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

One of the goals of our team in Japan is the growth of the church. This is done primarily through consistent word and deed ministry. Cathalain and I thought we would take a more organic approach. Therefore, we are working on growing the church by having our first child in early May! Although this will make travel and preparations for the field much more interesting, we are very excited to be starting a family and are very thankful to God for such a wonderful blessing.  Please pray for our child!

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!

In our last update, we told you about our busy schedule for the summer and asked you to pray for our travels, support-raising and speaking. We made it through the summer and the Lord has certainly answered many of our prayers.

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.

One of the benefits of teaching is definitely summer time.  I was able to fly to Lexington, Va for 4th of July weekend and spend the weekend with my old roommate and in-laws.  We had a blast on the river and watching the fireworks at VMI.

After coming back from the quick trip to Lexington I took part in the Covenant Youth Road Trip as a leader. Seven Nights and Eight Days with nineteen youth…CRAZY! What a blast and wonderful time with the 9 female students who went and the other female leader. The Lord has really blessed the Youth Ministry at Covenant and it was a privilege to serve this week.

I even was able to visit with Grandma again!

Home for a day…Michael and I are off to Virginia to speak at a few churches and have a week of vacation at the in-laws!

Many have asked us to send our response to the break-in that occurred at our home on July 4th.  This is the first e-mail we sent out on July 5, 2009.

Traveling To and Fro

This past week we spent the week traveling to Brevard, NC to attend the Living in Grace Conference put on by the spiritual life department at MTW.  I have quite a few family members along the way and Michael and I were able to visit with almost all of them.    Before and after the conference we stayed with my grandmother in Asheville, NC who lives next to my aunt and uncle.  We enjoyed the opportunity to visit with them and Michael even tried out the new Tiger Woods Golf game!  On the Sunday after the conference Michael and I were asked to speak at the church where my grandmother plays the piano, Faith Fellowship.  The church is part of an assisted living community and has two services, one on Saturday and one on Sunday.  We were excited to share with the church about our ministry in Japan and enjoyed worshipping with them. 

As we are approaching the field more quickly we are grateful for all the time we have with family.  It was a blessing to see so many of my family and for Michael to continue building relationships with them as well.

Living in Grace…the Conference

It is hard to describe the experience we had, but I will do my best to update you on the LiG conference.

First, you must realize Ridge Haven is situated within the beautiful mountains of western NC.  Every day and night we heard nature’s chorus all around us.  One afternoon during a break Michael and I hiked to a waterfall on the camp property and after taking the scenic route, aka getting lost, we decided to play in the lake for an hour.  We finally got the hang of riding the water bikes, but it was a great picture to watch my 6′ 4″ husband try to balance his weight on the bike.  We certainly laughed with, or at, him as he fell off many times, but in truth I wasn’t much better!

Free time was pretty scarce during the week, but neither of us would have changed the schedule of the conference.  All week we sat under the teaching of Dr. Kooistra and learned more about, well GRACE.  Topics such as idols, repentence, forgiveness, the love of God, humility, prayer, worship, etc were touched upon.  The most helpful part of the conference were the small group break outs and the personal application times.  This was not a conference where attendees were supposed to come and gather nuggets of inspiration and then go home with new information.  Instead it was a conference where as individuals and as couples you were challenged to wrestle with the material you were hearing and actually start APPLYING the material to your own life immediately.   The week was instrumental for both Michael and I and even after having been home we are still reviewing the material.

The conference provided the opportunity for Michael and I to spend a great deal of time together.  This was an unexpected blessing after such a hectic Spring.  We are so grateful to be serving with a missions organization that really emphasizes the spiritual life of their missionaries.  It is easy to work too many hours and feel burdened/pressure in ministry and MTW really tries to equip its missionaries with the truth of the Gospel as they head to the field.  Another blessing was being around other people who are experiencing the same circumstances as we are.  Sometimes it is lonely living in two different worlds, the intinerating world and home.  To share in the challenges itineration brings with those around us was refreshing!

We appreciate everyones prayers during this week and again thank you for your partnership!!!

These are the LiG participants going to Japan with Bruce Young (far left)

Greetings!  Cathalain and I have been so thankful over the past few months for your faithful prayers, words of encouragement, and support.  It is a privilege to partner with you to reach the unreached in Japan.

Speaking at Home

As you might recall in our last update we were just about to speak at a Mission’s Conference in our home church.  The weekend was such an encouragement to us.  We are so blessed by our home church, Covenant, and their continual support and prayers.   We were especially touched by a 4 year old boy in our congregation who has been faithfully praying for us EVERY night and who also gave us $1.02 he saved from his own allowance for our ministry.  What a sacrifice and a wonderful reminder of God’s goodness!

Traveling through Virginia

After the mission’s conference we headed off to Virginia for eight days.  While in Virginia we were able to speak to two church congregations, meet with three pastors, attend Presbytery, and Cathalain even found time to play guitar for the women’s retreat at my dad’s church.  Whew! As exhausting as it sounds the Lord blessed us with a few days to spend some quality time with family and to just plain relax! We are grateful for the opportunity to start building more relationships with churches in Virginia and continue to bolster the relationships we have.

Support Update

Our last update reported we were currently at 25% of our needed budget.  We are excited to share that we now have 30% of our budget.  In addition to the 5% increase, the church that we spoke to in Arcadia, FL has decided to support us.  We have also had the opportunity to speak to a few local churches and last week I attended a presbytery meeting of our neighboring presbytery.  What a huge blessing, encouragement, and answer to prayer!

This Summer

In early June we will be attending the Living in Grace Conference at Ridge Haven in North Carolina. Cathalain’s grandmother lives in Asheville and we will be speaking to her church and potentially another church there as well.  The following week I will be attending General Assembly which is in Orlando this year.  This is a great opportunity to meet many pastors in the PCA, put a face to a name, and begin to develop relationships.  We also are scheduled for another trip to Virginia in late July to continue visiting with churches.

We are so thankful for your partnership in our ministry and grateful for the sacrifices you make for the sake of advancing the Gospel in Japan!

!!!We NEED your prayers!!!

• Pray for our time at the Living in Grace Conference (June 7-12).  That we would grow in our knowledge of Christ and our relationship with him would be strengthened.
• 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 General Assembly and the ability for Michael to meet pastors and other contacts.
• Pray for the Japanese…that the Lord would be working NOW in the hearts of the Japanese people and moving them toward repentance.

Happy New Year!

Dothan, Alabama

We started off the new year by traveling to Dothan, Alabama for a visit with the Newsome family.  The Newsome’s are our team leaders in Nagoya, Japan and are spending this year on homestay.  It was fun spending time with them and their five kids.  We heard many stories about Japan and it was wonderful catching the vision for the future of the Nagoya team.  The main goal of the team is church-planting in the east side of Nagoya.

In addition to hanging out with the Newsomes we also met Tom and Teresa Wilson who are another couple on our team.  They were home for a few weeks and happened to be in Dothan, AL as well.  We had a great time of fellowship and learning more about each other.  This really encourages us as we move closer and closer to full-time ministry in Japan.

Tunica, Mississippi

Michael’s roommate in Chiba, Japan is now a farmer in Tunica, Mississippi.  Thanks to the generosity of a family in our church Michael and I were able to spend a three day weekend visiting in Tunica with Michael’s roommate and his Japanese wife, whom he fell in love and married while doing short-term missions in Japan.  We will head back home tomorrow, but have enjoyed touring the farm, frozen in the cold weather, a great time of playing games and I even received my first lesson in making sushi.  (Picture below.)  I am far from perfect, but I am sure will only get better over time.

Michael has officially completed both his master’s degrees!!!! He graduated with a master’s in teaching English to speakers of other languages from University of Central Florida and a master’s in biblical studies from Reformed Theological Seminary.

We are both very excited for his accomplishment and excited to move forward in raising support. Thus far we have raised approximately 15% of our monthly support needed to go to Japan. We are grateful for the generosity of our partners in ministry.