Category: Prayer Update

• 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.

• 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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

We just got the news today that we were unanimously accepted by the JEMS board of directors as long term missionaries! We are praising God for this final bit of confirmation as the culmination of a Summer which has been both exciting and a little stressful, as we’ve been seeing God lead each step of the way and reveal a little more about what He has in store for us in Japan. We are looking forward with great anticipation to serving with JEMS in Japan, and it continues to look as though god will indeed move us over there by March of next year, as we have been praying for since the beginning of this year.

Upon hearing that we were accepted with JEMS, I submitted our official resignation from SEND. We will miss being a part of SEND, and our frequent interactions with SEND staff and missionaries. Our time with them was wonderful, and God used that time to teach us many things and to prepare us for serving in Japan. We hope that we’ll have many opportunities to fellowship and even partner with SEND missionaries in Japan, many of whom we now count as dear friends.

This is still very fresh, so JEMS is still in the process of setting things up on their end, and we’ve got some logistical things to sort out as far as how people can transfer their support from SEND to JEMS, and when exactly SEND will stop receiving funds on our behalf and transfer the funds that our partners have sent in so far to cover outgoing expenses. As soon as we figure all this out we’ll be sending out a letter, and a new packet in the mail including instructions on how to send in support to JEMS, and also a new prayer card that we just ordered. If you signed up to receive our prayer updates online, we may not have your mailing address, so if you would like to get this packet, just reply and let us know where to send it.

If any of you just can’t wait to start supporting us through JEMS, you can mail checks on our behalf to:

JEMS
948 East Second Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Just be sure to include a note explaining that you’re sending it on our behalf. For information about setting up a regular EFT, email info@jems.org. Again, once we get more details about how this all works with JEMS we’ll be sure to let everyone know.

Here are a few prayer requests:

1. That the transition will go smoothly and that funds will be transferred in a timely manner. It is our hope for me to be able to cut back my hours at my current job in order to start a six month period of full time support raising in preparation for a departure sometime in March of 2013. However the timing of when this can begin depends on when the funds that have been given on our behalf can be transferred to JEMS.
2. That all our financial partners will transfer to JEMS with us, and that we will not lose ground. We anticipate reducing our support requirements to around $6,500 a month, which means that if all our supporters transfer with us we will go form being 40% supported to 60% supported!
3. That we will keep our faith in God and not upon the finances. This is one of the hardest parts of becoming a missionary, and now it is especially difficult as we are apprehensive about people possibly seeing this transition as an opportunity to cease supporting us, and also worrying about the timing of transferring the funds in our account. We know that all this is God’s, and that ultimately it is His provision that will allow us to go, and yet it is so easy to stress out and take our eyes off of trusting in His ability to provide for our needs and to focus simply on serving Him well and giving others the tremendous opportunity to be involved in missions to Japan through partnering with us to accomplish God’s goals.
4. That God will provide the remaining monthly support needed for us to depart for Japan by March of 2013.
5. For strength over the next few weeks. Things are going to get really busy as we switch back into support raising mode, sending out packets to all our prayer and financial partners, setting up opportunities to meet with many of you to explain about the transition and the exciting direction God has been revealing, and at least for a few weeks trying to do all this while I’m still working full time at the JESUS Film Project.

1. Pray for those who we shared with on the trip that are themselves seeking God’s will te determine if and how they can support us.
2. There are still five people that we are trying to meet with in this area. Pray that we will be able to schedule times to meet with them this month.
3. We have a number of new contacts that we would also like to meet with, pray that we can get a hold of them, and that they would be eager to hear about the needs in Japan.
4. Pray for good time management. God has blessed us with a lot of people to follow up with and contact, but between working full-time and taking care of Titus, we’re really struggling to find the time to meet with everyone we would like to.
5. Pray for wisdom, particularly in regards to this coming May 31 deadline for SEND’s member orientation. Whether we make it to 50% or not we feel more certain than ever that serving in Japan as church planters is the ministry that God has called us to, and due to the unique opportunities and doors which God is opening in the disaster area of Tohoku, we feel that it is urgent that we get there as soon as possible. Pray that God will give us patience to trust Him and wait on His timing, and the wisdom to know the path He wants us to take to get there.