SYME Graduation (and a few other things besides)

SYME held a graduation at the end of the term in March. Nine students completed SYME's 32-week immersion-English Christian discipleship program. Here's what one of the students wrote on Facebook about her experience at SYME:

Finally I graduated from SYME on March 28th! I can't express how much I am grateful for what God has done for us through this past year. There is much more I could learn and get than I expected. He definitely worked on me and changed my heart to focus on serving Him. I've been so much blessed and encouraged by many people like students, staff, and people whom I met in America. They've been wonderful families in Christ as well! God taught me many significant things through a relationship with Him in SYME life. I want to share those things with many more people.

I'm just expecting how He is going to use me and continuously change me for His glory.

—Mami Nagahata

Ellen (left) and Mami (right)

The transformation in Mami and others like her through SYME is a direct result of your prayers and financial support. We know SYME is making a difference in the lives of many young people in Japan. Please continue to pray for SYME now that a new term has begun. In addition to the nine students who returned a few days ago for the Spring term, two new students have come to begin their own SYME journey. Pray that they too will experience life transformations as God does His mighty work in their hearts and minds. 

There are three other exciting developments to share with you briefly. First, it looks like we will have several college-age young people coming to SYME this Fall as interns. This will be a wonderful opportunity to mentor them through leadership, evangelism, and ministry training. To this end, we are working hard to develop a curriculum for leadership training, along with a separate curriculum for evangelism training based on what we're calling The Gospel Meta-narrative Method. I'll write more about the Gospel Meta-Narrative Method in the future. Suffice it to say now that this method will help us to communicate the Gospel more effectively to Japanese people. By the way, I will be traveling to Japan for a short trip in June to speak in a conference of missionaries and pastors associated with Baptist Mid-Missions in Japan. I will be sharing with them about the Gospel Meta-Narrative Method.

Secondly, I want to emphasize how thrilled we are to be giving focus to a more formal approach to leadership training as well. The priority of leadership development has been on our hearts from the beginning of the Nippon Initiative and, more recently, of our time with WOL. We have identified nearly 20 core competencies of leadership to share with the young people the Lord is directing our way. It will be fun to begin developing the material related to these. Please pray for the Lord's blessing on this.

Finally, it looks like we will be bringing SYME back to the Indianapolis once again next February. The official dates for our SYME USA term are January 24 - February 25. SYME USA was such a huge success this year. Did you notice that Mami Nagahata mentioned it in her testimony? We've also heard from so many home stay families about how blessed they were to participate. It's not too early for your family to begin thinking and praying about helping next year. 

In closing, here are several prayer requests and other bits of information for your consideration:

SYME Dates 

Fall 2014 in Karuizawa: August 22 - November 22USA 2015 in Indianapolis: January 24 - February 25Spring 2015 in Karuizawa: March 20 - May 17Summer 2015 in Karuizawa: June 5 - July 31Fall 2015 in Karuizawa: August 21 - October 6Late Fall 2015 in Karuizawa: October 23 - December 4

Names of Current SYME Students

EllenMariyaSallieMattLanaAeslinKateHanna

I don't have the English names of the two new students yet. As soon as I can I will edit this blog post to include them.

Please pray for these students. If you would like to help with scholarships for any of these young people, the cost is about $1000 per student per month. Please contact me to let me know of your interest.

Our Support 

If the Lord is leading you to help with the financial support of our ministry, please let us know so we can provide the necessary information for you. Thank you for praying for us!