Don't Panic.

Hey folks! I just wanted to give a little heads up concerning the funding for this trip of mine. As it stands, I have about 60% of the support that I need by this Sunday. Not to panic! I have discovered alternative ways to make sure that this trip is still happening. God is good and He provides. If any of you still wish to donate, you may do so here. (I will provide instructions at the end of the post)




When I was first faced with the task of gathering support, I was completely overwhelmed when I saw just how little time I had to raise quite a substantial amount of money. It didn't take long for me to start doubting this trip's possibility. I remember driving back to my house in North Carolina one Sunday after a visit with my girlfriend thinking 'how on Earth am I supposed to come up with almost $4000 in less than a month??? It's just not feasible.' Moments later, I received a call from my mother. She told me that three people had spoken for me in church earlier that day, showing their support for my trip and future plans as a foreign missionary. There was also apparently an overwhelming response from the congregation when asked who would help me in the supporting process. After I had hung up the phone, I nearly bawled my eyes out. How could I have doubted that God would provide a way for me if this was His will for me?! And He certainly has provided. I never would have gotten this far without His guidance step-by-step each day. Everything has fallen together so perfectly it couldn't have been planned better. Right now I am typing this while staying at the house of one of my pastors in Altoona, PA where I have recently been working odd jobs around the church and other such areas to help earn funding for my trip. I suppose that is why I hadn't been offered jobs in my area in North Carolina. I was meant to come back here. I was meant to work for my funding at my home church. I was meant to go on this trip to Japan. So am I intimidated by a 40% lack of support as of now? No. I am, however, very much excited to see how He will work through this. Thank you all for your prayers and love.




Japanese for the day

紫
also seen as
むらさき
Mu-ra-sa-ki

This is my favourite Japanese word to say. It means 'purple', but sounds dang cool. (sorry no video clip)

If you wanted to send support online go ahead and click the link earlier in the post or just click right here. Once you get on the page, go ahead and fill out the information until the section entitled: Categories & funds. Once you get there, click the drop-down arrow and select Short-Term Missionary Support. Fill in the amount to which you feel led and go down to the next box where you will type in 'Austin Parker 2013940wv'. The rest, you should be able to fill out. I hope that it all works well and if you have any problems, please shoot me an email, FB message or call. Thanks again!

History of Austin Parker, Part I

There are basically three questions that I am asked when I tell people about my upcoming trip to Japan. I'd relate it to retelling the story of how you got your broken arm to the five hundred people that ask on any given day, but my Japan trip is something that I consider more pleasant to retell to people. By all means, if you want to hear me tell you more about the trip in person please ask and I will gladly talk about it Also, if you are one of the people who has asked me about the trip, don't worry I was happy to talk with you about it! Regardless, I still feel as though I have not answered the three questions in their entirety to any one person. So what are the three questions?

Why missions?
Why Japan?
Why now?

Well, I guess to fully answer these I will have to go back to when I was a young child. I became a follower of Jesus Christ at the early age of five during a Sunday School lesson. I was led through what is commonly called the 'Sinner's Prayer' in which I told Jesus how I was sorry for my sinful actions, that I knew He had died for me to take away my punishment, and then asked Him to come into my life and save me from my sin. My Christian walk had begun. I had always been raised in a God-fearing home, regularly attended church and was involved in ministry. My first exposure to missions that I can at all remember was when a missionary named Natalie Beck spoke in front of our Sunday School. As a side note, Natalie Beck is a missionary to Japan, but thinking back I can't consciously peg that as my reason for choosing Japan. A few years later, I was able to go on my first mission trip to the Dominican Republic through our church puppet team. It was a fantastic experience in which I saw God work through our team to not only reach the lost, but to bring me to a point where I began to really take my faith seriously for the first time. Two years later, I went to the DR for a second time and had a very similar personal growth experience. Around this time I began to involve myself in other ministries even outside of my local church. After some much-needed pressure from my mother and from my friend and mentor, Steven Tini, I was roped into working for Child Evangelism Fellowship as a Summer Missionary. During the training, I felt an urge to go into foreign missions.  It was the strongest conviction I have ever felt. I prayed to God and devoted my life to serve Him in a cross-cultural setting. It was about half a year or so later when I would feel a calling to go to Japan. This seemed very out of place seeing as I had thought that my field would be in the Dominican Republic, a place with which I had become familiar and attached. However, with the prodding of the Spirit, I knew that this was His will and that it would probably not be a good idea to ignore it. See Jonah for details. For the next five-ish years I studied off and on about Japanese language, culture and ministry. I was even able to sit down and have lunch with Natalie Beck as well as two other missionaries to Japan and talk with them about ministry. With each passing day, I somehow feel more driven to realize this goal. After coming to Moody Bible Institute, I found a multitude of ministry opportunities. But which one should I focus on? It struck me that I really didn't know what I would do when I got to Japan, I only knew that I was to go there! This sudden uncertainty really took its toll on me and I even began to loose sleep over it. After a long talk with Steven Tini where I vented on him about how anxious I was about everything, he simply asked me why I didn't just go this summer. 'Huh. That's probably a good idea. I think I'll look into that...' So I prayed about it and it seemed like this is what God is leading me towards at this time. With the encouragement of my family, friends and especially my girlfriend, Sandi Dalton, I scheduled a trip through World Venture's partner, Delta Ministries International.

And that about brings us up to the present! Currently I'm in Altoona, PA working to pay off quite a support bill. I still have a good bit of it left to pay off and only until the 16th to do it, so if you plan on sending any support, please send it in as soon as possible. Also if you remember, please pray for me being spiritually prepared for this trip. It will be a long, intense five weeks with minimal outside contact in a completely new place. The Enemy would probably love to use this to my disadvantage. I want to thank you all for your support and encouragement. More posts yet to come!

Japanese phrase today is:
もちろん

Mo-chi-ro-n

See translation below

A Most Excellent Adventure!

Kon'nichiwa! This is my first post on my first blog leading up to my first mission trip to Japan! As many of you know, I will be keeping a blog leading up to and (hopefully) during my trip to Japan. Now, I have never done this sort of thing before so I am not entirely sure what makes good blog material, but we will discover that sort of thing as we go along. I am hoping to use this blog as a way of keeping everyone informed of my progress with gathering support, spiritual growth leading up to and during the trip and just overall mission-related stuff. These posts may be infrequent, but I am hoping that they will become enjoyable enough for me to write that I would be able to pump a few updates out every week or so. Hope you enjoy!

Also, I will post something in Japanese at the end of every entry so you can learn some Japanese along with me! Note: not all of the Japanese I will be posting will be entirely practical, just whatever I feel is fun to say or know =)

素晴らしい

also written as
すばらしい
Su-ba-ra-shi-i


See translation below:

No more Bill and Ted references... I promise....maybe.