John Piper in his book entitled, “Let the Nations be Glad” writes that when it comes to missions there are three types of people.  Goers, Senders, and those who are disobedient.  We must ask ourselves which category do we fit in?  Maybe all three!  One important aspect goers and senders share is to call upon God in prayer…continually.  This post is designed to give you an idea of how you can prayer for our mission and for the lost nation of Japan.  If you still wonder why we pray we would encourage you to look at a guide Wycliffe has developed. It is the most succinct and helpful snapshot we have found on the subject.

Praying specifically for the Carter Family

• Pray for Michael’s upcoming licensure exam (Monday, April 19 in the morning) and practice preaching to the youth group (April 21).  Specifically pray for his ability to clearly articulate the answers to the many questions he will be asked.
• Pray for the expected birth of our son, Tobin James, in early May
• Pray for the transition from Lakeland to Virginia to New York at the end of June
• Pray for our last cross-cultural training in NY City from July 1-31
• Pray for the last 30% of funding to come in so we can be approved to leave for the Nagoya in fall 2010
• Pray God would strengthen our marriage through much transition and we would look to him first, continually be faithful in the word, and be faithful in our prayers

Praying for the MTW Nagoya Team

• Pray for eight churches to be planted in the next ten years within Nagoya
• Pray for the Nisshin Church as they begin their tenth year of ministry
• Pray the team will be able to reach out and come alongside those who are visiting the Nisshin Church and get to know them better. Please pray they would be enabled by God to shepherd those who are presently in the church and who are in need of discipleship and training.
• Pray for the new musical ministry being led by Tom and Theresa Wilson (especially the three new choir groups meeting across the city)
• Pray for the English conversation students who hear and interact with content from the Bible each week as part of their class

Praying for the Nation of Japan

• Pray for those who are currently studying the Bible. Please pray that not only will they grow in their knowledge and understanding but that their hearts would be opened by God’s  Spirit to put their faith in Jesus.
• Pray for men to rise up and become nationals leaders within the Presbyterian Church in Japan (especially keep in mind Christ Bible Seminary located in Nagoya)
• Pray the Japanese would be equipped to reach other Asian Nations

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

Click to read the Bakelaar’s February update!
Click to read the Bakelaar’s January update!

• The Wilson’s moved from language school in Tokyo to join the team in Nagoya. The Wilson’s are focused on music ministry with Tom’s specialty being choral ministry.
• November 1 the Nisshin Church celebrated its 10th Anniversary.

10th Anniversary Picture of Nisshin Church

• In November the Church Planting Institute Conference (CPI) took place where over 300 missionaries and national leaders gathered to become better equipped to church plant in Japan.

Picture Taken During 2009 CPI Conference

• [At CPI] there were 25 Japanese pastors and staff people who attended the special Japanese gospel track I [Bruce Young] led. The three national pastors all did an excellent job leading their sessions. And for the first time all 25 attendees continued on through all three sessions rather than leaving to attend other seminars! (Taken from Bruce Young’s prayer letter)
• Chubu Bible Institute seminary classes: This is the second year to teach the spiritual dynamics class with 15 vibrant, young and gifted leaders in attendance. We talked about the motivations for ministry and daily life with Christ driven out of a growing gratitude for the debt paid by Christ. The last day Susan and I led a session on cultivating a healthy marriage. I think this was a highlight of the three days for the students. They expressed gratitude for being prepared this way. Very little is said about Christian marriages and yet with divorce rates soaring in Japan the church needs to speak out to provide leadership in this area. (Taken from Bruce Young’s prayer lettter)
• On December 19, eight people joined the family of Christ in baptism at Nisshin Church.
• Over 200 in attendance at the Nisshin Church for the Christmas concert and candlelight service.

As you can see the fall has been filled with exciting news from the field. We are anxious to join the team and praise God for all the work he is doing. This last excerpt from Bruce Young really encouraged Cathalain and I to remember how active our God is in pursuing the lost!

I had the opportunity to preach [at the Nisshin Church] two Sundays to a “full house.” God is obviously working in the lives of many Japanese of all ages thru this church. One retired man said that he lost all purpose in life when forced to retire due to illness, but when he found value in Christ simply because he was loved by Him, this totally changed his life and gave him peace in retirement. A young college student committed her life to Christ the first week I was there and it was so encouraging to see other students huddle around her to pray for her and support her in this decision. Saturday night we met with three business men at Starbucks for a Bible study. One of the men is a new believer and it was exciting to see how he was trying to reach out to the quiet and introverted man in the group.

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Aside from learning all sorts of new things about pregnancies, we have also been busy traveling and speaking to churches. We were back up in Virginia two weekends ago where Cathalain was leading a workshop for high school students at a conference in Harrisonburg and we both spoke about our ministry to Tabernacle Presbyterian in Waynesboro. There were several connections to Japan through the church so it was neat for us to share our ministry with them and to hear how they were connected with the ministry in Japan.

Our Virginia trip was book-ended by speaking to churches in Florida. We had the opportunity to visit with Grace Presbyterian in Arcadia once again. This church is one of our partnering churches and we were able to share more in depth about our ministry to the Japanese. We were also blessed to be able to share with a PCA mission church in North Florida last weekend.

Thank you all for keeping us in your prayers as we continue to support raise! Although it has been slow going recently, we are nearing 50%. We are so grateful for the increase our home church, Covenant Lakeland, committed to giving.  What an encouragement!  We have been busy traveling these past several weeks, so please pray that we will continue to have churches to visit. Also, please pray for Cathalain’s pregnancy as she teaches and travels with me while dealing with all of the uncomfortable aspects of being pregnant.

If you know of any connections to churches or individuals who might be interested in partnering with us please shoot me an e-mail!  We appreciate all the assistance we can get!

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

Please Continue Praying

• Pray the Lord would open doors at churches and we would continue to build church partnerships. Pray also as we talk to small groups in Lakeland that people would desire to partner with our ministry.
• Pray for our child, that truly there would never be a day where our child does not call upon Jesus as Savior!
  
• Pray for the ministry occurring in Nagoya, Japan right now.  Pray for hearts to be softened to the message of Christ being proclaimed at all the area churches!

Enjoy the read!

NC and GA

We began the summer in Asheville, North Carolina at a Living in Grace Conference. This was part of our missionary training with Mission to the World. This was a great way to start off the summer because the conference was a full week to be reminded of God’s grace and love. It was certainly a blessing for me and Cathalain to be a part of it. We stayed a few days in Asheville to speak at two church services held at a retirement community there. Not only did we get to speak about our ministry, but I also got to deliver the message to the congregation which was a first for me. We truly enjoyed being there and were glad to have the opportunity to share our ministry with them. We got back home only to turn right back around and head to General Assembly, held in Orlando. I saw some old friends from Japan and we spoke with pastors whom we had met before at various presbytery meetings. I also was able to speak at a presbytery meeting in North Florida. I had not previously met any of the pastors in this presbytery and had no connections with them, but the Lord really blessed my time there. I was able to not only meet many pastors, but talk with some in depth about our ministry and vision for Japan. We will also go back to some of the North Florida churches in the fall to talk to them more about our ministry, so it was a very fruitful time.

On to Virginia

We finished our summer by spending two weeks in Virginia in July speaking with churches and also taking some time off and relaxing.  We were able to speak at a church outside of Richmond on the first Sunday. The next day, we drove over to Lynchburg and met with the missions committee of a church there and we spoke at a church in Blacksburg on the following Sunday. The church in Blacksburg was particularly enjoyable because a Japanese family from Nagoya, Japan attends that church. The mother and all but the newest child were baptized by our future team leader in Nagoya, Japan, so it was exciting to talk to them about ministry in Japan and discovering mutual friends.

Support Update

This summer we learned that Holy Trinity Presbyterian in Tampa would partner with us in our ministry. We have been blessed by many relationships with members from Holy Trinity and are excited to have them as partners. Our support level is increasing slowly but surely. We are at approximately 40% of our needed budget. We have a long way to go but we are certainly thankful to God for what he has provided and we are faithful that God will provide the rest in his time.

Please Continue Praying

• Pray this fall the Lord would open doors at churches and we would continue to build church partnerships.  Pray also as we talk to small groups in Lakeland that people would desire to partner with our ministry.
• Pray for our partnerships with churches, for doors to open with additional churches, and churches would be able to add us to their budget.
• Pray for the Newsome family, our team leaders, as they returned to Japan last week from a year long home assignment.  Pray for the family adjustment and ministry as it continues to grow in Nagoya.

Thank you all for praying for our trip to Virginia. We were able to meet with five different pastors/churches, attend presbytery and Cathalain went to a women’s retreat where she assisted with the worship. It was a great time of developing relationships with churches and pastors as well as a good time of relaxation. In the middle of the week we were able to stay in Lexington for a few days of  rest and relaxation.

Our time back in Florida has paralleled our time in Virginia. We have been able to speak to pastors and churches, such as Holy Trinity Presbyterian in Tampa and we have also been able to relax, such as camping at Fort DeSoto with some good friends from church.

Again, thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray as we continue to speak to churches, pastors, missions committees, presbyteries, and individuals. Pray also for our upcoming travels this summer.

On a final note, Cathalain and I received an exciting surprise this past weekend while driving home from a Mother’s Day celebration with her family. If you look back to the February 24^th entry, you will see a picture of us speaking at Grace Presbyterian in Arcadia, FL. We learned they will be supporting our ministry as a church. We have enjoyed getting to know the people at Grace Presbyterian and are very excited for their partnership. Praise God!