Merry Christmas!!

This California Christmas photo was taken on Saturday, December 23rd from the beautiful Channel Islands harbor! Warmest greetings from all of us: Brandon and Alyssa, Tracey and me.

I am the only one not standing on a rock, by the way.

*
With
o every
wish to my o
friends and family o
for a warm and blessed
Christmas and a very joyous, o
o prosperous and awesome new year
!!
!!
!!
!!

In Brief:

This has been quite a year! Surviving a mild heart attack and major quadruple bypass surgery in February. I'm very happy to be on the road to recovery.

In July, Brandon and Alyssa were joined in marriage. They make their home in the OC.

In September she began working in the nursing field. He started seminary studies with a view to working eventually in ministry. He is serving currently as youth pastor at the church they are attending.

Pictured below are Tracey and her fiance, Will. They will be graduating from Harvard Law School this June. That will be followed by a mid-2007 wedding.



The bar exam follows soon afterwards. It will be a busy summer for them!

Thanks so much for your prayers on my behalf over the past twelve months. I have been encouraged in spite of physical and financial challenges. God has been faithful throughout the year.

God bless you and give you a wonderful Christmas and a blessed new year!
PJ

Heading into Fall 2006

Thank you for your prayers on behalf of the ministry in Camarillo, CA.

Believe it or not, I am coming up on seventeen months in Ventura County with the church. And I am getting used to the slower pace. You'll have to ask me what I miss about LA though . . .



One thing about an agricultural community are the unusual road signs.

Ministry and Community News

The 21st century is mobile. Phones, iPods, we ourselves are a people on the move. We recently said goodbye to a young man who helped us with our youth ministry over the summer. Khary is moving on to pursue a PhD on the east coast. On his last Sunday in November, we were able to fulfill his request for baptism by immersion (pictured below).

Interestingly enough, just after this baptism was held, two people independently approached me about their interest in baptism and church membership. How wonderful! Perhaps we will see that happen in 2007.

Membership
And just as Khary moved on, we were blessed to receive three new friends into the membership of the church on November 19th. Matt and Kayomi recently moved from the San Diego area. Matt comes into membership by transfer. His wife, Kayomi was received by her declaration of faith in Christ through baptism.

Helen recently moved from Phoenix and was received by affirmation of faith. We will also be welcoming George into membership in December. George was unexpectedly hospitalized on the weekend of this membership reception and asked to be received at the next opportunity. We're very excited by the lives God is entrusting to our care.

Worship
We are encouraged that we are making contacts within our community. However that initial contact is not immediately translating into consistent attendance or involvement. I am hoping to work with our leaders and others to better enfold our visitors into the life of the church.

Since I began ministering here, we've been keeping records of the contacts we are making in the community. I have the names of approximately 78 people who have visited the church in the last seventeen months. That's not insubstantial.

Now comes the follow-up. Please pray with me for open hearts as I work with a team of visitors to make further contacts. Of the 78, perhaps 44 are local and have expressed interest in the church. Of the 78, seven have become church members. My prayer is that 2007 will be an action year.

Our worship attendance in November has climbed to an average in the mid-thirties. Our Thanksgiving Potluck Luncheon (which was our outreach event for the quarter) saw almost fifty in worship service with close to fifteen visitors! Pray as we follow up those visitors.

Church Name Change
When I meet some of you in the LA area, the most asked question I've received is "How's the name change going?" Actually, the number 1 question has been, "Are you doing okay?" but name change is a close second.

The recent congregational meetings held separately in English and Japanese revealed no new progress. The English department wishes to move forward with the name change but desires to be sensitive to the concerns of the Japanese speaking. For their part, the Japanese speaking members have no expressed interest in losing the “Japanese” portion of the name.

A special committee will meet in an effort to resolve the stalemate. It is felt that the name change is vital for the growth and future of the English department. One idea that we are exploring is to investigate the concept of a dba ("doing business as") for the English department ministry. That is to say we would retain our corporate name and identity as JACC and then give the English Department a name that reflects where we want to go as a congregation. If anyone has any information for me regarding the idea of using a dba (e.g., legality, financial, non-profit impact, etc.), please contact me.

What Goes Around Comes Around Department
Thanks to Pastor Ted Esaki for encouraging a family to visit our church. As it turns out, the wife was a student at UC Irvine when I was student pastoring a church in Orange County. As part of my ministry back then, I went on campus at the request of some students and conducted a Bible study. I think that we met for one quarter or less. That was - ahem - thirty years ago in 1976. After all these years, circumstances bring her, her husband and two daughters to worship with us in Camarillo. Isn't the Lord amazing?

Financially . . .
Thank you to the many who have expressed their love and support on behalf of my ministry. As regards the financial picture for the coming year, the news is both good and bad. The bad news is that the Pastoral Fund from which I am being paid will be exhausted as of April 2007.

However, the good news is that God has wonderfully provided. The church has been named the beneficiary of a home and property in Oxnard. We thank God for this generous gift which provides a strong financial foundation for the church in the years to come. The determination of how that gift will dovetail with staffing needs has yet to be decided and determined. Please pray that our leadership may move forward with wisdom.

For my part, in addition to the three-quarter salary at church, I have taken a part time job in a local sea urchin harvesting plant. Yes, you read that correctly. I'm sure you never thought you'd read my name together with sea urchins. But I am working sixteen hours a week in the capacity of an office manager.

And though the photo may show otherwise, I don't actually deal directly with the sea urchins. Instead I work on accounts payable, payroll, inventory and daily reports for the Department of Fish and Game. The work is minimal, and so is the pay. But it helps to cover some of my medical expenses.

Learn about the sea urchin industry here. The company I work for is featured in the article.

Health
If you were to do a Google search on the words "anti-aging" perhaps you wouldn't be surprised at the number of responses you would find. I just ran across a CNN article "60s are the New Middle-Age" (click to read).

I am grateful to be in a place where I can write and tell you how blessed I feel to be serving the Lord here. Many have expressed their love and support for me through this health crisis. I'm blessed by your concern and care. It's only been nine months since I was at this point, but I feel very good about the future.

Yes, I'm watching my diet as much as a former consumer of pastrami and chili fries can be. And my medications seemed to have settled down and are not causing too many distractions. There are the challenges of working two jobs, of course, but I am keeping pace.

Please specifically pray for that the stresses of the season and the next two months will be manageable. Every pastor will tell you that this is probably the busiest time of the church calendar. Being a small church doesn't preclude the danger of busyness. Pray that we all might be wise in our use of time and resources.

Wonderful Personal News

My daughter Tracey recently revealed her engagement to boyfriend Will over the Thanksgiving holidays. Tracey and Will are classmates at Harvard Law School and both will be graduating in June of 2007. I've met Will and am very pleased with their decision to move forward in their relationship together. They met at Harvard Christian Fellowship.



You've been so patient through this long letter. Please let me know how you are doing. Drop me a note if you'd care to.

May God bless you richly as we head into the season of Jesus' birth.

Pastor John

Summer's here!

And the beach in Oxnard looks very nice!

It's not fair to post this picture in the midst of such an intense heat wave in California. I hope that you're doing well despite the crazy temperatures.

Health Update

Thank you all for your prayers and support over the last five months. It's been that long since my heart attack and subsequent cardiac bypass surgery. The recovery is moving along - though I suppose not as quickly as I had thought. But God continues to be faithful as I returned to ministry on April 1st. I have been back to a thirty-hour work week for some time now.

Ministry News

Community
In addition to a weekly preaching schedule, the ministry here has included weekly Bible study and visitation. As I get more involved with the community, I am pleased with inroads that are being opened. I was recently invited to serve on a local JACL planning committee and look forward to the opportunity to become acquainted with more folks here.

New Members
Father's Day was a special Sunday as we received three new members into the church and baptized another newcomer to the fellowship.

Our new members are: Louise Hagan (pictured above), Judy Ahn-Kuge (no photo available) and Peter Tomita.


Peter (pictured above, right) retains membership at his home church and is therefore an Associate Member at JACC. He continues to provide leadership for our young worship music team, the youngest being twelve years of age! This is consistent with the first cardinal rule of church planting: involve everyone! (The second cardinal rule of church planting is to count everything that walks through the door on Sunday morning!)

Our newly baptized attender is Khary D'Aguilar, a recent college graduate who now works in the area. Khary, together with a couple of other members, is helping with our youth ministry.

Church Name Selection
We are in the process of selecting and submitting potential names to the congregation for their ratification. Although our intention was to finalize this process by June (06), my health situation delayed progress and discussion. We are hoping to move forward before the end of summer. We can certainly use prayer for grace and strength to accompany this transition.

Training
With our Tuesday night Bible study on summer hiatus, I am offering training workshops in their place. These workshops are intended to be practical lessons in cultivating life and ministry skills. The two-part July workshop dealt with communication. Perhaps the announcement in the Sunday bulletin was a bit too direct: "After someone says hello, are you stuck for an answer?" But most agreed that the workshops were helpful in developing relationship skills.

In August, we return with "Intersections," developed during my time away from professional ministry. The workshop description (from the early 2006 prayer letter)

Pray for this workshop which will be presented on August 8 and 15 at the church.

Preparing for the Wave
We are committed to the growth of JACC. At the same time, I feel a bit unprepared. Sort of like how sleepy Ventura County has been recently inundated with people from LA and Santa Barbara all looking to buy homes here. (Don't ask me how that's coming). Many of our streets are being torn up to install larger sewer and storm drains. Verizon is hiring more installers for the number of new residents coming into the county.

In the same way, JACC is needing to prepare its infrastructure for growth. In the last four months, a good number of hours has been spent with church administration. The developing of policies and guidelines that will assist the church as it begins to grow. Yeah, administration isn't fun, but it's necessary to anticipate the wave that is on its way.

(Click photo to enlarge)

Personal News

I am so pleased and blessed to have been able to attend my son Brandon's wedding day last Saturday, July 22nd. He and Alyssa have been friends since the second grade. She is a wonderful young person. I am sure that you will join me in asking God for his blessing on their marriage relationship.

Introducing you to the ministry of JACC

No. This is not VH1. But let me use this video of our recent church picnic to introduce our church family to you. The picnic was held on Sunday, June 25th.

Special thanks are expressed to Peter Tomita for the photos and videography.

Not able to see the video? Click here for Google video version.

Please keep the ministry of the Japanese American Christian Chapel in your prayers!!

Thank you!
Pastor John

Surgery News - February 24, 2006

Throughout the gospels, the miracles of Jesus affirm and balance his teaching ministry. To present a Jesus without the demonstration of spiritual power is to reveal an incomplete view of the Jesus who continues to minister healing and grace today.

I stand among the many who can attest to God's provision for me in this area of physical restoration.

Thanks to the many of you who have been praying for me over the last two weeks, and apologies to those who were not aware of my situation. I've just returned home and am in contact with many of you for the first time in two weeks.

Thanks most of all to God for his provision and intervention on my behalf, sustaining me through quadruple bypass surgery last Friday, February 17th.

As an update for those who may not know the general information: I went into the emergency room on Saturday, February 11th with chest pains radiating to my left arm and jaw. I was admitted and the next morning confirmed that I had suffered a mild heart attack. Further tests and procedures would reveal that I had 4 blockages to my heart with the worst being @ 90%.

On Friday, February 17th, I underwent open-heart surgery where I had four bypasses performed. I've remained in recovery until my discharge this morning.

There are many who have shared with me the "close call" nature of these last weeks' events. I'm grateful that God has given me the opportunity to continue in life and in his work.

The leadership of the Japanese American Christian Chapel is generously providing me with a month of convalescence to be restored completely. I look forward to being back in ministry by the first of April.

Blessings to you all,
Pastor John

Early 2006 Prayer Letter

New Members
I'm pleased to share that we welcomed ten members (2 full members, 2 associate members, 6 youth members) into the fellowship of the church in December. Two young people were received by baptism and the additional eight by affirmation of faith. Please pray with me that others in our community may be introduced to the church and to the good news of the Savior, Jesus Christ!

Holding Down the Fort
The Japanese language pastor, Rev. Yamamoto, is traveling in February. He is a missionary from Japan working with JACC. Like all missionaries, he is required to deputate (raise financial support) and return periodically to Japan to share updates with his supporting churches. Pray for Rev. Yamamoto, his ministry to the Japanese speaking both here and in Santa Barbara, where he also pastors the Bethany Congregational Church - Japanese Division. Pray for me as I cover pastoral responsibilities for both departments.

Change in status
In a somewhat surprising, and faith-inspired decision, the Board of Elders of Japanese American Christian Chapel voted in their November 2005 meeting to increase my hours to 30 hours/week. The change to 3/4 time status helps to meet my current financial needs.

JACC Annual Report
For an abridged, electronic version of Japanese American Christian Chapel's Annual Report, please request your copy by emailing me here. Accessibility to the Annual Report is subject to JACC pastoral discretion.

Church Name Change
In my very first prayer letter (sent in August), I indicated that the congregation would soon be voting on a proposed name change study. In early November, by unanimous congregational vote in both the English and Japanese language departments, the decision was made to pursue the study of a name change for JACC with possible names being presented to the congregation by mid-2006. Please pray for wisdom and some savvy regarding this process.

Intersections
The opportunities we have to share our personal experience with Jesus come and go very quickly. There are moments when a door in conversation surprisingly opens, giving us an opportunity to share a bit about our relationship with Jesus.

A testimony workshop called "Intersections" was developed during my time away from professional ministry. It is based on the reality that we aren't always given a chance to share our faith. What happens is that we're either unprepared for the moment (and spend the next year kicking ourselves), or we dive in and talk non-stop for an hour (and spend the next year kicking ourselves).

Sharing with friends and family about Christ is a certainly a mandate, but it is also an art. "Intersections" recognizes that the moments God may give us to share are sometimes only minutes or seconds long. How do we share within that window?

This workshop is being offered to our congregation as a training tool for evangelism. Pray that we can learn to utilize the principles of "Intersection" as God gives us the opportunities.

A gospel presentation workshop has been scheduled for February.

Personally . . . .
I was delighted by the opportunity to celebrate my birthday with my children this past week. With Tracey home from Harvard Law School for semester break, together with Brandon and their significant others, we enjoyed dinner at a local restaurant.

2006 will be an exciting year as I look ahead to my son, Brandon's marriage to Alyssa in July. Please pray for them as they make wedding plans.

Financial Support
If you would like to support the ministry of JACC in its outreach to the Ventura County community, please email me here to request a support package. I'll be pleased to send you information on how you can invest prayerfully and financially in the work to which God has called us.