Dear Friends,

This year, cherry blossoms were in full bloom as we headed into Easter. We gathered with friends in picnics and in our living room. Everyone has been more relaxed than we have seen them since before COVID.

As the start of the fiscal year and school year in Japan, April has marked many new beginnings at Grace City Church Tokyo. Rejoice with us for what God has done this past month:

• Celebration of two weddings and the start of two new Christian families (rare in a country where many are the only Christian in their family)
• Grace City’s previous pastor sent out last year as the first missionary of Grace City, shared about their new thriving ministry to Japanese living in Melbourne, Australia. Exactly one year since his departure, it especially encouraged us to see healing taking place for their family and in the congregation.
• Installation of new leaders in the church: new staff, new elders, new deacons, new pastoral team, and new members
• Roger was ordained as one of those new elders into the Presbyterian Church in Japan (PCJ). (See picture above.)
• Attendance at church and in the youth group steadily grows
• Monthly youth music and worship practice sessions began last month with the goal of raising up young worship leaders. (Video below: Notice how the adults are coaching not playing.)

Other News

• Roger’s book The Broken Leaf was featured on a popular YouTube channel (@7:27 and 9:06 mark)
• On April 3, Roger gave a well-attended organ concert at the chapel of St. Luke’s Hospital, a famous hospital in Japan, and made new organist friends
• On May 27, Roger’s next book A Taste of Grace comes out, continuing the series on Japanese culture about God bringing beauty out of brokenness. Read more about book here.

Prayer Requests

• Pray for our son as he finishes his last month of high school
• Pray for Abi’s parents who are struggling with various health issues
• Pray for joy to continue to spread through the community of Grace City Church and to many in Tokyo
• Five artist interns join us from the United States in May. Please pray for smooth transitions and for God to bless their time here.
• Community Arts Tokyo sent a Japanese musician to Tennessee and artist to Mississippi for church residencies. Pray for their spiritual, artistic, and leadership development.
• Pray for the seventy who signed up for the church retreat the first week of May
• Pray for the big charity concert we host in May for those affected by the earthquake in Ishikawa Prefecture earlier this year