Today, Megumi and I will head out at 2am to begin our 18 hour jaunt to Japan. This marks our first trip to Japan since we moved back to the states in 2011. In a way it feels like I’m returning home. I spent 4+ years of my life in Japan. I began my adult life there, met and married my wife there and spent our first year of marriage together there. I lived through several major disasters in Japan, including the 2011 tsunami. These experiences coupled with the culture of Japan have helped to shape who I am today, through what Christ worked to reveal to me in my heart. Since our return to the states, Christ has continually called me to repentance over sin that I have been blind to for so long. God in his graciousness brought us back to Columbia and into the family of Karis. Over the past year we have been very blessed to meet so many wonderful brothers and sisters and work alongside of them for the sake of the gospel to make Christ known in this great city. Now, I’m excited that in just 10 days my family will be coming home with me. Will you commit to praying for the trip as we travel Japan together meeting with church leaders, seeking to discern what the future of ministry in Japan will look like.

“For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” (Romans 12: 4-5)