Praise God for the JEMS summer mission teams' safe return at the end of July! Pictured below left, is Koh Ikeda (in light blue), with a hybrid Brazilian team who volunteered to serve alongside of him in a local school project in the city of São Paulo. They made up for the lack of workers from the USA. It proved to be a great opportunity for them to learn and to serve. I will be following up with the Brazilian volunteer workers in late August to do a debriefing and evaluation session. In addition to serving in the city of São Paulo, Koh also served in the city of Presidente Prudente in the rural interior of the country. (Click on photos to enlarge):
The other team pictured served in the cities of Londrina and Assaí in southern Brazil. Greg Oda led the team with Constantino and Anthony Gabrie (all white polo shirts, above). They are pictured with their interpreter, Felipe Nakamura.
After sending off and seeing the safe return of our JEMS summer missions teams, I will personally have the privilege of stepping up to the plate to serve the Brazilian Nikkei community in August.
In just a few weeks, I will be accompanying Holly Yamagata of the LA Holiness Church, to her city of ministry. This is Holly's fifth time in Brazil with JEMS. She will be staying for four months. Holly is pictured below from a past mission with her interpreter, Bruna Sugano.
As mentioned, I will follow up by meeting with churches and organizers to evaluate the effectiveness of our teams in their various cities. Please pray for the schedule planning as well as the arrangements around my dialysis treatments. The international travel schedule for Holly and me is shown below. My domestic travel schedule should be determined by the tenth of August. (Please check back at that time for an update on the ministry program)
Please pray with me as preparations are underway. I'm currently preparing messages to be shared in Portuguese. Pray that God will clear away the rustiness! Thank you!
