Lighthouse's Pie Buffet and the Lord's Work

24 hours of baking, 33 pies, 50 some attendees, and countless amounts of eating pie makes out for a successful day of ministry. The lighthouse hosted an all you can eat pie luncheon on Saturday Feb 27^th. We spent all day Friday and part of Saturday morning making pies for the lunch. The lunch was held in the sanctuary and was one of the most well attended events of the year. Only a select few were actually church members or those familiar with Tsugaru church. The majority were people who were invited from friends or outside the church setting. For many it was the first time stepping into a church. Just the idea for someone to step into a church is a big step for some. It seemed that all who did attend enjoyed the nice atmosphere that was made. Everyone was able to be with someone they knew. Also, everyone filled up on pie which was great as well. It was our prayer that the Lord would bring in many and He did. The hope is that from this experience, those who attended would one day make it back to church for a worship service or another event where the gospel will be shared. Though it was a tiring event it was well worth it knowing that the seeds that were planted will not go in vain.

Galatians 6:9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

Singing in Shrine.MOV

Odate United Church

Building

The church building is old but well maintained. There is disabled access and a wheelchair that can be used if needed. It is heated and air conditioned. It has a traditional church style with wooden pews. There are also a few meeting areas and has kitchen facilities.

Around 25 people attend worship services.

Odate Anglican Church

Church been going for 103 years and was started by a missionary. Around 15 people attend the worship service regularly. They don’t currently have a pastor as the minister reached 70 and retired. A pastor from Hirosaki comes to speak at the church.

Of the church members, 3 are in their 50s, 1 in their 20s and the rest are over 60 years old.

Takanosu United Church

The church runs a pre-school with around 140 kids. There are about 20 people who attend worship services regularly. Special events such as Christmas have as many as 50 people who may attend.

Takanosu Lutheran Church

Missionaries have been at the church for around 8 years. 13 years ago people were praying for the church to be built and God provided a building 2 years later.

There are around 20 thousand people in the local area. The church has around 5 members but average Sunday afternoon service attendance is around 10 to 18. Of the 5 members, only 1 comes every week.

There is an evangelist who suffers depression. Every couple of months people from Odate come to speak at the church. The missionaries are currently looking for co-operating churches to pastor the church when they retire.

Ministry

There are English classes and worship services that happen regularly at the church. It was 4 years before any regular attendance at the worship services. Once a month, there is a morning breakfast for business men to come to. Via this they have had contact with people from various classes of people. There is also a child rearing scheme, which is for ages 4 and down.

They have various meals during events such as Pizza parties, BBQs etc. The church is about to go on a camp together which usually happens every summer.

How could missionaries help?

Possibly team up with Japanese pastors and evangelists and do English classes and cooking classes etc. Then the pastor can teach and pastor the people brought in via these classes.

Aikawa Lutheran Church

Ministry

The minister has always been a church planter and was at a different place before coming here. Around 10 people come to the church every week. Around half of the people are 60 and over.

Every 3 months there is an outreach service and every month is a party style outreach event. The church has stopped having events for kids are they stopped coming a few years ago.

When the minister first came there were around 9 thousand people in the local community but now it has gone down to around 7 thousand people. They wanted to plant a church in a place where they was no church at all, and were praying and felt led to start a church in their home town.

Barriers

Realised that he was religious and followed Buddism but felt it was inside him and didn’t need to meet with other people but then realised that becoming a Christian was about sharing your faith and meeting with other believers. A lot of people see religion as being inside of them and when they become Christians don’t understand why they should meet up regularly.

How could missionaries help?

They find it difficult to co-operate with other churches due to distance so someone to help them to do this would be helpful.

Missionaries can come up with ideas to do things differently instead of doing things the same all the time, such as one missionary in the past suggested they change the time of the service so that they could help at another church.