Road Trip to Japan

We just graduated from Ozark Christian College and are joining a church planting organization called Mustard Seed Global Fellowship.  Now we are raising support in order to move as church planters to urban Japan.  We are so excite to be on this journey and see where God takes us and how he might use us to advance his Kingdom in Japan.

In early June we drove away from our Joplin home and began our road trip to Japan.  Our first stop was Champaign Illinois.  That is where are now, living with Megan's mom for the summer (THANKS Mary!).  We are focusing on raising support in that part of the country which means connecting with various churches in Illinois, Indian and Eastern Missouri.  Fundraising is not exactly our favorite activity but we enjoy certain aspects of it--like talking about the need for Christ in Japan and the work that we are given the grace to be apart of.  In mid August we will move to Wichita Kansas to live with my parents and fundraise in that part of the country.  Before this road trip is over we will have visited no less than 8 states and many major cities such as St. Louis, Chicago, Indianapolis, Kansas City and Las Vegas.  This really does feel like a road trip to Japan.

The big difference between these cities and those of Japan is the presence of God's people.  Certainly all of these American cities need the gospel and Christians need to be ministering in them--but the cities in Japan have hardly any Christians.  Japan is less than 1% Christian--0.7% to be exact.  Only 0.2% of Japanese go to church.  In Tokyo, the largest city in the world the largest church is around 1000 people.  (That's only 0.02% of the city's 34 million!)  Needless to say, Japan needs Jesus.  This road trip will eventually end up in Nagoya Japan--a city of 9 million where our team will be planting churches initially.  Joplin to Nagoya--we are very grateful to have this opportunity.