April Ministry Update 2022
Dear Friends and Ministry Partners,
I hope you had a happy Easter! It was a blessing for me to spend Holy Week with my church family at New Heart Church here in Grand Rapids. Leading up to Resurrection Sunday we had a meal together and read John 13-17 on Holy Thursday, read through John 18-19 together on Good Friday, and then on Saturday night we had a service called the Great Vigil of Easter in which we acted out and retold a number of Old Testament stories that would help us understand the bigger picture of why Jesus went to the cross. It was all a lot of fun and I am so glad to be a part of a church that is so dedicated to preparing people for the real joy and celebration that comes from Jesus' resurrection on Easter. It just keeps getting harder and harder knowing that I will be leaving New Heart Church soon. I know that my time here will be a huge benefit to my ministry in Japan though.
This coming Sunday on the 24th, I will be preaching at New Heart and then sharing about my ministry in Tokyo with the congregation, but that will officially be my last day with the church as an intern. After that, I'll begin working on my transition to Japan! I'm currently around the 90% range for my support and I've started the paperwork to apply for my visa! Once I receive my visa and I have the rest of my support I can fly out to Japan.
With where I am at now, if everyone who currently supports me gave $10 more a month, or if everyone who gets this newsletter gave just $5 a month, I'd be fully funded! If you are interested in increasing your support by a few dollars a month or more to help me reach my goal, then please let me know! If you've been considering partnering with me and want to jump on board with what I'm doing, then any amount helps! For more info on partnering with me, you can visit adamintokyo.com/partnership.
As I finish up my internship and begin to prepare to go back to Japan, I am working on doing more language learning. Right now I'm trying to catch up to where I was before I left and review what I've learned. I haven't been able to study as much as I'd hoped in the last couple years so I want to get ready to jump into full-time language learning as soon as I get to Japan!
I'm also hoping to meet with my supporters and supporting churches in the next couple months and then in July I will be at the Challenge Conference in Kansas City, MO. As long as I have everything I need by then, my goal is to fly back to Tokyo in July!
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The Challenge Conference is a biennial event hosted by the EFCA that gathers middle and high school students from around the country to encourage and equip them to live out the Gospel. At the conference, they always have a country or area focus in which they bring in missionaries and provide a unique breakout experience that gives students a taste of what life and ministry in that country is like. This year Japan is being featured so I will be there with my team to mobilize students to pray for Japan and consider future ministry in Japan as a missionary. The conference is this summer from July 3rd to 7th. It's not too late if you are interested in going or brining a group! I highly recommend it!
Currently, I'm working on some of our promotional materials with a few of my teammates and also planning how we can invite youth groups and other groups to come to Japan for short-term missions. I'm excited to see all the interest and other things that come out of Challenge so please be praying for God to use it!
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Like I mentioned, I at around 90% of my support! We are in the home stretch! That last 10% is only about $600 a month that I need in order to go. Again, if you or you think someone you know would be interested in partnering with me to make this all possible, please let me know! I could really use some good recommendations. Of course the most helpful thing in all of this is to pray too! You can pray that God provides partners, whether that's families, individuals, or churches, who will commit to giving the finances I need to pass 100%. Pray for all the work that needs to go into my visa and that it would be approved soon. And pray for peace for me that I would continue to trust God's timing and provision.
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Prayer Requests
- Pray for my financial support. Currently I have 90% of my monthly support goal. I still need about $600 in monthly commitments to reach 100%. Pray that God would place people and churches in my path that would partner with me and that these needs would be met in miraculous ways within the next couple months.
- Pray for my remaining time in Michigan. As things start to wind down with my internship, pray that I could end well with my church and that they would be able to find someone who can pick up the work I've been doing. Pray that I could say goodbye well and that I would have peace about leaving even though it's hard. Pray as well for the remaining things I need to do as I start to transition such as studying Japanese and updating churches.
- Pray for my visa. I have been working on my paperwork to get my Certificate of Eligibility which will allow me to apply for a visa, so pray that it would all work out smoothly, that there wouldn't be any errors on my part or hold ups on the receiving end. Pray that the borders would continue to stay open and that the government would continue to accept new visa applications. Pray that I would be able to get my visa soon and that I'd be able to officially buy a plane ticket to go back to Japan!
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Thanks for reading!
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me at adam.bailey@efca.org or by phone at 802-461-4771. You can also go to my website at adamintokyo.com. Thanks! - Adam Bailey
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If you'd like to give a one-time or recurring gift, click on the link below!
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