Merry Christmas From Japan

Tonight we went to Universal Studios Japan to watch their Christmas show, “The Gift of Angels.” As you can imagine, this being Japan and all, we were surrounded by thousands of other spectators, snapping photos and enjoying time with their loved ones. The show was absolutely spectacular and the Christmas tree, with its Guinness World Record setting 360,000 lights, nearly brought tears to my (Heidi) eyes. In this moment, I imagined what it must have been like as a shepherd in the hills of Bethlehem on the night of Jesus birth. Yes, this tree was amazing, but can you imagine an entire sky filled with God’s angels, singing praises to the new born King? Wow!

We enjoyed the Christmas carols that accompanied the show. It seemed a little ironic that a country so spiritually dark was pumping praise songs to Jesus! This was a special moment of worship for me.

We are officially done teaching English for 2014! We are having a Christmas party for all of our English students on December 23, which is a national holiday in Japan (The Emperor’s birthday). Please pray that our students will come and receive the Christmas story with an open heart. 

We wish you a very Merry Christmas from Japan! Let us rejoice in the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ! 

Blessings in the new year! 

Logan & Heidi Foth 

PS- If you haven't checked out our latest video, click here!

This is the amazing Christmas tree with 360,000 lights!!

Have You Ever Heard the Christmas Story?

When reading Paul’s letters, there are many things we have not personally experienced, for example: beatings, imprisonment, trials, etc., but we now have a new understanding of the joy he must have felt when reconnecting with loved ones. We had the privilege of hosting my (Heidi) parents for 10 nights during November. We were blessed and encouraged by them and thoroughly enjoyed showing them our new life in Japan.

Our English classes have been going well, and we rejoice in the 37 students the Lord has hand-picked. This week we had the opportunity to share the Christmas story with our students; the majority of them had never heard it before. After sharing the story of Jesus’ birth, it became clear that our neighbourhood is a Least Reached People group, meaning these people have never heard the Gospel. This fact hit home when we told one of our students, a 77 year old, well-educated man, the Christmas story for the first time.

As we learn more about Japanese culture we realize that they are inclusive toward many religions. The average Japanese person has a Shinto birth, a Christian marriage and a Buddhist funeral.Therefore the idea of one religion, and one religion only, is extremely foreign and goes against Japanese culture. Please pray that the Japanese would not see an exclusive belief in Christianity as a hinderance, but would experience the joy from a personal relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

We also ask for your prayers in the following ways:

-Continued Japanese language comprehension

-Sustained interest of community children in weekend programs

-Interest in our students to accept our Sunday morning service invitations

-That our students would hear the Christmas story as Truth, not fiction

-Emotional stability as we prepare for an unusual Christmas

Thank you for your prayers and letters! We love hearing from you!

Logan & Heidi Foth

My mom (Donna Neudorf), me, Maki and Yuko Okada enjoying the beautiful fall colours in Kawanishi City.

Logan surprised his father-in-law with tickets to the Japan All Star Baseball game!

Logan & Heidi in Shukkeien Gardens in Hiroshima City.

A trip to the Onsen

This weekend our pastor, Abe-sensei, took us to his home in the neighbouring prefecture of Wakayama (about an hour and a half drive from OBC). During our time with the Abe’s we experienced amazing hospitality and generosity. We felt so at home spending time with them, it felt like we were visiting Grandma and Grandpa.

On Sunday we had our first Onsen experience. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, it is a Japanese natural hot spring. At the onsen, men and women separate into different areas and bare all in the name of relaxation! I was quite nervous, being well aware that a city boy from Canada would stick out like a sore thumb! However, after sinking into the first of six hot baths, all my fear and nervousness melted away.The sixth, incredibly scenic, bath was so hot it felt like I was stepping into a pool of lava in the mouth of a raging volcano. After settling in, I could literally feel the marrow in my bones begin to heat up. It was at this point, looking out over a picturesque landscape, that an overwhelming sense of peace overcame me. This feeling of peace brought John 14:27 to mind, which says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” 

Most Japanese people visit the onsen regularly because of the peace and relaxation it brings. However, Jesus offers us a peace that is free and continuous; it is a deeper peace than any hot springs could ever give. Please pray that the Japanese people would come to know the Peace we have in our Lord and Saviour. 

In regard to our English classes, we are now up to around 30 students! PRAISE THE LORD! God has been faithful in responding to the many prayers for more students. As we settle into our weekly routine, we now realize an unexpected challenge and duty here in Japan: empowering the local church leaders!

At the moment, only our Wednesday class has a “chapel time,” lead by the pastor, Abe-sensei. Since he is not at the church everyday, we need other church members who are willing to share the Gospel with our English students. We feel it is important for the Japanese to hear the Word in their own heart-language. Though we do have church elders present during our lessons, they do not feel qualified to lead a devotion because they do not have the ‘Pastor’ title. Please pray that our church elders would feel a sense of duty and joy in sharing the Gospel, and that God would provide them with the confidence to do so.

Thank you again for your prayers!

May the LORD bless you and keep you all,

Logan & Heidi Foth

Outside the Abe's home in Wakayama

One of our students dressed us up in Kimonos!

Moi Samte (OBC's previous English teacher from Japan Mission), Mr & Mrs Abe - Adventure World

New Beginnings

Hello to you!

It's hard to believe the month of September has already come and gone. We happily welcomed the month of October, as with it came our new teaching schedule. Instead of only teaching one day a week, we will now be teaching three days a week. Thus far, we have had about seven new students register! Praise God for his faithful provision! We've enjoyed meeting these new students and are encouraged that some people have actually noticed the English flyer in their newspaper or mailbox. Please continue to pray for more students to join our class and that Logan and I would have patience as we wait. We find peace knowing that the Lord has already hand-picked each student He wants to join our classroom.

We are continuing to settle into Japanese daily life; our apartment is starting to feel more and more like our home. We began private Japanese language classes in mid September, which have been going  so well! Our teacher lives in the neighbourhood and teaches both English and Japanese; we are very fortunate to have such a great resource so close nearby. We aim to study at least one hour everyday, as the language barrier continues to be our biggest challenge in sharing the Gospel.

Somedays we feel very useless and we ask ourselves, what's the point in us being here if we can't even tell someone about Jesus in his/her own language? However, John 13:34-35 has been a strong reminder and encouragement. It says "So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples." Our main duty is to demonstrate God's love and the fruits of the Spirit to the Japanese people.

Thank you for the many prayers and words of encouragement many of you have sent our way. We appreciate your support so much!

Praise & Prayer:

-Praise God for our new English students, as well as fellowship with local Japanese people and our MB Mission team this month
-Please pray that Logan and I would be able to demonstrate God's love through our daily living
-Continue to pray for our Japanese language development/communication
-Pray that we will keep feeling more at home here in Japan, and also for our marriage as we adjust to spending every waking minute together... :)

Thank you!
Logan & Heidi Foth

This photo is from a baseball game we attended Sept. 27th; Osaka's Hanshin Tigers!

A Quick Update

Hello Everyone,

For those of you who do not have Facebook, we've added our videos to YouTube. Feel free to check them out to see what our life looks like!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH3FWdb48UQ&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aBJOObKwSo&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owRAAOe9hUU&feature=youtu.be

It's been a good week. We enjoyed visiting Nara Park on Monday with our fellow English teacher, Moi Samte. This park is famous for all the deer roaming around freely. They were very hungry and enjoyed eating snacks from the palm of my hand! It was such a fun experience!

Nara is also the location of many Buddhist temples. It was sad for us to watch the Japanese ring a bell to wake up their god before they said their prayers. Please continue to pray for the people of Japan; that they would come to know the one, true God, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ... who does not need to be awakened!

Blessings to you today from Japan!

Logan & Heidi Foth

Logan turns 25!

We’ve officially been in Japan for over two weeks now. On Wednesday, Sept. 3 we had our first day of English classes. It was good to meet our future students and get a feel for what we’ll be doing here. However, for the month of September, there will only be English classes two days a week. 

As a result of this meagre schedule, we have been feeling very restless as we wait for God’s plan and vision for our time in Japan to fully develop. Our schedule is not what we anticipated, having very few English classes for now. But we hold on to the wisdom in 1 Corinthians 15:58, which says, “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”  We have been challenged to view this time as a lesson, and struggle to see what God is trying to teach us through it. 

Today we were blessed to spend the majority of the day with the Okada family. They truly feel like our Japanese mom (Yuko-San), dad (Masa-San), brother (Hiro-San) and sister (Maki-San). We celebrated Logan’s 25th birthday by having Japanese BBQ (Yakiniku)!!! We enjoyed such delicacies as cow tongue, heart, arteries, stomach, lungs, and pretty much everything other than the hooves! haha. Although your stomach may be turning, it was all delicious!!! We have enjoyed trying new foods in Japan, as this is one of our hobbies as a couple. 

In our first few weeks here, we have already learned so much about hospitality, generosity, kindness and love. As we move forward, we ask for prayer in the following areas:

• Language learning
• Culture adaptation
• Wise use of time on open days
• That God would reveal his intention of this time
• Continued patience and strength in our marriage

Thank you & God bless you!

Japan Update

Tonight we had the chance to meet with the Pastor of Osaka Bible Church (OBC), Abe-Sensei, and a few other members of the congregation. We discussed our schedule for the upcoming year and are feeling very excited, challenged, and eager to see how God will use us in the year to come. 

Right now, there are only a few students signed up for English class, so for the month of September we will be stopping by local Jr. High and High Schools to drop off flyers promoting our English class. Our goal is to build relationships with these students (they are very awe struck by two foreigners) and show them the love of Christ that lives in us.

The church is distributing 10,000 flyers, which will advertise our English class through newspaper and personal delivery. Please pray over these flyers; that they would interest the Japanese and that our English classes would flourish this fall. This is our most urgent prayer request!

As we are learning more about our mission here, we ask for your prayers in the following areas:

• Enrolment in our English classes would exceed our expectations
• Easing of the language barrier
• Representation of all generations within the congregation
• Guidance in developing outreach programs (youth program, cooking class, coffee club…)

Thank you so much for taking an interest in what the Lord is doing in Osaka, Japan. Please email or write to us anytime! We’d love to hear from you!

email: heidi.loganfoth@gmail.com

Address:

Osaka Bible Church

Logan & Heidi Foth

3-12-24 Kamiji Higashinariku

Osaka-Shi, Osaka-Fu

537-0003

Japan

Arrival to Osaka, Japan

Aug. 24, 2014

We’ve been in Japan for three full days now and are still transitioning our internal clocks 15 hours ahead. Our emotions have been up and down! Our home is beautiful; we’re on the 5th floor of the Osaka Bible Church. It’s hot up here, but our air conditioner brings our bedroom down to a cool 26 degrees C! :) From our kitchen we can see a river that runs through our city and MANY houses along narrow, one-way streets. We like to look out our window at the people down below and the little turtle that lives in the river. 

Today we met our church family and had the opportunity to share our testimonies, which were translated into Japanese. The average attendance is between 25-30 people per Sunday and the average age is 68 years old. Needless to say, we stand out! The people are so kind and want to make sure all of our needs are met. We had a lunch after church today and we shared some maple cookies for dessert.

After lunch we had a church meeting where we found out a little bit more about our church, neighbourhood and assignment. It was interesting to hear their side of things; apparently we were an answer to prayer! This thought never really crossed our minds, but it’s so neat to see Ephesians 2:10 in action, which says “For we are Christ’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do.” 

The Japanese culture has been overwhelming, and we appreciate all the prayers we can get! There is very little English spoken in our church, making the language barrier our biggest challenge. Continue to pray for us in our language learning and for revival in the Osaka Bible Church.

Thank you so much! 

Domo arigato gozaimashita! 

Logan & Heidi Foth