Email sent January 17, 2006.        Email index

Dear praying friend,

Dedication Service
Praise the Lord for answering our prayers. There were over 150 people packed into our sanctuary, lobby, baby room and even 4 in our sound room! Many Christians from MB churches or other churches attended. I had invited three aldermen but only Mr. Kawai came. He is the father-in-law to Tomoko Kawai, a member of our church. The grandmasters of two well know ikebana schools in our city accepted our invitations to come. The manager of our post office came. Mrs. Katoh (a baptized member who stopped attending during our 2003 MINA) and her husband surprised us with their presence. The man who first rented the community center to us that we used for 11 years attended. Yuta Yotsuji (H.S. boy) and his mother were there – they used to attend our church regularly.

The program was upbeat and honouring to God. Chiaki Hashimoto gave a very powerful testimony, our church people sang a song, the moderator of the Japan MB Conference preached, etc. Everyone marvelled at the wonderful building the Lord has given our church. Our church people worked really hard preparing piles of food for the stand-up party in the multipurpose room on the second floor. We were really tired but very pleased and grateful to God and to you for making this day possible! Praise the Lord and thank you!

 

Mrs. Yanagisawa
God continues to extend her life! I just talked to her son and he said, if she keeps on improving in struggle against death, they will need to find another hospital or nursing home for her! Her 97 year old husband fell again while at home, but didn't need to be hospitalized.

 

Four Chinese Wives.
Two wives are having serious struggles in their marriages stemming from the inability to communicate as couples, the diversity in their cultures, etc. Pray for God's help in those relationships and that they will really learn to trust Jesus to transform them and their marriages.

 

Easter Baptism.
Please pray that Mr. Yanagisawa will make a clear commitment to Christ and join the baptism class. Pray also that two of the Chinese wives will also follow the Lord in baptism. Intercede on the behalf of Mr. Isowa, and Mrs. Kondo so that they will also dedicate their lives to Jesus and be baptized in spring. We are placing our hope in the Lord!

 

MINA 2006.
At the end of June we will return to Canada for our next Ministry In North America. Pray for us and our church as we begin making preparations for the year that we will be apart.

Laurence and Leona Hiebert

Toyota City, Japan

 

The code to support our family's ministry is COO21.
The code for East Toyota MB Church Building project is C0309.

(If you use the Internet, go to Donate > Projects by Country and then look for this project number under Japan)
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