Pray for Mary Esther. She will be interviewed tomorrow by FEBC, a Japanese Christian Radio station, regarding Wheelchairs of Hope. Pray for words! Next week Thursday is even more intense—she’s at NHK Chiba, an area branch of the Japan’s national radio station, and the interview is live.

Mark writes:

On a lighter note—Mary Esther couldn’t meet me at the airport this time. She just picked up 14 wheelchairs that are filling every spare inch of our van and I didn’t feel like holding a carry-on and a backpack on my lap the whole way home! Praise God for more chairs to clean. The influx was starting to get a little sparse for a while.

This morning we finally received a positive response from an overseas partner organization saying they have found a way to get an import permit for the container of wheelchairs from Japan.  Please pray the process will go smoothly and we can send the container of wheelchairs soon.  Even with the amount of storage space we do have, keeping 150 chairs until they can be shipped takes up valuable space.

We planned on sending several wheelchairs to Mongolia on July 7. A few days before the trip, the airline said they would not be able to accommodate any wheelchairs. E-mails and phone calls  flew back and forth between volunteers taking the chairs, the travel agency, the airline, and Wheelchairs of Hope. The travel agent was so impressed with the project that he donated his commission to enable one chair. One volunteer showed up at the airport with only 3 kilos of personal luggage, allowing another chair to go. The head volunteer was an amazing negotiator at the ticket counter, and managed to squeak in a third chair, as the counter agent cooperated by “reading” the scale at exactly what was needed to allow it.

As for Mary Esther, first she brought one wheelchair from the parking lot to meet her group, as it was covered by the travel agent’s negotiations, and she knew it would be sent. When they saw a volunteer with only a small carry-on bag, she quickly ran back to the car and got a second for him to include as his baggage allowance. Just as she arrived with that one, she found out they could take one more. Back once more to the parking lot, wrestling one more chair onto the luggage cart, and pushing it across the hot, muggy parking lot to the ticket counter, you can imagine what she looked like—happy actually. And full of praise as she traversed the parking lot one last time to return home.

We continue to wait for our friends in the large country next door to receive an import permit so we can send a 20 foot container of wheelchairs to them. 

Pastor Kawasaki was bursting with enthusiasm as we met him to pick up six chairs that the Mito church had cleaned. Not only are new people coming to church, the church is going to the people.  For their next wheelchair cleaning day, they’ve worked out a way join a local community group and use their facility. Pray that God will continue to bless them as they bless their community and the world.

All the talking is in Japanese, but you can see what happened today at the weekly wheelchair cleaning day by clicking on the link below. The person Mary Esther is talking to is a reporter from Asahi Shinbun, a major newspaper in Japan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUSp0hw7ow8

Wheelchairs had a great cleaning day on Friday.  A non-Christian volunteer who comes regularly grabbed a “random” DVD on his way out the door to listen to while cleaning wheelchairs, unaware of the content.  It turned out to be something his daughter (Christian) had given him, something that Campus Crusade put out, with the entire plan of salvation clearly laid out.  Then the main page had various language options and a Brazilian man who was there noticed this and wanted to listen to it all in Portuguese!  God works in amazing ways!  One of our Christian volunteers had tears on her face as we quietly (in sign language) prayed for those who were listening.

Thank you for your prayers.  Two chairs went to Bangkok on Monday.  Please pray for the Japanese missionary who will be distributing them to the prisoners he works with in the Thai prison ministry.

Thank you for praying. God’s answers once again amaze us.    

An airline flying out of Tokyo airport (on which we hoped to send 12 wheelchairs) has a new manager.  Last week, a person from Wheelchairs of Hope called him regarding the chairs, and during the conversation they discovered he is friends with two of the caller’s sister-in-laws!  He ended the phone conversation with “is there anything else I can do for you?”  And yes, we were able to send all 12 chairs. Thanks for your prayers.

I once read that every year more Japanese become Christians outside of Japan than inside Japan.  On Thursday a Japanese young man traveling to Bangkok for two months volunteered to take a wheelchair along.   Since the plane is arriving in the middle of the night the young man offered to hang onto the chair and deliver it later.  We’re glad, because this will give him more time to connect with the Japanese missionary in Bangkok receiving the chair. Please pray that God will be glorified in this encounter.

Monday, Mary Esther was secretly dreading an opportunity to talk to a group of 300 squirming, inattentive kindergartners about wheelchairs. When she got there, they walked  quietly, single file, into the hall, sat down and folded their hands in their laps!  They sat very attentively as she talked, they were with her all the way. God gave her just the right words at the right time. She was especially moved when, after asking “so with all these people needing wheelchairs, what should we do?`, a four year old boy jumped up. “I have an idea,” he said, and it was clearly a brand new one. “We could send them our wheelchairs!” The look on his face in that inspired moment was priceless.

This past week a volunteer traveling to Thailand took wheelchair #250 to deliver to the Japanese missionaries to use in the prison ministry in Bangkok.  Please pray for the Japanese missionary, Dr. Morimoto as he delivers the chair and shares the gospel with the recipient and also as he establishes more of a relationship with the volunteer who transported the chair.

2008 Year End Report

Top 5 Highlights:

l  Non Profit Status registration completed with Japanese Government

l  Filipino pastors report of benefits to their ministries including decision for Christ

l  Japanese Church granting use of large storage area in Tokyo

l  Volunteers collected 142 chairs, held 20 cleaning days, sent 49 chairs

l  Christian TV talk-show aired the project

Details:

It continues to amaze me how God uses wheelchairs discarded here in Japan to bless others and further Kingdom work in Asia. 

This year several Japanese pastors worked to register Wheelchairs of Hope for official Japanese Non Profit Organization status. This has given the ministry here credibility in the community as we make contacts.    

This year volunteers collected 142 wheelchairs, conducted 20 cleaning/outreach days in four different cities, and sent 49 chairs to Thailand, the Philippines and Zimbabwe.  One of the highlights of the year was hearing from a national pastor in the Philippines. He delivered a wheelchair to a lady who had just been crippled by a motorcycle accident. He shared the message of God’s love with her, and then was able to pray with her to receive Jesus as her Lord and Savior.  

The biggest disappointment was not sending off the 20 foot container of wheelchairs to the church in China near the earthquake for them to use in outreach there.

However momentum is picking up as the project has been featured on Japanese Christian TV, on the Japan Campus Crusade Christmas CD, and at a large Christian Fall Fest.  

One big answer to prayer is the use of a 1,765 square foot storage area in downtown Tokyo.  Give praise with us for God’s amazing provision.

Please pray especially for the Japanese leadership. Also pray for an established church in northern Japan who wants to start a daughter church and use this as one of their ways to reach into the new community.  Pray for the neighborhood people coming to help clean chairs to come to know Jesus, especially pray for Mr. Hiraide, Mr. Watanabe and Mrs. Nishioka. Pray for the Christians attending cleaning days to be salt and light.  

Thank you for your prayers and support.

Mary Esther

Wheelchairs

Praise for the CAJ Fun Run to raise funds to send a 20 foot container of chairs to China.

Pray for Wheelchairs of Hope board meeting on Dec 4 to decide goals/plans for 2009.  Pray for the 3 cleaning days and Christmas outreach opportunities this month.