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4 Weeks to Go!

Our departure date is less than four weeks away! It’s hard to believe that it’s coming up so quickly, and even as we race through this final period of support raising prior to departure, God continues to provide, opening doors, strengthening relationships with supporters and sending churches, and introducing us to new partners. It has truly been a blessed, though somewhat frantic time!

Over the last month we’ve shared at five different churches, and one Bible Study, and we’re scheduled to share at three more churches before our departure in just four weeks time. This month alone we’ve had 25 new people become prayer partners, which brings our total up to 180! They have all been a tremendous blessing and encouragement and we cannot thank them enough. If you would like to become a prayer partner and recieve our weekly email updates, click here. We’re excited that in a few short weeks we’ll start sending you prayer updates from Japan to let you know what God is doing there, and to ask you to pray for Him to work in the prefecture of Iwate.

On Saturday, March 9th we’ll have our final support raising event before we leave, click here for the details on Facebook. Everyone is invited! If you haven’t gotten a chance to hear in person what God is doing in Japan, and what part we’ll be playing, you’ll definitely want to come. If you haven’t heard an update from us in person in awhile, this is a great opportunity to see what God’s been doing in Iwate over the last two years, and what we pray He will be doing in the coming years. If you know someone who is interested in missions, or interested in Japan, please consider inviting them to come with you. And please keep the event in prayer. We are praying that God will provide a good portion of our remaining needed support through this event.

 

Praises

  • Our biggest praise this week was that we were issued my certificate of eligibility to receive a spousal visa to live in Japan. The visa has not been officially approved yet, but there’s no reason to expect that it would not be at this point. Still, pray that things continue to go smoothly. It is in the mail right now on it’s way to us from Japan, we’ll then take it to the Japanese Consulate in LA to apply for the Visa, and if everything is in order and the Visa is approved we’ll go pick it up a week later.
  • We had one new financial partner this week, 14 new prayer partners, and a number of people tell us that they intend to support us and are praying about how much they will give. Praise God!
  • The Dollar to Yen exchange rate has improved remarkably over the last six months. We had set our budget to be very tight in order to keep costs down, but in doing so we had very little margin for error, so we were a little nervous about it. However since the exchange rate has been going in favor of the Dollar, every Dollar of support given will now go a little bit further, and Lord willing allow us to minister more effectively with having a little bit less stress from worrying about our financial needs being met.
Prayer Requests
  • Unofficially we’re down to about $985/month in needed support. There’s still some things that are up in the air, so be praying for God to work them all out, but it looks like that’s the number that we’re down to. Please pray for God to provide that monthly support before we go.
  • We just bought plane tickets this week, and are beginning to make the rest of  our travel arrangements. Our itinerary will involve flying into Tokyo, arriving Mar 26, taking a train into the city to stay at a hotel overnight, and catching a bullet train to Iwate the next day. From there we will be staying either at the church we’ll be working with or at the volunteer center, and hope to find an apartment quickly and get moved in before language school starts on April 8.
  • The language school I’m going to attend begins on April 8th. Pray that God will open all the doors for us to be able to purchase plane tickets, move to Japan, find an apartment, and get settled in all before April 8th.
  • Pray for language learning for me now. I’ve been trying to cover three months worth of prerequisite material in about 8 weeks in order to try to get into the group language class I’d like. If I can’t get through it I’ll probably have to start with individual lessons, which wouldn’t be a bad thing, but I think I would do better in a group with the added pressure and competition to keep me engaged.
  • Pray for God to provide the perfect place for us. We’re looking for an affordable apartment or home that the three of us can comfortably live in, preferably with an extra bedroom for guests to be able to come stay with us. Ideally it would also be within walking distance to either the church or the language school. Tomo is scouring the Internet right now, and we’ve been told that a lot or places open up in March. It would be great if we could find a place before we depart so that we can land, sign the papers and move in.
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Prayer for Iwate

The prefecture of Iwate, where we will be moving in less than two months to begin ministry, continues to face many challenges. I read a recent report about the survivors in the Tohoku region (of which Iwate is a part of) that said that there are still 305,000 tsunami survivors that are essentially homeless, living in temporary housing. Reuilding has been going very slowly over the last 2 years, and the government has only completed 40 out of a planned 23,000 houses that were supposed to be built for the survivors. Meanwhile the Japanese Churches located in Iwate, though few in number, are continuing to minister to these survivors, even as many NGOs and short term missionaries begin to pull out.

As noted in the slide above, there were 0 missionaries working in Iwate prior to the Tsunami. For now, there are about 20 missionaries seeking to help reach Iwate’s 1.3 million people, over 99% of whom have no relationship with Jesus Christ. As thousands in Iwate continue to live day to day in temporary housing situations and an uncertain future, pray that many will turn their hearts towards God, and find in Him the peace and security that only a relationship with Christ can provide.

Prayer Requests

  • Pray for the churches and missionaries ministering to these people, that they would have wisdom, sensitivity, boldness and compassion to meet their emotional and spiritual needs.
  • Pray that churches will be started in each of the 17 unchurched towns.
  • Pray that all churches in Iwate will shine brightly and become visible, attractive presences in their communities.
  • Pray that God will provide for all of our needs as we prepare to go and join with the Japanese and international Christians in Iwate who faithfully proclaiming the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ.
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One Step Closer to Departure

I had a talk with JEMS missions director this week, and we have some exciting news to announce. Because our outgoing funds have been completely raised, and additional funds have continued to be given by our generous supporters, we have been officially cleared for a departure date of March 27, 2013! 

What this means is that JEMS has given us permission to depart on that date, and it will be up to us to make the final decision on whether or not we will go. Even though our outgoing one time costs have been met, we still have around $1,700/month in monthly commitments that needs to be raised to meet our full budget. We will prayerfully make our final decision at the beginning of March when we see how many people have begun supporting by the end of February.

We are very encouraged by all that God has done to provide additional support over the last few months, and also by the many promising avenues through which He seems to be working even now. He has always provided for all of our needs, and we are continuing to trust that He will do so in the future. Please pray for us that God will give us wisdom to know His will, faith to trust Him, and for His provision of new monthly financial partners this month.

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Prayer Meeting Tonight!

Our targeted departure date of March 27th is now less than two months away! We are having just three more prayer meetings prior to our departure, one of which is tonight! We’d love to get a chance to pray with our prayer partners and supporters in person some time before we leave, so if you’re free, please join us tomorrow night (Tuesday), 7PM at the Robison home:

Please also put Saturday, March 9th on calendars. We will be having our last event before departure, looking back at the two year anniversary of the 3/11/2011 Tsunami. We’ll be giving an update of the progress that has been made, the ongoing needs, and how we believe that God is moving to do an unprecedented work in response to the disaster 2 years ago. Believe it or not there are still tens of thousands of people living in “temporary” housing, and many of the cities have not even begun to rebuild.

We continue to see God provide new prayer and financial partners almost daily. We’re now down to $1,700 in needed monthly support, and have had the great privilege of being able to share with a number of people who have let us know that they intend to become financial partners and are prayerfully considering how much they can give. JEMS processes receipts at the end of each month, which means that February will be a really crucial month for support raising, as it will be the last month in which we see new supporters showing up on our report before our departure. We also hope to purchase plane tickets at the end of February, and we’ll want to have a clear picture of how close to our support goals we are before doing so.

Please continue to pray for fruitful meetings with individuals and churches. We had a wonderful time visiting with Calvary South County yesterday, and are planning to visit Venice Church in Santa Monica this coming Sunday.

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We’re going to need a lot of prayer support when we get to Japan.

We’re praying that God will provide everything that we need to be able to depart for Japan on March 27th of 2013, and by faith we’re preparing toward that end. That’s nine weeks and two days from today! The reality that we will soon be ministering in Japan (if the Lord wills), is beginning to sink in, and with that is the realization of the daunting task to which God is calling us. More and more I am convinced of the great need for Christians to pray for Japan, and ask that God work a miracle in bringing hearts to Himself.

Here is the reality of what we are facing. Japan is less than 1% Christian. Over the last 150 years protestant missionaries have been ministering in Japan, and the number of Christians has not risen significantly. When I was in Japan over the summer, I talked to a number of missionaries who told me that the last 30 years of ministry has been particularly difficult, and they had seen very little progress. Over and over I am cautioned by godly people, who know the culture, not to expect too much. Some have gone so far as to refer to Japan as the graveyard of missionaries, because so often missionaries are discouraged and lose hope of ever reaching the Japanese for Christ.

I believe that God is Sovereign, and that He has allowed this hardness to exist in Japan for His own mysterious purposes. I believe that somehow, at the end of time we will look back at God’s plan for Japan and marvel, and be amazed at His wisdom and greatness. For a 150 years He has been sending His people to go to Japan, to struggle, to turn up hard ground, to persevere. They have given their lives in obedience to God’s calling, to give the Japanese an opportunity to hear and believe the message of Salvation. My Japanese grandmother was brought to Christ through the work of foreign missionaries. My wife’s parents also were led to Christ by missionaries. Their work has not been in vain. But it will not be any human work that will bring about a great harvest in Japan, that can only happen when God, in His Sovereign will, begins to work. When He does, we, His people, must rise up in prayer, in sending and in going, participating in His work that He calls us to be a part of.

It is my hope and prayer that God is about to do this in Iwate.

If He does not, we will joyfully go, give our lives, and continue to till the ground, and prepare the soil for whenever God does decide to bring the harvest. But as I sit here, and see all that God has done in Iwate in the last 2 years, I amazed and encouraged. We need people who will be praying fervently and faithfully for God to work in Iwate. We need people to pray for barriers to be broken down, relationships to be built, boldness in sharing the gospel to be given, hearts to be opened, salvation to be accomplished, disciples to be made, churches to be planted, and then for all that to happen again and again and again until praises to our Great, Merciful, Loving God are heard in every city town and village in Japan. We need people to pray that God will use such limited, inadequate, helpless followers as Tomo and I to spark such a fire in Japan.

Thank you for your prayers! Please continue to pray!

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Christmas in Japan

In recent years there seems to be an annual battle in the US over what Christmas is all about. Some seem to want to remove all references to Christ, or to make the season a generic holiday that caters to people of all religious backgrounds, while we Christians often loudly protest and strive to keep Christ as the focal point. I mention this not to weigh in on what I think is the appropriate response American Christians ought to have in this battle, but simply to set in contrast to the Japanese view of Christmas. Because in Japan, despite the fact that Christmas has become a wildly popular holiday in recent years, virtually no one knows why they celebrate it.

As near as I can tell, Christmas was introduced and made popular in Japan, not by Christians (as of now there are not enough Christians in Japan to popularize the celebration of Christ’s birth), but by retailers. Department stores in Japan saw a huge opportunity to increase sales by capitalizing on the popularity of American culture and importing the Christmas holiday (and shopping season). And as you would expect, it’s all Santa Claus, snow men and Christmas Trees, without even a hint of Christ; in fact few even knows that Christmas is actually the celebration of Christ’s birth.

On the one hand it’s sort of sad that when a country like Japan looks at the way we Americans celebrate Christmas they only see materialism and a marketing opportunity. But on the other hand, God lets nothing go to waste. While there are millions of Japanese who are getting ready to celebrate Christmas by shopping and looking for a romantic partner to spend the night with, there are also a few Churches, Christians and missionaries who cherish this time of year to joyously celebrate the coming of their savior, and look to share this joy with the millions of lost people surrounding them. Be praying for the individuals in Japan who will hear the gospel for the very first time this Christmas. Be praying for the churches to have successful outreaches. Be praying that the Holy Spirit will move in people’s hearts to respond to Christ’s calling this Christmas and that they will never celebrate it the same again. Finally, be praying that God will send more missionaries to Japan to work along side the small indigenous churches in Japan to share the hope of salvation through Christ Jesus in the coming years.

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7.3 Aftershock off the coast of Tohoku

I’m sure that many of you heard about the earthquake in Japan Thursday night. This was a huge aftershock (7.3) from last years 9.0 earthquake in the same area. Thankfully there was little damage reported and no casualties, however Tsunami warnings forced many to evacuate, out of fear of a repeat of last years catastrophic Tsunami.

Tomo’s family is safe and unharmed, so praise God for that. Her parents are currently serving as indigenous missionaries in Kamaishi, one of the cities that was hit hard by last year’s Tsunami. Her mother was at their home and heard Tsunami waning sirens going off, but since they live a safe distance from the coast she did not have to evacuate, however Tomo’s Dad was out with some volunteers ministering at a temporary housing complex in a neighboring town, and along with all the people living in the temporary housing (who were victims of last years Tsunami) had to evacuate to higher ground. Although ultimately there was no Tsunami this time, it was an incredibly stressful event for many of the people living there, particularly those in temporary housing who lost their homes a year an a half ago. Please be praying for God’s Peace to be brought into the hearts of these people, that through the work of Tomo’s parents and other Christians in the area that many would find a solid hope in Christ and an assurance of an eternal inheritance. And pray that God would send more Christian workers to this area!

Support update
Once a month we get a report from JEMS showing the gifts that have been given towards our ministry. November was the first full month with JEMS, so we were a little nervous to open the email and see if we still had any supporters now that we were with a new organization. (I’m joking a bit there, so many of you have already told us in person and over email of your continued commitment to partner with us, but still, this whole support raising thing puts weird thoughts into your mind.). We were blown away to see that through your generosity, God had provided an additional $4,845 of funds to help send us to Japan!

This was made up of a combination of special gifts, and monthly support sent in by supporters that were quick about filling out the paperwork and transitioning with us to JEMS. To all of you who gave in November, thank you so much. We’re praising God that 16 out of our 60 monthly supporters have already transitioned to JEMS with us, and that God has provided a number of new supporters this month as well. Also we have one new church committing to support us beginning in January, and another church has informed us of their plan to increase their support. Praise God!

If you were supporting us monthly while we were with SEND, and haven’t yet mailed in a new support form, please click here to download and print the form. If you intend to start supporting upon departure, please email us and let us know so that we can better plan our departure date, and also let you know how to begin supporting when the time comes.

Our greatest need is still for additional individuals and churches to commit to giving on a monthly basis during our first two year term in Japan which will begin in March. Please pray this week for God to provide the support we need to minister well in Japan. Pray for me to have courage in contacting new people, and that God will connect us with believers that are interested in partnering with us in prayer and/or financial giving. Pray for a deeper relationship and partnership with our sending churches, that we will be able to appropriately engage and invite them to participate in our ministry, and in so doing allow them to share in the blessings of being a part of the work that God is doing in this world.

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Monthly Budget Set!

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.

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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!