April 2012 Update

News from the recent Festival of Hope in Sendai, Japan

“Japan has few Christians relative to its large population, and northwest Japan has fewer than most other parts of the country. Churches in Sendai typically average less than 30 in attendance, so it was a wonderful answer to prayer and brought great joy to Japanese Christians when nearly 12,000 people attended the Festival of Hope to hear the Gospel. The final meeting was the largest Christian gathering ever in that region of Japan. The Crusade was held in the Grande 21 arena, a sports complex that had served as a temporary morgue after last year’s disaster. Many Christians asked God to transform the stadium—which had been a place for families to come and seek their dead—into a place where people found new life. God answered. Members of one family said that they decided to attend the Crusade for a simple reason—after the tragedy, it was the military and Christians who came to help, and Christians were still there a year later, volunteering, rebuilding, and providing encouragement. That made them want to learn more about the Gospel. “(From the April 2012 BGEA Newsletter)

Please pray for our upcoming trip (schedule below). Pray that the Lord will open new doors for partnerships with these new churches and /or individuals and also that we will have a good time as a family on this 2 week adventure! Please pray that the remaining 17% of our support will come in soon. Our desire is to leave for Japan in July so we can help relieve our team leaders of some of their workload and provide hope and encouragement through the Gospel to the people of Japan.

April 17-18 traveling to Gosport, Indiana to visit friends

April 19-20 traveling on to Iowa, dinner with new friends in Alton, Iowa

April 21 a.m. meeting at Hospers PCA in Hospers, Iowa, then drive to Grundy Center, Iowa for dinner with new friends

April 22 a.m. presentation at Colfax Center Church, Holland, Iowa

April 22 p.m. presentation at Faith PCA in Ackley, Iowa then drive to Madison, Wisconsin

April 23 Kim’s Birthday, meet friends from PNG for dinner in Tomah, Wisconsin

April 24 meeting at Cornerstone Church in Delafield, Wisconsin

April 25 meet Kim’s cousin for dinner in Elgin, Illinois

April 26 meeting in Elgin, Illinois, then drive to Plainfield, Illinois to visit friends

April 27-28 drive to Greenwood, Indiana to visit Kim’s family

April 29 a.m. Triston preaching at Shiloh Community Church, Franklin, Indiana, visit friends, then dinner with family in Muncie

April 29 p.m. presentation at Westminster PCA, Muncie, Indiana then head south

April 30 traveling home to NC

May 18-20 retreat with Nagoya team in North Carolina mountains

We would love to see you during our trip if you are in any of these areas! We would also like to add more to our schedule for May and June! Please let us know if you’re interested in hosting a home meeting or if your church, Sunday School class or Bible study group is interested in having us come and share about the great need in Japan!

The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom - Trailer - ACADEMY AWARD® NOMINATED ...

One Year Later

(This is from MTW missionaries, Bruce & Susan Young, who spent 30+ years in Japan.)

On March 11 it will be exactly one year since the catastrophic 9.0 earthquake hit northern Japan, causing massive destruction. Looking over these past 12 months we see the terrible effects it has had in four areas—physical damage, emotional damage, nuclear damage and economic damage:

· one, the tsunami which was at some places 90 feet high, killed over 15,000 lives! And there are 3,320 still missing; it will take 245 billion dollars for reconstruction;

· two, emotional damage that resulted in increased suicides, depression and emotional stress (throughout 2011 earthquakes continue to shake Japan—there were over 19,000 earthquakes in the 3.0 category and 2200 5.0-5.9 magnitude quakes!)

· three, exposure to nuclear radiation and the shut down of the power plant which resulted in the loss of 20% of Tokyo’s electricity and the scare of contamination of food, water and the air.

· four, it was a blow to the all ready hurting Japanese economy by the loss of production and increased debt from having to pour money into repairing the infrastructure and care for the affected people.

Could there possibly be anything positive come out of such a tragedy? Yes, and let me tell you of four ways God is using this:

· the evangelical church has become unified in their efforts to work together to reach the affected areas.

· our Presbyterian denomination has committed to starting a presbytery of several churches in one of the least churched areas of Japan.

· perhaps most notably, the reputation of Christians in Japan has taken a turn for the good. Many Japanese are impressed at the unconditional help and concern shown by Christians to those suffering from the tsunami.

· local churches have become visible in their community. Neighbors have entered churches for the first time to bring contributions to be sent north for relief work!

"Passenger Injury"

I just read a blog post from someone living in Japan. He arrived at the train station to find out that his train was running 70 minutes late, unheard of in Japan, unless there has been a "passenger injury". His next train was running 15 minutes late, again due to "passenger injury".

What is "passenger injury"? A nice, tidy way of saying that someone jumped in front of the train to commit suicide.

Over 90 people a day commit suicide in Japan and it seems to be on the rise. The people of Japan need the hope that can only be found through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ!

We are getting close to...

80%

A Thank You From The Tsunami Victims of Japan

Encouragement!

The past month has been very encouraging. We had the pleasure of participating in two Mission’s Conferences, met some wonderful people and had more opportunities to share about the great spiritual need in Japan. The Lord also orchestrated a meeting with Japanese Pastor Shingo Katayama and his wife while they were here on a short trip in the US. Pastor Katayama greatly encouraged us and also invited us to a Japanese Bible study that meets once a month in Gastonia (about an hour from our house). We were able to attend the meeting and met some wonderful people who invited us back to be a part of their Bible study group!

We also heard from our team leader last week and we now have a place to live in Japan! One family on our team will be leaving for HMA at the end of December and another family at the end of June. Our team leader agreed that December is most likely out of the question for us, so they are planning on putting us in the other house. We were hoping to be in Japan before then, but God’s timing is perfect and we praise Him for the provision of this “furnished” home in Japan! This is an encouragement in so many ways. We don't have a lot of "stuff" to furnish a home, so we won't have to purchase and/or ship a lot of things, praise God! And it's encouraging to know that our team is making preparations for our arrival because we can get pretty discouraged sometimes feeling like we're never going to make it to Japan.

We feel very encouraged that God is preparing us in so many ways and we trust Him to bring in the additional financial need in His timing. It is tempting to worry about the money, but when we look back at how God has always provided and how He continues to provide for us and prepare us, how can we worry. Our job is to trust Him and keep moving forward in faith, not to worry. Not because our faith is great, but because of the Greatness of the One in whom we put our faith!