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2 Years since the Tsunami; 2 weeks before our departure

Today marks the 2 year anniversary of the 3/11/11 Tsunami in Japan. Memorial events and services have been held in many parts of Japan, and here in the US as well. There are still 300,000 victims who are homeless, and facing many challenging emotional and financial needs. Pray that through His people God will continue to pour out His love on these survivors, the vast majority of whom have no relationship with their creator. Check out this video to get a picture of what things are like over there (and keep an eye out for one of our fellow JEMS missionaries serving in the region!)

Two weeks from today our family will be boarding a plane to move to Iwate, to begin working with Morioka Bible Baptist Church, and the Iwate 3.11 Network to assist with Evangelism, Discipleship and Church planting among the survivors of the Tsunami. We are praising God as He continues to provide support and open doors. We are are seeking to raise at least an additional $490 in monthly support in these next two weeks, as we trust God to provide for us. So far He has in many, many ways. We have purchased our plane tickets, reserved train tickets and a hotel. We’ve shipped our belongings ahead of us. One of our supporters blessed us with a generous gift of two new, easy to maneuver suitcases and a new laptop backpack for our travels. Today we picked up my Japanese Visa, and Titus’ Japanese passport (he’s got it easy now, being a dual citizen of both Japan and the USA!). I’ve officially signed on to work remotely for a few hours a week while in Japan, which helps to cover a portion of our budget. We received our February donor report, and were humbled and encouraged at the generosity of so many of our supporters who gave monthly and special gifts totaling just over $7,000! Our monthly budget is $6,500, so it was a blessing to see God provide even more than that amount in the month leading up to our departure!  For all these things we are praising God, and looking forward with great excitement to seeing how He will work in Japan!

  • Please pray for the additional $490/month to be committed before we depart.
  • Pray for strength, as both Tomo and I are starting to get exhausted in this last sprint to the finish of our support raising journey, while at the same time making preperations to start an entirely new and in so many ways foreign journey to serve God as missionaries in Japan.
  • Pray for the missionaries  already serving in Iwate, for wisdom, for abundant reserves of love and compassion, for the ability and opportunity to effectively and clearly communicate the hope of the gospel to the lost in Iwate.
  • Pray for the churches in Iwate, that God would fill the congregations with love and boldness to be witnesses for Him, and that they would be able to share the love of God with the tsunami survivors.
  • Pray for the tsunami survivors; never before in their lifetimes, or in the lifetimes of any of their ancestors in their entire history, have they had such an opportunity to be reconciled to their Creator. Pray that they will hear the gospel, and that the Holy Spirit will prompt them to respond and recieve God’s gift of salvation.
  • Pray that new missionaries would be sent out to Iwate, to Miyagi and Fukushima, and to every corner of Japan.
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Plane Tickets Purchased!

This past week we shipped all our stuff over to Japan ahead of us, purchased plane tickets, bullet train tickets and made hotel reservations, and submitted my certificate of eligibility application for a spousal visa to the Japanese consulate, and applied for Titus’ Japanese passport. All that to say, we’re leaving for Japan in less than 3 weeks!

God continues to provide new supporters, and as of now we’re down to $785/month in needed financial support. However as God has already opened so many doors in providing my visa, a church to partner with in Japan, a language school to attend, a large amount of funding upfront already in our account, and so many needs in Japan for us to be a part of meeting, we feel that it’s God’s will for us to trust him with the remaining finances, and proceed to Japan. Over the remaining three weeks we’ll continue to seek out new supporters even as we finalize all our preparations for departure.

On Saturday, March 9th at 2PM, we’ll be having our final support raising event,as we reflect back on the progress that has been made since the 3/11 Tsunami 2 years ago. Please be praying that this event will be well attended, and that God will bring many new partners to us through it. If you are in the area, please consider attending, and inviting people from your church, Bible Study, or others you may know that would be interested in learning about the incredible things God has been doing in Japan since the Tsunami, and the ongoing needs for churches to be planted. The event will be held at Lutheran Church of the Cross:

Lutheran Church of the Cross
24231 El Toro Road
Laguna Woods, CA 92637

We will also be sharing at two more of our supporting churches before we depart, so please be praying that God will help us to establish even better relationships with their congregations, and that He might even lead some of the individuals at these churches to partner with us as well.

We’re extremely excited to be finally moving over to Japan. During the first term we will be partnering with Morioka Bible Baptist Church, working with Pastor Kondo. Our primary focus will be language acquisition for me, learning the local culture and seeking to discern where and how God might use us to help establish new churches in the coastal areas that have no church. Through partnering with Morioka Bible Baptist Church we’ll have frequent opportunities to participate in coastal outreaches and begin to build relationships with missionaries and pastors in the Iwate 3.11 network who may become potential ministry partners in the future.

One of our big prayer requests right now is for a place to live in Japan. As we’ll be arriving in Morioka just a week and a half before language school starts, it would be wonderful if we had a place already picked out before we arrived. Tomo is checking with a number of realtors online, and also working with Pastor Kondo and his wife who are helping us to find a place.