Kawai Family Blog Update

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Hide Kawai and his wife Yasuyo, along with their son Shoma arrived in Torrance in August 2016 to start a 10 month internship at Lighthouse. The Kawai family have returned to Nagoya and have been back for three months. Here is an update from them: [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]All Nations Fellowship

I am now serving at an English-Japanese bilingual church called All Nations Fellowship also known as ANF. On Sundays, we rent a room at a hotel in Nagakute, a Nagoya suburb. We bring our own equipment every week by van. I am serving there as a church planting apprentice. My responsibility is preaching twice a month, leading a small group, and caring for people. I appreciate that we have lots of new believers and non-believers at ANF. Yasuyo and I started a Bible study with one couple. The wife is a new believer and her husband is a non-believer.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”8370″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]This is the worship service on Sunday. This was family worship, so a lot of kids were sitting in the front row. About 30 adults and 25 kids attend the service every Sunday. It is a blessing for our family to have many families who are in the same stage of life with us. We have one Japanese small group and it is a blessing that attendees share very deep things there. God is blessing our community.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Shoma and Preschool

At ANF, we have many Christian families whose children go to one Christian preschool, and they invite their non-Christian classmates and their moms to ANF. Families who send their children to the Christian preschool have positive impressions of Christianity, so it is easier to invite those families to church. Yasuyo and I were thinking through how we could serve God as a young family, and we thought it would be good to send Shoma to this Christian preschool. But when Yasuyo called the preschool, they told her that the school was already full for next school year and Shoma could be put on the waiting list. We were praying and waiting for an opening, and by God’s grace, Shoma was accepted to enter the preschool. He will officially start going to the preschool next April. Please pray for God’s guidance as we serve in this preschool community.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”8371″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Ema

Thanks to all of your prayers and support, our daughter, Ema, was born on September 28, 2017! The kanji (Chinese characters) for her name, Ema is 恵蒔, which means “grace” and “to sow (seeds).” We pray that she will experience God’s abundant grace and that she will share His grace and His word with others. A few days after Ema was born, my parents came to visit us from Kanagawa (near Tokyo). I appreciate God that my parents came to ANF on Sunday. They came to Lighthouse three times over the past year, and they got used to attending church. So when I invited them to ANF, they did not hesitate to come. Many of ANF attendees came to talk to my parents, and they enjoyed talking to them. Please pray that God will use Ema for God’s glory.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”8372″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_single_image image=”8373″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_single_image image=”8374″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]New Home

We were impressed that Lighthouse families often had people over to their homes and were using their homes for God’s glory. We wanted to use our home for ministry too, and because of God’s grace, we found an apartment with a living room and three bedrooms. It is much smaller than an average house in the U.S. but it is good enough for us to have some people over and have Bible study or small group. I learned Biblical Counseling and Church Planting from Lighthouse. But another thing that I learned at Lighthouse is coffee. The Lighthouse staff gave me a Chemex (coffee equipment) and coffee beans when we left America. When we have people over to our home, I serve coffee using the Chemex. Chemex and specialty coffee are not as popular in Japan, so people enjoy the rare coffee. We are thankful for the new home and coffee that God provided.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”8376″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]STEPS

At Christ Bible Seminary (CBS) which I graduated from, they teach a Biblical Counselling program called Steps. The program was created at Village Church in Dallas, and the church has sent teams to CBS to teach the program four times to train Japanese Christian leaders. This fall, instead of the team from Village Church, a missionary at CBS and I started teaching the program. While I was at Lighthouse, we watched videos and had discussions about Steps during our staff meetings. I also learned Biblical Counseling from Pastor Kim and Pastor Tim. Those two things have been very helpful for me in preparing for teaching the Steps program at CBS. Please pray that I can teach the program faithfully.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Thank you for reading our update and praying for us.

Hide, Yasuyo, Shoma, and Ema[/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_column_text]As Hide mentioned, he is a Church Planting apprentice. This is a paid position at All Nations Fellowship and is funded it mainly by outside contributions. If you’d like to financially contribute to Church Planting Apprentice fund, here are the steps.

  1. Go to All Nations Fellowship’s website via this link: http://www.allnationsfellowship.net/en/give.php
  2. You can donate to Footstool or Mission to the World (MTW). The one difference between the two options is that will take a percentage of the giving for administrative costs.

Thanks for involving yourself in global evangelism by investing so that others can spread the gospel in Japan![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row]