STSM Field Report #3 – Japan, Philippines, & Cambodia

Today we’ll be sharing updates from our Japan, Philippines, and Cambodia teams! It’s been about two weeks since they have been on the mission field!

Please continue to pray for our trainees and leaders as they continue to share the Gospel across all nations!

Konichiwa!

We are already in our second week in Nagoya, and it has been a privilege to serve the missionaries and people in this city. During our first week, we have been blessed to attend Japanese churches, spend time at a seminary called Christ Bible Institute (CBI), engage in relational evangelism, and teach English to children at various churches. Through this type of ministry, we’ve been able to listen to the testimonies, struggles, and joys of missionaries and Japanese Christians, evangelize in the subway stations, as well as serving the children so that they may come to know Christ. 

Looking into our next week of ministry, we will be spending time at Bethany Kindergarten and supporting our missionary contact, Pastor Paul by participating in outreach events for NC3 and ANF church. During this time, we hope to be an encouragement in word and deed to our brothers and sisters in Japan, as it is very difficult and lonely to be a Christian in a society where barely anybody has a relationship with Christ. We also hope to share the love of Christ and the Gospel to everyone that we meet! 

As we continue ministry in our limited time in Japan, please pray over…

1. Relationships with Japanese Christians

As mentioned, being a Christian in Japanese society is difficult. Please pray that we may serve these missionaries, interns of CBI, members of the Church, and struggling Christians in love and to treasure the short amount of time we have with them. 

2. Team Unity & Overall Well-being

Through our long days of ministry, please pray that our team may be united in Christ and that we may bear each another’s burdens. Please pray for our emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual health as we press on and continue to serve Japan and one another. 

3.Spiritual Warfare

We came to this country knowing that less than 1% of people in Japan are Christian, but actually being here has made the spiritual warfare more evident in this nation. Please continue to pray over those who do not yet know the sweet joy of having a relationship with Christ! 

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers and for all your support. We appreciate all our supporters and will continue to fight the good fight in Japan!

Hello from Solano! The team has been in the Philippines for over 8 days and our ministry has consisted of community outreach, church encouragement, VBS, and street evangelism.  The team traveled to different neighborhoods and knocked door to door to share the gospel and invite people to the local church and VBS. It was a blessing to have multiple community days so that we could revisit families that we had met previously.  The team also partnered with Lord of the Harvest Church to host presentations in a high school and local plaza in Casat. We arrived in Cabuaan yesterday and held a church service, Sunday School, and Bible study here.

While our ministry so far has been relatively local, our future weeks will involve visitations to mountain churches and the different communities there.  Some locations include Ambaguio, Murong, Santa Fe, Bokiwan, and Bascaran. We also look forward to hosting a service at Manang Chit’s, our missionary contact, church, Agape Presbyterian Church!

Prayer Requests:

1. From Manang Chit: there is a training at the Faith Project (Agape Presbyterian Church) on August 2nd and 3rd, so please pray for clear weather during that time. Please also pray for safety for the team as they travel to mountain churches.
2. That the team would exemplify biblical unity and serve the staff and the locals out of humility and faithfulness

Suostei from Cambodia! Thank you so much for your prayer and support! We have arrived in Cambodia safely and have enjoyed 1 week of ministry already! Our first stop was at ITCS, a local seminary located in Phnom Penh, where we taught VBS dances to the seminary students, played soccer with them, and evangelized in the neighboring villages. We will return to ITCS in our last week in Cambodia. Currently, we are finishing up ministry at TIM School, an elementary school in Siem Reap run by Missionary Stanley, where we’ve been teaching body worship, performing VBS skits, and teaching English. It has been a huge blessing to spend time with these kids as they are the future of Cambodia and show a lot of enthusiasm and promise!

Next week we will be working with Agape International Missions, a non-profit that works to end human trafficking and to provide opportunities for survivors of exploitation. Sex-trafficking and exploitation is incredibly common in Cambodia. At AIM we will be partnering with AIM’s Kid’s Club and teaching Bible stories to the local Svay Pak children. We will also be having Bible study with the young disciples (ages 15-18) and leader disciples (ages 18-25) who volunteer at AIM. During our time in Cambodia, it has been a huge blessing getting to know Missionary Stanley and his family. His wife has been cooking us delicious Korean food, bringing us local fruits to try, and has been sharing his testimony about how he became a missionary. A few of us also had the chance to visit the Angkor University where Missionary Stanley teaches and give guest lectures on how to write essays in English. We even received a certificate and met the chancellor of the university!

Some prayer requests:

1. For the children of TIM school to grow up strong and health, and to know the love of their heavenly Father.
2. For our team to know the all-surpassing worth of following and knowing Christ.
3. For the people of Cambodia to find true healing and salvation is the one true living God.