Email sent June 14, 2006.        Email index

Dear praying friend,

Mr. Yanagisawa. Mr. Akira Yanagisawa, continues to come to church regularly and has spent three months with me preparing for baptism. He was raised in a Christian home and recently had begun to wonder what he had done with his life the past 60 plus years. He then saw our building going up and thought about coming to church. He's come for 7 months. We are praying that his wife, a Buddhist, will attend his baptism. His 94 year-old mother is paralyzed in a hospital bed since November. His 97 year-old father is weak and would find our morning service very long so it is unlikely he will attend the baptism. Pray that God will use Akira's testimony to speak to many and that he will live his life fully for Jesus!

Yuki Matsuda and Yuki Kinoshita. On June 11 after our worship service, we had an "engagement ceremony" for them! We won't be here for their wedding which is planned for this fall, so I asked Pastor Kurokawa - the retired pastor who will take our place during the year we are in Canada - to lead the ceremony and then we both prayed for the couple. Pray for them as they prepare for marriage and begin a Christian home. If things go as planned, their wedding will be the first for our church!

Prayer of Blessing. Mrs. Yaguchi was pleased to bring Wataru to church last Sunday and have him prayed for. He was born on May 6 while his father was working in the USA. Mr. came back for two and one-half weeks, so we planned the prayer of blessing now so he could attend. Though not a believer yet, Mr. attended 4 church events during his short stay at home: the marriage seminar, two worship services and a church BBQ! During the sharing time in one worship service he even said a word of thanks to the church people for helping his wife while he was gone. His three-year daughter was whispering to him, "Daddy, daddy say something!" Now he is gone for another two months. Pray for this busy mom and the absent father. We are believing he will come to Jesus soon!

Mr. Bridge. I visited him again today and was able to share a bit of Mr. Yanagisawa's story with him (about the same age), hoping God would use it to stir an interest in spiritual things. He continues to be friendly to me and can easily talk for an hour every time I go! I checked to see if he was following through on his intention to read the Bible this year. Not yet. He might come to visit us in Canada next year. Pray that he will see that he needs Jesus more than all his money and land.

Yuji Kondo. Yuji has been in Yokohama receiving treatment at an AA related center for his condition as an adult child of an alcoholic. He is making considerable progress and is now thinking about what to do next year. He continues to have faith in Christ, but the last year hasn't been easy for him. The double whammy of being a child of an alcoholic and the over-powering expectation to excel as the eldest nephew of one of the most powerful men in Japan (now the president of Toyota Motor Corporation), Yuji couldn't cope. Finding Christ while studying in Canada saved him from becoming addicted like his father, but still the baggage was so great he couldn't manage. His decision to enter the ministry may have been another attempt to do something that would please his father and uncle. He is now reconsidering his calling in life. He needs our prayers.

Peter. I have been praying for Peter a lot lately. I'm sure I saw him driving a delivery truck today. Guess what? He just called me as I was writing this and wants to talk. I wonder what he has to say. Well I talked with him for over an hour. Not much has changed. 40 years of gambling isn't easy to stop. Until last August he slept in his tiny car. Then he got to sleep in an old shed. At the end of this month he has to leave the shed. He hasn't stopped gambling, but freely admitted tonight he can't stop and that he has foolishly wasted his life and will probably end it himself as he feels there is no hope. If it weren't for his elderly mother he'd probably have taken his life already. I read Scripture, spoke to him boldly, and prayed for him. I got him to pray as well and urged him to come to church instead of going to the races.

MINA (Ministry In North America). We are supposed to be packing up to go to Canada already. I told Leona today, that the way things look now I won't be going! (No, please don't write and ask if I think I'm indispensable.) We have faced extra challenges the last couple of months and these last weeks are packed with many unforeseen opportunities of ministry. Our church visitation schedule is coming together as a good number of churches have responded to our request to set up times to visit them. Maybe we'll hear from the others this week yet. Then we can tell you what the schedule looks like.

Laurence and Leona Hiebert
Toyota City, Japan

The code to support our family's ministry is COO21.
MBMS International
http://mbmsi.org/