Spring 2016

Greg and Rachel LilleyNewsletterSpring 2016
  Once again we’re so sorry, it’s been far too long since our last update. So much has been going here in Japan that we could fill a couple of pages with things that are exciting and amazing. We have seen amazing breakthrough in both our community and in our lives as far as ministry goes. We wanted to share some of those things with you as we move forward.
As a community, probably the biggest news is that we have moved into a new base. This facility comes with a house attached to it, so it’s actually 2 different buildings that we are newly renting. The base itself could house up to 36 students and also has room for staff to live in separate quarters. And it gives us our first real meeting space as a community. It also has a large kitchen and space for us to have community meals for our community which has grown to over 40 people that was originally 5 or 6 when we originally encountered YWAM Tokyo.
Please be praying for our community as we are renting this facility, but we would like to own it and the cost of purchasing the base would be about 2.5 million dollars. Here is a link to the video that describes the base and the vision for it.
Link: https://vimeo.com/148823553
Our community has also just finished our first bilingual DTS where we saw Japanese and Many other nationalities raised up as missionaries. We graduated our 15 students this last Monday and sent them out. We are excited to have several of them planning on joining us as staff. 
Rachel has been very involved with our weekly worship and ministry night called the “Living Room”. We have been seeing many people encountered by the love of Jesus, and there have also been people healed in body and emotionally. It’s really powerful to see people raised up as worshippers and ministers. We have also been taking steps to record an album of the songs being written in our community. We hopefully will have more news on that in the future.
Our community has continued doing out reaches in Tokyo on Friday nights and has been seeing people come to know Jesus. We are also studying language as a community and processing what it looks like to start house churches here in Tokyo.
We have personally been able to pioneer a worship night on Thursday evenings that is focused on ministering to the Lord. We wanted to have a place where our family and families in the community their kids and be able to worship together. It’s often noisy but the wonderful thing is we are seeing the fruit of it already in our kids lives and it’s something they look forward to.
This coming summer, Greg will be leading the next DTS here in Tokyo. He will be co leading with a good friend that we are on the leadership team with. One of the most exciting things for us in this season is that Greg is also planning on leading an outreach team to Hokkaido during that time.
Family wise, we have been in a very busy season. This past October we moved into a new house!! It has been a journey of faith for us and we are thankful for more space and a place for our family to grow. This past November, we also welcomed our fourth daughter Angela Emiko Hope into our family.  

  She is a joy to our family and her sisters enjoy her greatly. Rachel has been homeschooling Arianna this year and we have seen her advancing and growing quickly. She is reading, writing and doing math quite well. She is an avid learner and it is great to see her blossoming into a good student. Megumi and Psalm are both doing great as well. They are active and enjoy playing with their sisters. They all enjoy drawing and it seems all have a gift for art as well as singing.
At this point in time we would love to share with you some things we need prayer for and breakthrough in. As always, for missionaries, it seems we need more support and we are in that place as well. In the past when we’ve had need, God has paused us in communicating that need and asked us to trust in Him and it has always worked. It is not that God has changed in this season, but He has asked us to communicate with our friends and family some of those needs.
We would ask that you would join us in prayer to see 700-800 more dollars more a month to come in, and that God would raise up multiple supporters to see that amount come in. As our family have grown, our financial needs have grown as well. But we realize that God has called us here to Japan to do more that survive. He has called us to walk in radical generosity and to be able to do the things He has called us to do. 
Practically, one of the things we need is a Mac Book Pro as ours has just died. We used it constantly for ministry as well as for schooling needs for Arianna. We would also like to in the not too distant future purchase a vehicle. Traveling around on public transportation works well in Tokyo, but as we start building relationships in Hokkaido and start looking towards moving there we are needing a vehicle so our whole family can travel together and be a part of the journey. As well as our expanding ministry to parts of the body here in Japan. Rachel in particular is part of a ministry to see worship released in Japan which means she would need to travel more.
We are also praying about possibly enrolling Arianna and in the not too distant future, Megumi in the local Christian School which is excellent. They have very reasonable rates especially for missionaries. But for us that would mean an increase of at least $7,000 for Arianna for this next year and then again to enroll Megumi the following year. We are open to the possibility of homeschooling our kids, but we are also asking the Lord what is His will for them and if He would provide for them to attend school. If you would join us in praying for this that would be very appreciated.
If the Lord moves on your heart to help meet any of the needs we have shared, please follow the link below or let us know.

Support

We would also like to share with you a a video that does a very good job of communicating the need for missionaries in Japan. It is called “Why Japan”.

Link: https://vimeo.com/92343293
Thank you so much for your love and support for our ministry in Japan. It is very much appreciated.
Blessings,

Greg, Rachel, Arianna, Megumi, Psalm and Angela Lilley