May 31st was the deadline for us to be at 50% of our monthly financial support in order to attend SEND’s Member Orientation this Summer. God brought us up to 40%. Missing the deadline affords us with a good opportunity to step back, look at what God has provided, look at the current needs in Japan and see how might be leading us as we go forward.
This August we’re planning to visit Tokyo and Tohoku to talk with SEND missionaries, Japanese Pastors and lay leaders, in order to seek God’s will and try to learn how we can make the greatest overall impact for the Gospel in Japan. Every report we have heard from the field indicates that there is an unprecedented opening for the Gospel to be shared in the Tohoku region of Japan.
Not since the end of WWII has such an opening been seen. In a region that previously had virtually no exposure to the gospel, thousands of Christians from around the world have poured in to partner with Japanese believers to meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the survivors of last years Tsunami. We feel that it is crucial for long term missionaries to go and live in these communities, before the door closes, to carry on the work begun by the short term missionaries and partner with Japanese believers to establish new Japanese churches which can continue to minister to people for many years to come. Since we are not going to be going to Member Orientation this Summer, we decided to take the opportunity to go and evaluate the needs first hand to get a better grasp of how God might use us to help meet them.
Going forward it seems that God has given us three different paths to get to Japan:
1. Remain as Career Status Missionaries with SEND. This was the path we were on, and as of now, still are. To go as career missionaries means that we will need to raise an additional $6,200/ month, but will be able to dedicate full time to ministry, and have all the support and resources SEND offers to help ensure our effectiveness.
2. Change to Affiliate Status Missionaries with SEND. This is SEND’s “tent making,” option. It would mean that we could go to Japan with SEND with less support raised, but that I would have to get a part time job to help make up the difference. We’d need to raise somewhere between $3,000 – $4,000 in additional monthly support and likely find a part time job before departing.
3. Transition out of SEND to a JEMS, a much smaller organization that allows greater flexibility in setting our support requirements, and has lower administrative overhead. The Japanese Evangelical Missionary Society is based in L.A. and offers tremendous flexibility and incredibly low administrative overhead for missionaries serving in Japan. However once in Japan we would have to operate largely on our own, as they have a much smaller presence in Japan than SEND. With them we would likely only need to raise an additional $2,000 – $3,000 and still be able to dedicate full time to ministry (and have the option to work part time if it could open doors for meeting people in the community).
Again, the possibility of transitioning out of SEND is not something we are taking lightly. We love SEND International, and many of the SEND missionaries and personnel have made tremendous investments into our lives. However we feel that if we are able to effectively contribute to the ministry in Tohoku before the door closes, that we will need to follow that course, even if it means being unable to work with SEND.
On the trip we hope to accomplish the following:
- Evaluate the current need for full time missionaries in Tohoku, by speaking with missionaries and Pastors serving in the area.
- Evaluate the feasibility of engaging in a “tent-making” type of ministry.
- Determine how much monthly support we would need to serve effectively in the region.
- Discover how we can best serve and assist the pastors and churches that are working towards planting churches in Tohoku.
- Determine which missions organization would enable us to be the most effective at reaching Japan with the gospel.
- Seek out potential ministry partners.
- Checkout language schools and housing in the area.
We’re praising God that He has already provided the funds for this three week trip. But if you’d like to pray for us join us in this ministry, please consider becoming one of our prayer partners! Click here.