110% Funded

"14 Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. 15 Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; 16 for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid more than once when I was in need. 17 Not that I desire your gifts; what I desire is that more be credited to your account. 18 I have received full payment and have more than enough. I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. 19 And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.
20 To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen." --Philippians 4:14-20 (NIV)

I am now completely funded. Not only that, but I am a couple hundred dollars over. This excess is good for a couple reasons: 1) It will cover any unforeseen expenses with the trip, and 2) I can use it for ministry costs outside of the construction aspect of the trip.

I have received cash from some people that has gone into my personal mission account. Before God surprised me with all of this blessing, I was going to use it to pay for the balance of my trip. Now that I don't have a balance to pay, I have thought a lot about what I should do with this money. After a lot of thinking and prayer, I am going to use 100% of the money received to do random acts of kindness for the people I meet and form relationships with and buy some Christian materials that are in Japanese to give to people I form relationships with.

Thank you to everyone who was so generous, even in the tough economic times. Also, thank you to the people who realized and accepted their role as a prayer warrior. Your role in God's plan is just, if not more, important than the financial people. Without God and prayer, this trip will be meaningless. So thank you for the prayer :)

The plane tickets were purchased last Friday, and I am pleased with my flight times. I will receive my trip schedule either today or tomorrow, so that will be fun to know what I will be doing. An additional blessing is that the Japan Missions Coordinator actually planned my schedule so that I could spend the day (and possibly the night) with Takuya and Sae (Sae just during the day). It is things like that that I can look back and see God's plan through that stressful time in late December when the trip just wasn't coming together.

When I get the schedule I will post it on here.

Until then,

"どうか、主イエス・キリストの祝福が、あなたがたの霊と共にありますように。" --ピリピ人への手紙 4:23 (JLB)

"The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen." --Philippians 4:23 (NIV)