VVV OSAKA
DIRECT VVV
February 28th, 2003
The weather here in
Osaka is still chilly, but as the days get longer we are happy to say
that spring is in the air. We are doing fine here and we do pray
that you also are in good health and that the Lord is blessing you in your
walk with Him. The Lord continues to bless us as we work to share the
love of Jesus here and I think you will find that we have some exciting news
in this edition of Osaka
Direct, so please enjoy it and praise the
Lord! God bless
you!
February News
DVD Production has
Started!
Karen shows John, a fellow missionary,
one of her first finished DVDs
We previously shared in an earlier
edition of Osaka Direct about our
purchase of a video camera and video editing software. Now, Karen has
once again demonstrated both her artistic eye and her technical skills by
getting our DVD Bible teaching video project off the ground. Every
week Karen is filming Dan's message at the Osaka International Church and
recording both the English message and the Japanese interpretation. Then,
on Monday she edits the captured video on her computer and reformats it so
that she can burn bilingual DVDs of the message for the church
and for our just-started DVD teaching library, which will eventually (we pray)
provide a wide selection of DVD Bible teaching materials for the cell church
plant and other uses. This first series will be a verse-by-verse
teaching series through the gospel of Matthew. You can read more
about this project and even see the DVD video intro for Osaka International
Church on the web at http://proverbs2525.org/activities/dvd.php.
(Sorry, but the actual video messages are currently too large for our web
site, so only the intro is shown.)
Japanese High
Schoolers who Love the Lord!
High-School Born Againers Meeting (HI-BA)
In the first picture above, you probably
wondered who John was and why he was interested in our DVD project. John
is a new friend and he is a missionary who works with Japanese High
School students. We recently were blessed to attend the Osaka area
spring meeting of HI-BA and really enjoyed seeing these young people testify
to their love of Jesus and celebrate their faith. There were about
thirty Christian High School students present, which made this the
largest gathering of Christian teenagers that I have seen in Japan.
Karen filmed this meeting also and will be making a DVD for HI-BA which they
can use to share the gospel with their friends and invite them to meetings. John
has also indicated interest in partnering with us to produce a DVD of
testimonies by high school students for evangelistic purposes and also to
encourage the believers.
Friends
at Osaka International Church
Tomoko,
Yukako, Yumiko, Yumiko, and Dan at the OIC Office
Two weeks ago, as
we were eating lunch at a nearby restaurant after church, a young Japanese college
student (next to Dan in the photo) leaned over to Dan and announced that
she wanted to be baptized. Although the baptism will not take
place immediately due to her parents opposition, we rejoice that she
has made her decision. In the coming months we will be praying that
her parents' hearts would be softened so that they would give their
consent to the baptism and that their hearts might also be opened to the
Good News of Jesus. Praise His Holy Name!
Budounoki (Grapevine)
Cell Church has a Home!
The lease has been signed, so the new Cell Church will have
office and meeting spaces on the first floor of this building.
office and meeting spaces on the first floor of this building.
After
considerable praying, searching, and discussion, we have rented our first
spaces for the new cell church plant - a four hundred square foot small
business office on the first floor of the building pictured above. Our
original desire to rent small apartments for the church cells to meet in
turned out not to be feasible at this time since nearly all of the landlords
were too concerned that the church music would disturb other residents.
However, we did find that some office spaces are open to
church use and these spaces seem like an equally good strategy for church cell
locations, although more expensive than residential space The
location is at Sekime Takadono which is directly next to a subway stop and
only a five minute walk from a Keihan Line railway station also named
Sekime. This is quite close to central Osaka and it should be a
convenient location for a very large number of people. As you
know, the idea of the cell church structure is that we will eventually have
multiple meeting spaces at various locations throughout the city so we
will continue to look for additional affordable spaces.
Sunrise over Osaka City
The view from our
front door at 7:00 am.
In Japan it
is still a common summer ritual to climb to the top of Mount Fuji
and bow down to worship the sunrise. While we must agree that the
morning sunrise is beautiful, it is not the sun in the sky, but the Son
of God in heaven who is worthy of worship. As spring
approaches and brings many new beginnings for our ministry, we do pray
that these new opportunities will be used by the Lord to bring a day
when the risen Son is acknowledged as Lord over Osaka and that the people
of this city will come to worship Him and not the morning sunrise.
Prayer Requests and Praise Reports
(1) Pray that the Lord would raise up Japanese
partners for the cell church ministry.
(2) Praise the Lord that
He is raising up more and more short-term
workers to help with us this summer.
(3) Pray that the Lord would send His Holy Spirit to
soften the hearts of Japanese parents to not oppose the baptism of believing
children and that these parents might also come to know Jesus as Lord and
Savior.
(4) Pray that the Lord would give
Dan great wisdom for pasturing Osaka International Church and for
making decisions about the cell church plant.
(5) Praise the Lord for the opportunity to work
with the High-School Born Againers and their leadership team.
(6) Praise the Lord for providing an initial
office and small meeting location for the cell church.
(7) Pray that the Lord would provide the
balance of our estimated budget for the cell church plant. We
currently have about 65% of the budget target.
(how to contribute)
(8) Pray for Karen's father, who will once again be
having heart surgery during this coming week.
May the Lord bless you and keep you
always. We hope that you have enjoyed this edition of Osaka
Direct and we invite you to share it with your
friends. If anyone wants to be added to (or removed from) the Osaka
Direct mailing list, just let
us know. God bless you!
In Jesus' love,
Dan and Karen Ellrick
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