We moved! Our land lady needed to sell the condo we were living in, so we decided to move in with my parents until we can leave for Japan permenantly, which Lord willing will be in a little over six months. We’re down to living in one room, and essentially can be ready to leave for Japan at any time; we’ve gotten rid of everything that we don’t intend to take with us, or leave with my parents. In a way it’s exciting that we’re ready for “deployment” at a moments notice!
Also, as many of you know, my younger brother and his family are also going to Japan as missionaries, and recently they applied, and were accepted to go with JEMS (formerly they were with SEND), and are hoping to depart for Japan this December to work in Tohoku. If this sounds familiar, it’s because we are prayerfully considering following an very similar path to Japan. It’s seems likely that we’ll be serving in the same geographic area, which will be very beneficial as we’ll be able to support one another, and perhaps even partner together.
We’re leaving for Japan the day after tomorrow (Aug. 9), and upon returning will be deciding whether to proceed to Japan through JEMS or continue with SEND. Regardless of which mission we go with our goal will remain the same: to partner with Japanese churches and believers to establish new, reproducing churches in the Trunami raveaged region of Tohoku.
For this trip we’ll start by flying into Tokyo and staying with Tomo’s grandfather for one week. We’ll spend the time meeting with SEND missionaries, visiting Tomo’s home church, which is one of our supporting churches, and also taking Titus around to meet his great grand parents, and uncle. From there we’ll head north to Iwate, the northern most prefecture of the three struck by the Tsunami. There we’ll be staying with Tomo’s parents who are already actively involved in missions work in the region. We plan to spend two weeks there, meeting with Pastors, visiting the coastal cities, checking out language school, housing, and cost of living in the area.
This will be my first time visiting the area. Tomo has been before, but not since the Tsunami. It is our prayer that after visiting the area first hand God will show us clearly how He intends to use us to minister to the people affected by the disaster on a long term basis.