Praise God!

"What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open."    --Revelation 3:7b

This has been my guiding verse for this trip, from the first thought in August until now. I knew if I was going to be able to go back to Japan, it would be solely because God had opened a door that I could not shut. Likewise, I knew if I didn't go, it was because God had closed a door that I could not open.

As I said in a previous blog, I was taking a huge leap a month ago when I committed to SEND. I had never raised support before, and, honestly, I doubted God many times. I doubted that I would be able to raise that much money in that short of time. Around $2,800 in 4 weeks? Sounded highly unlikely to me.

Well, as of yesterday, my trip is 89% funded!! I want to thank everyone who has answered the financial call. The massive amount of generosity has left me in shock, honestly. As I looked at the donation report update yesterday, I had one of those moments where God could have been saying, "Told ya so..ya never believe me!" if he had wanted to.

So, I have 11% of my budget to raise in about a month. The plane tickets are getting purchased this week (That is when it will hit me that I'm actually going!). Regardless, please continue to pray for the work God has planned for me in March. There are a lot of lost and hurting people in Japan right now. In addition, Japan's already high suicide rate normally is increasing even more due to 1) the disaster, 2) it is winter time, which brings more depression, and 3) They don't have Jesus to turn to for hope and peace.

Please pray for the people of Japan that I will come into contact with first and foremost. Secondarily, please pray for both me and my mom. For me, pray for safety. I will be rebuilding homes, and there are some accidents that can happen in construction. Also, there are still quite a few earthquakes happening in Japan still. From last Wednesday until now there have been 16 earthquakes (most of them around a 5.0), and the chance of another large quake is always there. For my mom, just pray for her sanity :) She is a mom, and she is going to be a little short on sleep during the time that I am over there. Pray that she turns to God for peace and comfort and that she has peace knowing that I am in God's hands and He will protect me if that is his will.

There is a website that shows every single recorded earthquake/aftershock beginning the morning of March 11. It is a really cool website, and you can adjust it to a particular day and stuff. check it out! http://www.japanquakemap.com/

Ok, sorry for the long blog, but had a lot to get out there!

Because of Him,
Kassidy