In Community:

Spring 2023 Newsletter

On the move

by Marty Dong

Greetings Faith Bible Church Community. As I write this article for the Grapevine, I am enjoying the first day of spring and my wedding anniversary to Lynn. We enjoyed our anniversary by going to our second viewing of the movie “Jesus Revolution,” which is a wonderful and uplifting movie. We also enjoyed dinner together at one of our favorite places, Crossroads Mall, in Bellevue. For many of us, Spring symbolizes awakening and a new beginning. After a wet, cold and dark winter, it’s energizing to have longer sunlit days, warmer temperatures, and more outdoor activities.

One of my favorite winter-to-spring descriptions is found in the inspiring Christian allegory, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. As the story goes, for a long time the country of Narnia was under the spell of the evil White Witch who kept Narnia in perpetual winter. Then the Jesus figure, Aslan the Lion, arrives and the spell is broken.  After a huge fight of good vs evil, Aslan wins and the prophecies of a golden age in Narnia are fulfilled. Thrillingly, the precursor to the coming of Aslan and spring is the phrase “Aslan is on the move.”

Brothers and sisters, Aslan is on the move in our Narnia too. Good things are happening at FBC. More people are returning to worship in person after a winter of COVID. People who are unable to attend in person are still able to participate in classes and in the worship service via Zoom and YouTube.  Opportunities to learn about Jesus and the church through the preaching and teaching ministries are numerous. Baptisms and communion are conducted. Relationships, built through fellowship and service, abound. New people are visiting and joining our community. Discipleship is practiced and growing. Our connections with our missionaries are refreshed through their visits and our prayers for them.

The last few years have been challenging for us. The pandemic literally changed the world and gatherings of organizations, like churches, took a big hit. FBC lost many people through health issues and in response to the pandemic. But as we enter the spring of 2023, a spiritual spring has come again. FBC will continue to do things as a community of Christian faith. Acts 2 describes the early church as a fellowship of believers (and most likely seekers) who “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” FBC will do the same and more. In the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the coming of spring heralded the beginning of the fight for Narnia. Like the story, we also still have much to do. But Aslan is on the move at FBC. It’s going to be a great adventure.

– Marty Dong

Baptism – March 5th, 2023

Yoichiro Ishikawa

Testimony at the Baptism on March 5^th

Hello, my name is Yoichiro Ishikawa. I am very happy to be able to join the family of God and to take a new step forward in following Jesus Christ. Today, I would like to talk about how and why I came to have faith and this day.

Before coming to the U.S. to study, I spent my entire life in Japan. I belong to the majority in this country. I have never had any trouble communicating my feelings and I have never felt suffocated by the culture. In this environment, I did not feel the need of help from others, and somewhere in the back of my mind, I had a habit of thinking that “I can make things happen by myself,” and I tried to take on all the problems that surrounded me by myself. This habit led me to form an attitude of refusing what someone else could offer me and making decisions that were self-serving, which caused me a lot of pain.

However, after coming to the U.S., I found myself in the position of being a receiver of people’s help much more often. I have been blessed with so much help, from the Soul food at this church to the trips to Yellowstone by the ICCB (International Christian Career Builders). I knew that their desire to help came from Jesus’s love. But it was difficult for me to accept that feeling as a fact of course, because I could not believe in the existence of Jesus.

The turning point was a ski trip to Mount Baker hosted by ICF (International Cristian Fellowship). Because the trip took place around Christmas, I had many opportunities to learn about the birth of Jesus Christ and his presence. I learned that Jesus was born in human form and died on the cross to forgive our sins. I was also blessed with numerous helps on this trip. Some woke up early in the morning to make us breakfast, others were sincerely willing to help us with our own problems, and still others drove out of their way to pick us up even though it was below freezing. There was also a miracle of finding a cell phone which someone lost in the snowy mountains. Through these Bible studies and experiences, I came to accept the presence of Jesus as a reality, which I had been taught in various situations. And I have come to accept salvation of Jesus as a reality within myself. This thought made my mind peaceful and allowed me to accept help from others with open mind. When I realize it, I felt God loved me, and I began to trust in Him and to want to love him.

From now on, I want to follow and love Jesus as my father. I also want to love those around me through the love from God. And I want to love people who are suffering like I was before so that as many people as possible can realize the love of God.

Finally, I thank for all the people who have led me to this place. I also thank all those who have gathered here today. And I thank God for this time when we can all share this joy together.

– Yoichiro Ishikawa

ROCK (High School) Lazy F Retreat 2023

by Kenji Kumai

After 3 winters of no winter retreats, the ROCK group finally got to enjoy a weekend at Lazy F on February 3-5, 2023!

So… what is Lazy F, you might ask?  And that is for sure a legit question as most of us have asked that at one point… Lazy F is a retreat facility way in the mountains in Ellensburg, WA.  Ellensburg is located about 120 miles East of Seattle, on I-90.

So now you know what we are talking about when we say “Lazy F”.  But then you are probably still wondering WHY it is called Lazy F??  And that is also a question that we have all had at one point… and it was asked many times by the younger underclassmen as we approached the retreat grounds.  The retreat was once a ranch called “Laissez Faire” which is a French word.  I looked it up so that I could be accurate, and this is what it means:

What does laissez faire mean?

As a noun, laissez faire refers to the practice of allowing people or institutions to act or behave however they want, with little or no interference or regulation. It can also refer to the theory on which such a system is based.

The adjective form laissez-faire is used to describe people or things that engage in this practice or that are based on this theory, such as a laissez-faire economy.

And that is why our ROCK kids love Lazy F!!!  Haha!  We let them act or behave however they want with little or no interference or regulations!!

Of course, I am just kidding!  Kind of… But believe it or not, we actually do take their phones away for the entire weekend!  And they are fine with that in the most part since we are having so much fun while we are there.  It is definitely a time to get away, unplug and have a blast with just our group.  It’s a time to connect and learn and worship.  It’s a time to enjoy the beautiful outdoors in the cold weather and spend the afternoon inner tubing and ice skating.  And a time of hanging out and enjoying meals and snacks together.  It’s a very relaxed atmosphere although it was structured and we 4 sessions.

We all met up at the McDonalds in Factoria on Friday night and left around 7:30pm.  Because we were short 1 car (one of our leaders could not make it), we squeezed into 3 cars (we had 15 of us total including 1 part timer).  We arrived late but we had a “Intro session” to kick-off the weekend.  As always, we spent the rest of the evening playing games and singing all kinds of songs late into the night!  It’s always amazing how much energy these High School kids have!!!

Saturday, we got up and had breakfast.  Chris Jo prepared a “devo” (devotional) for us to do in the morning before our first session.  Our leaders Amy Li, Kelsey Huang and Sam He were our speakers this year.  They each took one session.  Amy spoke on Session 2 on Saturday morning.  She shared on “Identity without Christ” (Romans 8) and shared a very personal and touching testimony.  And ended with an encouraging word that it doesn’t have to end in a dark place.  We have hope in Christ!

We then had some time and headed out for some ice skating and inner tubing down a huge hill.  We are always thankful when no one gets hurt!  : )

After lunch, we had session #3.  It is great when our own students can participate in helping with leading the time of worship.  Kelsey led all of the worship times and was also the speaker for session 3.  She shared on “Identity in Christ” (Ephesians 2:1-10).  She shared some recent personal experiences which related exactly with what she was speaking on.  How our lows aren’t as low and our highs aren’t as high when our identity is in Christ.  She used the analogy of Yeezy shoes, which for some of us older non-fashionable people, is a huge shoe brand that is owned by Kanye West and Adidas.  All young people know this brand of course and the difference in price/ value between a Yeezy shoe and a Sketcher shoe which look identical can be $2,000.00!!  What an awesome analogy to use to make our High Schoolers understand what identity means.  If you want to know more about this analogy, talk to Kelsey or one of us or one of our High Schoolers.  After the session, we broke up into 2 groups (boys/ girls) for discussion time and had great times of sharing.

We then enjoyed more “free time”, playing basketball, ping-pong, billiards, foosball and air hockey.  And more hanging out in our “Trading Post” facility.  We had dinner and then more free time again.  More singing, more games and just hanging out and talking till late into the night and for some, through the night!

We had breakfast on Sunday morning and had our last session.  Sam He was our speaker and his message was titled: “Take up your cross daily” (Luke 9).  He shared that this is what it looks like to have your identity in Christ.  He also shared from his personal life and connected with the kids.

I was encouraged not only by what they shared from God’s word and from their experiences to connect with the kids, but also by how they shared.  Each one of them shared with so much passion and genuine love for God.  There is nothing more effective when reaching High School students than to show how much they love Christ and what it means to be walking with Him daily.  And this is even more effective when each of our leaders care so much and love each of our students the way they do.  It is so genuine and real and the relationships are growing as each week goes by.  We meet every Sunday morning for Sunday School hour and then we get together for events and retreats which helps us to connect individually and build our community.

Amy did an awesome job organizing this winter retreat and everything came together so smoothly!  And the leaders all sacrificed their weekends to be there on top of all that they do regularly.  We appreciate our leaders so much!

We ended the weekend with a final lunch at Lazy F and then collected the disposable cameras which each group had to take pics for a scavenger hunt game that was going on through out the weekend.  Lots of fun memories were made and fun pics taken to remember them by.

Thank you for your prayers throughout the weekend.  We really did sense God’s presence and protection through the weekend.

– Kenji (on behalf of the ROCK leadership team:  Amy Li, Sam He, Kelsey Huang, Chris Jo, Jeanne and Kenji Kumai)

CYC (College/Young Career): Jan-Mar 2023

by CYC Leadership

Hello FBC fam!

Q1 (for the working folks) / Winter Quarter (for the students) has absolutely flown by! Here’s a brief snapshot at what CYC has been up to the past few months:

SUNDAY SCHOOL (feat. Ryan Tsuji)

In Sunday School for CYC we’ve been going over the amazing book of The Revelation. Our goal behind this series was to tackle a part of the Bible that might be difficult to go through when you’re on your own, and try to make it easier to understand and relate to. We’ve been focused on 3 main themes throughout the series, which are: Hope, Endurance, and Worship. In each chapter that we read we try to relate the vision/imagery back to those main themes and how that can help us today as we try and navigate our current culture. Our hope is that we would continue to understand how to ensure hardship and keep our eyes focused on kingdom ideals in our day to day lives.

MONTHLY FELLOWSHIPS (feat. Jennifer Tsuji & Danny Cohen)

January – we hosted our first ever CYC Paint & Sip! This was definitely a new and different type of fellowship we’ve done in the past, but it was great for all of us (even those that are artistically-challenged) to be able to flex our creative muscles and create a few ‘beautiful’ pieces of artwork. It was also fun to be able to see those that are artistically talented be able to exercise their gifts! During this fellowship, we had a GTKY (get-to-know-you) with Sherwin, Mina, and Ken-Xin Chen; we were blessed to hear the ways God has worked in their lives and been faithful to them all these years. One of the goals within CYC is to make sure we are connecting with others in the church family outside of just our group, so this was a great way to be able to help bridge that gap.

February (Gals Night) – the girls of CYC met again at LULUMIÈRE, but this time not to make candles! (though some candles were still bought afterwards :)). This time, we had our first ever ‘Sister Swap’ –  which, contrary to the name, did not mean we were trading actual sisters, but rather trading some new/gently used clothes with one another. It was a great opportunity for us to clean out our closets and swap them out with some clothes from a friend; a much more sustainable option than everyone going out and buying something completely new! Many fun items were exchanged and the rest of the clothes were donated to a women’s shelter called Mary’s Place.

February (Guys Night) – The CYC boys gathered for a classic night of pizza and bowling at the University of Washington’s HUB!  We had a solid mix of some college and post grads but everyone found the gutters at some point in the night. But we also saw lots of strikes, spares, and Big shout out to Andrew Wills who helped get reservations and special rates for us and also for Preston Mar who prepared prizes for best score, best team, score, most style, and most uhh. . . Gutters haha. We can’t wait to have more opportunities to hang out and go deeper with the boys of CYC again!

March – we hosted our first ever Hot Ones! (So far this year, it has been quite fun doing mainly new fellowship events we’ve never done before). If you’ve ever seen the YouTube videos, Hot Ones is basically a concept where people eat chicken wings dipped in very spicy hot sauces and answer questions; their reactions are very entertaining. For our event, we split up into a couple tables of guys & girls and the set-up was simple: if you want to answer an easier/surface level question (i.e. If you could meet with Jesus right now, what would you ask Him?), you have to dip a chicken nugget into one of the very spicy sauces and eat it (we also had a non-spicy alternative of eating a Bamboozled Jellybean, where they look like a normal flavor but very well could be something disgusting instead). If you wanted to avoid eating a spicy nugget, you could answer a deeper, more thought-provoking question (i.e. What topics do you avoid talking about and why?). Though there were many tears shed (both sweat and real tears, from the spice) and tongues were on fire, it was a great experience and people really got to dig deeper and get to know one another better. To cool our mouths afterwards, we also enjoyed a nice ice cream sundae bar. They say the best way to bond is to suffer together and I think our goal was accomplished.

FINALS WEEK

Many of our students ended Winter Quarter and took their finals in March. A handful of post-grads helped put together care packages for the students to encourage & nourish them while they studied. Thank you to all who volunteered and played a part in this!

The Katos Visit at School of Promise

(From Bauson’s Newsletter – 2/28/2023)

Gary and Rieko Kato from Faith Bible Church came to Thailand for a visit mid-February. They helped out at the School in a couple of English classes. Gary delivered the Sunday morning message, with the help of one of our students translating into Thai. And Rieko made friends through art with some of our elementary students. It was great to see friends from back home here and coming alongside us in ministry!

– Dave & Akiko Bauson

Visiting the School of Promise

by Rieko Kato

Last month Gary and I had the opportunity to visit the School of Promise (SoP).

We arrived in Chiangmai, Thailand on Friday the 3^rd and stayed at the Content Villa where our 2018 SoP mission team stayed.  The owner Anna remembered us and our team and welcomed us with a card and a bouquet of flowers. We spent our first week with our son and his wife and met our grandson Ezra for the first time. It was truly a gift from God.

We were able to worship two Sundays at the Promise Church and spent the remainder of our time volunteering at the School of Promise.  We did not know what to expect except that we were assigned to help teach in the English classes for the 2nd and 3rd grade students.

We waited for the Thai-version of Lyft, but after 30 minutes of waiting but our ride never showed up. We missed the prayer meeting at school. We had to wait another 30min for another ride. Our morning started out being one hour late. Thankfully, English classes were just starting when we arrived. Our first class was Teacher Frank’s 3rd grade class. He was originally from China but spoke fluent English.

There were 14 children in his class. Teacher Frank opened the class with prayer requests. They were very engaging but did not speak or understand much English. We played charades and double ditto. Even though the children’s level of English comprehension was not very high, they had fun guessing action verbs.  They were polite but competitive, and we had a bag of Pocky as a prize for each of the students. After one hour and half playing games, we moved to teacher Lydia’s 2nd grade class. In this class we decided to play bingo.  The children were not happy that the game cut into their computer time. But they stopped complaining as soon as they found out we had goodies as reward for playing vocabulary bingo.

After the two English classes, we walked a half of a mile in 90-degree heat to a cafe to meet with Teacher/Khru Unna. Both Gary and I became friends with Unna from our previous trips. Despite her health problems, she has persevered, depending on God. She now has one more year to finish getting her Doctorate.  The School of Promise is under the umbrella of a ministry called HIS ministry. Unna was tasked by the ministry to partner with Dave Bauson to start one of the first Christian colleges in the nation, for teachers and nurses.

On Tuesday, the 14th, since there were no Elementary English classes, we volunteered at Khru/Teacher Bee’s 5th grade class. We were so surprised with the fluency of the children in Khru Bee’s class. There were about four students whose first language was English. One of them was a transfer student from Australia who couldn’t speak Thai.  We learned from Bob and Noby Kennell’s example that food was a big motivator for the children, and we brought donuts to the class.  We got to know these children very quickly. They were polite yet so much fun. The children wanted to keep playing charades, so we made it and double ditto more challenging.  We made it competitive for this class and gave the top four children a special prize.

After a lunch Gary went to speak at an advanced English class that he writes about, while I continued to observe Khru Bee’s class. I was so impressed at how attentive these students were. I sat in on their creative writing class, where the students composed original stories written in Thai. They were preparing to send their stories to a special regional creative writing competition that was coming up.

Late Tuesday night, after taking one of teacher’s family to a dinner, I prepared for one of my favorite art and Bible lessons. It is about God as the Creator of our world and using art as a means to praise Him . Gary read Psalm 19:1-4 “Day after day they tell the story; night after night they tell it again. They have no speech or words; they have no voice to be heard. But their message goes out through all the world; their words go everywhere on earth. The sky is like a home for the sun.” – NCV

We asked the children to draw one of their favorite creatures. Many of the girls chose to draw cats. Others drew people and sea creatures. To my delight, two boys started illustrating the creation story. Snack time in the cafeteria came and went. No one left the class for snacks, but all stayed to work on their projects. No rewards were needed that day. Even though it was an English class, it seemed like just a review of colors as the students asked for different colors for their palates. Our prayer for the class was that the time would be pleasing to the Lord.

When we left, the art supplies were put to good use. Khru Bee sent us pictures of how she was able to use the art supplies in her science class. It was a joy to see the smiling children holding up pictures of the stars and planets.

When I think about Khru Bee and the other SoP teachers, I thank God for their faithfulness and dedication. I am reminded of the verse, “We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Thessalonians 1:2-3 ESV)

Random thoughts on the School of Promise

by Gary Kato

Grade 11 English class. There was a stark contrast. One student dreamed about going to college and opening a home that would share God’s love with the homeless. Across the table sat John who had no dreams. Both his parents were serving jail time for life, and he was raised by his grandmother. She worked well past the age when most would retire, working tirelessly to earn tuition for John to attend the School of Promise.  John’s grandmother would shed tears that day when she found out that someone would donate his monthly tuition money. The topic of the day was future plans and goals. John had none beyond his time at the school. That day his English teacher, who had adopted eleven Thai children herself, would push and prod him to think about the future. She knew he was smart and had the ability to go to college if he only had the desire and determination.  Each day they would pray that John would see God’s love for him and open his scarred and jaded heart.

After school we had dinner each night with a different Thai teacher. That night I had dinner with Google translate. Teacher Bee’s husband was quiet, with a kind smile and few words. Our wives would chat away and laugh across the table. We slowly learned about each other. He would type in Thai, I in English nodding occasionally. His words were few, but he got right to the point. How could he pray for me? He was transparent and shared his longing to start a family and their struggle with infertility. We learned later that the only advice that the local doctors gave his wife four years earlier was to be less stressed and lose weight. She gave on doctors and gave up hope.

Khru Jaeng insisted that she and her husband were going to cook a Northern Thai dinner for us. They were so grateful to God for their new home. It was small and the kitchen was outside. We sat on a blanket on the lawn because they had no dining room furniture. They had one small extra room. Their kindness and generosity were humbling. “This room is for you to stay in next time you come. You don’t need to spend money on a hotel”, they said. The walls were bare and the room was empty… but full of God’s love. I listened to some of their medical concerns. Her husband was in the military but was unable to see a good doctor. He lived in constant pain.

Promise Church.  We arrived early to catch the worship team practicing in the school cafeteria. Although the words were different, the music was familiar. They laughed as they practiced, and we felt strangely at home seated in plastic chairs listening to the keyboards and guitar. In the kitchen the vegetables were being chopped and the rice was simmering.  I met my gifted high school translator, and I received a copy of my sermon, neatly broken down into English and Thai sections. Last minute, I condensed a 25-minute message to about 15, since there needed to be time for the translation.  Only one missionary way in the back caught one of my jokes and burst out laughing. It must have lost something in the translation, with the Thai members politely listening, in all seriousness. But one thing was unchanging, hearing a verse I knew well being read in Thai touched the heart.

After service we ate a simple lunch, followed by Ice Cream with the Bausons at Swensons.

Earlier that week, we were blessed to have had dinner with missionary friends of Bob and Noby Kennell, who called Ireland home most of the year. Norman and Bobby were veteran missionaries we had met in 2018. Their role was in regional leadership for the Ethnos360 ministry, and they helped new missionaries adjust to the language and culture. Their co worker Clark had just recently left the country with the diagnosis of a brain tumor, Glioblastoma, which was a gut-wrenching blow to them and the ministry. Life on the field seemed to amplify joys and sorrows.

Postscript.  Meeting the needs that we witnessed. Some may wonder… what will  happen to John, Bee and others who are in the midst of medical and financial burdens? Four years ago, FBC set up a medical emergency fund for the staff and their families. The fund will allow Khru Bee to see the infertility specialist. Khru Jaeng’s daughter was just hospitalized last week with a deep arm laceration and will have her hospital bills covered.  Khru Jaengs husband will be able to see the rehabilitation specialist with hope of an end to his chronic pain. FBC’s fund will allow the teachers and their families access to health care that was previously unobtainable.

This past year, an emergency fund was set up for students in difficult financial circumstances. This fund will ensure that John will have the financial resources to graduate from the School of Promise next year. A huge burden was lifted from his aging grandmother.

On behalf of  the School of Promise and HIS ministry, thank you to  all at FBC who  have supported the School and have helped make God’s love real.

– Gary and Rieko

Sacred Road Ministries – Summer Mission Trip

by Amy Li

Hello FBC Ohana! As you may know from recent announcements, our church is preparing to send another team to the Yakama reservation this summer from July 1st to 8th. The first time that FBC sent a team for a week-long trip to Sacred Road was in 2007. Since then, many teams have been sent out. Teams made up of all different kinds of people! People of all ages, personalities, gifts, reasons for going, etc. All of these people have come back with countless stories to share. So, I called on a few friends who have gone in the past to give you a glimpse of what a trip to Yakima might look like!

I asked them:

1. What is one favorite memory from the trip?
2. What is one of your favorite things about Sacred Road?
3. Why did you decide to go?
4. Anything else you might want to say to the people! Okay… so this last one is not really a question… but I got some great answers! Here we go!

Jennifer Tsuji (2016):

1. When I was playing with a little girl at Kid’s Club, her sandal broke. I took her to one of the church leaders and they brought out a bag of brand-new sandals that had been donated by FBC for her to choose from! It was awesome to see a donation be tangibly used and to be able to personally know the little girl who was able to benefit from it :’)
2. So many things to choose from! But one thing that stands out from when I went was being able to tour the Native American museum with one of the chief elders of the Yakama tribe and to hear about their history and everything they’ve gone through. It was very sobering, and informative, and helped provide the vision behind why it’s so important as Christians to help repair the damage that’s been done to the Native people in the past.
3. I felt called to go on a missions trip after attending the Urbana missions conference during my senior year in college. So once I graduated, I decided to go on the Yakama trip. I really liked that it was local and that there were dedicated long-term missionaries serving there.
4. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to sleep in a teepee for a week!

Justin Kumai (2013):

1. I got to spend the entire week with Chris Granberry and help him with one other guy to work on a cabin in the woods. I got to hear his story and had so many deep talks about faith and ministry.
2. I love frybread and the kids. They remember you and open up so fast.
3. I went because something kept bringing me back. It is almost like a piece of you stays there. I wanted to meet more kids and staff and help the community. You don’t want to leave.
4. If you are trying to find out what the church truly should be doing and what it should look like in the world, go to Sacred Road!

Kaleo Chan (2016 & 2017):

1. In 2016, we roofed and painted a house for one of the Yakama families. Every day, we got to work alongside and talk with local youth from the community and even the children of the home. After finishing the project, some of the youth and kids were playing with the leftover paint and they put paint handprints on the back of my shirt. Fast forward to Yakama, summer of 2017, I was wearing the shirt with the paint handprints at church and getting slapped on the back so many times by kids running by (they slapped hard!). A little while later, I feel someone softly place their hand on my back. I turn around and see one of the children from the home we roofed and painted the year before. And she says that that’s her handprint.
2. Seeing the native kids growing up in the church, and seeing the native youth and young adults growing into leaders in their church community.
3. My first year, I wanted to go on my first mission trip. For the next five years after that, going to Yakima in the summer to serve and reconnect was one of the biggest highlights of the year!
4. Please go, see, and experience the good work God is doing on the Yakama reservation.

Ryan Tsuji (2017):

1. Learning how to cut down a tree.
2. Being able to witness how much love and effort they put toward the community for the sake of the kingdom.
3. I didn’t get a summer internship and figured God might have wanted to keep my summer open so I could go and it was definitely worth it.
4. It is one of the most spiritually influential weeks I’ve experienced.

Amy Li (2022):

1. I got to drive a 15-passenger van to pick up the kids around the neighborhood for Kid’s Club because the usual driver was out of town. I had one of the youth staffers in the passenger seat giving me directions to all of the houses, and I would honk a few times to let them know we were outside, and the sight of kids rushing out the front door excited for Kid’s Club, with huge smiles on their faces, put a big smile on mine.
2. Eating my favorite childhood cereals (Cinnamon Toast Crunch) for breakfast every day! And being able to meet other Christ followers, whether that be the staff, who each have their different stories of how God called them to Sacred Road, or team members from other churches. Getting to know them, work together with them on the worksites, play games with them in the evening hours, I could see the unity of the body of Christ in such a refreshing way.
3. The first year that I went, I wanted to get outside of my comfort zone and have God stretch me. I didn’t like the heat, bugs, or staying overnight in new places, but I knew that God could use the uncomfortable to grow me. The next time I went, in 2022, I had been looking forward to going again throughout the pandemic. But I was also going through a really difficult time in my graduate program, feeling mildly depressed and purposeless. I was tired all of the time and I was actually worried about my energy levels for a week-long trip. But praise be to God! I woke up early every morning, got some of the best sleep ever (on an air mattress in a basement room full of people), and truly, just felt a level of passion and excitement that I hadn’t felt in a while.
4.  You may feel like you have to sacrifice things in order to go (whether that be a vacation, precious time off, other summer plans, or creature comforts), but trust me, some of the best things in life require some sacrifice. And what God can do in a week is greater than what we can ever imagine and greater than what we think we’re giving up. Jen, Justin, Kaleo, Ryan… we’ve all experienced it. If you are interested in going this year, I didn’t tell them… but I volunteer all of them (including myself) to answer any questions you might have, as well as Rieko and Gary Kato!

FBC Calendar (link)

9:30am

Japanese Service/ FBC Kids at 9:30 (except for Joint Service Sunday)

English Sunday School (Youth – Adult)

11:00am

English or Joint Worship Service/ FBC Kids

* Joint Service (Easter: April 9)

12:15pm

SoulFood (First & Third Sundays)