April 2009 - MTW Japan

A Different Kind of Life

After spending the last four years living in Japan and working with a new church plant, our lives are now different in many ways as we spend this home assignment in the United States. Some of those differences are:

* We drive on the right side of the road – almost all the time!
* Our children have over 200 schoolmates, instead of about 20.
* We have a yard (instead of a balcony)! After living in an apartment for the past 4 years, we are enjoying being able to play in the yard.
* People don’t stare at us when we walk down the street. (We blend in here.)
* Preaching is much easier for Craig (it’s in English), and easier for the rest of the family to understand, but they’re getting a little tired of hearing that same sermon.

While our lives in America are very different from our lives in Japan, we are still staying busy. One of the main things keeping Craig busy is his schedule of seminary classes. He is working to complete his seminary degree during this home assignment. To do so, he must take a full load of classes every semester – fall, winter, spring and summer – for the entire two years we will be in the U.S. It’s been a challenge to return to the classroom after many years, and Craig spends A LOT of time reading books for his classes.

In addition, now that our oldest three children are teenagers, we’ve found that their lives are full of many more activities than before. That not only keeps them busy, but it also keeps their mom and dad busy taking them places. They miss the convenience of the trains in Japan, where they could go places by themselves, and we miss those trains, too!

We’ve been enjoying having reunions with our supporting churches since we’ve been back in the U.S. Because of the busyness of Craig’s seminary studies, and because we have a two-year home assignment this time instead of the usual one year, we’re visiting about two churches a month.

News from Japan

We believe that God has led us to a decision about the location for our next church planting effort when we return to Japan. We are planning to work in Urayasu City, which is on the eastern border of Tokyo.

Our target area in Urayasu City is similar in many ways to Makuhari Bay Town, the area in which we were involved in planting a church since 1996. A huge land reclamation project more than doubled the size of Urayasu City when new land was built from Tokyo Bay.

A few residences were built in this new area of Urayasu City (called Shin Urayasu) in the 1990s, but it has been primarily in this current decade that people have begun to move into this area in large numbers. When all of the construction is completed, it is anticipated that there will be over 40,000 people living in Shin Urayasu (about twice the size of Makuhari Bay Town). Our dream is to see a church there as well, where Japanese people can come to know and worship the God who made them. Our hope is to move to Urayasu City in the late summer or fall of 2010.

There is one exciting difference about church planting in Shin Urayasu. Unlike the church plant in Makuhari Bay Town, where we were at first the only Christians living in the community, we already know two Christians living in Shin Urayasu. Two women who were baptized at the church plant in Makuhari Bay Town are living there. One is Mrs. S, who was featured in our May 2007 prayer letter.

As a result, there is already an evangelistic Bible study going on in Shin Urayasu. Mrs. S, who clearly has the gift of evangelism, is leading the Bible study. She wrote us recently to say that two women who are attending this Bible study are considering being baptized. So God is already at work there, long before we will be on the scene. It’s a great reminder of who it is that will build His church in Shin Urayasu. (Not us!)
Thanks for praying!

Prayer Requests

1. Please pray for Craig in his seminary classes. Ask God to enable him to keep up in the classes, and to encounter God through the material covered in the classes.

2. Please also pray for Craig to be able to prioritize and keep up with many other things which are not getting done at the pace he hoped because of the busy seminary schedule – things like seeing people we haven’t seen in years, writing prayer letters, and sending thank-you notes.

3. Please pray for our son, D, who is in the final stages of the college application process. Ask God to guide D’s choice of a college, and pray that He would provide sufficient financial aid as well.

4. Please pray for the Bible study in Shin Urayasu. Ask God to guide Mrs. S as she leads it, and to draw the two women considering baptism to faith in Himself.

* To start or stop receiving this prayer letter, or to change your address, please contact: missions@pilgrimpca.org for additional information

- Craig & Ree Coulbourne