Out to California

This last weekend I took a quick trip out to California to the Mountain View Japanese church south of San Francisco where my friend Aiko Reichard is doing Bible Work. After reading about the friendship evangelism training I did at my church here in Michigan she asked if I would come and train the members at her church. Their church agreed and flew me out there for a weekend seminar.

I understand that this church has not done public evangelism in about 25 years – partly due to the Japanese culture being intimidated by doing proactive witnessing. However, I believe a revival is taking place in this church and that the members have now gained a vision for sharing Jesus with their co-workers, neighbors, and friends and also inviting them to take Bible studies.

On Friday night I had 30 individuals attend my seminar and about 55 were present for the 3-hour session Sabbath afternoon. I incorporated breakout sessions, role-playing, and practical stories and ideas into the training, so the time went by quickly. Everyone seemed to love it!

The only bad part of the weekend was my flight home. My flight out of San Francisco was delayed 3 hours due to mechanical problems, causing me to miss my connection in Chicago by 10 minutes, forcing me to wait for the next available flight – 4 hours later, arriving in Grand Rapids at midnight, followed by another hour drive home. It was a long day!!! But I had a lot of time to think, pray, and read, and count all my spiritual blessings! Now for some photos ...

Aiko in front of her church. It was a beautiful Sabbath day -- the warmest I've had this year. It was great!

I was asked to do a class for the Junior/Earliteen class. Here is my great "students" holding up a prayer journal they had each created for recording prayer requests of others and answered prayers. They also learned how to start a prayer card minisry to let these individuals know that they are being prayed for.
The youth in this church really love Jesus. Here the primary class is singing Scripture and Spirit of Prophecy quotes they have learned to music. It was refreshing also to see the youth lead out in hymns for song service and to sing the most beautiful, uplifting choral music.

Sabbath afternoon we did an activity where each group had a literature kit filled with 25 witnessing items. They read through a list of real-to-life case scenarios and then selected the piece of literature that would be best to give away in that situation based on a conversation shared, a holiday, etc. They loved this activity because it gave them so many ideas for how they can witness by giving small gifts of literature every opportunity they can. One of the best parts of the trip was spending time with friends I've not seen in a long time. It was great to spend the weekend with Aiko. She made the most awesome tasting food for me and really made me feel at home. I was delighted to see John and Ritsuko Triplett who I didn't realize still lived here. I hadn't seen them since they lived in Michigan a couple years ago. John and I go way back to our one and only year together at Hartland College in 1998-1999 and a summer doing Bible Work together in West Virginia in 2000. He now is an evangelistic for Amazing Discoveries. And I must end on this lighter note. We took this walk Sabbath evening in a neighborhood where we found this shopping cart from Whole Foods a few blocks away. Now read the fine print!