MSN Summer Internship Update #2

Pray for Karis!

ヒックス・カリス | Karis Hicks
インターン | MUSTARD SEED クリスチャン教会福岡

Praises

First week of Work! – A smooth onboarding week full of encouraging meetings and learning tasks for the summer. It has been a unique blessing to experience working in ministry setting, and one of my favorite parts of this has been our weekly staff meetings on Mondays, when Pastor David leads us as staff through a short devotional (think mini sermon in the BEST way!) which has been such an encouragement!
Provision of new intern housing! – Praising the Lord for quick solutions to sudden housing changes over the last few days. Even though stressful, He is providing exactly what He knows I need for housing, and I am excited to see what opportunities come from the new living arrangements.
Sunday worship service – SUCH a beautiful morning of worship! It was a joy to serve alongside Mai and Lilian as we helped point everyone to look UP to our gracious God through song! My favorite songs from this week were All Sufficient Merit, and a new Japanese song I had not heard before, (イエスが愛したように, give it a listen!). We had one fairly new attender sit with Mai after service to continue going through First Steps, a comprehensive guide to the Gospel. This is a huge praise, pray for his salvation! And praise the Lord for Membership Connect, where we had two persons attend to learn about becoming members.
Worship night!!! – I think this was my favorite part of the last week. This evening filled up my soul with such deep joy! The family from church who opened up their home does so EVERY week for about 30 high schoolers as a high school youth group ministry. So fun to meet several of them and sing at the top of our lungs in Japanese and English for almost three hours! Just a small taste of what heaven will be one day, come Lord Jesus, COME <3

Prayer Requests

BEING with Jesus – Please continue to pray for a calm, joyful heart that keeps delighting most in Jesus before I look to my thoughts, tasks, and to-dos! Pray that I would keep trusting the Lord with the desires of my heart, remembering that He knows best, His timing is good, His ways are perfect!!!
Work tasks – Please pray for my specific tasks with sermon and worship slide development, formatting on ProPresenter, building short clips from sermons, and assisting the audio/visual team with sound as well as sermon uploads. Pray that I will catch errors quickly, be attentive to details, and be quick to learn!
OSAKA Visit! – Please pray for my fellow-church visit this upcoming Friday-Sunday, a weekend given to all interns to visit one other Mustard Seed Church in the network. I’m so excited to visit Mustard Seed Osaka and see some of the surrounding cities! Pray for safety, smooth travels, that I will be a blessing to the team in Osaka, and that the Lord would refresh my soul in this weekend with a lot of rest.
Outreach – Please keep praying for the Lord to open doors for the opportunity to build relationships, both new and already established here in Japan! Pray that I would speak the gospel boldly when an opportunity comes up! Pray for two specific friends I have met, that they would desire to come to church, and come to know Jesus!
MSCC Fukuoka Team – Please pray for David, Alyssa, Mai, William, Lydia, Lilian, and Shania by name! Pray for strength and encouragement from the Lord, energy, joy, and unity.
MSCC Fukuoka Specific Prayers – More Japanese interpreters! More elders! Salvation for those coming who don’t know Jesus!
JAPAN – Please pray for the PEOPLE of Japan, that God would bring growth from seeds planted, that hearts and souls of Japan would turn TOWARDS JESUS, that eyes would be opened to the Gospel!