We’ve been back in the states for a few days now and are going through the entirely normal but exhausting process of overcoming jet lag. Last night Titus was up till 1am, I couldn’t sleep till 3am, and Tomo couldn’t sleep past 4am. Despite that, each day we feel a little more adjusted and refreshed. This is good because God has given us a lot of good direction over the course of the last three months, and now it’s time to get to work!
Over the last three months we’ve spoken to many of our supporters, and Pastors of supporting churches here in the states. We’ve spoken with people from SEND, and people from JEMS. We’ve emailed back and forth with people in Japan, and the last three weeks we went all over Japan to talk to people in person. There are many questions that we’ve been asking through this, some of which I talked in our last update, and some of which I’ll talk about in our next one. But the biggest question that launched us on this little journey was whether or not God was leading us to switch missions organizations from SEND to JEMS. We believe that He is. We have not switched yet, in fact we have not yet been accepted with JEMS. This is something to be praying for, the last step in the process. We have applied, JEMS is currently waiting to receive all of our references. The next step after that will be an interview at their headquarters in LA, and then we’ll see if we are accepted.
Many of you are have been sending financial support into SEND. That support has gone into a fund that will be used to cover our outgoing expenses, and we have been assured by SEND that should we change organizations that the funds you have given will be transfer ed along with us. We are incredibly grateful for all of our financial partners, through your generosity we have raised nearly 100% of our needed outgoing costs. We ask that you continue giving to SEND until we have officially transfer ed to JEMS, and they have an account set up to receive donations on our behalf. Unlike SEND, JEMS does not operate on a pool system. Once in Japan our living expenses will be directly provided by our supporters. Because of this we hope to build up a small reserve fund in our account before leaving, so that should we receive less support in a particular month we’ll be able to continue ministering in Japan unhindered, rather than immediately consider the possibility of returning to the states for more support raising. Thus any funds that are donated beyond what is needed for our outgoing expenses will be put into this reserve fund.
Though we are changing missions, our ministry will not change. In fact it is because we feel such a burden for Japan, and because we believe God is doing an unprecedented work there right now in Tohoku, because there is an urgent, immediate need, and because He is opening doors for us to be involved that we believe God is leading us to change to change missions. By switching to JEMS we anticipate reducing our monthly support requirements from $10,300 to around $6,500. This means that we will go from having to raise an additional $6,300/month to $2,500/month. Also once we have switched to JEMS we hope to be able to start receiving a salary almost immediately. This will allow me to be able to stop working full time at my current job and instead begin support raising full time, in preparation for an anticipated departure of March, 2013. At the bottom of this email is a time line with a series of goals which we invite you to pray for God to bring about. We are incredibly excited, and have never before felt so close to seeing God bring us to Japan to serve Him there.
Nevertheless this was a bittersweet decision. SEND, it’s staff and missionaries have been incredibly supportive and encouraging over the last five years I have been a part of it. Tomo’s home church in Tokyo was planted by SEND, and she has known SEND missionaries her entire life, some of whom taught her English when she was a child. SEND has played a significant role in both our lives, and we have made many friends. It is our sincere hope and prayer that as we move to Japan we will be able to keep in touch with our friends from SEND, and that our paths will cross often, that we will be able to pray for each other, support each other, and work together toward the common goal of taking the gospel to every corner of Japan.