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Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9
 

The Transition Begins

Greetings! January is more than halfway over which means we will be on our way to Kawaguchi City in 1 month. It has been a stressful, and emotional start to the new year but we have found strength in the Lord’s promises; especially from Joshua 1:9. God has reminded us that He is with us whenever we go through difficult times, it is ultimately God’s battle not ours. We hope that you will enter into 2020 with heavenly armour and strength from God to take on whatever challenges await.

 
Studies
As you can imagine, we are feeling the pressure of only having 1 more month of dedicated Japanese study left. We don’t feel nearly adequate enough and still make so many mistakes which often brings frustration and despair. However, we know that it is a marathon, and we know that God is with us and for those reasons we are able to pick ourselves up and keep moving forward. We have entered into the advanced Japanese course where we do Bible study and sermon preparation in class. I am currently going through 1 Peter with one teacher and doing sermon preparation with another teacher. Aven is finishing up her Bible course and has an apologetics class with one of the non-Christian teachers. Answering tough questions is difficult enough in one’s one language but doing it in Japanese is pretty energy-sapping. These are pretty tough and demanding courses but it will help us immensely for when we start with our designation in Kanto. We will officially graduate from language school on 26 February. This does not mean we graduate from learning Japanese though 😊
Ministry
We are grateful for ample ministry and witnessing opportunities over December and being able to keep meeting with students. We had our final FMZero meeting for the school year which was also the last one before we move to Kawaguchi. I was asked to do the message and was able to do it in Japanese. Aven had the tougher task of translating my bad Japanese into English 😊 (FMZero uses both Japanese and English as a way to attract students interested in English without neglecting those who can’t speak it). Sapporo has about 50 000 university students of whom only about 50-60 are involved in Christian Bible studies. FMZero is a ministry that reaches out to the many unchurched students but there is a big need for more workers. When we leave there will only be two workers running the ministry. Please pray for more missionaries. For the final month, we are in Sapporo, we will meet up with different people we built relationships with. Please pray that we can have good goodbyes and continue to water the gospel seeds that have been sown.
Preaching at an event on campus
Our last FMZero :(
One of the guys I've gotten to know very well. Please pray for his salvation.
Moving House
Finding an apartment in Kawaguchi has been a learning experience. A friend of a missionary who works at a rental agency has been helping us but many companies and owners do not want to rent their homes to foreigners. Out of about 25 apartments we looked at, only 2 said they are happy for foreigners to stay there. This means we had to go for an apartment that is not in our top 20 list. However, we are happy with one of the options available and hope that everything will be finalized quickly. To try and save money we opted not to transport our furniture down but will instead take whatever we can in the car (We have been gifted an old but reliable car from a fellow missionary) and buy everything else second hand when we get to Kawaguchi. There is also a list of admin things that need to be done; all in Japanese so please pray that we don’t stress out too much.
Winter Fun
We don’t only work and stress 😊 God has blessed us with a very nice time over Christmas where Aven’s mom and stepdad joined us for some time away with 2 other OMF missionary families. In January we had Elmar and Nadine; missionaries from South Africa who work in Kobe Japan stay with us for a few days. We were able to do a little bit of sightseeing and relaxing over the new year. Praise God! (BTW, we did not go to England to see Stonehenge. This was just one of the weird things we saw at a big graveyard in Sapporo).
Financial situation
We are very grateful to all our supporters who make it possible for us to live and minister in Japan. For a few reasons, our support need has increased this year and we would like to make you aware and ask for your prayer. 1) Moving to Kanto means we have to pay more for rent. Our rent will increase by about R3500 per month. It’s not ideal and we tried finding cheaper apartments but the reality is that rent in Kanto is expensive and because of being foreigners our options are limited. 2) Along with rent, our ministry expenses are going up by about R1000 per month. This is because travelling in Kanto is more expensive than Sapporo and a big part of our ministry will include travelling to meet with people and attend events. 3) This month we received letters from the local authorities that by law we have to pay a Japanese pension. We already pay pension in South Africa but it seems that Japan has become strict in demanding all workers, including foreigners, pay this. We have no desire for a Japanese pension since the is no guarantee that we will even benefit from it but it seems unlikely that we can escape this without breaking the law. Instead of seeing this as a personal pension, it should actually be regarded as a tax which we may or may not get a portion back from. Japan has been struggling with an ageing population which negatively impacts the economy. Therefore, they have become very strict and serious in collecting these payments. Unfortunately, there is a very high possibility that we will have to pay about R2000 per month towards a pension that we don’t want with no guarantee of any benefit.
OMF has been very kind and flexible so there is no need to panic 😊 However we really value your prayers and wanted to give full disclosure of the situation.
Prayer Items
  • Perseverance for our final month at language school
  • Good goodbyes
  • The Spirit's ongoing work in the lives of Japanese students
  • Good transition into new church, city, and ministry
  • Ongoing financial provision  
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"Refuse to be average. Let your heart soar as high as it will". AW Tozer

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