Welcome to Adair Update
“The views and opinions expressed in this blog are personal, that of Robert and Roberta Adair and do not necessarily express the view and opinions of Asian Access | SIM, its leadership, or its partners.”
song for the nations
Some of my favorite childhood memories of my church’s Missions Week involve the music. Yep, even as I type this, “Will you be the one to answer to his call…” and “Our God Reigns” are popping into my head. Well, the mother-of-all-missions-anthems when I was a tot was “Song for the Nations.” The choir would sing, the congregation would stand, and people wearing traditional costumes from countries where our denomination had missionaries would march around the sanctuary. (It was better than Christmas!)
The other day, thoughts of “When will we get there? Will we get there?” were wearying as was telling people, “We’re getting close! (Tigger voice)…but we still have a way to go (Eeyore voice).” I borrowed Robert’s iPod and went on a jog, and I heard the song! I have not heard it for probably 15+ years, and Robert didn’t even know he had it.
[Side note: The first time Robert met my family, my mom and I marched down the stairs singing this song. Why? Don't know.]
3 of the 5 verses:
Vs. 1 May we be a shining light to the nations,
A shining light to the peoples of the earth,
‘til the whole world sees the glory of Your name.
May Your pure light shine through us.
Vs. 3 May we be a healing balm to the nations,
A healing balm to the peoples of the earth,
‘til the whole world knows the power of Your name.
May Your healing flow through us.
Vs. 5 May Your Kingdom come to the nations,
Your will be done in the peoples of the earth,
‘til the whole world knows that Jesus Christ is Lord.
May Your Kingdom come in us!
20% to go!
20% to go! As Robert and I have hit the 80 percent mark (Yay! Yippee!), will you join us in praising God for his remarkable provision…and pray with us that the remaining need will come in quickly?
Will you also celebrate with us by listening and dancing to a fun and weird song? It’s called Love Letter to Japan .
“I packed my bag, I’m on my way…I am prepared for any season, I am prepared to stay”
Yeah, I don’t really get the song, but it sure is catchy and fun to dance to! I’m no Japanophile (which, according to urbandictionary.com, is “a non-Japanese person who has a near-indiscriminate love of all things from Japan. Japanophiles watch anime religiously,…collect samurai swords, play un-translated Japanese video games, eat large amounts of Japanese food,… etc.”). …but this song sure is catchy!
One japanese church’s journey to becoming a church planting church
June 2001 I arrived in Katsuta, a small town a few hours north of Tokyo as part of a team of five college students from Aldersgate UMC in College Station, TX. At the time we didn’t realize that God was using us as one step in Katsuta Church’s journey to becoming a church planting church.
Flash back a few years. A recent college graduate from Northwestern (the one near Chicago not Louisiana) came to Japan for a coupe of years as an English teacher. While attending this small Japanese church she had a chance to join a summer team with A2 to another part of Japan. Upon returning Katsua church’s leadership heard about the ministry the team was involved in and became intrigued by the idea of a ministry team coming to work with their church the following summer.
Katsuta church requested a team an in the summer of 2000 three young women from Nebraska came to do evangelism through english classes and other activates. The church members were a part of all of their ministry. They prayed and planned together. Church members took part in classes and outreach activities. Others served as translators for the team. And the church began to see fruit. In 2001 Katsuta began a 4 year partnership with teams from Aldersgate UMC in College Station, TX.
During the years Katsuta church was working with short term teams they heard about the church planting networks A2 facilitates around the country. They decided to join the North Kanto network at which point the pastors began attending training meetings and a church planting associate was sent to assist in the church plant for 3 years. As a result of the churches o
The role of western missionaries in the planting of Omiya chapel was a great example of what we hope for in A2. They came along side the church and helped them achieve the vision God provided. The short term teams encouraged them in the process of doing evangelism out of the mother church. The church planting associate joined their church planting team. But everything was initiated by Katsuta church and it was the members of Katsuta church who did the majority of the work. Now there is a growing church in the town of Omiya and Katsuta church still has a hear to be involved in reaching both it’s city and the surrounding areas with the gospel.
tremendous gospel hope
My sister shared this with me a year ago. Dr. Michael Oh is president and founder of Christ Bible Seminary in Nagoya, Japan, and he spoke at her church awhile back. Some of what he says is difficult to hear, but it is a powerful talk. It’s 17 minutes long – grab some popcorn and a cup of tea and watch. Please. I really, really want you to watch this.
http://www.covlife.org/blog/michael_oh_how_to_pray“…there is tremendous gospel hope. God has promised that he is gathering the redeemed from every tribe, language, and nation. And Japan will not be left out of that promise!”
Please pray accordingly 
(here‘s the link to the video)
“What will you do in Japan?”
This is another common and good question. Instead of answering with a hypothetical hour-by-hour breakdown of what we will be doing (it’s fun to dream!), I thought it would be more useful to explain the components of our schedule. Obviously the amount of time each component takes will vary. In no particular order:
• “Ministry” – This will include planning for and attending organized church-related activities (prayer meetings, church services, Bible studies, outreaches, etc.). We will also be heavily involved in meetings connected to developing a strategy for the church plant.
• Language Study – As the majority of our ministry will take place in a Japanese language context, we will be studying Japanese as long as we’re in Japan. I (Roberta) will be in full-time language study for 2 years; Robert will study part-time. After formal classes are over, we will try to keep 5 hours/week designated for personal study to brush up on weak areas (possibly with a language helper).
• Asian Access responsibilities – This includes bi-weekly meetings, bi-yearly conferences, various trainings, and several means of keeping us accountable. Robert might have a role connected to training new personnel, and we both hope to be in mentoring relationships.
• Networking – Robert might have a role networking with area pastors for other Asian Access related work.
• Communication – We desire to (and are required to 
communicate regularly with our prayer and financial partners. We are committed to consistently share stories and prayer requests related to what we see God doing around us. You can expect to receive newsletters about 10 times a year, and we aspire to blog a couple of times a month.
• Life – This will include spending time with each other and in the Word, exercising regularly, hanging out with friends, resting, eating, laundry, etc. …all those things that need to and should be done.
• “Other” – We don’t know…but we’re assuming we’ll be drinking lots of coffee, visiting people, and hosting game nights in our home. Will we be asked to teach English? Will we have frequent opportunities to do more clean up? Will we join sports clubs or community jazz bands? There are lots of possibilities, but we hope to do what our Japanese partners desire of us.
How these components will be represented within our schedule is still up in the air. We do know that Robert will be more focused on ministry while Roberta will be more focused on language acquisition in the first 2 years.
One complicated issue with vocational Christian ministry is that our “job” includes activities many Christians do in their free time (prayer meetings and the like). We’re realizing, though, that it’s not about defining one activity as “work” and another as “recreation” as much as it is about having the capacity to devote all of our time and energy towards the church plant.
Our prayer request for the day is that we’d spend our time in Christ-honoring ways (whether working or resting) and that we’d quickly develop healthy patterns with our time and energy in Japan.