A New Year is Coming

I watched Suzanne get on her bus to the airport this afternoon. She's heading back to the US. I have two more Sundays at the church here in Tokyo (Higashi Murayama) and some days next week in South Korea for meetings and to lead some training. There's twelve more days until we get back together, but, who's counting?

It's been a great privilege to get to spend most of December with our team in Japan. We have a greater appreciation for the work that's been done here, the work that's ongoing here, and the work that remains to be done. We appreciate Japan in a new way since we've spent some more time here. These three weeks have gone incredibly fast, and hardly count as a great exposure to the country and culture, but they have proven to be a confirmation about our future role.

We anticipate returning in the Spring - hopefully before Easter. We still are looking for ministry partners who believe with us that God would like to see thousands more Japanese men and women, boys and girls know what it means to have eternal life in Christ. There is a tremendous need, which means there is a tremendous opportunity. We believe that God would like to use the multiplication strategy that One Mission Society is implementing around the world. We're confident that there is a harvest yet to come. It's a privilege to have even a small part of that task.

There is a large celebration for the new year coming very soon. I understand that the celebration will be somewhat muted in memory of the suffering that has occurred in Japan this past year through the earthquake, tsunami and the radiation exposure. Nonetheless, I hear it will still be more than I'm used to in the States. When we were in Central Asia, the new year celebration went on for two days with the most fireworks over the largest area we had ever seen. It will be interesting to see what happens here in spite of the sensitivity they're showing to their fellow citizens.

Christmas in Japan

It seems that life just keeps changing. But, why should that come as a surprise. God says in Isaiah, "Behold, I do a new thing." He's still doing new things. All we have to do is be willing to allow Him to do fresh and new things in our lives.

During training meetings in Bangkok in April, I was taken aside by Steve, the One Mission Society field leader in Japan. Steve said that the Lord had woken him at 5 am with the message to "ask Bob Warren to fulfill this ministry." The ministry is to begin a church planting ministry in Tokyo as he assumes the pastoral position at OMS Christian Mission Church. Bob was shocked.

Later that day, Bob spoke with the director over One Mission Society's work in Asia. John-Mark related that God hard done the same thing with him. Thus, the challenge for Bob & Suzanne was to discover whether this was God's plan for them. It's nice hearing from others, but it's critical to have a personal word from the Lord. The conclusion was, yes, it is God's plan.

We're going to spend most of December in Japan making preparations for our new ministry. We'll establish our residency, begin to form relationships and look for leaders who can form the nucleus of new churches. Our goal is that every man, woman, boy and girl can hear the Good News about the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ.

Blessed Beyond Measure

"My righteousness draws near speedily, my salvation is on the way, and my arm will bring justice to the nations. The islands will look to me and wait in hope for my salvation." Isaiah 51:5

Hi,
How blessed we are who have the privilege of being raised in a land that has heard the voice of God. So much of the world has yet to hear of the Loving Savior who can change their lives now and give them hope for eternity. As I read this verse, I'm struck by the islands looking to God and waiting in hope. Oh God, don't make them wait longer! Let your salvation be seen.

Suzanne and I got to spend last week with Michelle and Glen with their twin sons: Luke and Micah. We had a great time and got to celebrate their second birthday with them, but the time was way too short. We don’t know when we’ll get together again, but through the wonder of technology we have the privilege of video conferencing with them – and we’ll do it as often as we can.

We anticipate traveling to Japan the first of December and spending the Christmas season there. We’ve not completed our funding for a long-term stay, so I’ll have to return in January to continue establishing partnerships for our ministry. The month-long stay will enable us to get some of the residency require-ments taken care of and, more importantly, cultivate relationships with the people we’ll work with in the years ahead. Some of these are fellow missionaries, but most will be Japanese Christians and pre-Christians.

Praise note: I had word today that our missionary visa was approved and our passports should be returned to us tomorrow. PTL! These are for three years and will allow us to establish our residence in Japan (a BIG issue for a number of reasons) and leave and return to Japan as necessary.

Please pray for:

• All the packing and sorting we have to do. Some things (a few) need to go with us. Some things need to be packed for our return. Some things need to be disposed of.
• Travel arrangements for this trip. Suzanne needs to return for school in January. I’ll follow later.
• God to raise up ministry partners for prayer and financial support.

Thank you for your faithful prayers. We’re convinced God is doing something special in Japan and that He has more things in mind.

October 2011 Update

It was Sunday afternoon, September 18th in Chigasaki, Japan. Suzanne and I were concluding two days of training about church multiplication in Nakamichi Sensei’s church. We had shared a lot of new information with the people, spoken in the morning about answering God’s call to minister in His name and now were answering questions from the congregation. There were the normal questions about the multiplication strategy and the process that we hoped to see. I had noticed one man in the group who had been fairly intense through most of the training. He had paid attention, but hadn’t said much. He raised his hand for a question and stunned me with it: “When can we get more of this training and begin doing this?” Wow! I was taken aback by the energy in his question. Not only had he understood the theory, he had caught the passion for the vision.

It’s times like that when I get a sense that God has something special planned for Japan. I’ve heard repeatedly that evangelism in Japan is very difficult and requires years to cultivate a relationship to the point one has the freedom to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. But, it wasn’t always so. In the early days of OMS’ ministry in Japan, in the days when Cowman, Kilbourne and Nakada launched the work of OMS and later initiated the goal of presenting the gospel to every home in Japan, the harvest was plentiful. There was a responsiveness to the gospel that seems unknown today. But, what is God planning to do? Pray Habakkuk 3:2 with us: “Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.”

Suzanne and I have just returned from a week in Spokane visiting two churches and a number of friends and supporters. Oh – and our family! It was great to see Steve & Kelly with Trainor, Ryley and Tierney. We don’t get to see them often and we enjoyed having some time with them this past week. (We also greatly appreciate their wonderful hospitality!) By the way, it was great to also be with David and Izabel, with Samantha, in Spokane. We got to all be together on Sunday night for a special family dinner at a new Asian restaurant – Asia Café & Bakery. We got to show the family the types of food Suzanne and I ate during our year in Central Asia: samsa (meat filled pastry), manti (dough filled with meat & onions), plov (rice with meat), carrot salad, Central Asian bread and lagman (noodles with vegetables – this in a soup). It was great!

It’s becoming very real to us that we’re due to leave for Japan in just a few weeks. My goodness! We have a lot of things to do before that! Please pray that we’ll be able to focus in the days ahead on the necessary tasks and put aside those things that won’t help us in our preparations. Also, we’re trying to schedule meetings with people and groups to share the opportunity to partner with us to tell the people of Japan about the Good News of Christ.

Here’s our schedule:
• October 23 – Hope Community Church in Lake Oswego, OR
• October 24-29 – With Glen & Michelle in Alabama
• November 5&6 – Swisshome and Mapleton Evangelical Churches

Thank you for your support and prayer!
Bob & Suzanne Warren

PS – We’re looking for a couple people who might want to help us communicate better. Here are two tasks that will make a real difference:
1. We have a couple of dozen prayer partners who don’t have email. We print and mail these email updates to them. Is there one or more of you who would like to help with this once we move to Japan? Email me if you’d like more information.
2. I keep being asked about our blog. Yes, we’d like to restart that. However, it takes me a great deal of time to deal with the technology aspects of it. Is there one of you who finds this easy and would like to work with me in setting it up and maintaining it? Let me know.