Hello! こんにちは！

We are the Brenner family and we have been living and serving in West Tokyo since January 2025. We are thrilled that God called has called us to Japan, as we have a heart for the millions of Japanese people who have never heard the Gospel. Even though Japan is a developed country and currently has the fifth-largest economy in the world, it has one of the lowest Christian populations in the world per capita. With high rates of depression and a culture that places high value on performance, many people are in search of hope. We came to Japan with the desire to share the hope of the Good News of Jesus with our neighbors.

Nate currently works part-time at a local international church as an assistant pastor, where he focuses on supporting the Japanese members and starting conversations about the Christian faith with non-Christians. Nate also works part-time at a local cafe/outdoor tour company. This work has allowed him to improve his Japanese conversational ability and reach out to his Japanese co-workers.

Cassi works part-time in a local school district as an assistant language teacher. This work allows her to connect with children and families as she seeks to be a light in the schools. She's also started an English Bible study as a way to support local Christian women and reach out to unbelievers who have an interest in learning English.

While we are gainfully employed, our work mostly only covers our day-to-day expenses. Our current situation is a little complicated, but we would like to transition out of an official church staff role. By doing so we can put in more time and resources into ministry and the Japanese church. We will continue to support the church in a less official capacity. We enjoy being "tent-maker missionaries" by working in our local communities, as we think this provides opportunity for building relationships and sharing the love of Jesus. In this way, we see our work, specifically Nate's cafe job and Cassi's teaching job, as more of a ministry than a career choice. So we are trying to balance work with other ministry, along with family and continued language learning. Your support will go less to direct living expenses and more to expanding and growing our ministry.

How your support will help us:

Hospitality: This may seem like a simple thing, but having extra funds to be generous in hospitality is important. From buying someone a coffee to making meals for free English classes or Alpha classes, giving rides and more, we want to share and give to the people around us.

Language learning: Nate has already put a lot of time and money into language learning and has a pretty good grasp on Japanese but there is still a long road ahead to fluency. Cassi only has a basic level and would like to become more conversational. Your support will help pay for language materials and online lessons.

Travel: This includes travel in and around Japan along with helping us to save money to travel to the US for family visits.

Family: Caring for the well-being of our family in an unfamiliar place is also very important to us. Providing what our children need in a new and changing school environment is difficult. We also try to take advantage of every school-related event to be present in the community and continue building relationships with the families of the childrens' friends.

Would you prayerfully consider partnering with us in our work in Japan? We know we can't do it alone! We are so grateful for people like you who are interested in our ministry. A monthly or one-time gift would directly enable us to reach out to our Japanese neighbors with the hope of Jesus.

If you cannot help us financially, please consider supporting us by providing prayer and encouragement. Thank you!

We'd be happy to talk with you more about our ministry here in Japan. Please feel free to reach out through our Epistle page or via email.

Epistle: https://the-brenner-family.epistle.org/

We are grateful that God has allowed us to continue to share our lives with the Japanese. We look forward to what is to come. Thank you for joining us on our journey and for your support!