September Summary, 2023
The month of September has been packed! Wes and I took this month to prepare for our upcoming mission trip to Japan this October - December, and Natalie who will be joining me on the next trip has been helping every step of the way! Below are some highlights from this month!
2 Commissioning Services
On September 10th Wes Natalie and I were commissioned by Lakeside Church in Haliburton by Pastor Paul Graham. I went to this church when I was growing up, and Natalie and I continue to attend when we visit family in Haliburton.
Commissioning at Lakeside Church in Haliburton.
We were commissioned on September 24th at WMB Church in Kitchener by Pastor Adam Knowles and the leadership team. Natalie and Wes grew up attending WMB Church, and I joined this community when I moved to Waterloo for university.
Prayer Meetings
On September 28th we had a time of prayer for the Japan trip and for myself, Wes & Natalie with some brothers & sisters in Christ. We walked through the Lord’s prayer with regards to the trip and sang How Great Thou Art with the chorus in Japanese. If you would like to join in prayer or sing along, please click here to see the prayer meeting agenda.
At our final dinner and prayer night together before the trip on September 29th, Wes Natalie & I worshiped to Days of Elijah by Robin Mark. We are very excited for the glorious day Jesus returns “riding on the clouds, shining like the sun”! We are excited to share about this day to look forward to with those in Japan. We also know the importance about sharing about this day and about Jesus - as salvation is through faith in Him alone. We know this day is coming soon as discussed in my previous blog post Jesus is Coming Soon. For our trip we designed shirts in Japanese… can you guess what our shirts say?
“Jesus is Coming Soon” shirts (also available in English) and more are available at godlyliving.org/shop
Japanese Language Learning & Culture Preparation
In preparation for Japanese language school, this month I worked to refresh my Japanese. I have all hiragana and katakana characters fresh in my memory! Wes has been learning these two syllabaries as well. These two syllabaries along with kanji (and very occasionally Latin script) comprise the Japanese writing system. There are 46 basic characters in these syllabaries, as summarized in the chart below:
Business cards are a common formal way to connect with people in Japan. In Japan they are called “meishi” and are often exchanged in situations where in Canada there might have been a handshake greeting. As such, I designed and printed my meishi (Japanese side shown below) - with help from a friend from WMB Church who made the godly living logo!
Japanese version of godly living business card.
Did you know godlyliving.org is available in 4 languages?
Check out ja.godlyliving.org for Japanese, fr.godlyliving.org for French, and hi.godlyliving.org for Hindi.
