Merry Christmas from the Smiths!

We had a good Christmas…though it was rather unusual this year! (I guess it was last year, too!) Our Kumamoto church group had a Christmas outreach on December 23. There were several first time guests, several unsaved, and others we’ve been reaching out to for a while. Norman told me that many attendees paid close attention to the message and seemed to understand what was said. Keiko and I led a separate session geared toward the twelve children in attendance. Keiko did a terrific job presenting not only Jesus’ birth, but also the fact that He grew up, died on the cross, and rose again in order to make a relationship possible with God.  All in all, our space was filled with 30 plus people! Praise God!

The part that made Christmas unusual was that we had two Americans stay overnight during Christmas Eve and Christmas! They are both from Montana, and at least one is considering ministry in Japan. We introduced them to what we’re doing here, and we hope they return soon! (Please pray for more workers here!)

Since our last post, we have bought the building in Minami Aso and are almost finished remodeling it for use as a coffee shop and meeting place for the new church group we plan to start there. We are looking forward to having our first official meeting on January 6th!

Thank you all for praying for the work here, and for us as a family. We look forward to 2019 and to growing ever closer to being like Jesus Christ!