Welcome home

Dear community,

This morning, our dear friend Eri was welcomed home to Jesus. We've been asking you to pray along with us for Eri during her struggle with cancer in the past year. Today, she is free! We told E that we had a sad-and-happy thing to tell him, that Eri's body has died, but her spirit is now with Jesus. Sad for us, because we won't see her until we die, but happy for her, that she is healthy and strong, with a new body, and her same sweet spirit, made perfect. He thought for a while, and then in a tickly whisper in my ear, "can I tell you something happy? You know, when I die, I will get to see Eri in heaven!" Even in death, Eri offers such beauty and grace as we gather to mourn, remember, celebrate and anticipate when we're all together again.

Please continue to pray for Eri's husband Hideo, who is not a Christian, and who is facing much grief tonight and in the coming days. We will celebrate Eri's life at a service this Sunday night.

Advent is coming; all that is evil and wrong will be not only rectified, but actually undone, and re-formed into beauty and truth. Amen!

Eri, last winter, just before her first round of surgery

Newsy November

Our table in the fall

Our maple tree out front is in full colors, brilliant red and green, mixed with the wet-brown trunks, and the yellow ginko. My favorite colors, for sure! We keep reminding ourselves that winter begins in January in Tokyo - we're managing to stay warm, but this is only fall! 








Prayer update: Thanks for praying for our sweet friend Eri with us! Sadly, Eri's cancer is worse, and she's in hospital, struggling to breathe. Please pray for peace for Eri and for her husband Hideo. "Your prayers sustain me," Eri writes. 

CAJ and surroundings in the 1950's

CAJ's 65 years of blessing! This fall, CAJ approved a new head master, starting in the 2015-2016 school year. Dr Tom Norton graduated from CAJ years ago, and has been serving in various schools, including a Christian international school in Korea. This year, Tom has worked alongside both of us in the Bible and Guidance departments. We're sad to lose him on a daily basis in our offices, but glad to have his leadership for CAJ in the coming years. We're grateful to be at CAJ in the 65th year, and continuing on into the future!  

Bamboo dishes for our picnic lunch!

Neighborhood news: We traveled to an organic farm with our neighborhood friends this month. Basically, a chance for city folks to get out and play in the countryside. We're excited to deepen relationships with neighbors, and to invite a new friend from pre-school along too, Masato and his mother Maya (pictured next to us in the pink jacket). 
I (Caitlin) enjoy gathering with other Christian pre-school mothers to pray for our preschool, the teachers, the other mothers, and our children's school experiences. It is a blessing to be able to share with these moms, and definitely helps expand my Japanese vocabulary! In early December, we plan to host an open house for preschool moms. We plan to read the Christmas story and share cookies and tea - many Japanese don't know the meaning of Christmas, other than the advertisements in department stores and the jingle of holiday music. Join with us in praying for open, curious hearts!  

Future plans! As we lean into life-long ministry, we're gathering a "cloud of witnesses" to pray for us and support us in our ministry. Particularly as we're moving more tangibly into areas like our local neighborhood and a new church plant, we feel the need for richer prayer support. Like last month, we're in the throes of many big decisions: buy a house, shift our ministry focus, Japanese school vs international school, summer plans, etc. Please pray for wisdom as we discuss, dream, and act. 

We're planning an extended trip to the States in May and June!
We feel called to be here long term, which means we need more accountability, more connection and communication with established churches, and more prayer support. We are working on pursuing community and church visits in May and June, and we'd love to connect with as many people as possible. Would you like to see us and hear about what we are doing? Let us know if we can connect with your church, small group, Sunday School, or community in some way, and we will try to visit, this summer or in the near future!

Do we have your address? We love sending new year's post cards! If you haven't gotten one recently, we don't have your current address. Please let us know so we can send you one this year! We'd love to get yours too, if you're sending them out! 

October ocher (E's current favorite color)

Sports day; can you find him?

Last night, our extended family gathered (even via skype!) to celebrate the 100th birthday of Nelle Caitlin's Grandpa Foxy, who went home to be with Jesus one year ago. We remembered the time he and grandma happily napped on newspapers right in the middle of a busy beachfront on Catalina Island. The time he gave away his prized new camera to a friend, keeping his old one for himself. The time my sister and I fell asleep on the terrible hide-a-bed in their Pasadena living room, listening to grandma and grandpa pray through the list of kids and grandkids by name. Grandpa taught us to love Jesus, to love each other, and to love Japan. We are here because of him, and are humbled and blessed to continue the good work he began. 

Visiting our dear friend Eri! 

We celebrated the birthdays of both of our older kids recently. We’re so grateful for healthy, compassionate, cheerful and interesting children! Please pray for wisdom as we learn to parent them better each day. We’re especially mindful of the many relational opportunities that come through our pre-school community; please pray for all of us as we connect with the other families and build relationships. Tomorrow, we will travel out to the country with friends to play on an organic farm. 

I'm two!

I (Caitlin) have found juggling my various roles to be particularly stressful recently. The transitions between parenting three wonderful but energetic kids, managing the day care at CAJ, keeping up with the preschool schedule and community, managing Japan Harvest publications and working at CAJ are exhausting. I love the various things that I do and the roles that I serve, but it is hard to keep margins and stay emotionally healthy. Please pray for wisdom about how to balance my various responsibilities.

Ryan lead worship at our new church plant;
yes, we meet in a cafe!

We find ourselves in the midst of many conversations about long term planning: should we buy a house instead of paying rent? Should we keep our kids in Japanese school or move them to American school? Should we continue to have both of us work and our kids in day care, or should one of us stay home full time? We need wisdom! We’re not rushing any of these decisions; please pray along with us as we seek God’s plans for us.

Birthday in the park with best friend Yui!

Our good friend Loren, Yui's mom  

We're planning an extended trip to the States in May and June! As we've come to understand the ways that God uses our particular personalities and strengths, we've realized that it's no accident that we live and work in Japan! Japan is no stepping-stone for us: our application for Permanent Residency in Japan was recently approved, and we're finding ourselves increasingly comfortable conversing at length in Japanese, and fulfilled in our relationships with our ever-expanding circle of Japanese friends. As CAJ students become CAJ alumni, we are blessed to hear back from them that we had a meaningful role in their academic, spiritual, and personal maturity. As we've come to see that we are called to be here long term, we've realized that we need more accountability, more connection and communication with established churches, and more prayer support (see the section above regarding stress!). We are working on pursuing community and church visits in May and June, and we'd love to connect with as many people as possible. Would you like to see us and hear about what we are doing? Let us know if we can connect with your church, small group, Sunday School, or community in some way, and we will try to visit, this summer or in the near future!

Two months!

Love to you all!

Ryan, Nelle Caitlin, and kids

Sunny September

It was one of those mornings. When the hot cereal burns to the pan; when the bathroom mat gets peed on moments after it comes off the clean laundry pile; when the baby cries and cries; when we forgot to bring socks downstairs with the rest of today's clothes; when I bump my head on every door frame even though I know I have to duck. And so we sat, sniffling, to take a deep breath before heaving all four of us onto the one bike, and the page falls open to this: "Faith is like grabbing on to that branch [when you've fallen over a cliff]. We just reach out for God. And he is the one who saves us. Our strong God is the one who rescues us--not our strong faith. Because faith isn't just you holding on to God. It's God holding on to you." Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing by Sally Lloyd-Jones

kin mokusei

I wish I could send you a whiff of our yard right now! Fall is such a glorious time in Tokyo. The kin mokusei, orange osmanthus is blooming by our mailbox and it smells heavenly, mixed with the scent of smoky burned leaf piles, katori senko mosquito-repellant incense, and hot sun.

Family of 5!
photo credit: Rachael Alexandra Willson

The kaki persimmon tree near the kitchen window is drooping with orange fruit. Yesterday, Ryan and E picked over 60 kaki and put them in a basket outside our house with a "please help yourself" sign. They were gone within an hour! We love being in a place that is so markedly seasonal - hot, sticky peach season gives way to nashi asian pear, which cools into autumn kaki time. Hints of winter mikan oranges are on their way!

We're grateful:
1) Christian Academy has entered its 65th year! We're delighted to be part of the rich heritage of this place. But we're also looking forward to growth and new things to come. Read more about CAJ's 65 years on our Head of School's blog.

2) Ryan is teaching 2 classes of Bible, while overseeing the whole department. His new co-teacher is a veteran teacher, a graduate of CAJ, and has made a fantastic start. We're so grateful for good colleagues! Ryan is also teaching Industrial Arts again, which he is thrilled by. I (Nelle Caitlin) am still part time in the Academic Counseling office, and enjoying 1-2 days at home to catch up on the rest of life.

Loaded up for play time after youchien

3)  Work for Japan Harvest continues this year, although it is tricky to find time in between all of the other urgent moments! I love being able to contribute to the greater missionary community through sharing ideas about the nature and needs of missions in Japan. Please check out our pilot online version!

4) We made it through the second half of this month without Grandpa! We're very grateful that Grandpa Ethan Pettit was able to spend half of August and half of September with us, arriving two days before V was born, and then continuing on through the start of school and youchien pre-school.

So much else is going on, it's hard to pick and choose between all the stories; we hope you enjoy this snapshot of our month, and we love hearing back from you!

Every once-in-a-magical-while, this happens!

But, there is also a lot of this . . .

August update

The air is cooler, although the path outside our house still teems with kids in bathing suits and cooler-and-tent-laden parents on a saturday morning. Tubing on the river that runs along our path is one of the most popular activities in our town.

Sleeping sisters

I've been reading a book from my sister in law (very slowly - on page 201 after 2 years). It's about shame and courage, called Daring Greatly by Brene Brown. Brown talks about the courage to engage in relationships in a real way, allowing that real relationships require vulnerability, the openness to being hurt. It's a challenge for me, since I strongly prefer to avoid uncertainty, unpredictability and discomfort. Yet I'm growing to understand and engage with the inevitable cognitive and emotional dissonance that comes along with real relationships. A quote from today's reading: "The biggest challenge for leaders [or teachers or parents] is getting our heads and hearts around the fact that we need to cultivate the courage to be uncomfortable and to teach the people around us how to accept discomfort as a part of growth" (199).

One week old!

Thanks for praying for us as we welcomed our baby! Waiting is always a refining and exhausting process. Amusingly, our neighborhood waited with us, with many friends peeking their heads in the window every morning to ask, "mada? not yet?" She was born after a quick (3 hours) and straightforward labor. She is a calm and relaxed baby so far, patient with the intense adoration of her siblings and cousins! We named her Vera Izumi (means spring water or clear, discerning thinking).

As usual, the school year begins with an intense wave of work and renewed responsibilities. Ryan is delighted to be teaching industrial arts alongside his Bible classes again this year. There's something about smoothing and shaping wood to create new shapes, and seeing students wrestle with problem solving in tangible ways that accompanies the more cerebral work of a Bible or English class so nicely.

Thanks for praying with us!

1. We're so grateful for a healthy new baby and a wonderful little person to get to know. Please pray for us as we learn to parent three kids with wisdom, patience and humor.

Meeting grandpa

2. We're excited about our work for this year: Ryan will be teaching HS Bible and Industrial Arts; Nelle Caitlin will be working part time in the Academic Counseling offices, managing the publication of the Japan Harvest magazine, and getting to know other moms in the community. Check out Japan Harvest online! Please pray with us as we work out the details of our daily schedule for the new term.

3. Please join us in praying for our dear friend Eri; we've mentioned her several times in the past six months. Her cancer has returned, and she is now undergoing another round of chemotherapy. Please pray for her wonderful husband, Hideo. He is not a Christian, but is very devoted to his amazingly Godly wife. When our pastor visited Eri last week, Eri wrote (her vocal cords were removed in a previous attempt to eradicate the cancer): "She is now more convinced than ever of the power of prayer, and that she feels prayer has sustained her."

And then there were three!

She's here!

She's here! 

Thanks for all your prayers and good wishes. 

July 14, 2014. 3,800g at 9:45 PM after a quick and uncomplicated labor. Everyone is doing well!

Steamy July

Family trip to a park 

We're sending out this letter a bit early since we know we will be extra busy after the baby is born; thanks for celebrating with us!

What's ahead

1) We're grateful for the margin this summer offered, and look forward to the last few weeks of summer holiday. Please pray with us as we anticipate the renewed demands of the next term. Ryan's teaching schedule will change somewhat, but he hasn't gotten a final word on which new class he will be teaching.

2) Nelle Caitlin's father, Ethan Pettit, is able to come help out for about a month as we adjust to life with three, and return to our work and school schedule. We're so thankful for those who have conspired to make this trip possible! Please pray especially for my mother, continuing to work her regular job and create beautiful wedding flowers in his absence.

3) Although our baby is due August 10, the midwife is hoping for an earlier delivery because the baby is already full size (3kg) by Japanese standards, and very healthy. We remind her we are, after all, "big" foreigners, so our babies are also big, but also try to comply with her exercise regimen and recommendations. Please pray with us for a healthy delivery and smooth recovery, any time in the next few weeks!

This muggy month . . .

As I write, a sudden rain shower blissfully cools the air blowing in our 38 C (100 F) kitchen. Now that rainy season is over, it is hot! Today, Ryan and E spent the hottest part of the day in the river outside our house, along with many, many neighborhood kids. L and I spent the day trying to stay cool inside while recovering from our head colds.

Find of the week: a rare kind of stag beetle right in our yard!

The timing of this baby gave us an unexpected holiday. While summer is typically filled with travel, masters classes, family visits and trips to Sendai, this year we decided to just stay and rest. Obviously, we are sad not to be at family gatherings and catch up with lots of you in person, but this summer gave us lots of margin that we probably wouldn't otherwise claim.

Post-hiking stretch!

Since we are in Tokyo for the summer, Ryan was able to squeeze in a few trips with his brother's guiding company. He wakes at 4AM, eats a quick breakfast, catches the first train of the morning to meet the day's crew of nervous hikers at a downtown hotel, and head for (as E says) "mountain Fuji." The saying goes "you're a fool if you never climb, but you're a fool if you climb more than once" - no comment on guides who summit dozens of times a season! Hundreds of thousands flock to this famous mountain, eager to claim the summit: weathered hikers, overweight tourists with bad knees, families towing young children: during peak season, the flashlights of hikers trying to reach the summit by sunrise makes a snake of light visible from hundreds of miles away. Hiking becomes more like shuffling through a crowded train station or shopping mall. For Ryan - naturally prone to introversion - the constant chatter with clients was by far the most taxing part!

Each pregnancy has been a major cultural experience. As we work with local caregivers, we discover ways in which pregnancy and giving birth are intensely cultural processes - certainly our vocabulary is now rife with unusual words! Although westerners find layers of clothing, leggings and long walks ludicrous in a hot summer, adherents to Traditional Chinese Medicine swear by keeping the core body and stomach warm and staying fit. As our midwife said, those who give birth in hospitals can eat and wear whatever they want during pregnancy, and rely on doctors to bail them out if something happens. However, those desiring a natural, traditional birth must do the needed preparation. We're doing our best to respect our caregivers, and to discern between cultural, medical, and opinion.

making shave ice with neighborhood friends

To cap off our "last" activities before the baby comes, our last organized "English play time" found our small downstairs rooms crammed with 12 kids and 5 moms, jumping on the couch, kicking balls, cuddling guinea pigs, spinning out shave ice for snacks after reading time. Our small air conditioner was no match for the constantly opened doors and many bodies - really, we were all just waiting for the after party: swimming in the river! We will see each of these neighbors over the next few weeks as we all cluster around the shady parks and river to stay cool, and we look forward to resuming classes in September.

 Thanks for tuning in! Next time you hear from us, we will be a family of 5!

Soggy June

Welcome to Tokyo June: it's rainy season!

I, the Lord of sea and sky, I have heard My people cry.

All who dwell in dark and sin, My hand will save.

I who made the stars of night, I will make their darkness bright. 

Who will bear My light to them? Whom shall I send?

Here I am Lord, Is it I Lord? I have heard You calling in the night. 

I will go Lord, if You lead me. I will hold Your people in my heart. 

Dan Schutte, 1981

(Sung annually at CAJ graduation)

Pray with us? 

We're so grateful

• The school year ended well for CAJ; we’re excited to move into the pace of summer work, and looking forward to next year! 
• We celebrated our 34th birthdays and 7th wedding anniversary this month - we love being married to each other and we’re grateful for health and friendship. 
• We spent the end of the month on a short vacation to Sendai, where we got married. The ocean is gorgeous, and we love the projects we get to work on in the cabin, which is over 100 years old. This is the area where the tsunami hit hard in 2011 - we’re so excited to see how much renewal and growth has taken place here. One of our cousins is working for Ishinomaki Christian Center, a growing Christian community just north of where we are; we’re really excited about the projects going on there - check out their website!  

Prayer requests

• We are so grieved that our good friend Eri is struggling with a relapse of cancer, this time in her lymph glands (she was diagnosed with throat cancer and underwent surgery in January; see our February post for details). Before getting sick, Eri took care of our kids several days a week, and is one of the pivotal “mothers” at our church. Please, please pray with us!
• We’ve been praying for a while for our young friend Luke, struggling with leukemia. Earlier this month, Luke had a bone marrow transplant with bone marrow donated by his older sister. We pray that this transplant will be successful and that he will be restored to full health soon. Luke is six months older than our son and we have known this family for many years. 
• Ryan’s brother has a guiding company that operates here in Japan; throughout July, Ryan will assist him on several trips, guiding international tourists up Mt. Fuji. Pray for safety, good company with his brother, and for good health and energy for Caitlin at home with the kids in his absence. 
• July and August bring many changes for us. Please pray as we prepare for our new baby, while also reconfiguring our life around less CAJ work and more Japan Harvest magazine volunteering for Nelle (details below).

Blueberry jam!

As CAJ's class of 2014 walked across the stage, Ryan was there to shake hands with each one (and catch them if they tripped off the platform steps). E and I (Nelle Caitlin) watched the live stream at home, since I came down with yet another migraine that morning. So many faces and memories. The boy who cried in my office when he didn't get into any colleges. The girl who spoke brilliantly about the mingling cultures in her class. The ones who got the top scholarships and the ones who have yet to hand in their last assignments. We know we can't really take much credit for these young women and men, but we do feel we have "held these people in our hearts" these past years, and we will continue to keep them in our hearts as they move on to other places (at least 21 different schools in at least 4 different countries, and counting!). 

In summer, the heated floor doubles as a ball pit!

Glimpse of daily life. Japanese school continues apace, with a summer holiday starting in mid July. (our neighbors think we Americans are very strange - perhaps lazy - for taking such a long summer holiday!) Since we generally take the same route to school, we become familiar with the faces we pass. The busy commuters racing on their bikes, morning canned coffee in one hand, morning cigarette wafting from the other. The construction site that we check on every day to see which machines are running. The cheerful garbage collectors, waving from their purple truck, chiming music to let everyone know to bring out their last minute garbage. One morning, a mother I recognize from E's pre-school handed me an envelope, and said in embarrassed Japanese, "I'm sorry, it's a letter." I opened it and inside was a note in beautiful, careful English, "thank you for smiling at us every day. My son and I see you each morning and it makes us happy." I admit, I teared up in my office - it had been a tough morning, racing between home, pre-school, day care and finally my office at CAJ. Since Maya wrote me the letter, we've chatted a few times, and plan to get our boys together to play soon - Masato is in the class above. Indeed, the little things do matter! 

Big changes ahead! Starting July 1, I will drop to a very low percentage contract at CAJ. We're excited about the opportunities that allows, but also nervous about what it will mean for our budget. Ryan will stay at full time, with some shift in his teaching assignment - more details as we finalize those decisions! For me, less time at CAJ means more time to connect with other moms in the neighborhood. I'm really excited about getting to spend more time with moms like Maya, Yuko, Aya, Yumi, Chieko, and Yu.  

When the kids have the camera

I will be filling in as a one year replacement for the editor of a magazine, Japan Harvest. This publication connects and engages missionaries to and those interested in Japan. Although primarily a print publication, we're testing out an online version: let us know what you think! I'm excited to connect more richly with the network of Christian workers in Japan, and be more engaged with the dialogue that supports, informs and encourages this group. Note: I will send out Japan Harvest specific prayer requests to the JH praying community this year; would you like to be on the list?

When the kids have the camera

And most importantly, our third baby will arrive in the next 4-6 weeks! We're grateful for a healthy pregnancy so far, and looking forward to meeting this little one face to face. We're working with the same group of midwives, and hoping for another smooth labor, delivery and recovery. 

May Miscellanea

We're grateful!

1. We’re grateful for healthy, happy kids, a healthy pregnancy, and that we’re nearing the end of the CAJ school calendar. E’s Japanese pre-school will take a summer break in mid July, with the Japanese calendar. 

Gifting Bible story books

2. We’ve had several great opportunities to connect more deeply with friends in our neighborhood and deepen those relationships (details below!). 

3. Thanks to the generous donation of friends and supporters from Chattanooga, we were able to give copies of The Jesus Storybook Bible (by Sally Lloyd-Jones) in Japanese to each of the kids who comes to our house weekly for “English play time.” We love this story Bible and read it often with our kids, and we’re excited to be able to share it with our friends!

Join us on our knees?

1. Our third baby is due August 10 (the hottest time of year in Tokyo!); so far, the pregnancy is going well, and we feel relaxed, although we know three will be an adjustment! However, Nelle Caitlin has frequent pregnancy-related migraines that are often very intense and last for several days. Please pray that these ease up soon, now that we’re into the third trimester and the home stretch!

2. We’re wrapping up this school year, and preparing for the next! Pray for the newly elected student leadership that Ryan is working with, helping them plan for next year and prepare to work together as a group. We’re excited, but it will be a particularly challenging group (details below). 

3. Starting in September, Caitlin has agreed to step in for one year as managing editor for the magazine Japan Harvest, published by and for missionaries to Japan. It is a big project, and all done by missionaries who volunteer their “extra” time to the magazine. We’re looking for editors to help fill in as the primary editor is on home assignment for the upcoming year.  

She's ready for anything!

Snapshots from this month

When I first arrived for our first pre-school/youchien mom prayer meeting of this school year (the Japanese school year starts in April), I was surprised to see the “leader” of the moms in E’s class there as well. Our group of 5 moms + younger siblings pushed aside some pews in the neighborhood church, and knelt on the floor, passing around “quiet candy” and toys to the little ones to keep them from getting too wild. It’s a struggle for me to keep up with everyone’s Japanese, but thankfully, everyone is very understanding, and one of the other moms, Tomomi, speaks English and can help me out when I get too lost. We briefly introduced ourselves. As Chieko, the leader mom, introduced herself, I learned that she didn’t consider herself a Christian (Tomomi commented aside to me in English, “she doesn’t think she is a Christian, but I think she actually might be”) Chieko came to pray because she is interested in Christianity, and she and her daughters attend church when they can. Her older daughter, now in elementary school, attended a Christian pre-school simply because it was the best pre-school in their former neighborhood. This daughter brought home stories and values from her Christian teachers to her family and they all became curious. However, Chieko’s parents are strongly opposed to Christianity, and so she doesn’t consider herself Christian, out of respect for them. As Tomomi read from Psalm 103, Chieko pulled out her well-worn Bible. All around me, I find individuals like Chieko - drawn to Christianity and Christian fellowship, but prohibited from openly becoming Christian by pressure from their families. Pray for Chieko and her daughters, one of whom is E’s classmate, as they toe the difficult line between respecting family and following their own hearts’ desires. Pray for wisdom as I interact daily with these women, and as our children become friends.

Ankles deep in mud

Catching frogs in the rice field

“We do rice field ministry” commented one of our former CAJ classmates, now raising his family in rural Japan. Rice fields take generations to mature, the soil carefully leveled, every centimeter paced out, surrounded by mud walls to keep the water in at just the right time, in just the right amount. Last Sunday, we drove out of the city with our friends to plant rice by hand. The farmer told us he started the seeds sprouting in the winter, allowing them to grow in his greenhouse. Now, they are ready to be planted in standing water, to flourish in the heat of summer. I thought about our friend’s comment as I selected 2-3 individual sprouted rice grains from the pallet to splat deep into mud, well over my ankles: ministry in Japan takes generations to mature. Relationships and trust form slowly, organically, like layers of carefully tended mud ready to host tiny rice sprouts. Choose the next grains, and push them deep into the cool mud. When finished, the fields are a grid of brilliant green. Ours, planted by hand instead of machine, is a bit wavy in places, but nonetheless lovely. In September, we plan to return with these families to this field to harvest “our” rice. In the way of the rice fields, we slowly layer smile, upon shared food, upon conversation upon shoulder-to shoulder in the mud with these neighbors, our friends. 

This week, Ryan planned and co-lead a retreat for all of our high school student leadership, both those who served this year and those elected to serve next year. It’s a full two day agenda, with opportunity for the outgoing leadership to pass on wisdom and experience to the newly elected group. Key staff members go with them on this retreat to encourage, mentor and challenge the young leadership. We’re grateful for lessons and literature from both of our master’s programs, which fuel the curriculum and conversation! Please pray for the group of young leaders ready to take their turn leading the student body - a daunting task! The group elected to serve next year is made up of very powerful and influential individuals, the sort of people who will likely shape the future of multinational corporations and missions in Japan. Yet they are full of their own struggles and need honest, wise mentoring. Pray for Ryan and the other staff who will walk with them on a daily basis next year.