Fast Forward through Nagoya, Japan

Nagoya, Japan 2005

Attempting what seems impossible, but with God ALL things are possible!

I just read an article about the most expensive places in the world to live (to see the article click here). Nagoya, Japan is ranked #4. Tokyo is #1 and for a "US" based comparison, New York City is #29 (the only US city in the top 30)! We could look at these rankings and decide it is impossible for our family of six to ever raise enough money in this weak economy to move to Nagoya. But that would be limiting God. God loves the people of Japan and wants them to know that He sent His son for them too. If it is God's desire for us to go to Japan and share the love of Christ (and we believe it is), then He will provide!

Psalm 121

I just started a new Beth Moore study, "Stepping Up", with my sister-in-law. I can already tell it's going to be great! We will be memorizing Psalm 121 and I can't think of a better one to memorize. My God is the maker of the heavens and the earth, He is my protector and He is always watching over me! He watched over and protected me and my family in Papua New Guinea, He is doing the same here in the US and will do the same in Japan.

The need for Christ in Japan

As I mentioned before, I'm still learning how to blog. The following link takes you to some interesting videos about the needs in Japan. I can't figure out how to download the video to my blog, but maybe you can watch the videos by going to this link.
http://www.pacrimjo.org/info/video.html

Mission to the World

Mission to the World is our sending mission organization. To learn more about MTW check out their website at www.mtw.org

"At Mission to the World we believe that God's grace, demonstrated to us in the radical love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, has the power to transform our world. Our mission is to build church-planting movements, whose energy continues to grow far into the future, long after we may be gone. Vibrant, nationally-led churches around the world will grow and multiply, transforming the culture around them."

Update to Partners

Dear Friends,

You are receiving this email because you are either currently partnering with us, have partnered with us in the past or have shown interest in partnering with us in the future.J We just want to say “Thank You Very Much” to all of you for your support, prayers and encouragement over the years. It means more to us than we can ever express. I’m sorry that this is a long email, but it does have some important information if you could find time to read it.

You haven’t received an update from us recently because our computer overheated and the hard drive was destroyed, bummer. So I’m in the process of trying to recreate my email address lists. Thankfully, most of the info (like your email addresses!) was able to be recovered and we were able to purchase a new hard drive for a good price, but I’m still experiencing some technical difficulties.J

People frequently ask us what our plans are and/or when we’re leaving for Japan, so my guess is that you are probably curious about that as well.J

First and foremost, we are waiting on the Lord’s timing. We don’t want to try and “rush things” and get ahead of God’s timetable, even though we are getting pretty anxious to get back on the field. God has given us this desire to “go” and He is the one who opened the door for us to go to Japan, so we need to wait on His timing.

Second, we do have some training to complete before we can leave. If you remember from a previous update, we mentioned not needing to attend the month long training in New York City as a family and that Triston would need to do some church planting training instead. MTW decided that Triston & I (Kim) could come up to NY for the church planting part of the training without the kids and we will only need to be there for 10 days instead of the whole month. This is a real praise item because it saves A LOT of money. The other option was for Triston to fly to Chile for a church planting seminar! So, over the next few months Triston and I will be in New York July 6^th-16^th, the first week of August our family will travel to Indiana to visit a supporting church/family & friends, then Triston & I have a week-long MTW retreat in mid-September and finally MTW’s Global Mission’s Conference November 5^th-7^th that we also need to attend. We will hopefully have other mission’s conferences and speaking opportunities interspersed in there as well over the next six months, so please pray that we’ll have many opportunities.

Third, Triston has been blessed with a job for the time being, which has helped with expenses because we have not been able to draw from our MTW account yet. The money that is being contributed currently will help meet all the “one-time need” expenses that have to be met before we can leave. So, thank you very much if you are currently contributing, it is helping us get to Japan sooner! We will also need to start withdrawing from our account soon as we start traveling more and Triston is engaged full-time in itineration, so thank you. Triston is also still working on some correspondence classes from Moody Bible Institute when he has time (working towards his Bible degree), facilitating a marriage class at our church on Wednesday night and leading our Community Group that tries to meet at least once a month. I (Kim) stay very busy with the kids now that school is out for the summer.

Finally, we are required to have 100% of our monthly support pledged before MTW will allow us to leave for Japan. We would love to be in Japan by this time next year, but as I mentioned before, we need to wait on the Lord’s timing. Japan is an expensive country to live and minister in, but we know that God is more than capable of providing, if He so desires (even during a recessionJ). We are currently making contact with churches, pastors, mission’s committees, small groups, Sunday School classes and Bible studies, individuals, etc. If you know of ANYONE who might be interested in hearing more about this ministry opportunity, please let us know or give them our email address triston_craven@att.net or phone number (Triston 704-441-3011, Kim 704-288-9323) or forward this email to them. I am currently working on a Blog, but I’ve never “blogged” before so I don’t know if I’ll be able to figure it out. I might need some teenager to come show me howJ. Anyways, the link is http://cravensix.blogspot.com for those of you who might be interested in checking it out. Our new prayer card is also available to download at www.mtw.org (just click on “Search for a Missionary” and then find our name) for those of you who don’t have one yet or if you’d like me to mail you a “real” one, just let me knowJ.

Thanks again for EVERYTHING!! Please let us know how we can be praying for you.

In Christ,

Kim (& for Triston)