We arrived safely today for the MTW Cross-Cultural Training in New York City. We will be here July 1-30.  This month we will spend half our time serving with a local congregation and the other half of our time in a classroom setting studying different topics which will better train us for the mission field. Please pray for spiritual growth and that we would leave better equipped to serve the Japanese.

Our Past Month

This past month has been filled with many transitions!  We were able to visit and share our ministry with two churches at the beginning of the month. We then packed up our house and moved in with a dear friend from our church. We spent the last weekend in Lakeland with our church’s youth group at Daytona Beach for their annual beach retreat. We enjoyed our time with the high school youth we had gotten to know over our time at Covenant and it was a welcome relief from the hustle and craziness of life. We then said goodbye to our friends at Covenant Presbyterian after morning worship and headed up to Virginia. It was a sad time for us to leave behind our good friends in Lakeland, yet exciting to be moving closer to getting to Japan. Please pray for our home to close.  This was supposed to happen last month but has been continually delayed.  Please pray for us as we move into a life with so much transition and instability.

2010 Covenant Youth Beach Retreat

Tobin’s Turn

Tobin turned six weeks on Tuesday and has been adjusting well to all the change. He has had two airplane flights so far and has done really well on both of them. We are certainly blessed to have been given a “laid back” baby who seems content no matter where he is or what situation we drag him into. Please pray for Tobin to grow up never knowing a day where he doesn’t call Christ his Savior.

Tobin's First Airplane Ride

Wrap Up

As we begin this final training, we feel that we are nearing the final stretch before being able to head to the field. We have a total of 75% of our support pledged.  This leaves us with 25% to raise before we can head to the field. When we return to Virginia after New York we will be meeting with churches and continuing our support raising.  We are looking forward to joining the team in Japan and help share the gospel to a people and culture where Jesus is widely unknown. Thank you for all your prayers and support of our itineration and training. We’re very appreciative of you and are thankful to have you partnering with us in our ministry to the Japanese.

In Him,

Michael, Cathalain, and Tobin 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

Recently we ran across an article about “The World’s Most Expensive Cities 2010.”  Tokyo was ranked #1 and Nagoya #4.  Where was New York City?  Surprisingly 29th!  To read more check out the article at http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/109909/the-worlds-most-expensive-cities-2010.

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”

Our New Addition
On May 18 the Lord blessed us with our first son, Tobin James Carter. He was born at 8:38am, was 8lb 11oz, and 21.75 inches long. He has been a wonderful addition to have in our home and has attracted many family members to our house to come see him. (His website is www.cartersan.com/tobin if you want a more in depth look!) Please pray for our son to never know a day without calling Christ His Savior and King!

Our Timeline
After some ups and down with the contract on our house we are set to close on June 15. Please pray as we are packing and continuing to sell all of our furniture. We have already started transitioning our things to Virginia, but could especially use prayers as we close out the purchase of our home.

On June 28 we will be leaving Florida and dropping our belongings at my parent’s house in Lexington, VA. On July 1 we are traveling to NY City for a month long MTW cross cultural training. In August we will move back to Virginia and will continue to raise the additional 30% of our support which we still need before leaving for the field. Please pray for the many transitions and the anxiety we feel of having a newborn in New York City for a month!

Support Raising
I am traveling to speak at the Potomac Presbytery in Northern Virginia on June 1. Cathalain and I are still actively visiting small groups in Florida and will be visiting a few churches to share about our ministry in June. Our official send off from Covenant, our home church, will be June 20. The following week we are on the annual beach retreat with the Covenant Youth. Please pray as we continue to actively share about our ministry and partner with churches and individuals.

Licensure
In May I had the opportunity to preach at the Southwest Florida Presbytery meeting. The next step for Licensure will be going before the committee to be reexamined on the Bible Portion and then go before the Presbytery at the September meeting. 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.

We thank you all for your continued prayers and support. You are a constant source of encouragement during this whole process.

Many Blessing,

Michael, Cathalain, and Tobin 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”

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

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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)

Last weekend we had the opportunity to speak to Grace Presbyterian in Arcadia, FL.  Although we didn’t personally know anyone in the church initially we left feeling as though we had many new friends.  The church blessed us through their proclamation of the Gospel, genuine interest in our calling, warmth and encouragement.

Link to the newsletter Grace put together before the week before we arrived.

Below you will find the flier for St. Paul’s mission conference. We thought this was really neat. Make sure to look at the tree carefully!

The Journey Thus Far

First there was a personal call in our lives.  (To read more about this check out the About the Carters section.)  Next we researched various mission sending agencies.  After a time of prayer and deliberation we decided we wanted to go to Japan with Mission to the World (MTW), the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) mission agency.

We then began the process with MTW.  We began with the application, Bible & Reformed Theology examination and various psychological/marital testing.  All of this was used to help the assessors at Readiness Evaluation (REV). REV is an intensive week MTW uses to assess a potential candidate’s readiness to serve in cross-cultural missions.  We attended REV in July ’08. Throughout the week we were evaluated from how we work in a team to our personal relational style to how we respond in cross cultural situations.  The week is intense but a great way to confirm a calling to serve in cross cultural ministry.  At the end of the week we were approved to be long-term MTW missionaries in Japan.

At this point we prayed fervantly about which team we felt would be the best fit for the team and for us as a couple.  After many discussions and prayer we were called to join the church-planting team in Nagoya, Japan.

In September we then went to Interview & Orientation (I&O).  I&O was held in Atlanta and was spent learning more about MTW and the administrative side of being a missionary.  In addition to all the workshops we went before the Committee of MTW.  We were examined by the committee and then they officially approved us to be missionaries with MTW to Nagoya, Japan!

The Journey to Come

Our goal is to reach the field by the end of 2009.  We understand this is an ambitious goal, but trust fully in the power of God to do bold and amazing works.  Next summer we will attend a Living in Grace Conference and then hopefully pre-field training in July. Pre-field is held in New York City and is meant to better equip us in cross-cultural ministry by spending a month prior to the field in intense training.

The Journey Right Now

Currently we are officially in the intineration process.  This means we are meeting with churches and individuals trying to build partnerships either financially or through prayer.  If you are interested please check out the Partnership Opportunities page.