A New Day for Japan

courtesy of Ch (COL) John Powers
courtesy of Ch (COL) John Powers
By Harry Landaw

In response to the March 11, 2011, earthquake, tsunami, and ensuing nuclear reactor problems in northeastern Japan, Alliance workers Jane and Harry Landaw have answered God’s call to plant a church in the impacted region, where there are no Alliance congregations. Because of this full-time allocation, the Landaws will not be able to serve out their remaining two-year appointment as team leader couple. As they embark on this new ministry journey, their most critical need will be prayer. In the following adapted excerpt, read about how you can partner with them in pushing back the darkness among those affected by this disaster.

Thank you for your continued prayers for our team of international workers in Japan. We appreciate your partnership with us during these days of unprecedented opportunity here. As we have shared in previous updates, many more people are listening carefully to those of us who have opportunity to share God’s Word through preaching, leading Bible studies, and giving personal testimonies of God’s goodness.

Since June 2010, our team has been spending one day a week in extended times of prayer and fasting to seek God’s will for our ministries. We have all sensed Him speaking to us and opening many doors of opportunity. In response to the recent devastation in the northeastern region of Japan, many of you have been moved to pray more fervently and to give more sacrificially to relief and outreach needs in Japan. We are grateful to God for your partnership with us in reaching the 99 percent of the Japanese population who have no personal knowledge of the God of the Bible. Subsequent to the disaster, our U.S. National Office asked our team to put together a plan to take “bold, faith-filled risks—and to take redemptive action to seize the opportunity God has put before us”—by allocating a church-planting couple to the region.

Fruit for the Kingdom

Based upon the above request from our U.S. National Office, we spent many days of prayer and discussion concerning how we could, with our limited number of people, initiate such a church plant. In the process, we considered many factors, including present family and ministry situations of each member of our team, as well as upcoming home assignment dates. As a part of the process, Jane and I submitted a proposal to our Advisory Team, which was subsequently submitted to the C&MA National Office for their approval. The result is that Jane and I have been assigned to the impacted region as “church-planting team coordinators.” We thank God for this past year, which has been an exciting year of God’s blessing on our team. As we begin a new journey, we are committed to seeking God’s will each day.

This will be a major move for our team. We have no Alliance churches in the region, so we will be going in as newcomers and without any real network of contacts. One of our preliminary goals will be to partner with some existing churches in the region to minister to the needs of people there through their network of relationships. Relationships are everything here in Japan. It is very important for us to establish these kinds of strong connections with existing churches so that we can have a better impact in the region. The task seems overwhelming, but we know that as you continue your partnership with us in prayer, God will open doors and there will be fruit for God’s Kingdom.

Maybe you are wondering how you can join us in this new initiative. Would you consider continuing your partnership with us in prayer for the next two years? We would like to build a prayer support team of at least 500 people who will commit to praying for us and this outreach daily. Will you take up that challenge? If you would like to partner with us in this way, please visit our locator page and send us an e-mail.

Miracles Needed

We continue to believe God for many miracles for this initiative to take off. Currently, we are exploring rental possibilities in the region and have learned that, understandably, the many people who have been displaced have priority status for any available rentals. As a result, there are hardly any vacant houses.

Please pray that we will find just the right rental facility. God will have to do a miracle and open a door for us to find housing. As of this writing, we are in the city where the earthquake hit (Sendai) and are relying on God to provide. This need is our first major prayer request. As the days continue, we will keep the Alliance family updated with our progress and prayer requests for the next stage.

One More Thing You Can Do

Donate to Alliance Great Commission Ministries. In doing so, you partner with Alliance workers, like the Landaws, to ensure that God’s healing grace and provision reaches those in desperate need of hope.

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