Derek Toone

AST - 04.15.23; SEBTS graduate, Japanese ministry intern, nerdy guy, Preds fan, but most of all, a follower of Jesus.

[Derek Toone @DerekT07]

This is one of my favorite Twitter interactions ever now. Thanks mom and dad.

[Pierre LeBrun @PierreVLeBrun]

As reported earlier but now a done deal, Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei all agree to terms in Nashville.
Stamkos, 4 years x $8 M AAV
Marchessault, 5 years x $5.5 M AAV
Brady Skjei, 7 years x $7 M AAV

[Derek Toone @DerekT07]

In case you didn't hear, yes, Alyssa and I have safely made it home from our trip to Japan! We got home around 11 PM last night and are still very much feeling the jet lag, but we're grateful for the Lord's provision for us to go on this trip and seek his will for our future!

[Derek Toone @DerekT07]

After this, we prayed over the city from the main shrine, which had an amazing view of the whole city. We pondered the immensity of the task of bringing the gospel to the people within our view. There is so much to be done. Praise the Lord that the Holy Spirit is at work here!

[Derek Toone @DerekT07]

The museum also traced some of the history of Christianity in Japan. This includes the period when Japan was closed to foreigners and Christianity was banned. Below, you can see one of the announcement postings declaring this, along with some other interesting artifacts.

[Derek Toone @DerekT07]

Though it is not common for me to feel it so physically, I was hit with a sense of the weight of the spiritual darkness of that area. We were literally in a high place where a false god is worshipped (in a sense). Pray that the Japanese would see Christ's superiority to the kami!

[Derek Toone @DerekT07]

We also toured the museum on campus, which was fascinating to me! If you haven't heard about my personal connection to the school, ask me about it sometime! It was so cool to go through some of that history again.

[Derek Toone @DerekT07]

We have so enjoyed our time here in Fukuoka! We've been getting to spend lots of time with Brandon and Danielle, as well as exploring the city. On Tuesday, we went to Fukuoka Tower to get a good view of the city to get a sense of the scale of the work here.

[Derek Toone @DerekT07]

On Friday, we went to Seinan Gakuin, a university originally founded by Southern Baptist missionaries. These days, the school isn't very closely aligned with Southern Baptists anymore, but the missionaries here are trying to change that!

[Derek Toone @DerekT07]

We've had lots of fun outings with Brandon and Danielle, such as going to Ohori Park and getting kakigōri, a shaved ice dessert. We're thankful for these opportunities we've had to be with them, even as they're working hard at language school each day!

[Derek Toone @DerekT07]

We also went prayer walking on the campus of Kyushu University, again trying to strike up conversations with students. Then we had dinner with some of the Fukuoka team, and heard wonderful stories of how the Lord has brought them here and what they've seen him doing!

[Derek Toone @DerekT07]

On our second day in Osaka, we went to Kansai University and had lunch in the campus cafeteria. We tried to strike up conversations with some students. There were mixed results, but we hope the journeymen we went with will be able to follow up with any students they see again!

[Derek Toone @DerekT07]

Yesterday, we attended Seinan Gakuin Baptist Church, right next to the campus of the university. There is a lot of work to be done here to help reform the churches to be more biblically faithful, so pray for the Fukuoka team as they try to help the churches move toward this!

[Derek Toone @DerekT07]

Today, we made the trek to Osaka via the bullet train. We then filled our afternoon with a quick trip to see Osaka castle and meeting up with a few of the IMB team here. It was so good to hear about how the Lord is using them to saturate Osaka with the gospel!

[Derek Toone @DerekT07]

We have just a couple more days in Tokyo ahead of us before we head off to Osaka. The IMB team is onboarding several new team associates today and tomorrow, so there's less normal ministry activity, but we'll take the chance to explore more of the city. Tokyo is huge!

[Derek Toone @DerekT07]

We've had a whirlwind of activity in our first few days here! One highlight is getting to spend some time with John and Susan Edwards, the missionaries I lived with back when I was here in 2017. It was so good to see them again and catch up!

[Derek Toone @DerekT07]

Story Church is a church plant that started out as a Bible study led by IMB missionaries. It is quite international, but it has a good core group after a couple of years of growth. Pray that the Lord would continue to bless them!