This week I’d like to ask you to be praying for God to give us direction as to where He wants us to serve once we go to Japan. Almost a year ago the Tohoku region of Japan was devestated by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, followed by a massive tsunami. As Tomo and I watched the events unfold, we began praying about how we could help those who were effected by it. As time went on, we watched in awe as God began to turn what started as a horrendous nightmare, into a great out pouring of His love, as Christians from Japan and around the world flooded into the Tohoku area to bring food, supplies, aide and above all hope. Before the tsunami hit, Tohoku was among the least reached areas in all of Japan (itself one of the least reached countries in the world). The area is dotted with hundreds of small, tight knit communities that proved to be very resistant to the message of the gospel, and somewhat distrustful of outsiders. Yet in the wake of thousands of Christians coming to their aide, many of these people and communities have a totally different perspective on Christianity. Perhaps even more importantly, a number of Japanese churches have become energized, and are building lasting relationships upon the foundation of love and aide, and are now seeking to plant new churches in these towns, many of which have never had a Christian church within their borders.
It is an incredible opportunity to bring hope to those who are suffering, and share the love of God with the lost, to introduce Japanese who have lost everything to a savior who offers an eternal inheritance that can never be taken from them.
SEND missionaries have been involved in helping with relief efforts from the start, and just in the last week SEND Japan rented a large house just outside Sendai, the largest city in Tohoku, in order to establish a new base of missionary operations. This is the first time in decades that SEND has entered into a new area of ministry outside of the Tokyo area, so it is a large step of faith, and to us is incredibly exciting. However as of now only a few missionaries are free to move into Tohoku to start this new church planting ministry. We are willing to go and be a part of the team that pioneers this new field, if God enables and directs. Please be praying that if this is His will He would send us soon, and that this unprecedented opportunity to take the gospel to Tohoku will not be missed.
Prayer Requests
- That God provides enough monthly financial partners to cover 50% of our support by the end of May. This is our biggest one right now, if we are unable to reach this goal we will have to put off our departure for another year.
- I got two referals this past week that I need to follow up on. Also, so far I don’t have any appointments this week, so I need to try to get at least one. Please be praying that God will give me someone to share with about Japan this week, perhaps one of the two people I have been given to contact.
- Pray that God will provide more referals of people who might be interested in hearing about our ministry and joining us as regular financial partners.
- Pray for SEND Japan missionaries Dave and Eileen Barkman, who are the first to move to Tohoku to establish the SEND base in the region. They will be working with a local pastor to start planting house churches in various villages in the area, and also facilitating teams that will come on a short term basis. Also pray for my brother and his wife Maki (Tomo’s sister), they are also with SEND, raising support to go back for their second term, and currently one of the four missionary families planning to minister in Tohoku.
Praises
- I officially got approval from my work to take a month off in order to do full time support raising. It looks like I’ll be taking off three weeks starting half way through March, and then working for two weeks before taking another week off to go to Texas. Pray that God will raise up a large portion of our support during this time.
- Our Texas trip is starting to come together. Praise God that we now have three contacts willing to help us out, which means that we will definately be going. There is one more family I need to get a hold of that hopefully will also be able to connect us with their church. Pray that we’ll be able to work out the details.