2012 JEMS South America Team Video

The video includes a look back at the ministries of JEMS in 2011 and closes with a presentation of the 2012 JEMS volunteers:

Please enjoy!



For the most current update of Pastor John's ministry, please click to return to the main page.

Pastor John's June prayer letter is online.

Hi Everyone!

I'm slowly trying to transition my prayer letter online. It's been a learning experience, but a good one. I'm hoping that you are encouraged by the many excited faces of those who will be volunteering their time and abilities in South America this summer.

If you missed my print prayer letter, you can catch up here.


Click on pages to enlarge

If God might be leading you to support my ministry at JEMS, please visit this secure link for more information on how you can make a donation via credit card and be an active partner in this work. Thank you!

Support Pastor John (Click)

JEMS 2012 SA Team photo

Please pray as the team prepares for their ministry this summer.  Pray for the visa application process, for better-than-normal airfare prices, for safety in travel and ministries on the field.  

Some dates to remember:  June 15-16 All-California Team Training Retreat at the JEMS office.

First team departs on Friday, June 29th!!

May and June bring us to the training cycle

Click here for most recent May 27, 2012 Update

 

May and June mark the beginning of the training cycle for JEMS South America Summer Missions. We were able to meet recently to undertake the process of preparing our volunteers for ministry and service in Brazil.  We will be serving in four (possibly six) churches from July to September 2012.

                             
(Above) We are blessed to have the training expertise of JEMS staffers, Darryl Wong (pictured top photo, blue shirt) and Justine Morey (pictured in bottom photo, wearing white sweater). They provide the trainees with insights regarding culture, ministry and practical administration (finance, insurance, visa policies). 

JEMS training program includes approximately forty hours of preparation in the areas of language, culture, safety, health, ministry, prayer letter preparation, testimony and devotional sharing insights, team building, protocol and behavioral expectations in-country.
                      
(Above) Because our training began while school was in session or due to employment constraints, we were able to use existing technologies such as Skype to facilitate our training to workers who were offsite. On that particular day, we Skyped in workers from (L-R): Palo Alto, Dallas, TX and San Luis Obispo. 

(Below) In addition to the 2012 JEMS Brazil team (which will have a total of 17 members this year - not all pictured), we were blessed to share parts of our training day with the JEMS Japan Creative Arts Team (seated in front) which will be serving the Lord in Japan in August.  The Japan team will be led by JEMS Music and Media Director, Lowell Sue.


Please keep our teams in prayer as they finish the school year, take time from work, prepare and train, and raise their financial support.  We appreciate your partnership with us!!

April - Blessings of ministry in South America

To view this page full-size, please click HERE


Page 2 of the April Prayer letter:





To view Page 2 full-size, click HERE


Some projects and ministries have been adjusted to better accommodate volunteer schedules.  Please contact the JEMS office for additional information about schedule and calendar changes.


Blessings,
Pastor John

Spring 2012 (February) Happenings

We approach mid-February with great anticipation and a huge request for your prayers.


1.  We have begun our recruitment campaign for summer workers to serve in Brazil and Paraguay.  There are several great opportunities to serve for two to three weeks in July and/or August.  Please contact the JEMS office or drop me an email for more information.



2.  My February prayer letter will be mailed out shortly, but you can see the online version in color at the following links:

• PJ Prayer Letter, Page 1 with missions message:  Click
• Page 2, missions message (continued):  Click
• Page 3, recent speaking opportunities in Gardena and Torrance:  Click
• Response Form - Your chance to respond in prayer and financial support:  Click

3.  Please pray for upcoming ministry opportunities as I serve as guest speaker at Victory Fellowship in Torrance (2/19), LA Holiness Church (2/26), Orange County Christian Church (3/4) and San Diego Japanese Christian Church (4/26).  If there is a possibility to preach at your church or small group, please contact me for scheduling arrangements.  


4.  Two Brazilian Nikkei Free Methodist Churches sent a short term mission team to serve the Free Methodist Church in Asunción, Paraguay this past month.  It was such a blessing, as you will see from the 90-second testimony (in Spanish) of the Paraguayan Nikkei mom who was so happy to be able to bring her child to Kodomo Kyampu (Children's Camp).  


You may not be able to understand Spanish, but I think that you will feel her appreciation for the Christian workers who came to her city to share Jesus with her family and friends.


The takeaway lesson that I want to share with you is that short term missions can make a difference!!



5.  Please pray that my financial support needs will be met.  If you haven't made a commitment as yet, I would like to invite you to consider how you can support my ministry.  Please visit the JEMS Financial Support link.


Thank you!
PJ

A Happy New Year with the Katagi kids!

It is such a blessing to be able to spend the holidays with my children and their spouses.  I am grateful for God's grace that brings us together.  

Click here to view larger photo


Wishing all my friends and supporters a wonderful new year filled with goodness and joy!  


The new year will surely bring with it many new changes and challenges.  But I am also confident that God will provide us with the resources, strength and good humor to meet whatever those new circumstances may hold. 


For those in the LA area, I hope that we will have opportunities here and there to run into each other, either at  your church or some fellowship event.  For those in Brazil, espero que possa vos encontrar um pouco mais tarde no ano novo. 


Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. - James 1:17-18


Happy New Year!  Feliz Ano Novo!
Pr. John  

The Christmas Journey

Luke 2

¹ In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ² (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³ And everyone went to their own town to register.

 ⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

On a personal level, for Joseph and Mary, this census couldn't have come at a more inconvenient time.  We understand from a reading of Luke 2 that she was near to the time of her delivery.

Scholars estimate that Joseph and Mary would have needed about a week to make this 80-mile journey.  Although the average person travels at about 4 miles an hour, with Mary in her pregnant condition, the journey would probably have taken longer out of concern that she might miscarry.  The idea of Mary traveling on a donkey is nowhere found in Scripture, but it is not unlikely.  

Having just completed the process of making the sixty mile journey (by car) from Camarillo to Monterey Park, I can attest to the fact that moving isn't easy.  In fact, it can be very stressful. 

But we are reminded at Christmas, that the distances traveled to provide the world with a Savior aren't simply measured in miles.  God's provision of salvation is measured in grace and humility.  

Grace is evident in Romans 5:8 which tells us that "God demonstrates his own love for us in this:  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  God didn't wait for things to look better.  He intervened when our spiritual condition was at its worst.  

Humility is shown in Philippians 2:6-8 by the example of Jesus who spanned the gap.  Jesus "who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!"


JEMS South America also works to carry the good news of Christ to our neighbors in Brazil, Paraguay and (soon to) Argentina.  It is a journey that overcomes physical miles, culture, language and, in some cases, spiritual resistance.  But we carry the message with the example of Jesus himself.  We go in grace and humility.  

As we make our own holiday journeys this Christmas, take a moment to reflect upon the journey that made restoration with God possible.  A journey which spanned eternity.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Pastor John

Forget the Stereotypes (reprint from JEMS Journal, December 2011)

Appreciation is expressed to Tadashi Suzaki of the Guarulhos Holiness Church in Brazil for his personal observations of JEMS ministry in South America over the last twenty years.  


(For the full sized image, please click the link indicated below).



Click here for full sized image (more easily read).

What are South American pastors and leaders saying about the ministry of JEMS?

Please find the December 2011 copy of my prayer letter in the links below.  Unlike the print copy, these pages are in full color and have both English and Portuguese versions. 

Please take a moment to look through these four pages by clicking on the red links indicated below.


Page 1:  Pastor John's comments + words by Wellington Tsutsumida


Page 2:  Comments by Pastor Daniel Abe and Missionary Koki Nowada


Page 3:  Comments by Pastor Guto Umeki


Page 4:  Comments by Pastor Roberto Shinze Yahiro.


As I transition to full time service with JEMS, I would like to ask you to prayerfully consider becoming a financial partner with me.  For more information, you can choose to follow this link to the secure JEMS Website Donor page:  LINK


Gratefully,
Pr John