Dear Praying Friends, Feb/March 2009
Greetings from the north land of Wisconsin. We have been on the road since the beginning of March for our annual short reporting furlough, this year to Minnesota, but also included a church in Iowa and southern Wisconsin. This week we have been able to participate in a college mission’s conference. We appreciate the hospitality of so many as we traveled to the various churches.
We look forward to our time with our churches each year (as the Lord allows) and this time has been no different. It was enhanced though by the opportunity to be in a round robin’s conference in southwestern Minnesota. It allowed the opportunity to present the work of Teshio, Japan to a couple new churches and catch a couple others up on God’s work in Teshio as they had been praying for us for many years. We appreciate each and every opportunity and we thank each one for allowing us to share the work of our hearts with their people.
Praise God for safety in travels thus far and we trust that will continue as we now head to the east coast with an overnight stop in Michigan, Ohio, & North Carolina before being with our children and grandchildren in one week slots the end of April and first part of May, in North Carolina, South Carolina, & Georgia—Michael and Stacy are joining us all for a week in South Carolina.
Although several of the ladies in Teshio have not showed up on Sunday a.m., Mrs. Sonoda has been faithfully holding the fort by being at the church mission building every Sunday—heating a room, downloading a Japanese sermon by a fellow missionary, and listening to it herself. Please pray that others will also be faithful and for God’s continued protection of our believers as well as for the lost that we still desire to see come to Christ.
We also were excited to have a young couple contact us about the possibility of coming to Japan under the internship program to train to be in Japan!! We first met this couple a few years ago about their desire to go to Japan. We then lost contact but kept on praying!! Brother Marks admitted they got side tracked for a time but want to really be serious about the direction that God STILL wants them to go so Ken has been on the phone with him almost every other day at least. There are two other single young men (yes, they need wives too!) wanting to come back to Hokkaido to train—one still finishing up schooling and the other trying to get on deputation. All of these need your prayers as well and we thank you for them.
One of the wonderful benefits of our reporting trips is that we head back to Japan with a renewed vision of why we are there, who we are trying to reach, our inabilities EXCEPT through Christ, and a more fervent desire to see the folk we are daily and weekly involved with come to know Christ as their Savior. Although the task STILL (after almost 26 years) seems impossible at times, we just keep praying our faith will be as the faith of the four men that took the man sick of the palsy to Christ: “When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.” (Mark 2:5) Those men’s faith was one of the reasons Jesus chose to save and heal that man. May our strength (and yours too!) be full enough to see the souls around you when in need and that Christ CAN and will save them!
Thank you for being a part of our lives in so many ways! May God bless you today!
Serving Christ Together,
Ken & Vicki Mansell Just A Prayer At Night!
Prayer & Praise
1.Safety and encouragement to and for us
2.Mrs. Sonoda’s faithfulness
3.Matthew Johnson, Tim Turner, Jonathan and Heather Marks, heading to the field for training
4.Faithfulness, growth & baptism of Teshio believers
5.Open doors of witnessing opportunities as a result of the economic status in the world today
6.Salvation of our believers’ families
7.For the starting of Bible study opportunities with Mr. & Mrs. Honda and others
8.For Mr. Yoshii and Mr. Kishida who made professions of salvation while in Teshio to keep following Christ even though circumstances rose up to take away their joy. That where ever they are now (their jobs transferred them away from Teshio) there will be strong biblical Christians or even a Baptist church to help them along their way.
