John's Vision...

Written the day of his leaving for Japan, one can sense John's excitement for his upcoming ministry. Also, here we learn for the first time for most of us (myself included) why John resisted becoming a fulltime missionary. I personally had attepted to lure him into a career in missions, but always sensed an internal resistance in John. Through this letter I was delighted to find out the vision behind that resistance.

06/24/2006

Hello Everyone,
 
Before I fly out to Japan today I wanted to thank you once again for being a part of our team this summer.  I finally finished my first year of teaching at my new school district 2 days ago and haven't slept much since then, trying to get ready for the summer.  Although I've been to Japan with the Navigators before both as a participant and as a team leader, this will be the inaugural year for an official Sunland Region Navigator team.  We hope to make this an annual opportunity for students in our region.

Over the years I've had some people ask me if I would consider being a full time missionary to Japan because I've lived and studied there and can speak the language, and because there are so few missionaries there.  To be quite honest, though I have considered it, it has never excited me as much as what I'm doing now.  If I go to Japan and live there for the rest of my life that will add one more full time missionary to that country of need.  But if I can encourage 10-30 college students to go to Japan in 10 years Japan would be exposed to up to 300 committed believers.  And if only 10 percent of those worked there full time there could be up to 30 full time workers -- far more than if I went alone.  I share this because I have seen the LORD use a number of experiences in my life to allow me to take on this role and work with young adults to direct their attention overseas.
 
So with that I would like to ask you to pray that in this first year that:
 
1. the LORD would become visible to the Japanese through us
2. we would love each other on our team (I believe that will be one of the greatest forms of evangelism -- seeing a body of believers truly love each other.  It's contagious)
3. we would be servants to both the Japanese and the full time missionaries there
4. I would be a good leader, sensitive to what the LORD would have me do or not do
5. we would spread our enthusiasm to the various campuses (campi?) and encourage others to go after us
6. we would start and finish strong
 
 There are many requests that I could list.  Please allow me to share them as the summer progresses.
 
I look forward to corresponding with you again on the other side of the Pacific.
 
John