To all my faithful prayer supporters:

Time in the US/Puerto Rico home assignment is drawing to a close. It seems like it is just beyond the horizon creating for me a sense of urgency to once again, wind things down for yet another move. June 12th is the day for my departure back to Japan, this time to Tokyo. However, I still have a number of churches to visit before leaving.

God has been working in my life in several ways. Each way I will mention here is something that began outside of my control. In other words, a work of God. That is, what I consider to be beyond my ability to engineer, make happen or create.

The first thing I will mention is the good news from Japan. I shared in my last journal about the baptism of Yumiko at Shichigahama Preaching Place. Yet another person has transferred his membership. A third person had started to come consistently. (This, not withstanding the illness of two pillar members, and a family of four which has temporarily (?) dropped out.) Transition among the members is the word of the day! However, God has allowed this group to step out in faith by hiring a recently retired pastor to shepherd them. This is possible financially because the pastor has an adequate pension from a previous employment. Praise the Lord for this step! Welcome to Rev. Oyama. Congratulations to Shichigahama Preaching Place for moving out in faith.

The second thing which some of you are aware of already is that a Missionary Partnership Team now surrounds me. This has been a huge concern for me for at least three years. The team does not understand what an answer to prayer they are! “We” are not totally organized yet and there are some feelings of hesitation on the part of us all. But I believe that God will begin to show us how we can function together. In spite of us still not knowing our right hand from our left, I feel, for the first time, like I’m not alone in ministry.

You who are reading this are part of my Missionary Partnership Network of supporters and have been praying for me, but now the MPT will help me to be more efficient in relating to you and my work. Thank you for what you are doing! Now I hope that with the help of my MPT your participation in my life and work will become more meaningful. You or your church may be hearing from them soon.

My web page has been updated due to the effort of my nephew, Josh. It’s the same address as before http://www.robertastephens.com . Please check it out, and especially the ‘partnership network’ button. In comprises of new prayer requests and how prayer requests in the past have been answered. We still have some work to do on the website. Bear with me!

In Christ, Roberta Stephens