After a lot of prayer, research, and number crunching, we’ve finally set a budget of $6,500 a month for serving through JEMS in Japan. We are currently at about $4,000 a month in promised support, meaning that we still have $2,500 a month to raise before March. If you are interested in seeing how this money will be allocated, click here. Please be praying that God will prompt His people here in the US to join us in participating in His work of spreading salvation to the Japanese. Pray that God will give potential supporters the faith to trust Him in this difficult financial time to provide for all their needs so that they can have the freedom to serve Him by partnering with us.
This is a step of faith for us as well. There are many unknowns, and it is possible that the budget that we have set may result in us also being under financial stress once we get to Japan, as it is almost $4,000 a month lower than the budget SEND set for us when we were with them. Also, because JEMS does not use a pool system like JEMS, we will be much more dependent upon the faithfulness and generosity of our supporters while in Japan. Our hope and prayer is that this will cultivate a greater dependency upon Christ to meet our daily needs, and that same dependency will grow in the hearts of our financial partners, and that all of us will find freedom in truly believing Christ’s promise to meet the needs of those who seek His Kingdom first and foremost in their lives.
We are praising God every day for providing the opportunity for us to engage in full time support raising. Please pray that God will give us the wisdom to know how to best use the time, and for fruitful results as we seek to call Christians and Churches to rise up and partner with us to obey Christ’s command to make disciples in all nations. Pray that people will make time to meet with us during the busy holiday seasons.
Pray for the churches of the Iwate 3.11 Network in Japan, that God will continue to supply them with resources and laborers in order to minister to the needs of the victims of last years Tsunami and earthquake. Pray Tomo’s parents, Yoshie and Kazuyoshi, as they seek to provide children’s programs among the temporary housing camps and seek to build relationships with the residents. Pray that God’s love, poured out by the example and actions of His people, both national believers and international missionaries, will soften hearts and spark an interest in the God who these ministers worship. Pray that the lost would come to know, love and serve their creator, that established churches would be revived and that new churches would be planted in the cities of the Iwate coast.