This summer our trip with be focused on Tokyo. Last week I introduced Tokyo and asked you to begin praying with us for this great city. As we countdown towards our trip this May, we want to focus specifically on Tokyo in our prayers each week.

Nishi Tokyo (西東京) or western Tokyo is known as being compromised largely of 26 so-called sleeper cities. Many of the people living in these communities commute to the city center for work, and often work long hours returning home late at night, giving way to the term sleeper town. Western Tokyo is also where the concrete jungle begins to give way. Built along the Tama river and extending all the way to the Okutama mountains, western Tokyo provides a nice get away from the hustle and busy of downtown and a great environment to have a family. However, western Tokyo lacks a strong gospel presence. With at least 5 towns with no churches and just a handful of churches scattered throughout each major city, the almost 5 million people living in western Tokyo have a desperate need to hear the Gospel.

On our trip to Tokyo we will be spending a significant amount of time in western Tokyo. Yoshito Noguchi is a church planter in western Tokyo working with a small team in Fuchu city. We met part of his team on our last trip and will take this trip as an opportunity to meet the rest of his team and learn more about how they are on mission to reach Fuchu with the gospel.

Here's how you can pray this week.

• Pray for Pastor Yoshito and his team as they work from the ground up to build God's church.
• Pray for the families living in western Tokyo; that opportunities to hear and respond to the gospel would come their way.
• Pray for more churches to be planted in western Tokyo.