Trying to keep my eyes off the problem

Our daily prayers are full of "please God, we need certain things to be in place so that we can do what we perceive you want to us to do, but we're struggling to trust that you're going to come through on this. Please help us to trust, and forgive us for our lack of faith." 

Trusting God for our future is the overwhelming challenge I've got right now, and if you've been reading my blog you'll know that that tussle has been going on for some time. In fact I hesitate to write about it again, because it feels like I'm just a clanging gong, with only one topic.

I know that he's in control and that he loves me and will work out his purposes, that he will never leave us and that whatever happens is will work out for our good and his glory, but I struggle to stay in that posture of trust.

Prayer

Which brings me to the topic of prayer. The ladies at our home church (Grace Christian Church Redbank Plains) have started working through a book called A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World by Paul E. Miller. Someone lent me the book late last year and with all the free time I've had, I've managed to read it all before we began discussing it. Last week's gathering, though, made me uncomfortably aware that my experience of prayer and those of many Australian Christians, is vastly different. I'm not boasting here, in fact I hesitate to write about my prayer life because Jesus told us to be quiet about our prayers (Luke 18:9–14; Matthew 6:5–6). My purpose here is just to show you what being a missionary with a Christian missionary organisation can be like.

Prayer is everywhere in our work. It's part of almost every meeting: large or small. It's not uncommon to be in the middle of a gathering and be asked to "turn to the person next to you and pray about these matters". For a few years I used to attend up to several prayer meetings each month with other parents at school (CAJ).

Additionally, I write a prayer/newsletter each month and are often asked by several different geographical (Japan, Australia, Queensland) branches of our organisation for prayer points. We receive regular prayer letters and prayer documents from those same branches, as well as from several missionaries who we pray for in more detail.

It adds up to a lot and boils down to an overall expectation by our organisation that we'll be personally praying for a lot, including our 120+ colleagues with OMF Japan and 70+ colleagues at CAJ. Not to mention 100+ OMF Australian colleagues. David and I have a system that enables us to pray for a good number of these people (though not everyone every day) and we do this before breakfast most days.

In addition to all the above, I have three friends who I can shoot a quick request: "Please pray, this is happening..., or "Please pray, I feel..." I have a few others who I sometimes will ask for specific prayer. And they do the same to me.

Over the years, steeped in this prayer-full environment, one of my first reactions when something difficult happens, is to ask certain people to pray, to share the burden, even if I can't find the words or energy to pray for myself.

From what I've observed, I don't think the above is the experience is common. It makes me feel amazingly blessed. People sometimes say, I don't know how you do what you do. Well, I would say it's primarily because of all this prayer. Yes, we pray for others, but we also have hundreds of people (potentially) praying for us, many of whom we've never met.

Right now a lot of people are praying for our sons. The prayers for one of them has been answered: he's found a house in a good location and housemates, he's also got a short-term job that will bolster his bank account. But we're waiting on answers for the other son, the one who has had an especially rough road over the last few years. Our hearts ache, but we're being bolstered by many who pray for us. And wait . . . and wait . . . and wait . . . to tell you, and many others, the answers to those prayers.

Like a grasshopper

Image by Marc Pascual from Pixabay

This morning I was reminded of a Bible story that impacted me at a camp in my last year of high school. We spent time looking at Numbers 13 and 14, the story of the 12 Israelite spies that were sent to check out the land that God was taking them to. They came back bearing amazing fruit from the land, but also stories about how impossible it would be for the Israelites to invade the land (which is what they assumed they'd have to do). They emphasised how big and strong those living in the land were. They used this metaphor: "We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."

Two of the 12 men, Caleb and Joshua, opposed the others, saying that if this was God's plan, he would do it: "The Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them." They focused on God, not on the problem. So often I focus on the problem!

The story continues with all the Israelites latching onto the bad report and complaining, suggesting it would be better to go back to Egypt (and, one assumes, the captivity that awaited them there). The Bible records an interesting interaction between God and Moses. God complains to Moses about the Israelites, a cites a plan to destroy the whole nation and push on with Moses and his descendants. Moses pushes back and points out that the nations would see what's happened and assume that God couldn't do what he set out to do. He appeals to God's character and asks him to show his strength by forgiving the Israelites. God relents, but his new plan is that none of those 20 or older who were counted in the census earlier on their journey would enter the Promised Land, except Caleb and Joshua, and that it would be 40 more years of wandering in the wilderness.

When Moses reported this to the people, they mourned, said they'd sinned, and decided to go to invade the Promised Land anyway, the very next day. Much like when I was a kid and tried to get out of a punishment after being caught. And yep, they went and got beaten, because God wasn't with them.

It's an extraordinary story. I feel like a grasshopper just now. I did back in year 12 too, when I was facing the end of high school and all the unknowns of the following year. I rather think God prefers that we feel like grasshoppers and so rely on him for strength, rather than our own.

It's a story that shows us how serious God takes grumbling against him. But also shows how a plan won't succeed if it's going against God's plans. For sure there's a lot I don't know about God and his guidance and leading, I'm no expert at all, just a lay person reading my Bible. But also a person seeking to follow God's will. I'm prone to be impatient and to grumble about God's timing, yet I'm also trying to trust God in the midst of it all. Keeping my eyes focused on God instead of the problem is probably the key, just like it was in this story as well as the story of David and Goliath!

Are you facing a giant of a problem right now? How do you keep your eyes off the problem and fixed on God?

December update from the Marshalls

 Here is a generic version of the first page of our prayer letter that I've sent out this morning (no mention of our boy's names or our address). Let me know if you'd like the full version, complete with family news.

Musing Marshalls in December

I've been busier I'd like. And more tired than I'd like to admit! The latter is proved by being clumsier in my actions and words than usual. I'm very much looking forward to our holiday next week. We're taking off to the mountain (same places as July) for a week.

I was very thankful to put one of my projects to "bed" last week when we sent the Winter issue of Japan Harvest to the printer (I'll help them pack some of the magazines this Friday, but that's probably the easiest thing I do for the magazine). I was also thankful to get our prayer letter off last week. 

I've got stuff I'd like to write here, but for today, I'll settle with just posting the first page of our prayer letter. If you're interested in receiving the whole thing (the second page includes more personal details and prayer points), please contact me. We send it out 11 times a year via a Mailchimp email. I also might get around to editing the video I mention here so that I can post it on this blog. I almost posted it here last week, but then I realised that the identity of our boys that I have carefully kept off this blog, was completely revealed in the video. So that will have to wait.

November Marshall Musings

Here's something I've been working on in the last couple of days. This is a blog-version of our prayer letter. If you'd like the full two-page version that includes more family news, please let me know.

Missionary code words—do you have them sorted out?

I read an amusing article a while back about "code words" in missionary prayer letters, but I'd say some of them are employed by plenty of other people, for example, in annual Christmas letters. 

For example, the article gives this one: "it's been a year of transitions". If I were to guess what that meant, I could suggest it might include: "it was a year when we packed a lot of bags and endured many stressful moments in airports, or, we had to say a lot of goodbyes and work hard at getting to know new people."

So I went hunting in our own prayer letter for some "code words". I don't think there are too many, but perhaps you can suggest some more. Here are some I found:

[Regarding summer holidays] "These were much needed and much appreciated breaks away." Meant: we were desperate for a holiday and had been for some time. 

"Pray for patience with one another as we adjust to everyone being based at home for 10 weeks." Well, I'm guessing that that probably isn't so coded. Use your imagination! Especially when thinking about the extra hot days where only three rooms in our house are airconditioned and we spent most of our days there together (including me trying to work). 

The word "farewells" appeared several times in recent letters. That means that we'd said goodbye to quite a number of people, yet again, for the 19th year in a row (in our case). Some were close, others not so much. It's relentless, even if we ourselves don't move.

"Continue to pray that God would provide us with new financial support." Yep, you might know that we nearly didn't get back to Japan in January because of this exact issue. It's just some words on the paper until you're living it, then it is a real challenge to trust God for all you need.

"Praise God for the various people who helped us to quickly pack up and leave Australia and also to settle back into Japan." This means that people did stuff for us like, take school uniforms and offer to sell them to other parents, cleaned our house, housed us when we were exhausted and in the deep throes of transition. People who stocked our fridge in Japan and found blankets for our beds for when we arrived close to midnight on our first day back in Japan and picked us up from the bus from the airport. And many more, I listed some here at the time. We wouldn't have made the move anywhere near so gracefully without all this help (and I don't know how graceful it was, even with their help...).

In our last two prayer letters I've used the word "challenging". It was in relation to the life of one of our sons. This meant everything from: "we lost sleep over him" to "he spent hours with David each day working on an online subject just to meet the deadlines". And plenty more that I can't share, which, of course, is why sometimes we resort to "code words". We can't share everything and rely on perceptive praying people to read between the lines.

What code words have you seen in prayer letters? Do you know what they mean? We use code words in polite conversation too, sometimes they help smooth the way when you don't have much time, or you don't know how committed someone is to hearing all the details, or you simply can't tell the details because you are protecting someone. Which code words do you find the most difficult to decipher?

An extract from our latest newsletter

Yikes, feeling frustrated about my blog. I truly want to write more here, but find that my days fill up and come to an end before I get here. 

Though I am excited that I actually got to do some actual writing today (of a blog post for OMF). Most of my writing recently has been emails as I finish off the summer issue of the magazine I manage. Writing to authors, editors, designers, etc. Answering messages from people who we've stirred up with our social media posts. Chasing articles that should have been sent to me, etc. About 60 emails this week thus far. 

But a lot of time has been spent editing other people's writing. It's crazy how much time that takes. Not necessarily because a writer is bad, but it includes things like checking details. For example, in the last week I've researched how jasper is created, whether "Kingdom Hall" should be capitalised or not, and sought the publishing details on several books for referencing. I've found out that you don't hyphenate "ly" adverbs before adjectives, discovered that Hawaii is discussing whether an apostrophe should be officially added to their official name (i.e. Hawai'i), and learned some interesting facts about serotonin.

One of the social media posts I created in May

Last week ended up so busy that our prayer letter, that I'd intended to do, didn't get written. So I did it on the weekend instead. As a result, I didn't get as much rest then as I'd planned.

However, in the midst of all that I've managed to spend time with significant people. I find that I need time with people to keep me working effectively, but it is a real challenge to get the balance right, especially when I face daily deadlines in my editing/writing work.

However, today I can give you an extract from our prayer letter that might be interesting and explanatory about my job.

In Australia our main job was mobilisation—connecting with prayer and financial supporters face-to-face—telling you about what we’d been doing in Japan and the ongoing needs here. In doing so we hoped that you would be encouraged to continue to support us and our work. 

Wendy’s job in Japan the last couple of years has included mobilisation. Mobilisation is similar, but broader than recruitment. Just like we do when we’re on home assignment, we’re mobilising people to get more involved in mission, however that looks for them. But we especially pray that more people will come to join the work in Japan, for there are still only around 1% evangelical Christians in this large nation. 

But how does she do that from our dining room in Tokyo? The current mobilisation strategy in OMF Japan is to use social media to reach people around the world. Wendy manages and edits a blog by our misisonaries. This means that every week she’s putting a new article on our website.  

She’s also managing our social media content, so at least five times a week posts are being shared on Facebook and Instagram about Japan, our work, and the needs here. Some are lighthearted, some are heavy. Some are calls to action, some are simply points of interest about Japanese culture or food. Most of our posts in May were seen by more a thousand people, some posts were seen by many more than that. 

Each month we have a theme that guides a lot of our content. In May we focused on partnership. Partnership is a big part of being a missionary. We partner with you, our prayer and financial partners. But it was fascinating to see the various ways that OMF is partnering with individuals and other groups in Japan. 

Recently Wendy helped guide a Singaporean short-term missionary she first met in Brisbane last year. Together they conceived of a short video series about the lives of missionaries, showing some unexpected backstories. We shared the first short video on May 31. 

We’d love you to come and learn more about Japan by interacting on Facebook or Instagram, or to to our website to see the articles there? Maybe even sharing what you find with others?

Excerpts from our April newsletter

Excerpts from our April prayer letter. Again, if you'd like the full version (which includes eight photos), please message or email me.

The beach where we camped last week.

End of an Era

This month marks a historic occasion in Japan. After 31 years, Japan’s 85-year-old emperor is stepping aside to allow his 59-year-old son Crown Prince Naruhito to take the throne. This is the first time in over 200 years (the last time was 1817).

In an address to the nation two years ago, Emperor Akihito said, “When I consider that my fitness level is gradually declining, I am worried that it may become difficult for me to carry out my duties as the symbol of the State with my whole being as I have done until now.” 

The role of the emperor in Japan is entirely representative and ceremonial, with no political power at all. However, he is held with a great deal of respect by the nation. Before WW2 the emperor was held to be divine, but the current constitution, written under Allied occupation, prohibited that practise.

The traditional Japanese calendar is tied to the reign period of the current emperor. Each time a new emperor begins to rule, a new counting of the years begins and the period acquires a new name. For example, 2019 has begun as Heisei 31, meaning the 31st year of the Heisei era. The new era will begin on May 1, and the name for that era, usually announced after the death of the emperor, was announced today: Reiwa.

A public holiday has been declared to celebrate the new emperor’s ascension. That means that there will be 10 public holidays in a row, as it’s in the middle of a collection of holidays dubbed “Golden week”. CAJ doesn’t take most of these, but services like doctors, gyms, and  the garbage collectors will take a number of them.

OMF Japan’s social media this month will focus on the changes that have happened in Japan over the last 31 years in relation to culture and mission work. It will be an illuminating journey. We’d love you to drop by our Facebook and Instragram pages and learn more about this fascinating country. 

Welcoming new people

We have many new students arriving at CAJ in the first week of April: 22 of them! That means that our community will be hard at work helping them to get used to way we do things. However, it will be a challenge, as we are only 11 weeks away from the end of the school year!

Why so many right now? Most of these families have waited until their children have finished their current year in Japanese schools—which start in April and finish in March. (For those teachers out there, that means only a two-week break between school years. It has pros and cons, but seems to work here. Their longer break is in August, at the height of summer.)

For younger students, it will be a time of getting to know their classmates, rather than trying to catch up on the work that the others have done. CAJ teachers try to only give them marks based on what they have done here. For older students, there will be an added burden of catching up small things here and there, usually a maths topic.

Please pray that our school community would welcome the new students and that they would find friends quickly. Pray, too, for their parents to get to know other parents and ask for help when they need it. 

Some prayer points:

• Continue to pray for new financial support pledges and one-off donations that add up to 100% support each month. Praise that thus far in 2019 we've received 105% of our support needs.
• For rest. We're feeling weary. David's had three colds since we returned and Wendy's struggled with stress-related symptoms.
• For the right person to be appointed high school principal of CAJ.
• For our Japanese church—that they will grow in enthusiasm for missions and for wisdom for the leaders encouraging involvement.
• Pray for new students (22) at CAJ in April.
• Praise for our camping trip and a week off school at the end of March.
• For our youngest boy as he celebrates another birthday this month.

Snippets from our prayer-newsletter

I have not previously put our prayer letter up on my blog, mostly due to how personal our prayer letter can be and that this blog is public. However, I got a good response last time I did this, so perhaps I might pluck bits out of our prayer/newsletter each time and publish it here also. If you'd like the full two-page publication, do send me an email with your email address and I can put you on our Mailchimp list.

Afternoon winter light on a neighbourhood stream.

Financial report for 2018

During 2018 we received 89% of our budgeted support figure. As we mentioned in our November prayer letter, there has been a change in the exchange rate which means that the Australian dollar is currently not going as far in Japan as it was at the start of the 2018 calendar year. 

The support we receive while we’re on home assignment is always low because around half of our support comes from David’s CAJ salary.

After our November prayer letter we received a handful of pledges and a number of one-off donations. All are very welcome, though OMF tends to look at commitment to ongoing support as more important to us being able to remain on the field long-term.

For your information: we still need $400 more a month promised support to reach 100%. Please pray that the remaining will be promised by new financial pledges of support. If you are interested in supporting us, you can go to this link to notify OMF of your intentions www.omf.org/australia/support/

Returning to Japan roles

A winter sunset across the CAJ soccer field and the local train line.

We have returned to Japan after a six-month home assignment. Our roles are pretty much as they were before we left. While we were gone, some of our responsibilities were covered by colleagues here and a few things we continued to do while in Australia, with the help of Skype, email, and other online communication tools. But it’s good to be back here doing these roles again. 

While we were in Australia, many of you heard us speak about what we do. Could you tell that we are passionate about it? Support and mobilisation were the two key concepts we used. Our roles help support misisionaries to remain in Japan and also Wendy’s roles includes mobilising more people to engage in mission.

David’s involvement in the education of missionary children helps missionary familes stay in Japan. Without CAJ we ourselves would struggle to remain in the country.

Wendy’s work with Japan Harvest magazine helps missionaries by encouraging them in their work as they read about the work that is going on in other parts of Japan. It also helps equip and inspire them as they read about other people’s ideas and ministry experiences.

Wendy’s role in social media with OMF Japan helps spread the work around the world about what it is like to serve in Japan, but also how much Japan needs the gospel and how people can serve here.

CAJ corner

Catching a moving train

by David

Trains are a major part of life in Tokyo. Millions of people catch them each day, but most people wait patiently for the train to stop before getting on. Catching moving trains is the stuff of movies and books. However, starting at CAJ in the middle of the year is much like catching a moving train. The school is up and going at a fast pace, and I have to spend time getting up to speed with everything that is going on.

Even though I tried to keep tabs on big happenings at CAJ while I was gone, I am finding there were so many smaller stories going on with valued colleagues. A cancer surgery here, a birth of a baby there, people deciding to move on at the end of the year (I am so glad I am back early enough to say good-bye!).

Some of my students from last year are preparing to graduate. They are excited about the next stage of life and waiting expectantly for their university offers to arrive.

The momentum of activity here makes it hard to know what to ask you to pray for! Our building program has progressed slowly, with rising costs making us re-think our plans and priorities. We have staffing needs in key leadership and organisation roles. We are wondering how to reach the larger numbers of non-Christian families who want to come to CAJ, with out losing our distinctive community. Pray for all of them?Pray for us

Praise

• Being able to come back to Japan on January 9 and settle quickly into life here.
• For refreshment over Christmas as we visited family.
• For the various people who helped us in early January to quickly pack up and leave Australia and also to settle back into Japan.
• For unexpected opportunities to meet with a few friends in that last week before we flew.
• That our eldest son can visit us for two weeks.
• For the new financial pledges we’ve received as well as the one-off donations.
• For a clear sense that we’re serving where God has called us to serve at this time.

Prayer

• Continune to pray that God would provide us with new financial support pledges ($400 per month) so that we’re able to continue working in Japan fully supported.
• Pray that Centrelink will grant our eldest rent assistance.
• For the boys as they continue to settle back into CAJ, especially adjusting to new subjects. Pray for Doug who has yet to complete some subjects he began online during our time in Australia.
• As always: for wisdom and patience in parenting.
• For strength. We’ve hit the ground running. Pray for good sleep and sufficient rest.
• For CAJ’s building committee as they continue to explore options for replacing old buildings.
• For our home church as they seek more ways to be involved in supporting us.

Latest newsletter

I've started many blog posts in my head recently, but simply haven't had the time (or if I've had the time, haven't had the energy) to complete one. But I can share our very early January newsletter with you, shared this early so that we can let people know about our Commissioning service on the first Sunday of 2019.  What a great way to start the new year! But also let people know a bit more about our movements in the coming weeks. 

Here's a screenshot. If you want a better version, drop me an email or message. If you don't have an address for me, use this: wendymarshall04 at gmail dot com

Urgent prayer request

I don't often put plain prayer requests up here, but today I feel compelled to. Christian friends, please pray! We've received some very difficult news only six weeks away from our intended departure date. 

We have just been notified that OMF Australia is very concerned about our level of financial support. One of their conditions for us to return to Japan is that we have sufficient pledges of financial support to cover expected costs each year. It seems as though we are at least AU$18,000 per annum short of what they would prefer that we had promised (or 15 people promising to give $100 a month). More would help.

One causative factor is that the exchange rates have changed dramatically from last year. Another factor is that our support from Australia has been slowly dropping. This is quite a normal thing for a family who has been on the field for 18 years. In those 18 years supporters have retired, gone to be with the Lord, or had changed circumstances. We’ve had churches tell us, regretfully, that they are no longer choosing to support us. We’ve also had no new pledges of financial support this year.

Obviously this is a big concern for us. We haven’t sensed that the Lord is calling us away from ministry in Japan, on the contrary, this last term it seems as though we’ve been able to serve in ways that God has especially gifted us. We also feel that we’ve got much more to give to the work in Japan. Our boys are also happy in Japan and very keen to finish their schooling there. It seems as though everything else has lined up for us to go back: OMF Japan and CAJ want us to return and we also have been given medical clearance.

Would you pray that God does a miracle? Pray that he’d provide sufficiently that we might be able to go back as planned in early January, if that is his will. Please also pray that we would have God’s peace at this time of uncertainty about our future. We’re itching to buy those tickets to get back to Japan and the jobs God’s given us there, it’s hard to think that we might be held back from doing that for financial reasons. We really value your prayers.

David's been preaching on the latter half of Matthew 16, especially:

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own (vv. 33 & 34 NIV).

We probably shouldn't be too surprised at a challenge to our faith in God's supply and timing of such!

[Extra financial information: we're currently 79% supported]

If you're interested in investigating supporting us, you can go to this link to notify OMF of your intentions and get information on the best way to support us.

Big elephants

I wish I could write about some stuff that's been going on recently. There are a couple of elephants in my room that I just can't write about on this public forum because they concern private family matters. But they're taking energy and headspace.

I had someone ask me the other day what was wrong, that I seemed more stressed this home assignment than in previous years . . . but I didn't feel I could share honestly with them either. 

These rice plants looks great. But do note that it has its
feet in the mud! Missionaries can be the same. Look good
on the outside, but don't forget that there is mud too.

So what can I share? How can I write in a way that's consistent with my philosophy of being honest and open, and yet protecting people I love (and myself)?

Perhaps a reminder that what you see isn't all that's going on.

Missionaries deal with stressors that are common to others, but often there is a twist. Check out this list (not all these are mine, but some are):

• Educational issues. TWIST: educational options aren't so broad on the mission field. Home assignments mess with education, especially when moving between different educational types, and different school years eg. Japanese to American, American to Australian.

• Job satisfaction. TWIST: ministry in a country like Japan, where few receive the Lord means it's hard to see what a difference it makes. It can be hard to come back to tell people about what's going on and not be able to report amazing results from the ministry there. 18 years ago we were saying that less than 1% of Japanese people are Christians. We're saying the same thing this year.

• The challenges of extended family. TWIST: we rarely see extended family and problems can be amplified by this absence. Also, they're used to doing things without us, so including us can cause problems. Not to mention non-Christian family members who don't understand why we do what we do.

• Lack of community. TWIST: our community (i.e. people we call our friends) is both widespread (our good friends live across the globe) and constantly changing. Then we change countries for home assignment and find that, for various reasons, community is even harder to find. Loneliness and relationship stress is a big issue.

• Psychological problems. TWIST: often psychological care is harder to access on the mission field. Psychological problems also can be exacerbated by the stressors of life on the mission field.

• High expectations. TWIST: in my experience the expectations on missionaries are different to those on other people. At times it feels like we're expected to be amazing people who don't struggle. We're expected to not make mistakes. We're expected to be able to move in and out of our home country with ease. We also have high expectations of ourselves, for example, expect that we can survive without good community, cope with high stress, persevere without encouragement.

Okay. I'm going to stop there.

To counter the above, I'd have to say that we have the amazing experience of being supported by many in prayer. You shouldn't underestimate how important that is. I think we are in a very privileged situation that many Christians never experience: having many people praying for us. More than 200 people get our prayer letter every month. I've got no idea how many of those pray for us, or how often or how in-depth they pray. But I know that there are people who aren't on our mailing list who pray for us!

James 5:16: "The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working."

Last Sunday we were asked, as we stood in front of a church congregation, for an example we've seen of God at work. I said, "That we've never asked for money and we're still in Japan after 18 years." If I'd been faster at thinking on the spot, I would have expanded that —it's not just the money that God's provided, it's being able to stick at it through all the challenges that have come, and continue to come our way. But all the praise goes to God!

December newsletter

This evening I finally sent out our December prayer letter (with the wrong month on the header—a rookie mistake!). 

I don't usually put our prayer/newsletter up here, mostly because it has information about our kids that I don't want to share publicly. But I've taken that out of the bits that I'm sharing today. If we know you and you would like to get the full version, please let me know.

Job changes

It's unusual for me to spend most of Saturday at the computer, but that's exactly what I've done today. Thankfully we're going out this evening for a BBQ with American/Canadian friends, so I'll get plenty of social interaction there. And some cultural appreciation, apparently, they've been wanting to invite us over for months now, keen to show us how they do BBQs.


One of the things I did this morning was send out our prayer letter. If you'd like a copy, please email me. But here are some snippets from it that talk a little bit about how our jobs are changing (yes, the first section is written in third person, as is most of the newsletter, so that our readers don't think it is just my letter).

Mobilisation in mission

This lady, Heather, is visiting Japan from the UK OMF office.
She has professional experience in website design and using
social media to promote companies. I was at a meeting with
her all day on Wednesday as we sorted out details on this
new website and blog.

One of the jobs of an OMF missionary is mobilisation. All of us are expected to mobilise people to pray for mission (hence our prayer letters and deputation on home assignments), but also to mobilise people to be more involved in mission in other ways, including going as missionaries. OMF Japan has an initiative at present called 200 by 2020. We’re praying for 200 missionaries in Japan by 2020 (a mixture of long-term and medium-term missionaries). That’s about 50 or so more than we currently have, so obviously there’s work to be done.

Wendy has taken on the role of OMF Japan mobilisation content manager. Which means that she’s been acquiring and editing content for the new OMF Japan website (to be launched in mid-August). A big part of the content of the website will be an OMF Japan blog that Wendy is developing, managing, and editing. We’re hoping to have fresh material up at least once a week. Stay tuned for the details. If you’re a Facebook friend of Wendy or David you should see links to the new blog appearing there soon.

Over the past decade or so Wendy’s also produced a small Japan prayer calendar that OMF missionaries have used to mobilise prayer within their own support base. This year it has become cost prohibitive, so Wendy is now developing one or two other publications that missionaries can use for mobilisation.

Our field leader in mobilisation, the wife of our former field director, has been on compassionate leave since early April, so we’ve struggled to keep going, but thankfully we have regained some momentum. 

It’s a lot of work on top of what Wendy’s already doing, pray for wisdom in use of time, especially during these 11 weeks when boys are on holidays (her office is our living area).

Leadership is Learning (CAJ corner by David)

I am always learning something, whether it is a new piece of technology, or a new batch of student names, and all the personalities that go with them. This coming year will be spent learning more about leadership.

My new role at CAJ includes a large percentage of helping others do their jobs well. To do that, I will need to understand my colleagues better: what are their goals, what are their desires, fears, strengths, and shortcomings. 

Leadership in God’s kingdom centres on serving, rather than commanding. I have learnt over the years that this involves listening and seeking to understand. In Jesus’ grace I hope to do that well for the people under my care this year. Thankfully, will have others to help me, including my predecessor in this role.

Pray for the school as there a number of job shuffles. Nearly 20 of us are doing something a little different next year!

  

Kids Newsletter for Japan – December edition

Our quarterly kids newsletter. It's free for you to use. Email me if you'd like a bigger version or to be put on our mailing list.

Japan Harvest prayer email

Our most recent issue to come out. Hopefully
I'll be holding Summer's in my hands before
the end of this month.

Below is an email I sent out yesterday. I thought you might like to see it, maybe even add us to your prayer time?


Thank you for praying in the last couple of months.

Here are some up-to-date prayer points for the Japan Harvest magazine.

Praise 

• The Spring issue (Future of Japan) came out out at the end of July.
• The Summer issue (Reaching the Youth of Japan) is on track to be out in August, the first time in three years that an issue has come out in the season it’s named for! Praise God.
• Six of our magazine team will get together for a planning meeting this week (11th) with three other team members joining us via Skype at various times.
• August is a time for vacations/holidays. Many of our team has been able to take a break.

Pray

• For our planning meeting on August 11. That we’ll would get to know one another better (crucial in a team like ours that rarely meets), communicate well, and make good decisions for the future.
• The Summer issue is coming out on time, but we still need to sort out better processes for the future so that we can continue to maintain both timeliness and quality. Pray for wisdom and diligence by each team member.
• For good relationships with advertisers. The Summer issue has had an advertiser withdraw their ad due to complications with timing and a change of company product/name. Advertisers help the magazine stay afloat. Pray for good relationships and for our advertising director, Atsuko Tateishi.
• Pray for wisdom for me as I lead this diverse, geographically dispersed team.
• For good communication with writers, the writer-editor relationship can be difficult if not handled with godliness on both sides.
• For our Executive Editor as he strives to get a team together so that the magazine will be complemented by many other digital resources.
• Our goal is to encourage, inspire, and equip the members of the JEMA community. This magazine is the official publication of the Japan Evangelical Missionary Association (JEMA). Pray that we'll serve the community well.

Our current Japan Harvest team:

Executive Editor: Gary Bauman
Managing Editor: Wendy Marshall
Art Director, Production Editor (Designer): Greg Corey
Assistant designers: Meg Willis, Karen Ellrick
Associate Editors: Rachel Hughes, Simon Pleasants
Editorial Assistant: Jennifer Bello

Advertising Director: Atsuko Tateishi
Fact Checker: Georgia Anderson
Proofreader: Ken Reddington
Administrative Assistants: Atsuko Tateishi, Ai Nightingale, Kaori Cooke, Yuka Oguro.
Translators for our News section: Tomoko Kato, Hiromi Kiuchi, Atsuko Tateishi, Grace Koshino, Mie Takatsuji.

Thank you for your continuing prayers.

Please pass this along to others who might be interested in praying for the ministry of Japan Harvest.

Key to survival as a missionary?

On Saturday I sent out our monthly prayer/newsletter. It's something I'm passionate about: good communication. Especially missionaries who are being supported by people back home with prayer and finance. If we don't tell them how things are going for us, how can they pray? If they're giving money towards our support, the least we can do is to let them know what we've been up to.

So when I saw this article about how to write excellent missionary newsletter, I got excited. I don't agree with all of it and not all of it is relevant to everyone, but it makes some really great points that are worth taking note of. It even goes to the extent of saying that "Newsletters could be the key to your survival overseas." Indeed, we don't know how much prayer contributes to our ability to remain here, it's not something you can quantify like you can with money. But I would venture to say that without the prayer support we've received over the last 15 ½ years from 200+ supporters we wouldn't still be here.

If you're in the position of receiving newsletters, do take a look as well. You may be able to find a way to encourage the missionaries you support to do a better job at keeping you up-to-date with them.

Spiritual warfare

This week we received an email from our mission's Japan leaders calling us to prayer. It's not that we aren't praying, but they are urging an extra special time of prayer. They pointed out a bunch of stuff that's hindering the mission's work at present:

• personnel issues: 
• ill health (cancer especially)
• finance (candidates unable to come because they don't have the financial support despite doing deputation for a long time)
• leadership and support staff (ill health, lack of appropriate support staff etc.)
• property issues: churches unable to get buildings/land for their congregations
• partnership issues: churches unable to find pastors to hand take over from the missionaries

And of course the ongoing, always present issue of a lack of response to the gospel in Japan.

These things discourage us. Some of these things hinder us in the work too. There is a sense that there is a fierce spiritual battle going on.

I've often felt that with the magazine too. We have a great team now, but we're still battling to get it out on time. We battle miscommunication and discouragement. Sometimes it doesn't seem to matter what we do or improve, we still find challenges at every hand.

There are, of course, many things to be thankful and to praise God for, but I think we also need to take care that we don't disregard that we're in a spiritual battle here.

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms" Ephesians 6:12 (NIV).

In 1 Peter 5:8 we're warned to "Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (NIV).

This is, of course, why our mission requires us to not just have financial support, but prayer support too. Why we're required to send our prayer letters often. Why it is ill-advised for people to join us on the field very quickly, without taking the time to build a team who will faithfully support them in the good and the bad.

Please pray for us as a field (we have over 120 missionaries in Japan). The problems can seem unsurmountable at times and discouragement is often close at hand.