She writes: Return to Japan:  Now after more than a year since discovering that I had cancer, I am cancer-free and have received permission to return to Japan.  The departure date will be August 21st.  I have not known the exact date for long so I understand if this early date comes as a surprise. Immediately after my return, I will revisit people in Sendai/Shichigahama area with whom I worked ten years ago.  Then I will return to Yokohama to set up house in a mission residence on Kanto Gakuin University campus. 

Opportunities for the Gospel:  I will be formulating my work in conjunction with local leaders, but now it looks like I will be doing Bible study and English classes with parents of children in Kanto Gakuin primary schools.  September is in the middle of their school year.  Their curriculum is already ongoing, making it difficult to just begin a new program, so I might be just conducting some impromptu classes until the new school year begins in April. 

What excites me about this aspect of the work is that the parents who will join my classes will be those who have put their children in a Christian school, who are asking “so what’s Christianity all about?”  In other words, they will all be newbies in learning about Christianity.  How many of you have such chances with people in the US or wherever you are living?  In a nation where most people do not know the Lord, the opportunities are great to teach the fundamentals of the Gospel.  My church base will be with the same congregation as before.  However, the distance from my house is great, and it will be costly to commute.  But, this group of believers wants to move beyond the fundamentals. 

• Please pray that even now before I begin God will be preparing the hearts of parents I will meet. 
• Pray for the Suginami- Nakadori church as they formulate what they would like me to help them with.
• Pray for Roberta as she embarks on this next journey of her long missionary service in Japan.