Happy New Year
I hope that you had a really great Christmas with your family and friends, that you were able celebrate Jesus’ birth with your church and have created wonderful memories with your family. I trust this coming year will be one that opens new doors, doors beyond your wildest dreams; I certainly am praying that 2012 will be just this for me!
Bringing in the New Year in Japan is a time when families gather to practice Shinto rites worshiping their ancestors. In Buddhist temples all over Japan when the clock strikes midnight, the priests ring their bell 108 times believing this is the way to be forgiven for the sins of the previous year. New Years is the time that most Japanese visit both the Shinto shrine and the Buddhist temple in anticipation of the New Year to obtain good luck for the coming year.
With New Years being a family event, there can be pressure to participate in Shinto rites. Many Christians meet in their churches on December 31st and January 1st to give Christians a reason not to be home and participate in the Shinto worship.
As Christians we know that it’s only through the shed blood of Jesus on the cross at Calvary that there is forgiveness for our sins. The prayer of my heart is that the Japanese people will look to Christ for forgiveness of their sin rather than the Shinto and Buddhist cultural traditions.
I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane
My next step is going to Member Orientation Program (MOP) which I’ll be attending this month. It feels like I’ve been talking about MOP forever. It is the cross-cultural/ministry training aspect of my preparation for serving in Japan. It will also give me a better understanding of how SEND functions as an organization. It’s exciting to finally be able to attend and get one more step closer to serving in Japan.
My monthly support is about 46%; the standard policy for SEND is to be at 50% before allowing its members to attend MOP. SEND believes that I should be serving in Japan so they are sending me to MOP this January.
1 to 69
I have created a visual, by adding the numbers from 1 to 94, each square represents potential partnerships. The sum equals my total monthly support. Since $2051 is promised, the red squares represent my present partners.
The sum of the black squares 1 to 69 is $2413, the remaining amount of my monthly support needed. A financial partnership with me could be a combination of more than one square. Once I have 100% of my support I will have completed the partnership development phase of my ministry and will be able to go to Japan!
Please pray...
- How God would want you to partner with me as I serve in Japan.
- That my support base will reach 100% by June 2012 so that I can serve in Japan soon thereafter.
- For me as I travel to and from MOP.
Feel free to contact me if I can pray for you.
Your Brother in Christ,
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