Whoever is of God hears the words of God.
— John 8:47

A2/Japan Retreat... in-person!

A few weeks ago, A2/Japan held an encouraging retreat in Okutama. It was the first time in three years that our entire missionary team met together and Silk and I were barely able to squeeze in with the covid restrictions.

Perhaps you've resolved in 2021 to read more Scripture or to pray more consistently. If so, I think you’ll enjoy this new prayer app that a friend recommended to me. It helps me do both—to actually pray the Scripture every day!

It’s a short, simple, daily reading and prayer prompt that I’ve found to be helpful in my devotion times recently: LECTIO 365 is a daily devotional app for your mobile phone or tablet.

My friend has been using it with a few of his prayer partners as a way to share what God is doing in their lives each day.

Here's more information about LECTIO 365 from its website...

2020 turned into an unexpected, unwanted mishmash of uncertainty, anxiety, cancellations, frustration, fatigue, exasperation, anger, exhaustion, disappointment, a kind of seeming unending ethos of dashed hopes, spiraling fears, sadness and grief.

Now I have an enhanced appreciation of the Psalms that so eloquently express the same range and depth of emotion we are experiencing. The writers honestly pour out their hearts to God, and in the process of persistently calling out to Him, they come around to see and experience God as our refuge and strength, our rock, fortress, deliverer, a very present help in time of trouble. I’m so thankful for God’s redemptive work in the midst of the miry mishmash. God takes us to deeper levels of resilience, resourcefulness and refinement.

Asian Access faculty member, Jim Millard, president of Sunrise International, just created a wonderful little booklet that is sure to inspire. The booklet is 30 days of inspirational life messages that I’m sure will lift your soul. Here’s the review I just posted on Amazon.com – 

“This little booklet will encourage you and lift your spirits. Try it. It's 30 days of quick reading and it's sure to...

Ministry Flowing Out of Training

The men and women who volunteer to serve as faculty for Asian Access are experienced pastors and ministers. They teach out of their own ministry experience, and their dream is for our Asian Access leaders to take what they learn and run with it in their own ministries. This dream was recently realized following the May 2018 A2/Philippines session. The couple serving as faculty (who prefer not to be identified) shared a Bible study method they have found effective with unreached... {addthis off} 

What a few weeks I have had! I’ve been in Asia for two weeks, covering three different countries, the first of which included our national directors annual gathering, the second a combined meeting of our international and Japan boards, and the third a visit with my colleagues and friends in another. My first day back home I went in for what I thought was a routine checkup. As I sat down on the doctor's chair, I quickly learned that this was a schedule for outpatient surgery...