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Please come pray with us on November 29

I’ve been re-reading John Piper’s book, Let the Nations Be Glad, and came accross this passage in his excellent chapter on prayer:

Until you believe that life is war, you cannot know what prayer is for. Prayer is for the accomplishment of a wartime mission. It is as though the field commander (Jesus) called in the troops, gave them a crucial mission (“Go and bear fruit”), handed each of them a personal transmitter coded to the frequency of the general’s headquarters, and said, “Comrades, the general has a mission for you. He aims to see it accomplished. And to that end he has authorized me to give each of you personal access to him through these transmitters. If you stay true to his mission and seek his victory first, he will always be as close as your transmitter, to give tactical advice and to send in air cover when you or your comrades need it.”

 But what have millions of Christians done? They have stopped believing that we are in a war. No urgency, no watching, no vigilance, no strategic planning. Just easy peacetime and prosperity. And what did they do with the walkie-talkie? They tried to rig it up as an intercom in their cushy houses and cabins and boats and cars – not to call in fire power for conflict with a mortal enemy, but to ask the maid to bring another pillow to the den.

It is with this in mind that I thank you, our fellow prayer “warriors,” for interceding on our behalf, and again ask you to continue in prayer for us, and for Japan, that God would provide all of our needs as we finish up support raising over the next five months, and that He would send His gospel throughout the prefecture of Iwate, softening hearts and bringing salvation to the lost. Nothing about this mission is easy, in fact on our own we are hopelessly out matched and unqualified for the task ahead. But this is as God desires it to be, for when we are at our weakest, His strength is most perfectly seen. Where we could only hope to fail, He can only succeed, and through our weakness He can supply all that is needed to accomplish His purposes in Japan. It only through Him that we can hope to raise the support to depart, and only through Him that we can hope to touch lives with the Gospel.

With that in mind, please join us on November 29th, 7:00pm at the Robison home for a prayer meeting. We would love to be able to pray with you in person before we leave.

Prayer Requests for this Week

  1. The past two weeks we’ve sent out letters to basically everyone we know (and had a mailing address for), to explain about our change of missions organizations and our unchanged departure plans. Please pray that God will enable all of our supporters to transition with us, and that He might move in the hearts of those who have not yet decided whether or not to support us to commit to giving monthly, or a special gift.
  2. Pray that we will continue to be able to build good relationships with our sending churches, and that they will joyously take an active role in partnering and praying for us.
  3. That we will be able to find opportunities to share with people during the holiday season. We’re really praising God for the time to be able to do full time support raising, however we’re a little concerned that launching out into it right during the holidays will make it difficult for people and churches to find time to meet with us. Pray that we’ll be able to make appointments, and to use the time that we have effectively.
  4. We are anticipating that we will need about $2,500 a month in additional support. Please be praying for God to provide that by March.
  5. Pray for wisdom in how to handle Tomo’s US Visa status as we move to Japan. It’s a very complicated situation, with no ideal solution. Pray that we will be able to choose the path that will allow us to be most effective in ministry.
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Week 1 of Full Time Support Raising

This week I’ve begun to decrease my hours at The JESUS Film Project in order to dedicate more time to support raising in anticipation of departing for Japan in March. Thank you so much for your prayers and support which has allowed us to take this step of faith and begin transitioning from our lives and occupation here in California to a new phase of life as missionaries preparing to server in Iwate, Japan. After months of seeking God’s will, and being in between organizations, it’s a huge blessing to once again be fully focused on reaching Japan. Please be praying that the time is used wisely, and that God will provide the remaining support that we need to reach Japan in March.

We’ve yet to set a final monthly budget for life in Japan, however, unofficially we’re still shooting for around $6,500 a month. If this winds up being what we set, then we’re about $2,500 a month short, as of right now. So our goal will be to raise an additional $2,500 in monthly promises over the next five months, which would be an average of $500 a month in new monthly support. This will be a challenge, but it is one we believe God can and will overcome, and one which He has positioned us well to tackle. With the holidays coming around the corner, everyone is normally pretty busy, which will make it difficult to meet with people. Be praying that God will lead us to the right people to share with, and that those we contact will be willing to make time to meet with us and hear what God is calling us to do in Japan.

This week I’m focus sing on informing all of our contacts about the switch to JEMS. We’ve mailed out transition packets to all our supporters, next we’ll be sending announcement letters to people who are not currently supporting us, sharing about the exciting doors God is opening through our ministry with JEMS, and inviting them to consider partnering with us. Pray that God will give those who receive these letters a heart to reach the Japanese for Christ. Also this coming Sunday we’ll be sharing at Orange Coast Free Methodist Church, one of our supporting churches, where we have been attending monthly for the past few years. Pray for a strengthening of our relationship with this wonderful group of brothers and sisters, and that God might move in the hearts of some of the individuals to personally join our support team.

Thank you for your prayers! God has been so faithful to answer them! We’re almost there!

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Starting Full Time Support Raising

We’re praising God for His provision and for the doors He’s opened this year. Starting today I’m reducing my hours at the JESUS Film Project to one day a week in order to engage in full time partner development and support raising. This is a big step, and in a way marks our transition into full time ministry. We’re tremendously excited to be able to take this step of faith, and extremely grateful to our partners who are enabling us to serve on their behalf.

Now begins a 5 month period of meeting with people, strengthening relationships with supporting churches, and seeking out the remaining partners that God will connect us with to complete this team that He is arranging in order to share His love with individuals who have never heard of Him, establish new churches in places that have never had one, and bring about further fulfillment of the great commission. We stand in awe of what He has accomplished thus far, and look forward with great anticipation to what lies ahead.

A week ago we mailed out packets with transition information to all of our current monthly supporters, many of you have already received them, and if you haven’t, you should get one soon. If you haven’t gotten one by next week, please let us know your address, as we may have an old one on file. Many of you who are not monthly supporters send in special gifts whenever the Lord blesses you to be able to do so, and some of you have expressed interest in becoming monthly supporters as soon as God enables you to be able to do so. We’ll be mailing out packets to all of our prayer partners next week with information on how to send special gifts or become monthly partners now that we’ve transitioned to JEMS. Also we want to make sure that all of you get our new prayer card. If you haven’t ever received anything in the mail from us, there’s a good chance we don’t have your address, so if you would like to get this packet, please respond and let us know where to send it!

During this time of full time support raising, we’ll be living off of the gifts that our monthly supporters have already faithfully given (currently these funds are still in an account with SEND, but the plan is for them to be transferred mid November, to JEMS). These gifts have been raised for the propose of covering our outgoing expenses, including airfare, moving costs, rental deposit, things needed to set up a home in Japan, a vehicle, and two years of tuition for language school, and three months Japanese salary as a reserve fund. Part of this fund also included six months of salary for use in the US for full time support raising. Through your incredible generosity, God has provided nearly all the funds needed to cover these expenses, we only need about $3,000 more to cover all these needs, and as many of you have been giving regularly, we anticipate our outgoing fund to be filled up on its own within the next few months.

If God has enabled you, we ask that you would prayerfully consider either beginning to give on a monthly basis now, or continuing to give monthly what you have, as we continue to prepare depart for Japan. Our hope is to be able to have a little extra in reserve so that once we are in Japan we’ll have a little padding in case giving fluctuates. If our reserve fund dips below three months salary while we are in Japan, JEMS requires that we reduce our ministry activities and focus on support raising so that we will not have to leave Japan and come home early. Extra funds in our account also will give us the flexibility to to fund ministry projects that may come up.

Thank you so much for your prayers. It’s been amazing to watch God answer them in so many ways this past year, and we can’t wait to see what He does in the coming months!

Please be praying for us as we start full time support raising next week. Pray that we’ll use the time wisely, that God will direct our steps and that He will provide the remaining funds needed for us to depart. We’re still trying to figure out what our Japanese taxes will be, but our best guess right now is that we still will need an additional $2,500 in monthly support in order to depart.