Last week we had the immense privilege of participating in this outreach event hosted by a lady in our church here in Machida, Reiko. She is a talented musician, and for the past ten years has been hosting a “music play” class for small children to participate with their mothers. This is not an overtly “Christian” event, but it is held at the church, and for many Japanese this is a big step just to come into the building! Well, she felt the desire to follow up with some of the people who have participated in the past, to keep in touch, and most of all to share the Gospel!
She invited three guests: a ventriloquist, a violinist, and us – to share a word of encouragement about parenting. So, it was the first opportunity we have had to speak on family matters here in Japan!
As usual, the whole family went along. Joshua and Dominique helped with registration…
This is Fabio with Kai (on the left), who is Reiko’s son, and Yuji (on the right), who is the violinist. These are boys that love Jesus! We have spent a lot of time with Kai while he’s been home from Bible college for summer vacation…. 
This is Reiko…
This sweet lady shared the Gospel through her puppets. A talented ventriloquist, she has been ministering in this way for 30 years! And believe it or not, she and her husband lived in Brazil for some six years and speak some Portuguese!
Yuji has been rated number one in musical competitions with college students throughout Japan! What a talent!
And last but not least… us.
Fabio shared about the Pearl of great price that was worth selling everything to acquire… and I translated for him. (This is still a big challenge for me and I do not have a lot of confidence in this capacity yet!!) He shared how the KINGDOM of Heaven is like that pearl… worth giving up everything to obtain. He related this to our family life. The “Kingdom”, in Japanese, is just like the word “country”, which makes it easy to relate to. Just like other countries, it has its own culture, customs, way of thinking and priorities. When we got married, we came from completely different backgrounds, and who was right? We had plenty of conflicts. But we realized that that PEARL was worth getting rid of everything we previously knew or thought to obtain THAT country’s culture. He shared about how God’s culture answers to the needs of our families and all of our issues, and gave some practical examples. 
This family came up to us after it was over to tell us they enjoyed our talk and that it was very easy to understand. They want to start coming to English Time on Friday nights too!
They were the only ones we heard from directly, but please pray that these seeds would fall on fertile ground and take root and flourish and bear fruit!
