Ahhh....Christmas in America. We didn't quite make it back home to the states for Christmas this year, but we did the next best thing. We spent Christmas Eve with some American friends that live right here in Japan. I'm sure you had a chance to read about our busy Holiday Season in this months Newsletter. So, we wanted to spend a little extra "blog time" introducing our friends and fellow Americans. Well, almost American. Let's start from the far left in the picture above.Meet our friends Rocky and Marla Ayatsuka. Rocky is Japanese and Marla is from Texas. They are independant missionaries living and working in Japan for the past 12 years. However, we call Rocky our Japanese Cowboy. He speaks English like he was raised in the South! He learned it from listening to country music!! Rocky and Marla have a music ministry here in Japan. They tour Japan performing and leading worship at different churches. Their style of praise music is a mix of Japanese and English. Besides their full time ministry as musicians, they also have their local ministries. Rocky helps design advertisements for small businesses. Marla meets with young mothers and their pre-schoolers and teaches them English. They also have a pre-schooler themselves. Hana is 3 and is sitting on the front row next to Paul (she's the one sucking on her thumb....you can hardly get it out of her mouth!) The Ayatsuka's also help with worship in our church. We love hanging out with them! They will be back in the states this April and May doing performances and raising support in Colorado and Florida for sure! Let us know if you would like to meet them!
The family that is in the front row in the middle is the Crescini family....Anne, baby Abby, Mia, and Riz. Riz is from Chicago and Annie is from Virginia. They have been living and working in Japan for about the past eight years. Anne is an English professor at one of the local Universities and has a God given gift for Japanese. Riz also works some at the University...but also teaches private English lessons and is currently working on his MDIV. Riz and Anne have a great ministry with the college students! They have brought many students to visit our church and cafe ministry! Anne has recently had another baby and has made many friends with the Japanese nurses at the hospital. Many of the nurses spend time with the Crescini's and have also visited our church. We thank God that they are such good tentmakers living in Japan!
The two on the front row at each end are Rae and Paul Gateley. I'm sure that you've heard us talk about them before. Both of them graduated from the University of Arkansas and have been living and working in Japan for the past 16 years! We met them the first time that we came to Japan and are so glad we did! We wouldn't be in Japan without them!! They are now in the process of handing over their current church to a Japanese pastor. Pray that a pastor will be chosen this coming year and that their new ministry begins to take off!
We thank God for having other American couples in our church. They have all helped us so much with our transition to life in Japan! It would have been a different experience without them! We praise God for the ministry that all of them are doing in Japan!
