Replies

If you’d like to pray for MTW* missionaries in Japan by name, here they are:

Chiba (Tokyo suburb)
Dan and Carol Iverson and family (team leader)
Roberta Brown
Craig and Ree Coulbourne and family
Sally Dangler
Kevin and Rebecca Dingler and family
Matt Gillingham (short-term)
Linda Karner
Daniel and Esther Lee and family
Roger and Abi Lowther and family (short-term)
Judith Newland
Jon and Sarah Pfeil and family
James and Joyce Repp and family (long-term)
Debbie Richards
Robert and Lisa Stewart and family

Nagoya
Wayne & Amy Newsome and family (Team Leader)
Charlene Hatmaker;
Peter & Dianne Bakelaar and family
Darlene Johnson
Jane Brinkerhoff
Michael & Pearl Oh and family
Linda Wixon
Gerry & Jessica Wheaton and family (short-term).

*BTW, the MTW is the missions arm of the Presbyterian Church in America.

Please feel free to post the names of other missionaries who are in Japan, who would benefit from our prayers.

email from one of those listed received this morning:

As you’ve seen in the news ... a devastating 8.9 magnitude earthquake has rocked Japan. It is the largest magnitude recorded earthquake in Japanese history. Many hundreds are dead. Over 100,000 unaccounted for. Even as I write this, new reports keep coming in.

• Pray for God’s grace to flow through His Church to the hurting and needy in Japan.
• Pray for Japan, a country with great national pride and self confidence - to see their helplessness and hopelessness apart from saving relationship with their Creator God!
• Pray for our MTW team and Japanese national partners (all are safe and accounted for) that God will give discernment and wisdom as they face overwhelming opportunities to love and serve.
• Pray for our __ family as we have been planning to return to Japan in the next few weeks. We want to be there as soon as we can, but trying to figure out how this situation either accelerates or slows down our timetable.
• Pray for me as I look at options to possibly return to Japan alone, or possibly assisting with disaster relief team, or ... (lots of questions - not many answers, yet)
Read informative MTW Urgent Prayer Update being sent out to all PCA churches.

Impact in Tokyo and Chiba
From what we have gathered from missionary friends and contacts in Tokyo and Chiba, the earthquake was scary and caused a lot of damage - but not the level of devastation see further north. The photo above shows damage in the apartment of our friends the -— who are living not far from where we hope to move in the next few weeks.

The effects of the earthquake are still significant, though, in Tokyo and Chiba, and many people are stunned and overwhelmed. Pray that many new and deep relationships will be forged in the pain and trials of these days and weeks ahead. Pray that many would come to know the comfort and strength of our Lord:
Isaiah 40: 28-31
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

We have heard that both OPC missionary families in Sendai are safe.. Our pastor was a missionay associate there so we are especially connected to that area. I didn’t know how many others were in the region. Our prayers for God’s mercy for such an incredibly horrible event. One is tempted to sermonize but the overwhelming sorrow and shock for now prompts intercessionary prayer for so many souls. thanks for link to MTW. Pastor said something to me this morning I hadn’t thought of. Looting and anarchy often seen in such calamity probably will not occur there because of Japanese sense of order, self reliance and respect. Small conciliation but significant.