Dear Friends,
You are receiving this letter because your church, in particular, has been a part of my husband and I’s story. You may remember one or both of us well, or we may seem as strangers to you, just a blip on the radar of your memory. Whatever the case, we, as a couple, remember you and all that you have done to mold us as people and now as future missionaries. We are soon being trained for long-term missions in Japan. Our training will take place May 8th through May 13th of this year. At this training session (hosted by TEAM, the organization we are going overseas with), we will learn about Japanese culture, missions work in general, and we will be given our mentors who will then help us with fundraising. Before we enter this new season of fundraising, we wanted to reach out to those churches who have known us well. It is too often the case that when a couple begins their journey of fundraising for the mission field, very few people have even heard of their plans. We do not want that to be the case with us. Our desire is that you would be a part of our journey from start to finish, so here is your official 411 on all things #TEAMEnglish4Japan. Please begin to pray for us in any of the following ways that you can.
We ask for your prayers in this season of waiting: “In the process and in the waiting,” God is there, but sometimes He is hard to see through the fog of life’s everyday messes. We need your prayers for this current season. Please pray that Isaiah’s landscaping job would continue to go well and that the Lord would bless the work of his hands. Please pray that Calli Jade would be able to complete her online theology classes for Japan and that she would continue to find solace and rest in God’s Word. And please pray that we would grow in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ as a couple, embracing the Holy Spirit’s work in making us more like Christ as we plan to represent Him to a people group lost in spiritual blindness.
We ask for your prayers in the next season of fundraising: Please pray that God would prepare the hearts of the individuals and the churches who will be a part of supporting our work in the field. Pray that we would be able to find ample support bathed in the prayers of the saints as we begin to network and ask people to become a part of our story in Japan.
We ask you to pray for Japan, the country that has embedded itself in our hearts: Japan, though it is an advanced culture with plenty of technology and worldly success, remains in spiritual darkness. Twinges of Shintoism and Buddhism remain a part of the culture, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ is missing from the culture entirely, with less than 1% being Christian. Japan, having hope only in this world and not even knowing of the Kingdom of God, has developed one of the highest suicide rates in the world. The shame, guilt, busyness, sexual depravity, and loneliness in the country of Japan is unbearable! But we firmly believe that God’s Spirit can work even in the most hardened soil. We want to scatter the seeds of the Gospel, so that some may believe in the God who gives hope, meaning, eternity, and truth. Pray that God’s Spirit would begin to work NOW in Japan, preparing the hearts of those who will receive the gift of the Gospel of Grace.
If you would like to learn more about our story or interest in Japan, or if you would like to book a date for us to speak with your church, please email us at isaiah.english@me.com. We look forward to partnering with you as we start out on this journey.
Blessings,
Isaiah & Calli Jade English
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