Latest update as of July 12, 2023
We love where we live! What a busy and exciting two months it’s been since the last time we wrote to you! Sorry for the delay but we can’t wait to share what all God has done in that time – He continues to amaze us at the works He is preparing for us in advance. Thanks for reading and praying with us! We met these fun college students at our friend’s party!When we got back to our neighborhood, we were praying that God would allow us to jump right back in to all the opportunities we had before we left. God has been so good! He has provided way more than we could have ever dreamed – we meet new people almost every day, have been invited over to three neighbor’s houses, and had multiple opportunities to share about Jesus. In the first week of June, our friend hosted a party to celebrate his successful reelection campaign to the prefectural council. As we prepared to go, we prayed that God would provide some great connections and opportunities. Nick sat down and met the people at his table. The young man to his left was just recently elected to the city council, and to his right were five college interns for his campaign who all wanted to practice English! We had a great time together and we are so excited to follow up with them. Please pray for these new connections with the younger generation who will impact our city and Japan for many years to come. Pray specifically that Jess will be able to connect with one of the students who wants to practice English with her.  After we ate, a few of the campaign workers sang their original works telling the story of our friend’s success! |
 We had the opportunity to eat Sazae, a pretty large sea snail that you cook and pull out of the shell. We wouldn’t recommend it if you have a weak stomach!  At another party, an Osaka native made us Okonomiyaki – it was delicious!A team from our sending church came for a week long prayer trip and it was very encouraging! We loved hosting them and seeing their hearts for God and the nations as they prayed for Japan and the people in our city. They spent time each day praying over different locations and had many opportunities to connect with locals. God even provided multiple people who they met that we will be following up with over the next few months! Praise God for calling this team to come pray. Praise Him that we have new opportunities to share the love of Jesus and the truth of the Gospel with people who haven’t yet heard the good news! We want to say a special thank you to the team. We are so grateful that you would take the time out of your busy lives to respond to God’s call. Your time here was such an encouragement to us and we hope to see you again soon!  Even though it rained the whole week, we are so grateful that the team came here to pray with us for the good news of the Gospel to saturate this place! We have been loving the opportunities we have to prayer walk around our neighborhood with Oliver in his stroller. It’s amazing that we get to serve God in such a beautiful place!Please pray specifically for upcoming time with the neighbor who lives behind us. We are meeting with him and his wife at a local coffee shop. Over the last few weeks Nick has been going to the gym with him and during that time we had some spiritual conversations. Nick invited him to hear a story from the Bible and he asked to invite his wife if Jess could join us! Please pray that God will give us favor with them. Pray that God will give us the words to speak and the Japanese ability to communicate clearly, and that they will “hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold” (Mark 4:20b). We are so thankful for your prayers and support. We would love to pray for you as well! Please feel free to email us any time! In Christ, The Ebner Family |