Dear friends and family,

Your prayers have been felt and deeply appreciated these last two weeks. Our trip to Pennsylvania has come and gone, and we are pleased to inform you that we have been officially accepted by Fellowship International Mission as Missionaries to Japan.

We were so blessed by our time in the Word, being taught alongside other missionaries, time to work on our vision and mission statement, and getting to know the staff of FIM. The trip was not without opposition, though; from a 10-hour storm-ridden drive to the conference, Judah becoming very ill mid-week and going to the ER, and our car breaking down on the side of the highway late Friday night, we felt particularly targeted for discouragement. Yet we not only were given the grace to believe that God was in control, but felt the love of our church and friends, both at the conference and at home, reaching out to offer help and encouragement.

We don’t always get to know why difficult circumstances happen, but we do know this: “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

Friday evening was perhaps the best reminder that God has a purpose in everything, both the wonderful and the difficult. As Paul and I sat with our car dead on the side of the highway, with tractor trailers zipping by and smoke pouring out of our hood, we prayed for God’s grace. When the tow truck arrived and told us the price of the hook up, I hung my head and wondered what could possibly be good about being car-less, late, and paying $6 a mile to get to a garage.

But from the time we started driving to when we reached the garage, God gave us the opportunity to clearly share the gospel with the tow truck driver. Every mile we drove I spent praying, completely amazed that a stranger would have so many questions about Jesus and be so open to listening. By the time we reached the garage, I knew that our car trouble was not a coincidence.

Despite the challenges that we faced along the way, God clearly answered our prayers for this time of preparation. He kept us safe as we traveled, helped Kiki focus even with Judah so far away, and He gave us the grace to focus on the training we were going through, providing us with encouragement, direction, and wisdom for raising support and our future ministry in Japan. Thank you so much for your prayers and encouragement through this whole process.

As we mentioned before, we are now official Fellowship International Mission missionaries and on our way to start raising support for our future ministry in Tokyo. We plan to share our future ministry with Nealley’s Corner Church here in Maine in mid-September, and to continue on to other churches from there.

We would appreciate your prayer for a few things during this time. Thankfully everyone has recovered from sickness, and we are safely back in Maine. However, our car is too far gone to fix (blown engine among other things), so we need God’s provision of a reliable vehicle that will allow us to travel around the North East as a family during our time of raising support. We also would love your prayers for God to work in people’s hearts to have them partner with us in bringing the Gospel to the Japanese people. Our new baby is due to arrive October 2nd, so we would love prayer for a healthy pregnancy and delivery. And lastly, the bank that Paul works for is closing November 10th, so please pray that God will provide another source of income for us.

Thank you so much for keeping up with us and caring about what God is doing in our lives. We’re excited to be stepping into this next phase of our journey to bringing the Gospel to the Japanese people. Your prayers and encouragement are such a big part of what God is doing in and through us.

God bless,

Paul, Kiki, Judah, and Nehemiah (Due October 2nd!)