Earthquake/Tsunami Update

As many of you have heard Japan was hit in the early hours of the morning (EST) today by a 8.9 magnitude earthquake. Following the earthquake a tsunami hit the northern shore of Japan. As you can imagine this is a terrifying time for the Japanese and your prayers are not only appreciated but needed. We have received updates from both the Tokyo (2.5 hours away) and Nagoya (4 hours away) teams that everyone on MTW staff is currently safe including children away at boarding schools. Below we have listed prayer requests sent from the teams.

How this Affects our Current Situation
We were set to buy airline tickets today and now are in a holding pattern until we receive additional word from the team and official approval through the MTW office. Our plans at this point are to fly out on March 29 and arrive in Nagoya on March 30. Classes start April 5 at the language school and thus far classes are still on normal schedule. Please pray we would be able to make arrangements before the 14 day mark!

We wrote in an earlier e-mail to pray for our housing situation. When our team leader called two days ago the 3 room apartment “miraculously” opened up so we will only make one move and should be allowed to stay in this apartment for two years. Praise God for this provision and thank you for your prayers!

We still have not heard news on our visas. At this point we are planning on going to Japan on a travel visa and receiving our long term visas once we are there. Please pray in the next week the visa arrives at our team leader’s house and we will be able to go initially on a long term visa.

Prayer Requests from Japan MTW Teams in Response to Earthquake/Tsunami

• Pray for friends and relatives of church members in the northern part of the country who have not been heard from.
• Pray right now for all the after shocks being felt from everyone throughout the country and expected throughout the night. This is especially terrifying for young ones. (10am-6pm EST)
• Pray for the MTW team who hopes to go to Sendai and provide aid in the morning (EST would be approximately 6pm tonight) Pray for safety, pray for their ability to help restore physical order, and pray for the opportunity to share the message of Jesus Christ to the many many many lost people in Japan.
• It is a time of deep crying out for many in Japan right now. Please pray for bold witnessing of the faith by the Christian Japanese/Missionaries and pray many would come to know Christ in this time of immense sorrow and difficulty. Christ is the only true comforter and Japan is a place where very little (less then .2% of the population) know Christ.