Here are our most recent prayer letters. Enjoy!
Carter Connection June 2024
Japan has five seasons. The fifth season, rainy season usually kicks off sometime in June and lasts for about a month. While many people here dislike the rainy season because of the constant wet, we don’t mind it all. The nice cool showers are a nice respite from the coming intense summer heat. Speaking of showers…😁 God’s blessings have been continually “showering” down on us all throughout these last few months! Cookout Relaunch In the end of April we relaunched our church cookout outreach for the first time since covid began in 2020. Our church family invited many of their family and friends, and we had an amazing turnout! Over eighty people came! Easily more than half of those who attended were guests. More importantly, they were guests who were already connected to people in our church family, which means they have consistent contact with believers in their lives. For some of them, this was their first interaction with other Christians besides the family or friend who invited them. All of them got to hear the Gospel preached simply and clearly to them. It was a big day for us, and we are thankful for how ...
Read moreCarter Connection March 2024
Cherry blossom season is just a few weeks away here, and we’re enjoying the gradual change from the cold of winter to the warmth of spring. We’re preparing for several big outreach events over the next few months, and looking forward to seeing the blossoming of new life in Christ as the good news of His Gospel is sown around us! A Wedding Motoharu brought Ami to church a little over two years ago. Motoharu was already a Christian, and Ami wanted to know more about Christianity. For about a year, the four of us, (Motoharu, Ami, Bethany and I) would share a meal together after church and talk about who Jesus was, and what it meant to put your trust in Him and follow Him. During time many questions were asked, and Ami’s understanding of Jesus grew and grew. Then, in May of last year, one Sunday while spending time talking with other believers after the service, she was ready to put her faith in Jesus! The following August, Ami was one of the ladies I got to baptize in the river near our church. Last month, I was blessed to have a part in Motoharu and Ami’s wedding! ...
Read moreCarter Connection January 2024
The last few months of 2023 were jam-packed to say the least! And it seems that 2024 is starting off with a bang here in Japan as well with another big earthquake. We’re so thankful for how God is SO faithful in giving us the grace we need for each day! A Christmas Miracle Fall seemed to have been non-stop. There have been a lot of moving parts in both the ministry and in our personal lives that have kept us on our toes over these past few months. Our church family has continued to work hard in sharing the story of Jesus to those around them. Most recently, our Christmas services had 35 visitors attend! And this is with literally half of our church being sick with the flu! One of our church family had the great idea of going to church while not feeling too well and ended up sharing the flu with everyone in attendance the Sunday before our big Christmas events. (Yes, I admit. It was me. I was that church member. Sigh.) Even with all of those who were sick, we somehow managed to make it work, and were encouraged to see all the visitors who had ...
Read moreCarter Connection October 2023
The way God works is so captivating. Over and over He reveals to us that He is fully in control of all things, small and large. For you and me, it’s the most wonderful privilege to see Him lovingly, wisely, and powerfully guide each step in our journey of faith! A God-Ordained Baptism Delay (Continued!) In our last letter, I told you about how God used a timely case of covid to delay the baptism service for our church. To briefly recap, because of that delay, one of the ladies in our church had the time she needed to overcome certain obstacles that were holding her back from being baptized. It was just the time she needed to join the other three who were getting baptized. The long-awaited Baptism Sunday arrived on August 27. What an amazing day it was! That morning our church family gathered together at Akigawa River, the river our church (Akigawa Baptist Church) is named after. We spent the morning celebrating the baptism of these four ladies, hearing their testimonies of salvation, and remembering the purpose of baptism from God’s word. Unsaved friends and family of those being baptized joined us as well. Because this was the last summer ...
Read moreCarter Connection August 2023
Wow, these past few months have been some of the more difficult months our family has been through in a long while. But at the same time, they’ve also been a time of inexplicable and unfading joy in the midst of those difficulties. God is so very good! An Update on Bethany’s Health Hi, friends! It’s Bethany here! I just wanted to jump in and give you a quick health update. As a quick review, in October of last year, I went in with pain and had a mammogram, which to the best of our knowledge came back clear. However, the pain only grew worse, so I went in again in March of this year and ended up being diagnosed with Stage 2 Invasive Lobular Carcinoma, a less-common type of breast cancer that tends to be sneaky and not show up well on scans. On June 6, I had surgery to remove the cancer, and praise the Lord, surgery went well, and I was able to go home a few days later. The treatment plan I was expecting from that point included radiation followed by hormone therapy. However, when we got the pathology report back about a month later, due to several important ...
Read more