Today is our 6th wedding anniversary and we spent the day in Ome at Rose Town Tea Garden where we got married. If you're in Tokyo and want to see the beautiful Japanese countryside and have a romantic meal, I highly recommend it (Check out their site here). Kanae will be a year old on July 4th and she's growing so fast. She's learning new things every day, which makes being parents a joy. In fact, just last night we got a little anniversary gift from God. She took her first steps!
A day after her birthday, she will be admitted into Keio University Hospital to have eye surgery to correct her blepharophimosis (a rare genetic eye condition that my father had and that I have). It's a two stage operation, so she'll have to go back again later, but this one will be the more difficult one, so she will need to be hospitalized for 10 days. The surgery is something she probably won't remember, but she'll need to go through life with eyes that look a little different. It's something I had to deal with and hopefully will be able to help her along the way. We would certainly appreciate your prayers for God's wisdom and guidance.
As for ministry, something we've been focused on more this year is opening our home to brothers and sisters who are hungry for learning scripture. We meet people often who say they want to learn more, but their church situations don't facilitate any real deep study. There are also cases where some have left their churches due to various issues and have a hard time finding a congregation to be a part of where they can grow (it's not like America where there's 200 churches to choose from within 20 miles of any given location). So we've been spending time with a handful of these brothers and sisters recently just having good fellowship and learning together. We care about believers being able to discern what's being taught and whether it's true according to scripture or just humanistic self-help motivational speaking that makes people feel good about themselves but doesn't help them know the mystery of Christ. There are also traditions (some of them possibly unique to Japan) that can be stumbling blocks for people. Please pray that we can continue to minister to them and anyone who is seeking to have a place to simply learn and grow and be encouraged.
On a related topic, the interlinear bible project is coming along well. However, there's some quite sad and difficult news to share. The brother who built the framework for the database and got the whole project started passed away earlier this year. His passing was hard for all of us who knew him, but we know he confessed Christ and was striving to walk in faith. I have felt especially motivated to continue the work on the interlinear project and have dug in more to the original code that he wrote to learn how to maintain everything on the back-end while still continuing to make improvements on the front-end. We all feel this is an important project to give Japanese believers a way to study the bible in the original languages, so we also would appreciate your prayers and that we would all be strengthened to complete this work. I believe it's also a fitting way to honor the memory of a beloved brother in Christ.
This winter my wife took an online class to learn web development, as well. We've been praying for a while about the possibility of starting our own tentmaking business (digital tents, that is) as a way to support our family, and we're finally at the point where we are ready to launch into it and are currently building our portfolio. We chose the name Kalos Web Crafters (kalos is the Greek word for something that is good or beautiful, like the "good fruit" that Jesus talks about). I finished our home page this week, so please check it out (and drop a line if you need a website or if your site needs a fresh coat of paint...or bilingual Japanese/English content). --> Link
As always, thank you for your prayers and support. As the pandemic "is over", borders have opened up and missionaries are starting to come to Japan again after 3 years, so there are a lot of opportunities on the horizon. Please also pray for God's work of salvation to be done in this country, but especially that there would be real, true spiritual growth in the churches here.
Much love in Christ,
Kyle, Ai & Kanae
We are serving in Japan under A.C.T. International, a registered 501(c)3 organization. If you would like to support us through donations, please visit this page.