Saturday, June 1, 2013

June 1, 2013 - MTW - Japan - Coulbourne's


June 2013

Outcomes of Previous Prayer Requests

1.      [Apr. 2013] We are planning to take a brief home assignment from mid-August to mid-November of this year.  Thank God for making this possible by a) providing for Jason and Ai Kueh to do a five-month internship in Japan which overlaps the time we will be gone, and b) enabling co-worker Robert Stewart’s mother to recover and be released from the hospital.  Jason is a recent graduate of Westminster Theological Seminary, and both Jason and Ai have worked with MTW missionary teams in a number of capacities in recent years.  At this early stage in the life of the church plant in Urayasu, we don’t feel that the church is ready for us to be gone longer than 3 months.  We plan to come back for a longer home assignment in late 2015.  A short home assignment is best from the viewpoint of things in Japan, but it will be hard from the viewpoint of things in America.  We want to visit every supporting church and every supporter, to see every family member and every friend, but it just won’t be possible.  We’re looking at this as a single term in Japan in two parts (Feb 2011-Aug 2013 and Nov 2013-late 2015) with a single home assignment in two parts (Aug 2013-Nov 2013 and late 2015-early 2016).  Our plan is to try to see everyone in one part or the other of the home assignment.  Please pray for God’s leading as we begin to build our home assignment schedule.

2.      [Feb. 2013] It was clear from the trial for Megumi Club (after school gathering for children on Friday afternoons) in February that the timing wasn’t right.  But, after talking further with mothers, we made another attempt in May, and attendance is growing.  Please pray that God would use this weekly event to build relationships with families.  Pray also that through the Bible content, children will begin to learn important truths about God and want to learn more.

New Prayer Requests This Month

3.      Our daughter, Mary, is planning to begin attending the University of Maryland (College Park) starting in January.  During the fall semester, she will probably take a few classes to begin getting a feel for college life, work a bit to save some money, and start getting in her practice hours toward getting her driver’s license (something she couldn’t do earlier because we were in Japan).  We are also hoping that, while taking classes, she might meet someone who would be a good roommate for once she starts college (or once we return to Japan in November).  Please pray that God will lead Mary along as she makes this transition to being in the U.S. on her own.

4.        There are a number of needs we have related to our upcoming home assignment.  The most pressing is a place to live for those 3 months.  Two houses where we have lived in the past are not available this time, so we’re starting from scratch.  We probably need to live on our own because we will be having people into our home during our home assignment.  We probably need 3 bedrooms, since Mary and Andrew (and sometimes Hannah) will be with us.  Something with public transportation to the University of Maryland is probably best.  And, we will either need something furnished or to borrow furniture, since we don’t have much furniture in the U.S.  We’ll also need a car.  Please pray that God would meet these needs.  If anyone has any leads, we’d be grateful if you’d let us know.



No comments:

Post a Comment