Month: March 2012

Before I get started, I wanted to point you to our Facebook page where I’ve posted a video from Pastor Kondo, who pastors a church in Iwate prefecture in Tohoku. He is one of the Pastors that we are praying about working with when we get to Japan, and is a friend of Tomo’s. You can watch his 3 minute video here: http://www.facebook.com/keeplovingjapan while you’re there, be sure to like our page to get updates on Facebook about other things God is doing in Japan.

Last week was the first of three weeks that I’ll be taking time off of work to do support raising. Please continue to be in prayer that God will use these next two weeks to provide many new partners and new monthly commitments.

Last week we had five support appointments, through which God provided another 1% of monthly financial support, bringing us up to 36%! We also visited two churches, and during one afternoon of calling, I had a chance to share in great detail with the associate Pastor of a church in Huntington Beach, who was excited to hear about our ministry as their church had recently decided to try to do more to support missions. Please pray that God will open doors for this church to be able to support us, they were to have an elders meeting on the evening I called, and the associate Pastor said he would share about our ministry with the elders.

So far this week there are thee family’s that have expressed interest in hearing about our ministry, but they’ve been really busy and it’s been difficult to find a time when we can meet. Please pray that we’ll be able to meet with them this week. Please also pray that God will open doors for us to share in small group settings so that we can meet new people and follow up with individual appointments

Please also be praying for our Texas trip next month. We’re getting ready to purchase plane tickets, but are still trying to schedule exactly which churches and individuals we’ll meet with. We have many contacts and invitations, however very few actual appointments as of yet; it would be nice to have a clearer picture of who we’ll be able to share with prior to purchasing tickets, but this may be one of those situations where we’ll just have to take a step of faith.

We continue to praise God for the momentum He’s building towards sending Christians long term, full time to Japan. In recent months we’ve not only seen God begin to accelerate His provision for our ministry, but also fellow SEND missionaries, including my brother and his family. We long to be there soon, and your prayers have played a big part in getting us this far. Please pray that God will provide an additional 14% during the next 10 weeks!

 

Sometimes we just need to take some time to acknowledge the ways God has answered prayers, and to praise and thank Him for the things He’s done. Now is a great time to do that.

First of all, we’re so thankful for all of you whom He has drawn into this ministry, particularly to partner with us in prayer, and also for the many of you who also are sending us on through your financial support. Your words of encouragement, and emails, have been a tremendous blessing, that God has often used to sustain us through the difficult task of support raising. Your prayers have often been felt, and God continues to remind us that He hears and answers your prayers on our behalf. We’re grateful that God continues to bless us with more prayer partners, 25 new people have comitted to praying for us this year, bringing the total up to 110 people! We are truly humbled to have so many of you lifting us up before our Father, and asking for His provision.

The past two weeks have been amazing to see God provide. We’ve had 6 new people sign up to support us financially, 2 of our current supporters increased their support, and one new church has commited to supporting. New partnership has been it’s own little miracle, and we’re still just shaking our heads and praising God constantly; in two weeks our monthly support has increased by 6.5%, up to 35%. This is by far the highest increase in that amount of time that we’ve ever had. We’re praying, and hoping that God will provide another 15% over the next two and a half months, and after seing what He has just done, we know it is certainly possible!

Starting tomorrow I’ll begin taking time off of work for three weeks, during which I’m hoping to dedicate 40 hours a week to support raising. Please pray that God will work mightily during these three weeks, and that He will arrange for us to share with many people, and that He will move people’s hearts to join us, all of us, in this ministry to bring His gospel to the people of Japan, and through us, all of us, He will plant new, vibrant, reproducing churches in that country which has rejected Him for so long. Also toward the end of April we’ll be going on a one week trip to Texas to meet with churches and individuals to share about this ministry. Please be praying that we can get all our appointments confirmed, and travel arrangements made.

First off, it was great seeing so many of you at our home church last Sunday as we shared about the needs of the people of Tohoku who were devestated by the Tsunami last year. We’re excited that God is calling us to be part of the next wave of Christians going to the region to share the love of Christ with those who so desperately need it. As Christian relief and aide work draws to a completion, we long to go and build upon the relationships and trust that has been established by our faithful brothers and sisters, in working alongside Japanese beleivers to establish new churches. You have all been instrumental in helping us get to this point. Through your prayers and generosity, almost 1/3 of our monthly support has been promised. Please continue to partner with us in prayer, in giving, and in whatever way God leads, to help take the gospel to Japan.

If you were unable to make it, most of the videos that were shown at the event have been posted to our new Facebook page: Keep Loving Japan. Please go watch them, and like the page so that you can get more videos and news as it becomes available.

Begining next week I’ll be taking off 4 days a week from my job for a three week period in order to dedicate time to support raising. We’re excited about this. It is an answer to one of the first prayer requests that we sent out to you all at the begning of this year, as we were asking God to provide a way for me to spend more time in support raising. Since we started I have never been able to dedicate this much time to the task, so we’re excited to see how God will use it. My Goal is to dedicate 40 hours a week to support raising during each of these three weeks.

Our hope is to be able to meet with:

• Individuals who are willing to hear about our ministry and to consider becoming monthly partners
• Small groups, Bible Studies, Sunday School classes, and desert parties where we can meet new people to share our vision with
• Church missions directors or comittees to build partnerships with local churches
• Current supporters to update them on our progress and direction, and to see if they can introduce us to any of your friends who might be interested in hearing about our ministry.

Please be praying that we will be able to fill my scedule with appointments during this time, that God will expand our network of people we can meet with, and that through all this He will equip and supply us with the financial partnership necessary for us to move to Japan. Pray that we will make substantial progress towards our goal of reaching 50% support by the end of May.

I will be trying to get in touch with some of you who are in the area this week, particularly those of you that we don’t get to see very often. We’d love to be able to share some of the exciting things God has been doing in Japan and how our ministry direction is begining to take shape. We also are in desperate need of meeting new people. If you are part of a Bible Study or Small Group, or Sunday school group that I could come share at for 5 – 10 minutes, that would be a tremendous help. If you know someone who might be interested in hearing what God’s calling us to do, it would be an amazing help and blessing if you could find some way to introduce us.

Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement. God is begining to work in some more visible ways. I can’t wait to see what He has in store next, and I’m over joyed that you are all sharing in thos journey with us.

Prayer Requests

1. Pray that this week I’ll be able to get a hold of people and make many, many appointments for next week.
2. That during the next three weeks God would lead many new people to partner with us in prayer and monthly financial giving
3. Pray that we’ll be able to finalize our plans for our trip to Texas in late April, so that we can purchase plane tickets
4. Pray for the pastors and missionaries in Tohoku who are trying to bring hope to people who are still desperately hurting

 

Praises

1. The service at our church for the 1 year anniversary of the Tsunami went well. We had a wonderful time meeting with many of our supporters and friends, as well as sharing with a few new people.
2. That God has provided the finances for me to be able to take off three weeks from work (largely unpaid) in order to do support raising.
3. We’ve got three new supporters coming on board since the last update! Praise God! We’re now up to 30% of our monthly.
4. We have raised 80% of our one time outgoing costs! This means that we’ve almost got enough raised to cover language school, and moving expenses. Basically, as soon as the monthly budget is promised, we’ll be all set to move over to Japan!