As I write this, I’m on the 12 hour flight to Tokyo, Japan. We left Atlanta Monday 1/7 at 6AM and flew to Toronto, had a 5 hour layover, and now we are flying to Haneda Airport in Tokyo.
First, I want to give a shout out to the wonderful people who did goodbye parties for me: my small group, young adults group, and my family! My young adults group at church even wrote letters for me to open on the plane, which I did! Thank you so much! Some Bible verses included:
2 Timothy 4:2, 5 “2 Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not… 5 But you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given you.”
Isaiah 41:10 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
My parents and I had a nice road trip to Atlanta, stopping at The Ark Encounter! I highly recommend it! See the video below!
For World Race Launch, we met at a hotel and had sessions on topics like evangelism, conflict resolution, safety, and feedback.
We found out our ministry for the month of January! Our whole squad will go to Ishinomaki, Japan, where we will help with a Christian coffee shop ministry. Ishinomaki is about 4 1/2 hours north of Tokyo. It is near Sendai, where the tsunami happened in 2011.
Typically, we would be split up with our 3 teams at different ministries, but this month all 19 of us will be at the same ministry. There are 14 of us new World Racers and 5 alumni leaders.
Photo of team leaders left to right: Eric (my team leader), Stephanie (our mentor, not traveling with us), Leah (Wandering Children team leader), Meghan (Invictus team leader), Emily (squad leader), and JD (squad leader).
Our whole squad, including Stephanie and our coaches Matt and Kathy.
Please give a BIG praise to God that we have this ministry, because there were many other contacts that fell through. Also Japan has a very high cost of living, and it is close to impossible to live there on a World Race budget.
Please pray:
For us as we get a hang of this World Race life.
That we would be open and ready to have conversations about our faith in Jesus wherever we are—that’s why we are here, after all!
That God would give us the right words to speak.
That language would not be a barrier.
