We hope this letter finds you well. We have finished our move to Tokyo and are starting to feel more at home in our new house. We are so grateful for the Lord’s timely provision of our house through the gracious giving of TEAM’s retiring missionaries, which allowed us to move into a fully furnished home!
Ministry:Chad has started working in the TEAM’s office five days a week. He is still in the process of getting to know the office staff and learning how the business works. We are very thankful for the opportunities that the Lord has given Chad so far to help out many Tokyo-based missionaries with computer problems and we are praying for many more opportunities to come as he gets connected with other TEAM missionaries in the future. Chad also is continuing to take the Japanese language class one day a week through Skype. Please pray for his consistent and adequate time of study as well as his continued learning of this very challenging language to equip him for effective service in Japan.
Yuki’s Adjustment at School:Yuki started the first grade in Japanese public school at the beginning of April and has gone through a very difficult time of adjustment the first several weeks. It has been very difficult and intimidating for her to be completely surrounded by Japanese children and to have to communicate with them and her teacher all in Japanese. She showed some serious emotional and physical signs of being under stress which was very concerning and difficult for us as parents to deal with. Many of you joined and supported us through prayer and words of encouragement during that time of our need. Recently we have seen gradual and continual improvements in Yuki, which only can be explained by the Lord's intervention in answering those prayers. Words cannot express enough how much your faithful prayers and encouragement has meant to us during this time of adjustment in our family. Through this we have experienced in a greater way, the power and importance of prayer support behind our work of ministry here in Japan.
Earthquake Update:Many of you are wondering what has been happening with the earthquake/tsunami relief. TEAM Japan has been busy with the relief efforts. Many TEAM missionaries have visited and taken supplies to the tsunami-affected areas. We also have utilized our warehouse facilities in Tokyo to store supplies. TEAM doesn’t have an active church planting ministry around these affected areas, but we are actively praying for the Lord’s possible leading of TEAM’s church planting work there in the future.
Update on Church Situation:We would appreciate your continued prayer regarding the Lord’s clear direction to the church He is leading us to be a part of. We were visiting different churches around our area, but with our family going through major adjustments in life in Japan, it has become very difficult for us not having a church that we can regularly attend. For this reason, with much prayer we have decided to hold off on visiting churches for now and to attend SonRise church.
SonRise is a TEAM Japan church plant that meets on Sundays in the SonRise Cafe in Oyama, Tokyo. The Cafe is an outreach ministry run by TEAM missionaries, a small staff and volunteers to build relationships in the community. SonRise is the first church plant for the Tokyo Metro Ministry Initiative (TMMI), which is targeting the seven most unreached wards of Tokyo.
The Lord has given us peace about this decision and we will continue to proceed with prayer for His further guidance on our church attendance . Meanwhile please pray that the Lord will use us in any way to strengthen the faith of missionaries and Japanese believers in this church, fulfilling our ministry vision given by the Lord which is: that TEAM missionaries and Japanese Christians will become more effective and efficient in establishing reproducing churches in Japan by the support and encouragement provided through our God-given abilities and gifts.
Prayer Requests:- Please pray for Chad’s continued adjustment in his new ministry at TEAM office as well as for his consistent and adequate time of study and learning of Japanese language.
- Please pray for Yuki’s continued improvement in adjusting to Japanese public school and for the Lord’s provision of friend(s) there that will make a positive influence upon each other’s lives.
- Please pray for the Lord’s clear leading of TEAM’s possible church planting work in the earthquake/tsunami affected areas in the future.
- Please pray that the Lord will use us in any way to strengthen the faith of missionaries and Japanese believers in church, fulfilling our ministry vision given by the Lord.
Sincerely,
Chad and Noriko Snow
Please go to TEAM’s website at www.teamworld.org to get involved in the Japan Earthquake relief effort.
