We wouldn’t be proud parents if we didn’t already start showing off our beautiful son. Last week we enjoyed the opportunity, thanks to a great auction win, to have a 4D ultrasound. We’ve already started trying to figure out who our son takes after the most. Six weeks and counting! 
Resting
Opening of the Eyes
Hiding from everyone!
As we have mentioned before on our blog there are MANY exciting things happening in Japan right now. We received this e-mail from Dan Iverson, the MTW coordinator for Japan. (To view a video link plugging this project check out John Piper’s site.) What an amazing opportunity for Nagoya!
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“Attempt great things for God; Expect great things from God.” – William Carey, Father of modern missions, missionary to India
“Ask, and it will be given to you…” (Matthew 7:7)
Dear friends and partners for the sake of the gospel in Japan:
Today we ask. We ask God. We ask the owners. We ask you to pray. We will make the owners (and their agent/creditors) an offer in a few hours (about 11am today, Mar. 11; 9pm Mar. 10 USA EST).
Prov. 21:1 The king’s (and owner’s) heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.
God has provided over $870,000 that is now in hand or committed over these last weeks. These actual funds and pledges have come from Japan land sale, two large matching fund pledges, a virtual flood of smaller email commitments from $100 up from the USA and Korea, our 3 Japan MTW teams pooling resources, and Japan Christians’/churches’ partnership. Exciting to see the body of Christ pull together to see this strategic endeavor for gospel progress in Japan happen. We have seen how raindrops and little streams come together to form a river!
More still needed in email pledges/commitments this week as negotiations continue. Major renovations are needed for the building to be turned into a campus for CBI and a downtown church plant. (You can see the building on the video at the link.)
Please pray for this project! This is huge, impossible if God is not in it. That gives us peace.
Japanese laborers key to reaching Japan! CBI seminary is strategic. We will not reach Japan if God does not raise up a legion of godly, Holy Spirit-filled, doctrinally sound, practical Japanese pastors/church planters/ leaders. Christ Bible Institute (CBI) and Seminary (CBS) is crucial to our MTW Japan goal of a Biblical, indigenous Church Planting Movement (CPM)
Please pray with us. More information below, and also through the John Piper link and video at the top.
Your partner in the gospel, for the sake of God’s glory among the lost millions of Japan,
Dan Iverson
More Information on the CBI Building project
Email pledges/commitments only at this point. But, we do need to know how much we have above the $870,000 already in hand or committed. Please do not give yet! We need to KNOW that this is a “go” first. If God moves the heart of the owners and givers, and these two amounts come together, with added necessary renovations, we will then provide giving information and ask those who pledged to give. We will need most of the pledges to be given as soon as we let everyone know that God brought all this together. Or, God may then provide an even better land and building situation, as we saw in Chiba 5 years ago (all the prayer and pledges were prep for something much better than our initial plans).
None of us can financially support all the worthy needs that come our way. But, we are are telling our many MTW Japan prayer partners and supporters from all 3 MTW teams because this is a strategic project that will support and help gospel progress in Japan. We are sure you want to pray for this. And, as we have already seen, many do want to make a one-time gift commitment to it.
Seminaries strategic: We have been in Japan 23 years. We see steady progress, but it is slow. Until we begin to see a multitude of godly, Holy Spirit-filled, gifted, well-trained Japanese pastors and church planters raised up, and until we see church multiplication and reproduction regularly taking place, it seems that we are not going to see this dark land reached. For church multiplication (healthy churches starting healthy churches that start healthy churches) we need
many more Japanese leaders.
City Center Nagoya Church plant also strategic: The CBI staff and students have already started a growing international church worshiping Sunday afternoons in the crowded, borrowed Nisshin Church facilities where they meet in the suburbs. They now plan to start a city center church in this new building, if God gives it. Read more about it at the link above.
Nagoya: Nagoya proper is 2.2 million people, and metro Nagoya is about 4 million people. As the Apostle Paul went to the cities to reach regions, so do we.
Why the rush? The company that owns the building is going bankrupt. As a religious corporation, our position and ability is not so good once it goes to auction. Also, CBI and their Sunday afternoon international church plant are growing. Our MTW church plant where they meet for class and worship is also growing and needs them out for their own space needs. And, to move downtown makes the seminary accessible to a much wider area.
Is this a good deal? It is a buyer’s market right now in Japan. Also, the land alone is worth $1 million. We are basically getting the 30-year old, steal and concrete building for free. The company who inspected the building for us wrote in their report that to construct a new building now of this size and quality would cost about $1.6 million. So, together with the land worth $1 million alone, we believe this is a great deal for the Kingdom ($2.6 million value, in one sense).
Why am I so much behind Michael Oh, our CBI president? Michael is a godly and gifted man. God has His hand on Michael and is blessing his ministry. You can hear his brief but powerful plenary testimony at the recent Urbana conference. He was also one of the main speakers at John Piper’s pastor’s conference in 2008. You can also find that message at John Piper’s website.
Recently we have seen many mainstream news reports portraying negative aspects of Japanese culture reporting about economic, psychological, corporate, and societal ills. This is contrasted to the many reports we receive from the mission field about the growth of the church, conversions of unbelievers, and the spread of the Gospel throughout the country. Praise God the Spirit in moving in this dark and lost place and praise God for your partnership in the advancement of the Gospel to the Japanese people! What an exciting time for us to have the opportunity to join our team in Nagoya.
Support Raising
The last few months have felt a bit like a roller coaster. We are currently at 50% of our total support pledged and were informed last week our one-time gifts will generate into approximately 10% of our needed budget. We have been blessed to continue working during itineration and thus have not needed to live off our MTW account. This is how we have been able to save such a large percentage. Praise God! This means we have 40% or $4,000 monthly left to raise. Please pray individuals and churches would be moved to partner with us in the spreading of the Gospel to the Japanese, pray we would not rely on our own strength but trust God in this sometimes overwhelming task and for additional contacts with individuals and churches.
Licensure
After returning from my year-long internship in Japan with MTW I felt a burden to become better equipped so I could better serve the Japanese as a career missionary. This involved receiving further education in Biblical Studies and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Now after much prayer and discussion with our team in Japan and the pastor’s at our home church I have decided to become further equipped by being licensed in the Southwest Florida Presbytery. This will allow me to fill the pulpit, if necessary, for the Japanese preachers in Japan. In February I went under care of the Presbytery, will be examined by a committee in April, and be examined by the entire Presbytery in May. Please pray as I prepare for exams, for the ability to clearly articulate my thoughts during the examinations, and for the examiners to have wisdom.
What’s Next
This spring we will continue speaking at churches and Presbyteries in Florida, attend our home church mission conference, and I will be traveling to various Presbyteries in Virginia and hopefully Maryland. Praise God…in early May we are expecting the birth of our son and our house will be closing on June 1! What a relief and blessing. On July 1 we will head to New York City to spend the entire month at our last official MTW training. After July we will continue to travel and speak with individuals, churches, and presbyteries throughout the east coast and look to go out west to Arizona and California where Cathalain’s family lives. We are still hoping to leave for Nagoya in September. Please pray for endurance, for the birth of our son, and receptiveness as we speak throughout the country.
We truly are grateful for your support of our ministry. We are blessed by your faithfulness in prayers and financial support. Thank you for being such an encouragement to us!
Many Blessings,
Michael and Cathalain Carter
“All the nations you have made will come and worship before you O Lord; they will bring glory to your name!” Psalm 86:9
To donate on-line: https://www2.mtw.org/donations/donate/default.aspx
Don’t forget to join our Facebook Group: “The Carters in Nagoya, Japan”
Michael fishing with guys from the Church
Celebrating Cathalain’s Grandma’s 80th Birthday in Pooler, GA
We like to provide links for you to see the work happening in Nagoya. Happy reading.
Click to read the Bakelaar’s February update!
Click to read the Bakelaar’s January update!
