Back in May, Greg and I (and Ellen) visited the Desiring God office to meet with Bill Walsh, DG's International Outreach director. Desiring God is a ministry which has strong ties to our home church, Bethlehem Baptist. They distribute John Piper's written, audio, and video materials, organize regional and national conferences, and offer various online resources as well. Pastor Piper's sermons and books have had a significant impact not only on churches in North America and the English speaking world, but also on Christians all over the world.At the time we met with Mr. Walsh, he had just returned from a trip to Asia and was very excited about the opportunities for partnerships with missionaries around the world who serve as points of contacts for distributing Piper's materials for the encouragement of local national believers and church leaders as well as other missionaries on the field. Of course, we are excited too! We would love to share in DG's vision of spreading a passion for God's supremacy. Greg and I have been blessed to sit under Pastor Piper's teaching for over 12 years (over 20 for Greg). His Bible-saturated, God-centered teaching has had a significant impact on my walk with Christ. Through the ministry of this church, God sustained me and helped me to endure long, cold winters and loneliness away from home! It was a precious time for my spiritual growth as my passion was nurtured for the spreading God's glory among my own people. So... we are dreaming that we could perhaps be used as an agent of Desiring God in Japan, somehow, some way.
In case you didn't know, two of Pastor Piper's books have been translated in Japanese. Here is a picture of a dozen or so copies of the Japanese translation of Piper's Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ on a shelf in the stockroom of the DG office. You can purchase them if you wish to give copies to your Japanese friends. One of our friends, who was part of our Japanese fellowship at Bethlehem when she lived in Minnesota, has excellent translation skills, and she is eager to translate more of Piper's works into Japanese. We are dreaming of perhaps creating a Japanese website and posting his sermons.
So... would you pray for this dream? We can't wait to see what God will do through this prospective partnership. We feel like God is ahead of us, showing us so many opportunities for ministry in Japan. We are trusting and praying that the rest of our financial support comes in soon so that we can be there!!
