I know, it’s been way too long since I’ve made a blog post. But all that is about to change, because a lot has changed already. For instance, I’m married now. This is a wonderful thing, and even though I’ve only been married for about three weeks, I’m loving every second of it. Tomo has already become a great source of encouragement and motivation, and we’ve been talking a lot about how we’re going to get to Japan, and what our plans are going to look like. But I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself. Let me fill you in a little on the details first.
On May 30th, 2009, Tomo and I were finally married, after spnding an excruciatin ten months of our engagemtn on different continents. The wedding took place in Tokyo, Japan, in the same church that I first went to help on a short term missions trip back in 2003. I had no idea at that time that I would even return to Japan, much less come back again and again and eventually return to marry Tomo in the very same church I had been privilidged to serve on so many occasions. It was an incredible experience.
This has some major implications for me as a future missionary to Japan. SEND requires that in the case of a married couple, both husband and wife join SEND as missionaries, and Tomo is in the process of doing so right now. We will both be going back to Japan as a missionary couple, working and serving together to plant churches in Japan. I am very, very happy with this arrangement. Transitioning to a new culture can be a daunting experience, and I am grateful that God is not sending me to Japan alone. Furthermore Tomo, being Japanese, will be an enormous help in learning the culture and language, and I feel that together we will be far more effective than either of us could have been alone. She is also very excited that God has provided a way for her to dedicate all of her time towards serving and building up the church in Japan and reaching her people. One consequence of this arrangement is that we will now need to raise approximately double the support that I would have had to raise on my own. This means that currently we are at about 15% of the total needed for us to go to Japan. Even though there is more to be raised, I am more motivated than ever to complete the support raising process, as Tomo and I are both very anxious to return to Japan and take part in the work that God is doing there even now. We have set a new goal of being fully supported and heading to Japan by the end of next year, 2010. Tomo will be attending SEND’s candidate orientation program in December, and will officially be appointed at that time as a SEND missionary. It seems that God is also opening the door for us to be able to dedicate 20 hours a week towards support raising as part of a new ten month program SEND is using to get their missionaries up to full support. We hope to get about 50% of our support raised before then, and raise the second half while on that program.
That about cathces ou up to speed on where we’re at and where God is taking us. One thing we’ve decided we need to be doing more often is keeping all of you updated, so we’ll be updating this blog faithfully every Monday night. So check back to hear from either Tomo or I what God has been doing in our lives, and what progress we’ve made in getting to Japan!