Pray and Plan

We are spending today and tomorrow as a team praying and planning for the fall.  It's never enough time to talk about all the things we want to discuss!  But I am thankful for each of the dear people God has put together on the Nagoya Church Planting Team--Bakelaars, Wilsons, Linda, Darlene and Jane.  Today I was struck by something Wayne said.  He mentioned that about one year ago, when we had just returned to Japan from the States, we decided as a team to focus on praying for God to add new workers to our team.  Since that time, we have gone from one family intinerating to join us, to FIVE families and singles who are now raising support to join church planting in Nagoya.  God has answered that prayer abundantly!  We can't wait to have the Carters, Sinks, Cravens, Gees and Kendrick join us.  And this year, we need to pray that God will add Japanese co-workers to our number, so that each of us can partner with Japanese to see God's kingdom expand in this place.      More than numbers, though, we need to be like Jesus in all we do:  "Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. ³⁶When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.