Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. ~Mark 10:15

“There is a time for a leap of faith, and there is a time for a wait of faith.” I heard this quote from a brother in Christ a number of years ago and I have been experiencing that lately.

In September, our park church (Roses Church) went on their first mission trip to Yokohama/Tokyo. I (Cory) was really looking forward to going, but at the last minute some team members got Coved and (because of our situation) I had to cancel out. I received this as God saying, “Cory, you are not to go on this trip.” I found that a wait of faith can be more difficult than a leap of faith. I had to let it go. I remember taking a deep breath, letting it out, and saying to myself, “This is the sound of me letting this go.”

The Tokyo mission went well, and the disciples got to help with outreach, food ministry, and attend a worship service. The group was encouraged to keep preaching the good news and keep serving the poor. Isn’t it great that the Kingdom of Heaven keeps moving without us! It is so hard for me to learn this and I still have a long way to go.

This past week, I was reminded of this again. In anticipation of receiving a videography team from Canada, we arranged a kingdom outreach for the Osaka area and made many plans. The videography team had to cancel at the last minute, but the outreach went on anyway. The Holy Spirit really worked at the triangle park in Nishinari, bringing lots of people into our circle. One person experienced Jesus’ healing in their back, two people decided to submit to Jesus, and one will be getting baptized this week! Again, it looks like I will not be able to attend the baptism, but the kingdom moves on just the same.

We arrived back in Japan two months ago, and since then the boys have worked hard at getting back to school. Masami and I have also enjoyed re-establishing many relationships after our time in Canada. I have been reminded how all kingdom fruit grows out of the soil of deep, faithful, honest relationships. We are thankful that God has given us relationships in our local church, the MB conference, the park church, the Onfire Japan community, the Team Jesus evangelism network, and Multiply. It’s hilarious for me to think that just a few years ago we didn’t;t know any of these people, and they had never heard of us!

The Lord of the harvest has supplied in ways that we never could have imagined! Please pray that we will be able to receive the kingdom as children, in each of these communities.

As I write this letter, I am holding our four-week old foster daughter and I’m reminded of how desperately dependent we are on Jesus for all these things.

Thank you for praying,

Cory and Masami

Praise Items:

• We thank God that all of our kids are doing well at their schools. Joshua and Noah are in Robotics club and Sola is in basketball club for this year
• For Roses church’s 1st missions trip to Tokyo
• Team Jesus Osaka & Kobe Mission

Prayer Requests

• For Baby E who came to our house at one week old. Pray for healing for her family.
• For guidance for Joshua’s post high-school plans.
• For God to cast out labourers into his harvest fields.