Prayer Update #1

Hi all

You might all be wondering why you are already receiving a prayer update when we are not even in Tokyo yet! Well, there are many things to pray about even now. The spiritual battle is well under way and we need to be continually committing it all to God because He is the sovereign one and we are ultimately doing this for His Glory alone.

1) Pray for the homestay accommodation situation

This is a very big practical prayer point, as you can imagine, because we all really need a roof over our heads to sleep during our stay. Our homestay ministry is really one of the major ministry areas and places for us to witness to non-christian japanese families. At the moment, we only have 1.75 full time homestay families out of the 5 that we will need. We are very anxious about what is going to happen in terms of our homestays, but we are continually giving our anxieties to God because we know He will ultimately provide the right solution to this.

2) Pray for unity within the team

God has blessed us with a really diverse team in gifts, talents, personality, and experience, and the team has really come together well over the past few weeks. But as all of you may know, relationships are such fragile things, and this is what Satan will most probably target to bring division and disharmony to the team. Please pray that we will continually grow together as a team, to show graciousness and love to each other, to encourage and help each other, so that we as a team can really work together to help the Westons and to bring the gospel to the people that we meet in Japan.

Just as a final end to this prayer update, I would like to share with you a verse which we discussed at my lifegroup last week, and that I came across in my sermon preparation a couple weeks back. It's from Philippians 4 and it's one of Paul's final words of encouragement to the people of Philippi before his death in Rome. He writes:

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Thank you for joining hands with us in prayer.

Soli Deo Gloria (Glory to God Alone)