From: Edwards Family: BIMI Missionaries to the Military <opie4reba@outlook.com> Sent: Saturday, November 03, 2018 7:40 AM Praise the Lord and thank you for your prayers! Rebecca and the boys have arrived home to Japan! We are thankful to say they had a safe and uneventful flight. Other than suffering from jetlag, they are all doing well. It has been great to be back together again, though we are missing Megan and Andrew. Please continue to keep them in your prayers. Megan is still suffering with some health issues which makes school challenging. It is hard to believe there are only 5 weeks of the first semester remaining, this of course means finals are coming up! We look forward to the day the 6 of us can get together again, possibly here in Japan. Again we want you to know how much we appreciate your prayers for our family, you are a blessing and an encouragement to us. In His Service, The Edwards- Missionaries to the US Military in Japan
From: Edwards Family: BIMI Missionaries to the Military <opie4reba@outlook.com> Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2018 6:41 PM Hello Dear Praying Friends & Family! Rebecca and the boys will be returning home to Japan! They will be leaving Denver Wednesday October 31st at 1310 and arriving twelve and a half hours later at the Narita Airport in Japan. We appreciate your prayers for a safe and uneventful trip. We will be sending out our prayer letter shortly but wanted to update you as we know many of you have been praying for Rebecca and her ongoing health issues. After extended studies they have determined the cause of her seizures to be Epilepsy, with no known cause, thankfully nothing worse. While we do not know why the Lord has brought this into her life at this time, we are sure if He brought her to it, He will bring her through it, with trust in Him. Again, thank you for your prayers for this trip and for our ongoing ministry in Japan. Pray for Megan at college in Wisconsin and our son Andrew in Colorado. In Christ's Service, The Edwards Family - Missionaries to the US Military in Japan
Dear Fellow Laborers in the Lord, We appreciate your continued prayers and financial support. We wanted to give you a few updates. We have been keeping busy with the ministry here at Yokosuka Baptist Church, as well as, getting situated with our housing, etc. We are just finishing up our Missions conference, we were blessed to have Pastor Danny McKittrick and family with us Monday evening for services. Tuesday evening Ben preached and Megan sang, Wednesday evening will be Pastor Pinson preaching. Praise the Lord, we were able to secure a house in Zushi, which is still another city in Kanagawa prefecture. It is located between Yokosuka main base and Ikego, Yokosuka's additional base housing. (there are many people assigned to this Naval base) We will actually be able to start our "move" in April 23rd. We learned yesterday that because this is a different city, we now have to go to the Zushii city hall and redo most the things we have already done as far as paperwork. One of the first things we will need to do is the medical insurance, we didn't realize they would void our insurance cards the day we went in to change our address. We trust you received our video update and hope it was an encouragement to you. We look forward to doing another one once we are settled in our new place. Since sending that update Rebecca had begun weaning off her seizure medication per the doctor and was down to a very low amount. On Monday evening after our Missions conference she went to sleep and about 1/2 hour later I was awaken by her having another seizure. We followed the procedures given by the doctor. After about a 2-3 hours we were able to get back to sleep. The next morning we contacted the Dr. who put her back on the meds, increasing her dose to higher than before. She has a follow up with him on the 27th of the month. He mentioned her MRI looked good and her EEG looked good, neither showing any problems. While we are a bit discouraged by this set back, we are claiming Romans 8:28 " And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." As well as, Is 55:8-9 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." We know none of this takes the Lord by surprise. Have a wonderful Wednesday and please continue to keep YBC in your prayers. The church is very limited in its parking spaces. We are up to 20 spots now, 14 of which come at a price. But we are thankful for them. Pray that we would be able to get more parking, we could use a larger building to meet in with parking, but we are trusting in God's timing. Thank you for your love and prayers, Ben & Rebecca Edwards & Family PS... We do have a stateside Magic Jack number we can be reached at here in Japan, it is a Colorado Number: 1-719-646-0177 Of course we are on Japanese time. =) Our new address will be: 3-33-4 Numama, Zushi-shi Kanagawa-ken, Japan 249-0004
October 2017 Dear Fervent Prayer Warriors, What perilous times we are living in today. I am so thankful we can have peace and confidence in our Heavenly Father! Our world is in need of prayer and the hope that only comes from Jesus Christ our Lord. It has been a busy, but encouraging two months. Our time on the Western Slope was very special for our family. It was filled with many blessings lodging, teen Bible camp, family Bible camp, piano lessons for our children, and additional monthly financial support to name a few. In addition, we enjoyed sweet Christian fellowship as we shared our burden for the US Military to 12 churches within 60 to 90 minutes of Grand Junction, CO, where we had established a home base. We are so thankful to all those who have showed God s goodness to us. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; for I have overcome the world. John 16:33 As for the status of our move to Japan, we have sent off the first part of our application for our visas. We have been told it could take up to four months to get everything finalized. Now that we are back home in the Colorado Springs area, we are busy trying to get everything sorted and packed. Our travel plans for October include Fernley, NV, Watertown, WI, Troy, OH, Blue Springs, MO, and Castle Rock, CO. We covet your continued prayers for us! Praises: 1. More good health reports for Megan. 2. Visa paperwork in the works. The boys re-roofing the Mission house. Prayer Requests:. 1. Full support by Thanksgiving 2. Preparations for moving visas, container, packing, etc. The Edwards Family Missionaries to the US Military Contact Us: 9509 Waterbury Drive, Peyton, CO 80831 (816) 872-6641 opie4reba@outlook.com Sending Church: Tri-City Baptist Church, 430 NE Duncan Road, Blue Springs, MO 64014 (816) 795-8700 www.tri-city.org Mission Board: Baptist International Missions, Inc. P.O. Box 9, Harrison, TN 37341 (423) 344-5050 www.bimi.org
Upper Left is Japan, upper right zoomed in Yokosuka is 46 miles south of Tokyo. Zoomed in more center left is the approximate location of the church not too far from the gate. Of course Google maps is not entirely accurate but you can see the church is about 5 blocks from gate. The bottom is the view of the church with a zoomed in picture of our sign.
The American Military work. Missionary Ethel Wilson to the Japanese working with our Japanese national pastor. Our Japanese national pastor.
The Edwards Family: Ben and Rebecca, both military dependents saved and baptized as children. They were married the summer of 1991. Ben began his military career in 1990, served 9.5 years enlisted, and 10.5 as an officer in the USAF. They faithfully served in several churches in many ministries. God has blessed them with 4 children. While in the military the Lord called Ben into missions. After retiring from the Air Force, Ben attended Seminary to prepare to serve Christ in whatever capacity God desired. In 2013, Ben and Rebecca took a survey trip to Asia. The LORD used that trip to open their eyes to the need for more military missionaries around the world. They are serving with BIMI.