And so it begins...

The moment has arrived! We have been patiently waiting to let people know that we are officially going to Japan. Of course, we have felt the Lord's call on us to go for some time, and we have committed to going without looking back. But we needed to be accepted by a missions agency before we could start asking people to share our vision and join us.

The missions agency, MTW (Missions to the World), has brought us on as missionaries. This marks the beginning of the second leg of our journey to Japan. The first leg was discerning the will of God to go and then prayerfully committing to do His will. Now we begin actually making preparations.

We anticipate the remaining six months before we leave to be exhausting and straining. However, we are very aware that the Lord is a good and faithful Father, that He loves to provide for the needs of His children because He cares for them. So we simultaneously eagerly await to see God's hand at work in our hearts and in our preparations. We already have great cause to praise Him.

One of the main issues about not being connected with a missions agency was raising support. MTW is the organization that has checked us to see if we are fit for the missions field and will also handle most of the logistics of our trip: getting visas, handling our finances, helping us do our taxes, etc.

Ever since our decision to go to Japan was spreading, friends, family, and members of our church have been excited to partner with us in prayer and in finances. Christa and I were obviously overjoyed by their willingness, but we felt that we had no updates for people. "Are you getting excited?" people would ask. "Do you know when you're leaving? When can we start supporting you guys?" Our answers always fell flat, "We're just waiting to find a missions agency. We're just waiting to get accepted. We're just waiting."

But now we are excited to announce that with being accepted to MTW, we have also been given our account number to start inviting people to join us as gospel patrons. Check out our support page to see how its going!

Over one hundred people from our congregation gathered in the Family Life Center at Christ Community Church to hear about what God is doing through our church in regard to missions on Saturday, January 19. Christa and I participated in this night in a couple ways.

First, we were able to share our vision for Japan and what the Lord is calling us to in front of everyone. Given that it was our first opportunity to formally express the details and purpose of our mission, we approached the night with a bit of trepidation. However, once we were sitting in the audience, hearing about God's grand plan of redemption, listening to the small and courageous ways some of our member were executing that plan around the world, and seeing the passion our church has for supporting and partnering, we were overwhelmed with gratitude and joy.

Second, six of us were asked to pray the same prayer but in a different language. This was a prayer for the nations, for our missionaries, and above all for God's glory to be proclaimed and cherished. Our elders asked me to pray it in Japanese. It was a foretaste of eternity to hear God's work praised in English, Spanish, Dutch, Pidgin, Japanese, and French.