In Japan, it is common for people to decide a theme for the year and then write the Kanji on a placard that describes that theme. Some running friends of mine posted theirs on a New Year’s Day run.
As a church family, our theme for this year is ADVENTURE or 冒険 (pronounced Bo – Ken). Adventure lies just outside our comfort zone.
Our church family kicked off the year in an adventurous fashion with camping, a mountain hike AND running as I train for my first 100 mile ultra and for a bigger run this fall.
Here is what ADVENTURE looks like for us as a church this year:
Officially Registering Our Church with Kagoshima Prefecture – February
Registering a church is difficult and can take years before beginning the process. Before we begin the process, we actually have to have a history first. It has been 4 years since we launched our church, so we will initiate the process and see what happens. We ask you to pray for God’s guidance and mercy on every person involved in bringing this to pass.
Securing financing for Community After School Academy property – March
We were blessed with a large donation from Crossroads Church as part of their 25th Anniversary Giving Campaign. With this donation we will be able to start the process of acquiring the land we currently borrow for our after school program providing a fun, safe place for kids to play throughout the week and for our kids at church on the weekends. There are many hoops to jump through in the Japanese banking system. We were also encouraged to seek another avenue potentially allowing us to avoid a loan all together that we are exploring. Either way this is a huge leap for us. We ask you to pray that God gives us clarity and confidence to pursue all our options before finalizing our next step.
Welcoming new students to CASA – April
CASA’s first year is drawing to a close. We will be adjusting grade levels and opening spots for new students starting in April. If we are able to fill the spots, we might be able to bring on an additional part-time staff from our church community further developing disciples and leaders in our church which will alleviate some of the day-to-day responsibilities allowing Megumi and I to shift our energy to other areas of ministry. We ask you pray for God’s blessing over CASA as we aim to reach more families through loving on children in our community.
Homestay USA – August
Our first trip home since we arrived and we couldn’t be more excited! We sent out a personal email to some of you to help get us home as we do not have enough funds to allocate to travel home. We are 65% funded for our trip home and we are confident that by April when we purchase tickets we will be fully funded. We are humbled and grateful for the generosity of those of you we were able to reach and we prayerfully ask if God is working on your heart right now to help bring us home to click here to donate! We need $4,100 to meet our needs for family travel and expenses.
Even more exciting is we are bringing 8 (maybe 10) of our Japanese friends from our community with us and we have a BIG ASK. How would you like to be the hands in feet of Jesus in Japan from the comfort of your own home? That’s right – how would you like to host one of our Japanese friends in your home for 2 weeks in the month of August, 2022? Think of it as a mission trip in reverse. We bring Japan to you! We ask for you to prayerfully consider opening your home and hosting one of our church family members for two weeks in August (tentative dates August 1 – August 15). The opportunity is available to host a child or an adult in your home. We have more adults than children this first go around. If you are interested, send us an email and we will share more information with you and the next steps in the process.
Run Japan – Official Kick-Off Event for Not Alone Initiative – September/October
God has called us to run after the most vulnerable in Japan and we are calling on the BIG C church in Japan to join the fight. The most widespread injustice in Japan is isolation. Long before Corona virus, this social epidemic has infected far to many Japanese contributing to the leading cause of death in many age demographic brackets – suicide. Over the last couple of years there has been a heightened awareness of this fact brought on by the onset of Corona to which the Japanese Government assigned a new cabinet position “minister of loneliness” to confront the issue.
In the summer of 2019, before the onset of Covid, God put on my heart to run after the loneliness issue and He gave it a name: 一人ではない or Not Alone. This initiative will bring this epidemic to light, raise funds to fuel our efforts as well as solicit each church to be a watering hole for those infected to feel welcome and a place where outside volunteers to engage. We believe this will not only reverse the trend of isolation but also revitalize the Church in Japan exposing the light of Jesus to many throughout Japan.
Prayer Warriors
If you can pray over our year, full of ADVENTURE allowing those involved in every aspect to see God and experience His love in a tangible way. This verse comes to mind as we move into unchartered territory where many will witness and/or be apart of our adventure: My ears had heard of You but now my eyes have seen You. -Job 42:5.
This is our hope and desire in all we do, is for all of Japan to see and experience the one true God setting the stage for many to come into relationship with our Lord, Jesus Christ!
Financial Partners
We praise God for using you to invest in us and our mission and we are humbled by your obedience in the way you surrender to God’s will with your finances. You enable us to build into our growing community of Christ followers and run after the most vulnerable in a nation still ranked as one of the most unreached people groups in the world.
Join Us on an Adventure in 2022
For those of you who have not had the opportunity to join us and you feel encouraged to do so now, here are 3 ways:
- Add us to your prayer list and pray for our mission.
- Consider financially partnering with us in 2022 with a recurring monthly investment or a one-time donation. click here
- If you have a place where we can unplug, relax and refresh when we visit in August and are willing to bless us, that would be …. beyond words.