OB One Missionaries

Hello OB One!

It’s been almost 7 months now that we’ve been in Japan! We are doing great! God is moving and we are seeing Him do great things in our hearts and all around us. We are living in a small city outside of Osaka called Ikeda. We are both teaching at a private school here called COPICS (Church of Praise International Christian School). The school teaches grades K through 9th. Joe teaches 5th and 2nd grade English everyday. A couple times a week he also teaches 3rd grade Geography and Science, and 5th and 6th grade Bible. Christina is teaching Preschool and Kindergarten English, as well as, Bible to both classes everyday. We are both also teaching extra English classes after school. Joe is helping with music club and basketball club too. We are very busy but God is good! Aliyah and Eliana are doing great in school. They are taking extra Japanese classes after school to help them learn the language. We are all learning so much everyday about the culture and this country.

At the church, Joe has been helping almost every week with worship on Sundays but in this coming year he is planning to focus on helping them record their original Japanese worship songs. We visited an elderly home in August and will be going again in December to be part of a Christmas program. We are also planning to help at a sports camp this December where we’ll get to spend a lot of time with the older students. The school is a great outreach, as most of the students don’t come from Christian homes. We are building relationship with the students and their families in every class and program we are a part of. The 3rd through 9th grade students just got back from a three- day camp in the mountains. Several students accepted Jesus and many gave testimonies of how God touched them.

There have also been a few people in the community, outside of the school, that we’ve felt God leading us to build relationship with. Please pray for these growing relationships and continue to pray for God to move in our classrooms and for us to see a great harvest of people coming to know Jesus as LORD and Savior.

For those of you I've yet to meet, let me take a moment to introduce myself and the exciting next adventure I've just begun.You have probably seen me on stage with the worship team...I'm the one that has pink or purple or blue or white or yellow hair. Every week could be different! What you may NOT know is that I am also a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. I have a small private practice but I'm also a missionary! I work with a missions agency, New Missions Systems International (NMSI), and my role is to focus on missionary care.

I will be based at home here in San Diego with my handsome husband Marcus (you see him in The Cafe at church all the time!) and my five year old son, Chance. I'm able to provide member care for the missionaries with NMSI via the joys of technology. I will also travel to the Center for Global Outreach (CGO) in Florida, as well as other countries to support NMSI missionaries.

I have been a missionary in Europe and experienced first-hand the stresses of being on the field. It is my desire to provide the NMSI team (both home and abroad) with training, supportive conversation, and professional therapy as needed. Really, my passion is partnering with missionaries to make sure that they are operating at optimal spiritual, emotional, and mental health. Being a missionary can feel isolating. It is my desire to walk with NMSI affiliates and journey with them as they fulfill God’s call.

Please feel free to contact me directly to find out more about this exciting new adventure!

Email: jhillman@nmsi.org

Praise GOD! I have been here in San Diego getting recharged and evaluating my ministry.

Mama Fat and I are one but our ministries are different but the same. Going to have more good healthy boundaries.

And I would like to start a church for the surrounding villages and our children on the new development.

HalleluYAH!!!

Darren O'Quinn

Greetings OB1. We are doing ok in getting settled. Silvia has started taking language courses and the kids are at school except for Taylan, who with his 14 months is committed to keep us running to the next thing that he's up to destroying . Especially in this advent season, where we'd be used to having Christmas decorations up everywhere, Silvia is fighting home sickness. Here there's not much of a sense that Christmas is approaching, as you might guess. Please pray for the kids to really immerse into language and culture here. Finding friends is also a challenge for them out of various reasons.

We're having weekly meeting with a group of 12-15 adults and roughly 10 kids. Although this is an amazing grace of God, being able to pray and cast vision about our CP, most of our team consists of internationals and we are here to reach locals mainly. So besides praying for unity, wisdom and catching fire with the vision, please pray that each one of these international would be a multiplier in order to bring Turks along.

Other than that, we're watching how God strengthens the community and especially the Turks among us enjoy this very much. We'll invite our non-believing friends to a progressive dinner, that we host in January. Please pray for good and deep gospel conversations.

Although I'm back to shape and can do most of the stuff that I was able to do before my surgery, I'm kind of hanging in there in-between, as there will need to be another surgery either this month or in February.

We'd appreciate your prayers for wisdom and guidance for the surgeon's hands. And that I'll recover from that surgery quickly.

Blessings,

Bilge

Email: admin@ob1church.com
Website: www.ob1church.com
Location: 4790 Santa Monica Avenue, San Diego, CA, United States
Phone: (619) 223-7187
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OB.One.Church/