Hello friends and family,
This has been a very busy season for me. First, this past August I had the opportunity to do a home visit since I hit my first full year in Japan. I spent time with family and friends in Virginia, along with talking to many of the leaders in my church updating them with my current activities in Japan. I also spent my birthday with my family before heading back to Sendai.
Once I arrived back in Sendai, I had to immediately shift gears. My roommate was returning home to America for a while, and preparation for the DTS (Discipleship Training School) was in full swing. DTS this year is being held in a Christian seminary in Sendai. I had about 2 and a half weeks before the DTS actually started, and a lot to do.
I spent the first full week back doing staff training with all the DTS staff. We spent time in Myoko, a skiing village in Niigata prefecture, preparing for the school and also doing staff bonding. It was an amazing week to prepare my mind and heart for the school, along with getting to know some of the newer staff in YWAM Sendai. During this week, I decided in prayer that I would live with the students in the seminary as the male live in staff. After this week of training, my roommate and I had to get rid of anything we didn’t need and move out of our apartment. In Japan, getting rid of unwanted furniture and larger garbage can be more difficult than in the states, but luckily we had many local friends and other missionaries that were ready and willing to help. Between cleaning, moving our stuff, and preparing the seminary for students. Before I knew it, the students started to arrive.
Staffing DTS was one of the biggest callings I had to become a YWAM staff, as my own DTS experience as a student in Singapore in 2022 was such an impactful time in my life. My lectures and my time during outreach in Turkey and Poland have really stuck with me and helped grow my faith. I really felt called in prayer to be able to staff DTS and help new students have a very impactful time of their own, growing in their faith and spending time in a special community with the fellow students and staff. I was filled with joy hearing we were hosting a DTS this year and I had to put some of my own desires aside in this time like finding my own living situation, which I am postponing until after DTS, and continuing language school.
Our school this year has 8 staff and 11 students. One of my first duties for the DTS was student pick up, as they were all coming from overseas. I spent the first few days going back and forth from the Seminary to the train station and airport to get the students situated, then had a free day to get to know some of the students before orientation began. School started late September, and since then time has been flying by.
We’ve had speakers from all over Asia, the Pacific, and America, and have had very many amazing lessons. Even though I am staff, I get to sit in on the lectures and continue learning myself. We have covered topics such as the Character and Nature of God, Hearing God’s Voice and obeying, the Father Heart of God, Holy Spirit, and Sin, Repentance, and Forgiveness. Besides lecture, we have had plenty of times of worship and intercession, along with doing many of the regular ministries I have been doing in Sendai such as the obento food distribution for the homeless and needy, along with ministry in the red light district. We have also been living in community cooking, eating, cleaning, spending our free time together, and growing in our relationship with each other and with God.
As we are reaching about the halfway point of the lecture, we have started shifting some of our focus to outreach, both overseas and in other prefectures in Japan. We will be splitting into 2 different groups, and we leave in December. My group is planning on going to a lot of places; Vietnam, Indonesia, and then back in Japan in Akita and Aomori. Our decision isn’t 100% final on these quite yet, but I want to share our current plans. This is the part that I want the most prayer for, as we have to do a lot of planning, logistics, and buying flights/finding accommodations in all of these places. Vietnam is a very closed nation in terms of Christianity, but since we are going near Christmas time, hopefully they will be a bit more open. Indonesia has always been near to my heart since I have relatives from there, and I have always desired to go. It is also a nation that is mostly Muslim, with some areas also being very closed off to Christianity. Akita and Aomori are both areas with very high depression, loneliness, and suicide rates, along with Aomori being the snowiest place on earth. All of these factors could make it hard to find and love on God’s people here. I pray that our team is able to spread God’s light to these areas, along with the other groups from the DTS going to different nations and prefectures.
I want to thank every one of you again so much for your support, both in prayer and financially. I couldn’t be doing what I am without you. If you ever want to talk to me about what I am doing feel free to email me or message me on whatsapp. I would love to ask for continued prayer as I make a decision if I should attend a YWAM Bible school in Sendai after the DTS ends. It would be for 3 months and is called a DBS (Discipleship Bible School). Thanks again and Bless you all.
Samuel Bowman