Merry Christmas -- Christmas Program 2011

Thank you so much for praying for this ministry today.  God answered in several ways.  Humanly we would think maybe today wasn't much of a special day. Why, because only 12 came to the program. Maybe the least we have had in a few years, BUT we know that EXACTLY who the Lord wanted here today were here.  That included the mayor of Teshio, the past mayor and  his wife,  Mr. & Mrs. Sato (substitute grandparents for our children who haven't been to a program in years), one grade school student with her mom who is a teacher, one jr. high boy who came on his own!, the new ALT from Enbetsu (where Christopher taught last year), Mrs. Kuwata who has attended almost every program we have ever had, the past vice-mayor's wife, and Miss Tsuzuki who comes on Sunday evenings for English Bible study.  Vicki, Mrs. Sonoda and myself made up the last 3.  Miss Tsuzuki came about 10:30 so she could help us with various preparation which was such a help.  Mrs. Sonoda has faithfully added the extra time of practice to her busy schedule and did a wonderful job of reading the Scriptures throughout the program.  The 9 journeys of Christmas were clearly presented in narration (Ken), song (the 3 of us in various ways), and Scripture reading (Mrs. Sonoda).  It began with the journey of the angel to visit Mary and ended with the journey each and every person on this earth will ever make: the choice of heaven via the cross or punishment in hell.  We know that the Word of God will continue to work in these people's hearts and in His time fruit shall come forth.  For that we daily labor and continue in love for these dear people.  We will have follow-up with Miss Tsuzuki specifically this coming Sunday evening so pray that she might make this SO important choice to follow Christ. Several others of our believers wanted to be here and sent items to be used during the tea time, but they had to work.
And the final praise is that He answered your prayers to hold back the blizzard!! The storm started about 2 hours after everyone had gone home!! God is so good to us!!
We know we also asked you to pray for our trip to Asahikawa for the next check-up on Ken's stone 'friends'!  Praise the Lord for safety in traveling on slick winter roads and for the opportunity to hand out some Christmas tracts as well as some cookie goodies.  The stones that they broke up to be discharged in this last surgery are still being discharged but there is one larger piece that jumped back into a 'hiding' space during the surgery.  It was too far away to be able to be reached by the surgical instruments.  So for this next month (until January 19th), Ken will be drinking even more water and trying his best to get all the loose pieces out and see if the larger piece can move on it's own to a place they can possibly do the out-patient shock wave treatment.  The Dr. will be looking into that possibility if the circumstances are right when we go back.  So the adventure of the traveling stones continues.  We continue to trust the Lord for His timing in getting all this repaired.  We are thankful, though, that seemed to be no new stones so that is a blessing.
We pray that your Christmas time of travels and with family is also a blessing and that the gift of Jesus Christ is truly the main reason for your gatherings and fellowship together!  We so appreciate each and every one of you!!
Merry Christmas and God's blessing to you in the coming year of 2012--even so come Lord Jesus!!

Picture posted below--

Serving Christ together,

Ken & Vicki Mansell

 Package preparation for our guests

 Miss Tsuzuki wanted to come early and help

Then we needed to cut and fix plates of the 4 kinds of 

chiffon cakes for tea time that Vicki made

 Each of the 9 journeys had a large plackard like this one!

the backlighting of the poster really added to the reality feel of it.

Mrs. Sonoda did the Bible reading passages from the seat behind her

and Ken's was to the left of where he was standing.

 Playing the taishogoto with a CD harmony added

Ken's mini-sermons at each journey

Tea Time after the program

(Past mayor and present mayor next to Ken)

Miss Tsuzuki is such a joy to teach and work with.

We pray for her salvation soon.

November 2011 Prayer and Praise

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1

This verse is a great encouragement to missionaries in Japan.  Much effort, prayers and energy go into giving the gospel to the Japanese.  Yet, the visible results are seen far less often than we would like.  Therefore, we continue on by faith, rejoicing in the substance of the thing we hope for: the salvation of the Japanese people.
  

   Ken had the blessing of another hospital evangelism time at Idai Hospital in Asahikawa, Japan in late November.  This was his third kidney stone endoscopic surgery this year.  Each time there has been more open response to the verse cards and gospel literature Ken gives to the doctors and nurses each day.  Again this time, God had some particular people in the hospital at the same time.  Mr. Tan (70) was a roommate and asked many questions about Christianity.  Ken was able to help him understand the truth in many areas.  Mr. Kawana (grape farmer) who was in the hospital over two years ago when Ken went in for his first kidney surgery was on the same floor.  His health is continuing to deteriorate.  He listens politely to witness but no response, yet.   Miss Ohara is a student doctor, there for only that week, who was assigned to his case so Ken had many times of witnessing to her.  A fellow missionary's wife in the area brought Ken some delicious brownies.  When he gave a brownie to one particular nurse who was trying to use some English, she said that they were more than delicious and wanted to know a word to use to describe the taste.  Ken taught her "amazing".  Later Ken thought about how that could be connected to the song, "Amazing Grace" (the tune is very well known in Japan, just not the true meaning)  but was not sure if he would see her again.  The day of his release from the hospital, that nurse walked into his room!  Ken was able to make the connection between the "amazing" brownies and God's Amazing Grace and the meaning and background of the song with her and Mr Tan.  Ken did not "see" what was going on in the hearts and minds of the people he witnessed to in the hospital, but by faith we hope for the Lord to produce the substance of salvation for these dear people.

      We reported earlier this year that Vicki has been asked to participate in a small group of people that meet about 3 or 4 times a year to discuss town issues and how to help our town maintain and grow—a constant struggle for small communities in this country.  We know that God has allowed this for more participation in even small matters and look forward to seeing how we can share the light of God’s Word even in these meetings. Although the last meeting held for this year was mostly a business meeting it also included visiting various shut down country elementary schools that were a part of the local school system until the number of children dropped so that keeping these schools open was not feasible.  One of the schools still had pianos just ‘stored’ there which were even still in tune after 10 years.  We are praying that maybe there will be fellow missionaries that can benefit from these unused pianos that seem to be there for the taking. 

    Each year we are judges for a Jr. High English memorized speech contest in a city about 2 hours from here.  This year this last hospitalization ended up being at the same time that we had already committed ourselves for this opportunity.  Vicki was able to make the trip and carry on for both of us and ended up being the only judge for the afternoon.  This year we handed out a couple different items to each participant including the English verse calendar we like to give to English enthusiasts, as a booklet and pamphlet that we trust will work in hearts in the days and years ahead. 

   Praise the Lord before winter really struck and Ken had his next surgery, he was able to get all the pre-winter work done on the deck for needed repairs and winterizing.  Funny how each year it gets a little more challenging to keep up with that.  Praise the Lord, too, that the van got all repaired just in time for a major trip we had to take 6 hours south for some paper work AND for one of the fellow missionaries to borrow the car to make it here for the missionary fellowship.  There have been some special gifts given towards the expenses of the van repair and the replacement of the boiler for water and heat for which we are truly grateful.

   We also host the yearly thanksgiving missionary get together for this northern end and enjoyed having 33 of us altogether for one day.  These rare occasions (usually 2 or 3 times a year at most) of fellowship, good food and fun help take away the loneliness we can have in missing family during various special seasons.  Again this year, one of the military church pastors in southern Japan helped us get the turkeys and a ham from the base store so we only spent about $30 for each item instead of $80-100!!  Helps you appreciate your special meals you have during this winter season. 

   We are thankful for so many things that we cannot even begin to list them all here.  God IS good ALL the time, no matter the difficulties or challenges that come our way and we truly thank Him for our daily lives and His provisions in so many ways, including our supporting friends and churches.  May He continue to bless each one!

Prayer Requests:

1.     Salvation of unsaved family members of our believers

2.     Open witness amongst families of secret Christians

3.     Miss Tsuzuki’s salvation

4.     Safety in traveling through winter months—roads always have snow on them here. No salting done.

5.      More to come to Sunday services after personal invitations 

6.      Praise for Ken’s surgery and the witnessing opportunities taken

7.      Praise for many jars of applesauce and apple pie filling in the pantry after receiving free apples

8.      Prayer for continued healing for Ken as he fought a fever for 5 days after the surgery; recovery is slower

9.      Preparations being made for Christmas Evangelism through the yearly program (held on 23^rd of December.)

10.   One of our believer’s mothers passed away. Praying that Satan does not use this to discourage Mrs. Hashimoto

11.   Business to pick up for Mrs. Sonoda’s husband in his job as local plumber.  For her to be encouraged even when the bills are not getting paid.

12.   Need for contacts for pastors & churches on the East Coast (if you can help in any way, we would appreciate it!)

Serving Christ Together,

Ken and Vicki Mansell 

Just A Prayer At Night – 

your evening is our daytime

 Vicki on overnight trip-visited famous Hokkaido cookie factory

 the wonderful applesauce and apple pie filling

Halloween...so not needed here either

Although Halloween wasn't celebrated in Japan until recent years,
it's becoming popular year after year. Many stores sell colorful
Halloween decorations, costumes, and sweets. Also, many Japanese
cities/towns, shopping malls, and theme parks hold fun Halloween
events in September and October. Halloween parades, costume parties,
and trick-or-treat events are often observed in fall. People in
Japan enjoy ghost storytelling and haunted attractions more during
the summer.

Kosupure (cosplay) has been popular among Japanese youth.
It's a Japanese word for costume play. Costume play in
Japan usually means masquerade. People dress in
anime/movie/computer game character costumes, uniforms,
samurai/ninja costumes, kimono, and more. Lots of people
enjoy wearing various costumes and make-ups/masks and
becoming to their favorite characters.

Japanese society has always been amenable to taking things
from outside the country and filtering them through their culture,
sometimes with unusual and unexpected results. Halloween is no different,
and if using holiday images will sell more products they are very happy.

Pets are adored in Japan; some say over-adored. Cats especially - this is the home of Hello Kitty after all. Halloween gives over-indulgent pet owners one more excuse to lavish their pets with love, though from the look of this costumed kitty it may be unrequited.

 There's not much you can do to give snacks the Halloween touch... I mean, pumpkin makes a decent pie but not much else, right? Wrong - in Japan, pumpkin is a popular flavor. Who'd have thought the gourd could go gourmet? The clincher  came when Nestle Japan introduced pumpkin flavored Kit Kat bars.

It is believed that Halloween contains many of the remnants of an autumn holiday celebrated by the Druids called Samhain (apparently pronounced "sah-van" though some say SAH win or SOW in--and apparently meaning "summers end"). There historically have been pagan figures with names that are similar to this. But even in other countries there are similar holidays that have to do with spirits of the dead.  The Japanese celebrate the obon,  in which they are honor the spirits of the dead who they believe return home to their families. The obon is a Buddhist tradition and is celebrated from August 13 to August 16. In welcoming back and honoring the spirits, the Japanese place foods, flowers and paper lanterns around their family altars.

A tradition that coincides with the obon celebration is the Japanese folk dance bon odori. The participants of the bon odori dress in kimonos and dance with the beat of Japanese drums (taiko) in the background. There are even sometimes contests for the best kimono style costume.

Is it no wonder that fear can rule this country?  During halloween Ken handed out tracts explaining the origins of halloween and the answer to the spirit of fear.  In one class he taught at a local school, 4 out of 4 students when asked what they are afraid of (for their speech that week), they all said, ghosts and spirits!! 

The Bible says "Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.  Isaiah 44:8

May we have the freedom to continue to share the true Word of God and the salvation it can bring: not only for the souls of each one but can take away all fear! And may Satan's lies that include halloween as just a playful holiday be truly brought to light all across the world!

(some information found at: http://inventorspot.com/articles/halloween_japan_eight_crazy_frights_18399 )