This is our second weekly prayer update, and if you’re getting this one, then you’re on the list to get them every week. If you’re cutting back on your email and don’t want to receive emails so frequently, that’s totally fine, just let us know, and we’ll take you off. You can still receive our bi-monthly newsletters. For those of you who have committed to praying for us on a weekly basis this year, we can’t thank you enough! We’re so excited to see how God answers your prayers this year, and the things that He will accomplish.
This week Tomo and I talked a lot about our goals for getting to Japan, and things that we need to do to reach those goals. As I mentioned last week, the first thing we felt needed to happen was prayer, which is the reason for this weekly update. But there are other things that we need to do in order to get there, so I’d like to share them with all of you so that you can be praying for them. The basic stages that we’re looking at would be:
1. To reach 50% monthly support by the end of may to attend SEND’s Member orientation
2. To reach 75% at which time I’ll be able to quit my job in order to do full time support raising to raise the remaining support needed
3. Reach 100% by either December 2012 or March 2013 in order to arrive in Japan in time to start language school
The first big goal that we have is to reach 50% of our support by the end of May. This will enable us to go to SEND’s Member Orientation Program, which is mandatory before departing for the field, and only held once a year in the US. We tried to attend last year but were unable to get the required support. This year we’ve actually got a little further to go than we did last year because our budget increased with the birth of Titus, and the dollar hitting record lows against the yen. This means that it is even more expensive to send missionaries from the US to Japan, yet still absolutely necessary for the health of the church and spread of the Gospel in Japan. We’re still trying to prayerfully set a realistic target departure date. It’s tough to gauge how support raising will go this year, but we’re considering shooting for December 2012 (which would be ambitious) or March 2013, so that we could arrive before the start of the Japanese school year and I could start Language School right away.
This week I met with a guy who is interested in supporting us. He is going to come by some evening next week to hear more about what we’re doing. Pray that God will move in His heart to join our support team.
This week I need to make some appointments and follow up with people who have expressed interest in supporting us. We’re trying to get one appointment a week (still easing into things a bit, as life can get a bit unpredictable with a two month old baby).
We’ve got some off the wall ideas for getting up to 50% support by the end of May which I’ll share in next week’s prayer update. We’re working out the details now, but I’m excited and about some of the things that are starting to come together.