Holy Cow it’s Holy Week. All joking aside, our family is really enjoying this intentional time of making more room for Jesus. Discussing each day as a family tracing the steps and events of the week leading to Jesus’s death and resurrection. This led to an emotional conversation with Ethan last night where he accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior and chose to get make it public tonight (a few hours from now) at our church gathering. Come on now, so good! So thankful for this moment in time!
It’s crazy to think it is almost April already. We kicked off the year with a new family member, Champ (a whippet), we drove to Hiroshima on December 28th to surprise Chloe for her 10 year birthday! Ethan started playing soccer. AND we committed to me being gone for 2 months by designing RUN JAPAN shirts with the start date printed on it. Nothing like writing your vision upon tablets!
Global Impact Japan
We have had many visitors already this year that have a heart for reaching the Japanese with the love of Jesus Christ. Short-term missionaries and as mentioned in our last update, Jordan and Krista couple we are in the process of transitioning to join us here in Kagoshima, Jordan came back for two weeks and they secured their house. And we are hosting another couple, long time financial partners of Church Plant Japan, April 9 – 12!
Jesus told all of us that we would tell people about him everywhere – to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8)! We know not everyone can come to Japan, so we created Global Impact Japan where we bring Japanese people to you. How awesome would it be to connect, serve, and love children halfway around the world in the comfort of your own home. Yes, that’s right! This summer we have 3 children – two 3rd grade girls (twins) and one 5th grade boy coming with us to the U.S. from July 27 – August 10 (approximate dates). We are looking for 3 families to hosts these awesome kids to do life with, enjoy summer fun, attend church, and join in a couple of scheduled group events. If you live in Northern, KY or Cincinnati OH and are interested in hosting, contact us TODAY!
pics of kids or previous GIJ
RUNJPN 2024
16 days from today, April 14, our family sets out on a new adventure officially launching Not Alone Japan, an initiative to reverse the trend of loneliness in Japan. To get an insight as to how bad it is, here is one category of loneliness impacting a 10th of the population, over a million people: NHK Documentary “Dying Out of Sight”
I will be running the length of Japan from the southern most tip, Cape Sata (31st parallel) to the northern most tip, Cape Soya (45th parallel) to raise awareness, raise financial support to sew into existing organizations that are also in this fight, as well as solicit partnering churches and organizations to join the fight in reversing the trend of loneliness in Japan. Meg will be holding down the fort with Chloe, Ethan and Champ and continuing all of our ministry activities while I am running. We definitely could use all the prayers!
If you would like to help us kickstart this initiative, you can make a one time donation HERE. NOTE: Please put RUNJPN in the comments section of your donation.
Unifying The Church (Kagoshima)
God has open the door to the next phase of our mission and that is: Encouraging The Body of Christ, our brothers and sisters, specifically others pastoring churches in Kagoshima! I recently had a zoom call with a good friend in Tokyo, a brother in Christ who is Japanese that will be coming to Kagoshima to visit family but he also plans to arrange a meeting with me and his long time pastor friend here in Kagoshima next week.
Last week we had a different Japanese pastor in Kagoshima call us after hearing from his friend in Texas about us doing ministry here. He found our website and called us to arrange a meeting. We met last Thursday and we had a wonderful time of sharing, praying and encouraging one another. He also had a team from Singapore visiting for a few days join in. We were both overjoyed with the prospects of co-laboring together along with other pastors he wants to connect us with. We have been waiting for the right time for this to happen and God has revealed it and we know great things are to come.
Family Update
Chloe and Ethan’s school year has come to an end. Chloe has completed 4th grade and Ethan 2nd grade. To think that we moved here a few weeks before Chloe turning 4 years old and Ethan a few months from turning 2 years old.
We are so grateful for this journey God has us on but if I am completely honest, at times I long for home – for America, the freedoms, the opportunities that the kids would enjoy compared to here. Regarding Chloe and Ethan’s school, we have committed them both to completing the 6th grade in the Japanese education system and then switch them to a different education system – homeschool, online, international or whatever else exist. Decision time is upon us for Chloe as she starts 5th grade April 8th! We know there is still research to be done, preparation to do, and a learning curve to go through.
A LOT CAN HAPPEN
As we live our lives and all the things that can happen, I am reminded of the week Jesus had this week starting off with a massive celebration of his arrival into the city of Jerusalem and at the end of the week being humiliated, beaten and crucified by the same people. From time to time we can have rough weeks but as I spent this week recounting the events of Jesus’s week there is no comparison.
We are so grateful for:
- the freedom we have in Jesus Christ
- the relationship we have with you
- the work we get to co-labor in spreading the love of Jesus to the ends of the earth
We hope you enjoy this weekend remembering and celebrating the greatest KING that still lives!