Hello everyone!
Once again, it’s been several months since our last update (so sorry >.<). Last time, Audra talked about how our daily lives and ministry have changed because of COVID. As far as our daily lives go, not much is different. We still go to work, wear masks everywhere, limit how often we go out, and so on. As far as our ministry goes, though, a lot has changed. Like I mentioned in a brief post on Facebook before the New Year, we decided to move Miya-Friend online. Last September we began meeting in person and continued that through October as well. But after a couple meetings of either only church-goers or a single non-church member attending, we felt that something needed to change. After a few brainstorming sessions, we hashed out a plan to make a website and meet through Zoom, hoping to build rapport with people joining online, so we could transition to in-person meetings once COVID restrictions lessened. We got the website up and running, shared the link with as many people we could, and prayed that, through enough people visiting the website, it would move up in the results for anyone searching 英会話宮崎市 (English conversation in Miyazaki City). Once January came around, we hit the ground running and started to meet online through Zoom! The meetings are the same length and set-up as what we did in person, but instead of going through the bible from the beginning, we look at one of Jesus' parables or teachings, which has been a lot of fun. So far, we haven’t had any new people from Miyazaki join, but we do consistently get around 4-6 people, most of whom are not church-goers. Some of them are Japanese friends we met at UNK, a few are Japanese people we met here, and a couple are students from Myanmar who hope to study in Miyazaki soon.
Our 4th time meeting online ^_^
All in all, it’s been a good start to online Miya-Friend, but we still want to reach people in the community here. Since we pretty quickly ran into some issues and roadblocks with the website, Audra had the idea to advertise around Miyazaki ourselves. With that in mind, she, over the last couple of months, in what free time she had after work and keeping up with grad school, struggled through technical and logistical issues to design and order stickers and flyers for Miya-Friend. Everything arrived, and Anna and I traveled around Miyazaki, looking for strategic places to hand out flyers. It took several hours of driving and walking around the city, but we are so thankful for how it went. Several connections Anna made through her various exploits during her first year in Miyazaki were more than willing to take flyers off our hands and recommend Miya-Friend to their students or anyone looking for English opportunities. A couple of grad students we met through a bible group here volunteered to hand out flyers and stickers around their campus. Another place we visited, where we had no connections, actually said they would put our flyer up on their website and a link to Miya-Friend--a surprise and a huge praise. Then, we went from one apartment building to another in our area and put them in people’s mailboxes. Wanting to spread the flyers out over a large area and having only around 300 left, we put them in only a few mailboxes at each apartment building. Now, we’re praying that those flyers, and those that we left with friends and acquaintances, will reach people who will jump at the opportunity to learn English. And more than that, we’re praying that they will reach people who are searching for the truth. "For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened." (Matthew 7:8)
In Christ, April Faeh
Things Hoped For