Dear Friends,
I wanted to send this note earlier, however Tomoko got the flu and spent 5 days in bed. She is fine now, and I again realize how much of a team we are, and how much I take all that she does for granted.
Anyway, I got a little behind on my plan for this note, but we want your prayers. This Saturday afternoon we will begin a new Bible fellowship called “Shalom Fellowship”. It will be meeting at the Shin Ai (God’s Love Church) in Osaka. This came as a request from some of the young people of Shin Ai Church and their pastor, Rev. Masu. The request was for a time of fellowship, worship, and study for a “younger” generation. Of course, all ages are welcome. In addition, we have been encouraged to not forget to have fun with this fellowship.
What will the Lord do through this time of fellowship and study? Are there young people the Lord wants to reach through this time? We don’t know, but we ask for your prayers as we begin this ministry.
Partners needed!
We always give thanks for your partnership in our ministry. We always say that our stories are your stories because of your prayers for us. We have many wonderful prayer partners, but in reality we need more financial partners. We always give thanks for those individuals and churches that are a part of our Missionary Partnership Network (MPN) because we have been greatly blessed by you. If you are reading this newsletter and realize that you have not taken that step to join us in this way, why not stop and pray about that right now?
God’s Creation!
Tomoko and I like to take a brisk walk for our daily exercise. Okay, I confess, we don’t get our exercise everyday, but we are pretty faithful. This time of the year, we like to take our walk during the day when we can. They other day we were walking along the Ashiya River, which is actually a little stream that flows out of the hills above the city, and into the sea. As we walked, we saw a bird fly and land on the rock wall just below us. We looked closer and saw that it was a Kingfisher, with orange breast and green wings. It was beautiful and just a few feet from us. Then suddenly it flew off, and that was when we saw the electric blue of its back as it flew away from us.
We live in the middle of a huge megalopolis, although it is only a couple of miles from the ocean below to the mountain above Kobe, but we were thrilled by the beauty of God’s creation as seen in the Kingfisher. God is good to us!
Grace and Peace
John and Tomoko Armagost