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Sunshine Xchange

It’s a funny name for a newsletter, but it has multiple layers of meaning. Here’s the break down of what “Sunshine Xchange” means to us in 3 simple points.

1) Mission work is needed because people have “exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator–who is forever praised.” (Rom 1:25 NIV). This is so true in Japan, where idolatry and spiritual darkness are so visibly dominant.

By taking people the good news of Jesus, we are hoping to see them exchange the lies and gods they’ve believed in for “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2Co 4:4 NIV). Sunshine in the natural world allows us to see the world around us more clearly and brightly. It is therefore a nice biblical metaphor for the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, which allows us to see God and ourselves as we really are. Sunshine is also a wordplay on “Son shine” (Japanese love puns!), by which we express our desire for the Japanese to swap their dead idols and empty philosophies for the glory of the Son that leads to eternal life.

We’ve used “Xchange” rather than “Exchange” to further emphasise that we want to see a change in Japan centered around Christ (traditionally represented by the letter “X” for hundreds of years).

2) Sunshine Xchange also expresses something of our story and situation. Where we’ve come from and where we’ve gone incidentally both have “sunshine” nicknames. We’re “exchanging” life in the “Sunshine State” (Queensland) for life in the “Land of the Rising Sun” (Japan). Queensland is a beautiful place to live and we have many friends and relatives here, which makes it hard to say goodbye. Japan is a beautiful place to live too and we hope to make many friends there in the years to come. The name serves as a reflection of our connection to each place, as we seek to share the light of the world in Japan.

3) Finally, we chose “Sunshine Xchange” because this newsletter is our opportunity to share with you about how we’ve been seeing God at work in gospel ministry and in His warm, personal love and faithfulness towards us and our friends. Not everything we share will seem like sunshine – some of it will be struggles, challenges and hardships we’re experiencing! But our goal is to share our life and mission with you – our Christian family and precious partners in the gospel.

In “exchange” for what we share with you, we ask that you continue to bless us with your faithful prayers and loving support. Without these, we will never see our hopes realised of Japanese experiencing the life-giving illumination of the gospel – because we know God works through your prayers for them and for us. With your prayers and loving support, the difficulties of our swap of location and residency are made so much lighter, as we know you are with us in spirit, even as we are away from many at home.

But the exchange is not one way! We hope our newsletters will be less like a bulletin that you read and file away and more like correspondence between us. Please share your “sunshine” with us and let us know what God’s been doing in your life, so we can also pray for you in exchange for your sharing of your life with us.

On the stock exchanges of the world, people sell their shares and securities to make a profit and invest in things they expect to make a return upon, in the hopes of enhancing their financial future.
Because we believe there is nothing more valuable than investing in people to see them receive eternal salvation through the light of the gospel, we’ve traded our familiar, comfortable life for an exciting, yet daunting new venture in a foreign land.

If you share our conviction about the value of this, we ask that you would invest in this exchange by praying for the people of Japan and for us, with the goal of enhancing their eternal future immeasurably. We seek to share our lives, mission and testimonies of God’s goodness with you for that purpose. We look forward to continued, fruitful partnership with you!