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I haven’t been quite as regular posting here as I’d planned, but this last week I’ve got a bit of an  excuse. I’ve been getting ready to go visit Japan for three weeks. In fact, I’m quite literally just about to head out to the airport, but I figured I’d better giver you all an update first.

The Jesus Film Project coordinates numerous short term mission trips throughout the year, and as an employee of the Jesus Film Project, they allow me to go on one trip per year, up to two weeks in length, and still get paid to do it. They’ve been putting on a Christmas distribution project to Japan for the last three years, so I always signed up to do that one; this will be my fourth year in a row, and that’s what I’ll be doing the first two weeks. The project is titled “Love Japan” and consists of distributing as many multimedia CDs as we possibly can. From past experience this ranges between 10,000 and 15,000. The CDs are essentially a multimedia tract. They contain Southern Gospel Music (which is strangely popular in Japan), Christmas songs, portions of The Jesus Film and other coll things. The purpose of the CDs is to sort of act as bait to get Japanese people to attend Christmas outreach functions put on by local Churches and Campus Crusade for Christ. A few years ago one guy that we gave a CD to started attending a church in Tachikawa (where we’ll be based) and is going to be getting baptized while I’m over there, which is reall encouraging.

I’ll be staying an extra week to visit with Jon (my brother). My mom, sister and friend will all be flyingg out that week to, and we plan to do some sightseeing, go snowboarding in Nagano, and visit as many Onsens (Japanese hot springs) as possible.Should be an awesome time.

Keep checking back as I hope to update this often with pictures. Please be praying for the safe and timely arrival of all the team members. We’re flying from all over the US and are arriving in Japan on three different flights.

Mata ne! (See you!)

Written and Directed by David Robison
Narrated by Mark Gunderson
Originally Created for Jonathan Robison

This week I put my first full batch of support letters in the mail. And this coming Sunday I’ll be giving my first presentation in Church about going to Japan, and looking for supporters. In other words I’ve gotten to the part where I have to start asking people for money, which seems to be on everyone’s list of least favorite activities. My initial reaction to the thought, in this context, is pretty much what you’d expect: I really don’t want to do it. However if I think about it a bit I quickly realize that from a Biblical perspective, this can and should be a great opportunity for spiritual growth on my part, and on the part of anyone willing to support me financially.

For my part I’ve always been very self reliant. I like to take care of myself, and not have to depend on anyone else. about 6 years ago I remember thinking that I would only consider doing missions if I could do it without having to raise support. For instance, I figured that there would be such a need for computer skills that a mission would hire me to work for them overseas, and I’d let them worry about the financial part. Or perhaps I’d become a “tentmaker” and mininster like Paul did to the Corinthians when he supported himself financially while teaching and deiscipling them. Nevermind the fact that this was not Paul’s prefered way of doing things and that as a rule Paul prefered to be supported by other Churches and Christians on his trips. It still sounded more pleasent to be able to rely on my own ability to sustain myself rather than relying on God and His people.

My attitude towards this changed when I talked to a missionary who went this route, and heard about the frustrations he had in not having nearly enough time to learn master the language, and to actually do missions. Shortly after that I found myself in a similar position: I was leading a highschool youth group while working a full time job. I found that I wanted to do more and more to reach out to the highschool kids, but the fact that my church is too small to afford to pay a youth pastor meant that I had to spend far more time at work than ministering to the kids. I decided that if God should ever call me into full time ministry, I would have to jump through whatever hoops were required, and if that meant raising support, I’d do it.

But its even more than that. This is a chance for me to be completely dependent on God, something that I have always struggled with, and something that has always kept me from reaching the full potential He has for me. Whenever I insist on doing things on my own power, I find myself severly lacking. And the only reserve I have access to is God’s power, which requires that I first relinquish my own.If I live by faith in myself I run into some things that are possible, but far more that are impossible. But if I have faith even as large as a mustard seed, I am promised thatnothing will be impossible for me. And if the fact that I will be forced to be dependent on the generosity of God’s people is what constantly reminds me to be dependent on the grace of God, then I’m excited at the prospect. I pray God will move in the hearts of all who get my feeble support letter, and through His power provide for all my needs.

I’ve got some supporters! This week I had two more people tell me that they want to support me on a monthly basis, which means that by my calculations, I am at 2% of my needed monthly support. I know that might sound small, but I’m actually pretty excited about it, and very grateful to God and these first few people who He’s brought on my team. If any of you are reading this, thank you!

Also this week I wrote another update/support letter talking about why I want to go to Japan (an excerpt from that letter can be found here), and inviting people to join my support team. For many people this will be the first time I’ve officially asked that, so I’m praying that God will encourage people to do that. Those letters should be in the mail by Wednesday.

Next on the agenda, I’ve got to start putting out a monthly newsletter, and begin my speaking tour. Right now I’m slotted to speak at my home Church on November 11th. I’ll also start contacting other churches to see if I can come talk to them as well, or at least talk with their missions Pastor. Finally feels like I’m actually on the road to Japan!

Oh, and a quick update on my brother… he’s engaged!

… but busy in pretty much every other possible way.

I’ve been leading a high school Youth Group for the last three years, which is great. Right now we’re in between studies, so I’m just coming up with interesting/important topics and talking about them. This last Thursday we talked about how we as Christian’s have been chosen by God, and what the ramifications/implications of that are. Tuesday nights I lead a college Bible Study, and we’ve been going through Hebrews for that, which turned out to be a more challenging book than I expected.

Last Saturday I went to a wedding in Tehechapi (which is a three hour drive from my house), to see two of my friends from Master’s get married to each other. One of them was a girl that I spent six weeks in Japan with on my first trip there, and the guy lived in the same dorm as me for two years. The interesting part is that he had been to Japan with Master’s the year before me and his bride went, and even though both the bride and groom went to Master’s at the same time, they didn’t date or even really know each other till two years after Brandon (the groom) graduated. So for awhile they almost missed each other, but then God brought them together in His timing. I guess the moral of the story is we never know what God will do.

Sunday my housemate/landlord had an open house (he’s selling the place), so I had to make myself scarce (appearently if people saw that I lived there they would become less likely to buy the place). It’s been slow going with the market and all but hopefully it’ll sell soon.

Anyways, back on course, I learned that I have two supporters this last week, which is really exciting. That means that I’m roughly 1% of the way to going to Japan! So, I’m on the score board at least. I hope to get some more letter’s written and sent out this coming week, as well as start writing my first Newsletter, so you all can look forward to that (as I’m sure you are).

And while we’re looking ahead I might as well mention that this coming December I’ll be in Japan for three weeks. Two weeks I’ll be participating in Jesus Film’s “Love Japan” distribution project, where our team will hand out multimedia CDs (think high tech tracts) and invite people to attend Christmas events at Churches in the area. Christmas is a great time to do this, as they actually celebrate it in Japan, even though they don’t have the concept of Christ or His birth. So there’s a little curiosity about what Christmas is. The last week I’ll be haning out with my little brother Jon, and a friend of ours (Quentin) will join us. I just bought my (rather expensive) plane ticket this week, so I’m excited about that too.

Oh, and if you read this, leave a comment. I’m starting to feel like I’m just talking to myself.

Welcome to my missions blog. I had the idea that I wanted to start a blog about the whole process of becoming a missionary, raising support and actually going out to the field, and that’s what this is going to be. It’s a little late since I’m not exactly at the very begining here (but very close to it). I’ve already filled my application out, been invited to SEND’s Candidate Orientation program in Michigan, taken a bunch of tests, and been interviewed by their panel, and got accepted as a missionary apointee. I wrote about some of that on my other blog, which you can check out if you like. Anyways all that leads up to now. Now I’m in the dreaded support raising process. Just barely starting there.

But the idea here is that I’ll be updating at least once a week with my progress, just talking about what I did the last week to get to Japan. This will keep me accountable and you guys informed. I’ll try to make it as interesting as possible.

So for my first entry, here’s what I did this last week. No really, here it is. You’re looking at it right now. I made a website. That’s been most of it. I also had my monthly phone call with my support coach, Leigh, in which I told him all the things I would do in this coming month (yes, I tell him what I’m going to do, and I tell you all what I have done. Doub;e the accountability there). I could tell you about all the plans I’ve got for this month, but that would ruin the surprise, and give me less to write about in future posts. So I’ll leave you with one last thought before this gets too long and you stop reading.

I’ve been reading through Acts in my morning devotions for awhile now, and I always pay special attention to Paul, whenever he comes into the picture, since he’s pretty much my hero. Paul was the greatest missionary ever, so I look to him to get some points on how to be a great missionary, and try to just imitate what he did. And one of the things that he did was he included lots of people in his ministry. I mean, just look at the end of just about any of his letters. There’s almost always a long list of people he credits as helping him, or people he’s thanking, or greeting. Paul was not into soloing. He had many partners. Me I tend to be naturally anti-social to a degree, and like to do things on my own. But that’s not going to get me anywhere. So if I’m going to be a missionary, I want to include others in my ministry, like Paul did. And this website will hopefully be a part of that. We’ll see how it goes.