Burwells in Mission: August 2011

Burwell Bulletin

Dear Friends and Family,

"Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Ps. 37:3-4

These are some favorite verses of ours that we saw proved to be true as we trusted in the Lord and dwelled in the land of Japan for many years. He gave us the desires of our hearts; a planted church with a ministry center and dozens of very special Japanese friends.

Now as we dwell and trust in the land of California, we are beginning to see our desires come to fruition. There are many positive developments and answered prayers that we would like to share with you this week.

Mobilizing Missionaries to plant churches among the least reached peoples of the world

Three of our desires have been (1) to see our home church send out more missionaries (2) to see more missionaries go to Japan and (3) to help Christar mobilize missionaries to plant churches among least reached people groups in about 30 countries world wide.

Praise the Lord that our home church, Ventura Missionary, has recently sent out a single man to the Thailand-Burma border, a couple to Mexico and in the fall is sending a single lady to Guatemala. Missions giving has also increased and we are very excited about how God is once again stirring hearts for missions at VMC.

About a week ago Pastor Uchida (Lighthouse church in Ube) asked us to start looking for a short term (one or two year) missionary to come to Ube and teach English to replace the Weinhofers who are going on furlough next year. (They will then move to another city to do an internship in a cell group church.) One of our contacts who recently graduated from college is very interested in this opportunity in Japan. And we have a number of other contacts who are planning to go to Japan eventually. They won't all go with Christar but we are still rejoicing that God is replenishing the aging missionary work force in Japan.

Thirdly we are receiving more and more inquiries from people wanting to work with the least reached in China, Holland, Spain, Turkey and other places. As you can imagine, it is a huge step of faith to decide to go into missionary work so these people have a lot of questions and we need a lot of wisdom as we interact with them.

Japan ministry update

There have been many answered prayers in Japan and we want to share some highlights with you.

The Hikari church plant has had some children recently put their faith in Jesus and the indigenous church we first worked at in Hofu has had a bit of a revival lately and will be baptizing three believers between now and December. One of them, Mayumi Taneda, was in our youth group in Hofu back in 1996 and her mom has been a faithful church attender for over 20 years. You just never know when those seeds are going to sprout!

We are also excited about the news that the Ube gospel choir will be transitioning into the Hallelujah Gospel Family. However they have not yet secured a director or found someone to train as a director in the Ube area.

Pastor Uchida also reported that a number of English students are showing more interest in the gospel. Pastor Uchida's parents have also made the transition to living with them at the church parsonage and they are attending church each week. His parents are not yet believers.

Local and Family news

We recently met with Pastor and Mrs. Yamamoto and they were not able to work out a ministry arrangement with their former church in Camarillo so they will continue leading the Japanese congregation in Santa Barbara and may start a new house church for Japanese in Ventura County somewhere. For the time being it looks like we will just assist them with special outreach events. Please pray that many of the un-churched Japanese folks in our area would be reached and also pray that the Yamamotos would receive some new sources of support.

Thank you for your many prayers for Nick and Megan and the birth of our granddaughter, Brooklyn Elizabeth Burwell. She arrived on July 13 and weighed in at 8lbs 14 oz. Like her cousin, Liam Wilkins, born in April to Melissa and Justin, she is growing like a weed, but cute as a flower.

In August we will help a bit with the Child Evangelism Fellowship booth at the Ventura County Fair and then take a couple of weeks off to enjoy our kids, grandkids and the S. California beaches. During that time Jan's sister Edie will also visit us which we are really looking forward to as well. Then in September the crazy travel schedule begins again. Pray that we are rested up and ready!

Summary of Prayer requests

1) That we would meet many prospective missionary candidates

2) That we would have wisdom as we interact with them
3) That we would mobilize 10 folks for short term missions in 2012
4) That we would mobilize five folks for January and another five for the June orientation with Christar
5) Wise use of our time as we set up visits to colleges, seminaries and missions conferences.
6) Spiritual growth and maturity for new Christians in Japan
7) For the relief efforts in Tohoku Japan to bring not only relief but hope, joy and salvation to the people
8) For the Ube English students and choir members to put their faith in Jesus
9) For a gospel choir director to be trained for Ube city
10) For the Yamamotos to reach many of the un-churched Japanese in Ventura County
11) For good times of refreshment and planning in August.
12) That the Lord would provide us with about 15 more financial support partners.