTL #107

TOKYO MULTICULTURAL CHURCH


Alicia Lim and Jon Prins, both with the EFCCM, will be joining us at TMC in the next six weeks.

Alicia will be teaching outreach English conversation classes for one year at TMC and two other Evangelical Free churches in greater Tokyo. She comes from Ottawa ON with the blessing of her home church, Ottawa Chinese Bible Church.

Jon has a long term commitment to TMC and will join our missionary staff as church planter and intercultural specialist. He has served in church planting in Japan for many years and comes to us from Minneapolis MN.

Give thanks that both Alicia and Jon are coming to TMC soon! Pray that we will be able to procure their visas and find apartments for them nearby TMC, and that they be able to raise their remaining required finances and have a smooth adjustment to ministry in Tokyo.

FINANCES

Give thanks that our support team (27 churches, 28 individuals) fully met our 2015 ministry budget. What a great team! Our 2016 ministry budget is only slightly higher than 2015.

TSUNAMI RECOVERY MINISTRY

In January we applied the remaining approximately CAN$14,500 from the EFCCM Japan Disaster Fund to Onagawa Megumi Project for their moving and set up expenses of their new shop on the new promenade in Onagawa, as well as for the relocation of their trailer. We are grateful that the Lord continues to use the Megumi Project to bring his grace (= “megumi”) and love to a town hit by one of the highest tsunamis (30 meters) on March 11, 2011.

In Feb we volunteered at Onagawa Megumi Project for a few days in order to fill in for Megumi Project leaders Andy and Lorna Gilbert (ReachGlobal) who had to return suddenly to the US for one month to care for an aging parent. One day we were at the trailer where their products are made, another day we helped sell their crafts at their new store, and the final day we hosted the missionary staff at our vacation house for a mini retreat.

Give thanks for Megumi Project’s ongoing testimony of God’s love in Onagawa. Give thanks for our TMC colleague Duane Dietze (ReachGlobal) who so ably covers for us when we need to leave Tokyo for most of a week.

Pray for strength and joy for the five missionaries serving and leading the Megumi Project. Ask the Lord to work in the hearts of the half dozen Japanese ladies who design and sell the crafts made from donated kimono, helping them to see and accept God’s love for them in Jesus Christ.

FAMILY

Kristy and Matthew Fujiura’s wedding will be on May 29 in Diamond Bar CA (greater LA)! Matthew is from California and enjoyed his first visit to Japan this past summer when he proposed to Kristy.

Give thanks that the Lord has brought Kristy and Matthew together in his perfect timing. And pray for them as they make the many preparations for their big day!

Thank you for Praying for the Tokyo Littles! – PTL #107