The McKee Family in Japan: Update

Hello there everyone, we hope you are all well and looking forward to a nice summer. Well, it has been a while since we have posted any updates about what’s going on here in Japan, and as a lot of things have changed for us recently, I thought it was a good time to make this new update. Before that though, thanks so much to all of you for your prayers, support and encouragement over the last year or so. We miss you and think about you all and hope to see as many of you as possible sometime soon. Thanks! Chris, Maiko, Daniel

Daniel
Daniel is now 9 months old and has full control of our house! He is standing, crawling, clapping his hands, biting everything with his new tooth and generally making a mess! Most Japanese says he looks like me while many Europeans have said he looks more like Maiko. What do you think? Seeing his little face light up when he sees me getting home from work is still the best feeling in the world!

Just back from the UK

In March the three of us headed of to the UK for a family visit where we spent two weeks at my parent’s house in High Wycombe. My sister Louise and her family also came down from Scotland, so Daniel got to play with his two cousins for the first time. We all had a great time and even got this rare picture taken with us all together.

It was really just a flying visit and we didn’t get to meet up with everyone we wanted to see but we did manage to fit in a trip to Nantwich to see Maiko’s brother Satoshi, and a few other good friends up that way. We also met lots of really nice friends of my Dad and Mum and saw their church. We relaxed and generally had a really good time. We praise the Lord that He gave us this time just before we start a new work in Japan....

A new thing....
Speaking of which.... things have really developed recently in terms of what we are doing here. Until now we have been mostly working independently doing bits and pieces of evangelism where we could. However, just last month we have been accepted into a great new church and denomination who have asked us to help with their children’s ministry. They have also suggested that I start their training course to eventually become a pastor with them (yikes!). The church is called Hope Chapel (from the denomination Foursquare) and the pastor who will be training me is a really cool guy.

Actually we are still kind of doing the same things, (our kids clubs and English classes will continue), but now that we have so much more encouragement and help we will be able to develop them all. In fact, we have already developed one of our monthly kids clubs into a Sunday morning weekly children’s church which is really exciting for us. There is also a short adult/staff service before this and the plan is that this will develop into a church plant from the main Hope Chapel church somewhere down the line. We also have a new cell group and kids club open too. So it kind of feels like a lot has moved on recently and we really thank God for using us in this way. The kids seem delighted with the change and we are all really excited about the future!

The children we work with have generally never heard of Jesus and have no real concept of a loving God. Furthermore, about 80% of them come from one parent families, and are often glad of something to do on weekends. This country seems rich, but as is often the case, a quick look under the surface reveals hurts and sufferings in abundance. Our aim here is just to create the opportunity for the love of God to enter into people’s lives and to allow Him to do His healing work. Seeing God at work in previously hopeless people is a great privilege.

Visitors
We still run our mission centre so if anyone would like to do a short term mission to Japan (visiting churches, school, hospitals etc) please give us a call... We would love to have you.

Prayer points:
We know many of you have been praying for us and we appreciate it so much. It’s very encouraging to know and it seems to be working too because God is certainly doing something here! Here are some prayer points we would love you to talk to God about for us. Thanks!
1. Children’s church: Started in April, every Sunday morning in our house. Pray for wisdom and leadership skills for us and for many kids to come and be impacted by the good news of Jesus.
2. Pastoral training: Pray that I can learn a lot, especially how to minister in a Japanese context.
3. Language: Pray a lot about this one please! (But it has been going well recently so praise the Lord).
4. Finances: Our ministry is voluntary and time consuming (although very rewarding). Pray for supporters and thank God that He has provided for everything we have ever needed.
5. Other outreach: Please also pray for our church, kid’s clubs, cell group, mission centre and English classes. Thank you!