Two weeks from today our family will be boarding a plane to move to Iwate, to begin working with Morioka Bible Baptist Church, and the Iwate 3.11 Network to assist with Evangelism, Discipleship and Church planting among the survivors of the Tsunami. We are praising God as He continues to provide support and open doors. We are are seeking to raise at least an additional $490 in monthly support in these next two weeks, as we trust God to provide for us. So far He has in many, many ways. We have purchased our plane tickets, reserved train tickets and a hotel. We’ve shipped our belongings ahead of us. One of our supporters blessed us with a generous gift of two new, easy to maneuver suitcases and a new laptop backpack for our travels. Today we picked up my Japanese Visa, and Titus’ Japanese passport (he’s got it easy now, being a dual citizen of both Japan and the USA!). I’ve officially signed on to work remotely for a few hours a week while in Japan, which helps to cover a portion of our budget. We received our February donor report, and were humbled and encouraged at the generosity of so many of our supporters who gave monthly and special gifts totaling just over $7,000! Our monthly budget is $6,500, so it was a blessing to see God provide even more than that amount in the month leading up to our departure! For all these things we are praising God, and looking forward with great excitement to seeing how He will work in Japan!
- Please pray for the additional $490/month to be committed before we depart.
- Pray for strength, as both Tomo and I are starting to get exhausted in this last sprint to the finish of our support raising journey, while at the same time making preperations to start an entirely new and in so many ways foreign journey to serve God as missionaries in Japan.
- Pray for the missionaries already serving in Iwate, for wisdom, for abundant reserves of love and compassion, for the ability and opportunity to effectively and clearly communicate the hope of the gospel to the lost in Iwate.
- Pray for the churches in Iwate, that God would fill the congregations with love and boldness to be witnesses for Him, and that they would be able to share the love of God with the tsunami survivors.
- Pray for the tsunami survivors; never before in their lifetimes, or in the lifetimes of any of their ancestors in their entire history, have they had such an opportunity to be reconciled to their Creator. Pray that they will hear the gospel, and that the Holy Spirit will prompt them to respond and recieve God’s gift of salvation.
- Pray that new missionaries would be sent out to Iwate, to Miyagi and Fukushima, and to every corner of Japan.