Farmers in the Field

One of the things I love most about my church is we're a church planting churches planting churches. The turnover of folks at The Village is often because people are responding to a call to plant or serve in places less churched than the DFW metroplex. We call these Gospel Goodbyes because they are hard, but they are good. They are serving the Kingdom's purpose and in that we rejoice.

One of the couples leaving this year is Chad and Hiroko Farmer, and their young daughter. Chad has served us faithfully on staff for several years, and now they are heading to Hiroko's native Japan to work with Christ Bible Institute. The population of Japan is 127 million, a bit less than half the population of the United States, and only 1% of the population in Japan identifies as Christian. CBI is one of the largest seminaries in Japan and you can see how crucial the need is.

When I met with Chad a few months ago to talk about how I could help them on their journey, I was excited to hear about the sacrifices they're making even now as a family. They left their home a few months ago and he stopped working at The Village so he could fundraise full-time. They've been living a nomadic life, inhabiting houses of other members of our church while they're out of town, and Chad is simply meeting with folks to share the vision. What I loved most about my time with him is not the excitement he has about going to Japan, or even being a missionary there, or even returning to Hiroko's homeland—but his simple infectious love for Japan. He breathes it and by the end of our hour together, I wanted to love it like he does.

I want to encourage people to do what they love. There's a strange beauty to watching someone walk into something they love. Chad and Hiroko love Japan. The last I talked to Chad, they were nearly funded completely. And I want to invest in that. If you'd like to join them in their life there consider helping them meet their fundraising goal.

“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Matthew 9:37

We've got some willing laborers here.

Click here to help the Farmers get to the field