Kobatas

Hi Family and Friends –

Hope the summer has been great for you.  We’ve had an interesting year of learning for all of us Kobata’s!  Lots going on with the kids … and the adults! We are so thankful to the Lord.

Summer is a nice time to reflect and it is always nice to take a break from the routine.  This summer we’ve been blessed with two “daughters” from Sendai, Japan.  Reina and Miyuu are finishing up the second part of their 3 month home-stay with us after home-staying with the Hayashi family since April.  Please pray that seeds of faith will be planted while they are here and that the girls may be used by God in their own families and community when they return to Sendai, with all that is happening there.  We have been blessed by their time with us.

As they get ready to head back to Japan, so do we (at the end of July).  Our children best explain it below, so we’ll keep it short here.  We hope to allow Pastor Dennis Sager and his wife Kaku the opportunity to do ministry through their church in Shizuoka (Kaku’s hometown) with the support of our Hawaii Team from Faith Christian Fellowship.  Whatever God may have for us, we want to be open to serving Him and the Japanese people, by His love.  We covet your prayers and your support.  If you have any ideas, thoughts, concerns, words from God, please email us at kobata@hawaii.rr.com.  Check out the MISSIONS link at www.fcfhawaii.org for more info coming soon.  Thank you for your encouragement and prayers!  God’s blessings be upon you and your family.  Have a great summer!

Daryl and Sheri

Dear Friends and Family,

This summer, we will be returning to Japan on a summer missions trip. We plan to continue building relationships with the people we met in Japan over the past few years, as well as help the church do an outreach in their community and meet new people. In past years, we put on a children’s camp for the kids in the church and used it as an outreach for the kids and families to invite their non-Christian friends.  We also did activities with the youth and went bowling with them. Every year a “matsuri”, or festival, is held right across the street from the domes where we are staying. Usually, we just walk around with some of the kids and youth and meet their friends.  But this year, we are helping the church to set up a booth, selling a few Hawaii-kine food, as well as providing free crafts for kids to do.  It will also give the church a chance to be visible in their community.  We will do some Christian songs and hula on the matsuri stage.  This will require a lot of prayer from back here in Hawaii, so we hope that you will support us as we go to Japan this summer by keeping us in your prayers.  Thank you.

Love,

Courtney

Hi I’m Andrew Kobata and this year I’m going to Shizuoka, Japan for the third time.  The very first time I went to Japan I was really freaked out and was very nervous because I stayed with families and couldn’t speak any Japanese.  The second time I went to share the Good News of God, I was more prepared and was able to get to know kids at the church in the strangest of ways that no one would ever imagine, through video games and just playing with kids.  God and all of your prayers helped me because they gave me courage.  Once again please pray for us and the Japanese people so we can move their hearts so they can come closer to God.  Thank you

Dear Friends and Family,

In 2008 and 2009, my family went to Japan.  But not just for a regular vacation.  We went with other friends to tell of the love of Jesus Christ.  Going to Japan has opened my eyes to bigger things.  Not only are there people in this world that don’t believe in Jesus Christ, or those that do believe, but there are also people that haven’t even heard of who He is!  I felt sad for the people in 2008 because when we went up to the mountain to pray, the Pastor said that less than 1% of all the Japanese people were Christians.

Our mission this summer is to help support the church in Japan in any way that we can.  One way we will do this is by setting up a booth at the matsuri.  The matsuri is a Japanese version of a fair with booths and games.  People set up food stands also.  The other years, we have just gone to the matsuri and met the church kids’ friends.  Our mission then, was to reach out to those friends.  This year, the church had an idea to create a booth, to reach out to their friends and also to the people that they don’t know.  But, they needed something to get people attracted to the booth.  That is where we will try to help them.  The Japanese people are really interested in things from Hawai’i.  We are going to bring a few things to the booth to get people to come by. There is a big stage at the front of the matsuri.  The stage is for groups and people who want to perform.  Our team will try to perform on that stage!  We are going to do some hula, which is something that the Japanese people love to watch.  Maybe we’ll try to get some of the Japanese from the church to join us.  Or we can join them in singing some of their songs.

Aside from the matsuri, we are going to do what we have done in the past years, run a children’s camp!!!!  In the past, we rented these domes (actual round domes!!!) for the children to camp in. During this camp, we have Bible lessons, do activities, go to the river in the mountains, and stay up late singing songs in one of our domes.  It is our summer VBS (Vacation Bible School), for the Japanese kids. The domes have a really nice swimming pool that the children there LOVE to swim in. The kids are another reason why we come on this mission.  Before, their Sunday School was like actual school where they have a lesson on the Bible, and then workbooks they have to do after at their tables.  During their short summer break, they loved the VBS that we give them, because we teach them in a fun way (without any desks).   Now they try to do Sunday School in a fun way sometimes too.

During our second time to Japan, we worked with the youth, and got them involved in activities that they could do.  It was really fun to watch them help the little kids in the camps.  They played sports with the rest of the church at the local gym that the church rents out for community outreach.  Everyone at the church goes to be involved.  Our team had people who could play volleyball, so they played with them.  I stayed on the side and played with the kids.  There were balls, hula hoops, and every little thing to play with.  Upstairs the Mom’s worked out with an exercise DVD that they have, while men played volleyball, basketball, or just hung around.

Going to Japan is a really nice experience.  But for a family of five, a trip off-island is a luxury.   We have been blessed to go to Japan these past years and are grateful.  Some people feel the need to help, but not go to Japan physically.  We call them our “home team”, because they really are on the team helping us by praying for us, or preparing us in many ways to go.  Without them, we wouldn’t be able to go on this trip.  We are thankful for our “home team” and mostly for all of your thoughts and prayers.  Please pray.  Thank you!

Caitlyn