, written in January 2000

After 10 years of church planting and field leadership ministry in Japan, we returned to North America in 1995 to visit supporters and to educationally retool for further ministry in Japan. After Dale completed most of the requirements for a Ph.D. degree in systematic theology from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and after a final year of support team building in BC Canada, we returned to Japan in October 1999. We are now ministering in church planting in Tokyo and Dale is preparing for future part time teaching at a seminary in Tokyo.

Review of 1999 Events:

March: Dale and Ann visited Japan in order to set up our church planting ministry and in order to begin the process of becoming involved as a future faculty member at Japan Bible Seminary. At the recommendation of the leadership of both the EFC of Japan and the EFCM Japan, we decided to take on church planting in Tokyo at Sunrise Chapel (a small EFC located in the city of Higashi Murayama within Tokyo). And Dale was invited to give several lectures to the JBS faculty upon our return to Japan.

July: Attended the EFC of Canada General Conference in the Kamloops BC area.

August: EFCM ReEntry Conference in Iowa. Although we were not re-entering North America, this time with leaders and fellow missionaries gave us a chance to touch base again with the EFCM. We had been feeling somewhat isolated due to Dale's concentration on theological studies over the past three or four years.

October 27-29: Moved from Langley BC to Tokyo, in order to take up church planting responsibilities at Sunrise Chapel.

Accomplished Goals from 1999:

* Visit and minister in EFC's in BC and Alberta.
* Orient children to Japan.
* Raise sufficient financial support in order to return to Japan.
* Return to Japan by late spring or early summer. (Oops, this didn't happen until the late fall.)
* Complete negotiations for part time church plant in the Tokyo area.

Goals for 2000: Dale and Ann--

* Develop our own web site to enable us stay in touch with friends, family, and supporters.
* Move forward in our church planting at Sunrise Chapel by bringing unity centered around a shared vision, by encouraging the current activites of the church, and by establishing several new ministries.

Goals for 2000: Ann--

* Study Japanese on a weekly part time basis with a tutor.
* Become involved in an evangelism outreach program for Japanese women based in our church.
* Make puppets in preparation for a puppet program.

Goals for 2000: Dale--

* Complete negotiations for part time teaching at Japan Bible Seminary. The timeline would be to begin part time teaching or lectures in systematic theology at JBS by late 2000 or early 2001.
* Defend Ph.D. dissertation in the spring.
* Publish at least one article as a result of dissertation.
* In conjunction with the EFCA Hawaiian District, Trinity Western Seminary (ACTS), and the EFCM in Japan, help to develop a church planter training program for Japan bound church planters from Hawaii. This could in the future develop into a program for EFCM (and EFCCM?) church planters in or heading to Asia. (Note: the Hawaiian EFCs have committed themselves to sending a significant number of church planters to minister in Japan under the EFCM Japan umbrella.)
* As appropriate and requested, contribute to leadership needs of the EFCM (and EFCCM?) in Japan and in East Asia, particularly in the area of strategy and theological education.

Prayer and Praise Items:

Praise

1. Praise God for our return to Japan and for our relatively smooth re-adjustment to Japan.
2. Praise God for the warm welcome the children received at Christian Academy in Japan, where they go to school.
3. Praise God for the small (about 15 people) but gifted group of believers we are church planting with at Sunrise Chapel.

Prayer

1. Pray for direction and vision for Sunrise Chapel as we make decisions about a bigger meeting place, decide on church officers, and plan outreach evangelistic programs for the year.
2. Pray for the continuing cross-cultural adjustment of Kristy, Bryan and Matthew. It takes about one year for this kind of adaptation to be complete. Pray that they will make significant progress in acquiring the language.
3. Pray that Dale will be able to successfully defend his PhD dissertation in the spring.