We are excited to announce the name of our new café/ministry centre, ...

“SonRise Café”.  We have prayed about it and thought about it a lot, and what is very exciting is when we mentioned the name to our co-workers, Steve and Kelly, it was a name that God had also impressed upon them.  Japan is known as

‘The Land of the Rising Sun’ but we want it to be the Land of the Risen Son, Jesus.  We want to use this café to create relationships that will lead    people to the Son.  From those people we will birth a church.

People’s lives in Japan are lived without hope.  We were told to allow an extra 30 minutes for the train ride to the airport, to allow for suicides on the tracks. 

Tokyo is surrounded by a lot of drab buildings, but we want SonRise café to be a bright place where people experience God’s love in their life.

There is a lot that needs to happen for SonRise Café to become a reality.  Our team has looked at many rental properties, and we are very positive about one in Oyama in Itabashi ward. This is an area where less than 0.035% of the people regularly attend church. 

Rentals in Tokyo are a concrete skeleton so we need a renovation team to come in and transform it into a café!  We already have 3 tradesman willing to come from Australia and America in September, including one who is a project manager and is willing to act in that capacity.  We probably need 2 or 3 more tradesman to be able to get the job done in the time they can afford to be in Japan.  We would value your prayers that God would hold the rental we are interested in until September.  We really need this lead-in time to properly prepare for the team, to source and purchase materials for the renovation and the café, and to plan the day to day running.  We are also using this time to build partnerships with Japanese.  We are meeting with Japanese Christians and Japanese partners who have expressed interest in being a part of this ministry.  Pray that God would bring together the team of his choosing.  Finally, we need to use this time to raise the extra funds needed for fitting out and set up of the café.  The task seems big, but the vision God has given us is exciting!