This weekend we will be participating in Covenant Presbyterian’s Mission Conference.  (This is the church where we are members and currently attend.)  The visiting missionaries are as follows:

David and Eleanor Fiol – MTW India
Andrew Lamb – MTW Atlanta
Richard and Robyn Cranes – MTW/MINTS – Miami
Esaie and Natacha Etienne – MTW Haiti
Michael and Cathalain Carter – MTW Japan (That’s Us!)

We will be speaking to the kiddos at 9:00am Saturday (3/21/09) morning and at 11am to the entire group.  In the evening we will be speaking to youth in the church at 7pm.  If you are interested in attending the conference the cost is $3, which includes a brunch on Saturday morning.  Please contact Covenant for more information.

We would appreciate your prayers this week for the following events:

• Michael takes his comprehensive TESOL exam on Friday, Nov. 7, 08.  Please pray for the ability to retain the information as he goes into the exam and for peace during the days preceding the exam.
• We will be talking with Shepherding Groups at Covenant on Sunday afternoon.  Please pray for clarity in our presentation and for the hearts of the people we speak with to be opened to partnering with us.
• Tuesday we go before the Southwest Presbytery at the meeting in Tampa.  Pray that we would build more relationships/partnerships with churches in our area.
• Tuesday night we will meet with Covenant’s mission’s committee.

As you can see we will be quite busy over the next week meeting with various groups.  We appreciate your prayers!

When people find out we are going to Japan it is always amazing the various connections people have to Japan.  Within our own church the organist, Kae, actually grew up in Japan and attended Japanese school.  Kae’s parents were missionaries and she has a huge heart for the Japanese and for the Japanese to know Christ as their Savior.  This past summer she was able to visit one of her brothers who still lives and works in Japan.

This weekend we were very grateful that Kae invited us to join with some of her friends and talk about our future ministry in Japan.  It was especially interesting to hear more about her experiences in Japan and the work she has witnessed overtime.

The brunch was a wonderful time and we are thankful to Kae for her hospitality.  It was neat for us to see someone so excited about ministering to the Japanese people and her burden/love for this nation!