Something that always amazes me when I read the writings of the Apostle Paul is his unshakeable faith in God despite how many difficulties and hardships he faced. Paul had a burden to go and tell people who had never heard the name of Jesus about the good news of what Christ had done for them, and yet so many times he encountered challenges that many of us might have considered hindrances to his plans. In the midst of these many ups and downs, Paul continued to press on, confident that God was using every little detour to bring the hope of the Gospel to the lost.

A study of Paul’s life reveals that God used every little moment, even the one’s that may have seemed hopeless as opportunities both to bless Paul, and to show the lost world Christ’s love for them. Perhaps one of the greatest examples of this is seen in the opening of Paul’s letter to the Philippians, where he assures them that his imprisonment had actually been used by God to further the Gospel. His audience may have thought it a terrible loss to have one of their greatest teachers and leaders locked up in prison, but Paul wanted them to know that God wasn’t letting that opportunity go to waste.

In the same way that Paul faced all kinds of challenges, changes of plans, and even hardship, so do all of us. We may not always understand at the time what God is up to, and sometimes we may not see His plan this side of heaven, but we can rest assured that He is faithfully working everything together for His glory, our benefit, and the furtherance of the Gospel. Our plans may be put on hold, or may need to change, but we can rest assured that so long as we desire to be instruments God uses to build up the church and reach the lost, those things will always be accomplished.

I’m sharing this with you, because it is a lesson that Kiki and I have been learning these past few months. We haven’t faced any great hardship, and wouldn’t describe our circumstances as being comparable to the Apostle Paul’s, but we are learning to trust God as He adjusts our plans. As many of you may know, we had our first son, Judah, back in August of this year. Anyone who has kids will know just how incredible it is to have a child of your own. You’ll also know the way that a tiny little child can turn your whole life upside down.

We shared back in August about our goal to go to Japan as full time missionaries in September of 2015. Of course, we planned for Judah’s birth, and thought we knew what we were getting ourselves into, but found that planning to have a baby is much different than actually having one. To make a long story short, we have realized that we need to think through what it looks like for us to go to Japan as a family. Our burden to reach the Japanese people hasn’t changed. We are still passionate about partnering with the body of Christ in Japan to reach the lost people of their country with the Gospel. However, we’re realizing that this will look different for us as a family with a little boy than it did when it was just the two of us.

The last time we were in Tokyo was during the summer of 2011. While that was an incredible trip that filled us with a deeper passion to return full-time, we were only dating then, and a lot has changed for us since then. These past few months since Judah has been born, we’ve spent a lot of time seeking counsel, and going to the Lord in prayer. We see the next step in our journey to ministry in Japan being for us to take another short-term vision trip to Tokyo. This trip will provide us with the opportunity to reconnect with the church in Tokyo, to rekindle our passion for the Japanese people, and for us to prayerfully consider what ministry will look for us there long-term, as well as when we should set as our new launch date.

Our plan is to return to Tokyo in March of 2015 to work with the same church we’ve worked with in the past, known as Dendoukan. We’ll spend around four weeks in Japan, meeting with Japanese believers, talking to people about the needs there and how we fit, and figuring out the logistics of things like apartments, language school, etc.

We’d love for you to partner with us as we continue to pursue bringing the Gospel to the lost people of Japan. You can do so by keeping us and the Japanese people in prayer, and through financial support.

Here’s some things we would love your prayer for:

If you’re interested in partnering with us financially, please visit the “Contact Us” portion of this site to get in touch with us about how you can give. We need to raise between $6,000 and $7,000 for this trip between housing, food, airfare, transportation, and other needs.

We’d also love to hear from you if you would like to meet up with us while we’re in Tokyo, if you’d like to talk with us, or if there’s anything else you’d like to share with us. Please subscribe to our blog to get regular updates about what God is doing in our lives, and send us a message through the “Contact Us” page.

God bless,

Paul, Kiki, and Judah