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!

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.