Welcome to fall and I know for many of you that means cooler temperatures. Not quite like that over here, but the weather is slowly changing…down to 28 degrees at night now when I come home from classes, so that’s a great blessing in itself.

I hope you’ll enjoy catching up with the latest news from Nagoya and if you have some time, please drop a few lines and let me know how you and your family will be spending Thanksgiving this year.

I will be going to Toyota Higashi Church and celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving with Phil & Lydia Hamm who will be coming to visit Japan for a few weeks. It will be wonderful to see them once again and to see many from Toyota Church as well. Please pray for the Hamms as they get ready for their travels…pray for safety and good health.

Thank you once again for your prayers, support, encouragement and I want you to know that you are all very important to me. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families!

The Japanadian

“I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.”  Psalm 69:30

Greetings from a still very hot and humid Nagoya. The temperatures are not really dropping much during the day, but the past couple of evenings have been as low as 24 which has been a nice break from the 32-38 daytime temps. I know that in Canada fall has arrived and I’m looking forward to cooler days by the end of October over here.

A joyful event happened on July 4^th….the birth of my third grandchild…a little boy named Asher. Although Courtney (mom) had a difficult time and ended up with an emergency C-section, she has recovered and Asher is growing big and healthy. He is such a sweetie (as all babies are) and his big sisters, Arianna and Payton, are loving him so much. I was blessed to be able to go to Canada and spend almost a month with them, travelling out to Assiniboia, SK to see Courtney’s family (her mom, grandparents and the grandchildren). It was a very wonderful visit and I was so grateful to be able to do that. I know I wasn’t able to see most of you, however, I can honestly say that in all the years I’ve come back to Canada during August, it was my first real holiday and I was so refreshed after that.

During that trip, I had a wonderful opportunity to go to Regina and meet up with some special friends: Ron & Betty Russell, Allen and Marilyn Bien and Garry & Rita Mae Braun. We had a lovely dinner together and enjoyed catching up as well as praying for Japan. A special thank you to Allen & Marilyn for driving down to Assiniboia to pick me up and take me to Regina 😊 Another highlight of Regina was being able to see Vicki & Kevin Clarke from Parliament Community Church. Vicki has been amazing with helping to connect me with PCC and in the past year was instrumental in working with Kristen from PCC to start the letter writing with the PCC kids and my ESL kids. Thank you Vicki 😊 

While I was in Canada, 2 friends from Japan came to visit Canada. I was able to take them to see the Rocky Mountains and over to Victoria for a day. These lovely ladies are former students from Toyota and choir members with the Okazaki class on Fridays. We were also able to enjoy a lunch with Trevor and his family before heading out on our trip. 

A special blessing was to have a tea time at the Multiply office on Aug. 28^th. It was a time of sharing more in-depth about my ministries in Nagoya, as well as eating some very delicious donuts (thanks Wendy G.). The prayer time for me after sharing was very encouraging and I’m so blessed to be able to serve with Multiply.

But with all the joyful celebrations comes another sad loss. Dave Leppky passed away on Sept. 23^rd in Abbotsford. As you know, his wife and my dear friend Ruth, passed away on June 11^th. This is a difficult time for the family, so would you please lift their children and grandchildren up in prayer as they mourn his loss. I know that we all rejoice knowing he and Ruth are together once again and he is no longer in any pain, but it is very difficult to lose both parents in such a short space of time. This is the third friend I have lost in just over 3 months, and not being there to help support the families through their loss is hard for me to deal with sometimes. Please pray for me to have the strength to keep focused on what God has called me here to do and to not ‘wish’ I was back in Canada at times like these. Thank you so much for your prayers!

Classes began again the first week of September and we had 2 movie times already. We watched “I Can Only Imagine”, the story of Bart Millard and how he came to write this amazing song for MercyMe. If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend it. The students had some difficulty understanding the words because there are no actual Japanese subtitles (the movie was being auto translated as they spoke), so there were times the students couldn’t understand it. This gave way to a good discussion afterwards as I could share in more detail about the storyline. Please pray for our movie in October, “Left Behind”. This movie has Japanese subtitles but the subject may be hard to explain…pray for wisdom and being able to discuss the return of Jesus in a way that those watching the movie will be able to understand.

Prayer requests:

• Please pray for Dave Leppky’s children and families. Pray for peace and comfort.
• Please pray for the movie times in October and that many students will attend.
• Pray for OneVoice Nagoya gospel choir members as we prepare for a mini concert on Dec. 10^th. Pray that the songs will have an impact on those coming to hear us!

Praise items:

• Praise the Lord for new students attending class and movie times. There were 3 new ladies at Komaki’s movie time on Sept. 8^th. Pray for them to return in October to watch Left Behind.
• Praise for a wonderful visit with my sons and grandchildren, and for safe, healthy travels with Trevor & his family and with Yoko & Hitomi from Japan.
• Praise for a safe return to Japan and settling once again into the classes and choir practices.  
• Praise the Lord for a healthy little boy for Hiromasa & Keiko Nagase of Fujigaoka Christ Church on the birth of their son, Kouki, on August 8^th. (Keiko is Hattori sensei & Taeko san’s daughter.)

As I close for this month, I pray that you and your families will have a very Happy Thanksgiving. Let’s be grateful for all we have and share with those around us the love and peace of Jesus Christ. 

Blessings and love,

Wendy  😊