Deep Encouragement

Rest is critical to our lives, as we have been given eternal freedom from our work through trust in Jesus and His voluntary sacrifice in our place. In addition, God has created the Sabbath for man so that we remember our limitations and have time to specifically acknowledge His Lordship over our lives. This weekend, I was able to enjoy my necessary rest by visiting my old church (Horizon Chapel) for Saturday night & Sunday morning services.

The first time I came out to church, each completely unfamiliar Japanese station name only furthered fears of missing the station; the half-hour train ride seemed endless. This time, it felt like I barely had time to continue reading the Japanese novel Freezing Point (an exploration of original sin) before stepping off the platform at Machida and working my way through streets crowded with Sunday shoppers. As soon as I saw the church building, I started running with excitement, eager to rejoin my Spiritual family!

Reaction of the night: Hide-kun, my closest Japanese friend. I snuck into the sanctuary without catching his eye and tapped him on the shoulder. He was so surprised that all he could say for a minute was my name! I was super-glad to see my pastor Jeremiah and former boss Kevin as well as several other familiar faces.

The message was focused applying Jesus's model prayer when on our knees (though Jeremiah stressed that only the position of our hearts is important to God). I was particularly reminded to be directly praising the Lord and giving specific thanks to Him--things we tend to omit when coming to prayer solely to receive from God. This is one of the reasons why Jesus placed worship and requests for the Father's kingdom before our personal requests.

Went over to "Auntie" Shigeko-san's house for a delicious feast, over which Michiko-san and I got to share about grace and true religion with Shigeko-san's husband. Kevin also persuaded two college students from Texas, also visiting for campus ministry, to try natto for the first time. I ended up scarfing down their "interesting"-tasting portions and thus tainting all my further cultural suggestions in their eyes. Those to whom it is given to enjoy tastefully decomposing food should accept it, right?

Today, I enjoyed breakfast at the Boeks just like old times (though I missed meeting their daughter, who's away at a summer camp). The two little dudes had a soccer tournament and took off as soon as Geigy finished making their Japanese-style boxed lunches. She then shared that she thinks Christians could be much more effective witnesses in Japan if church was moved to, say, Saturday evening and Sunday was a free day to develop loving relationships with the shoppers and resting businessmen.

The second service also focused on prayer, this time from James 5. Going to God in every circumstance with faith is clearly the key, but the verses on healing received unexpected emphasis when Scott shared about his wife's miraculous physical recovery (still awaiting doctor confirmation) last week in response to corporate prayer & oil anointing.

Finally, I was taken out to lunch (eel over rice--my favorite) by brother Stephen, a dear friend who continually shows love by Scripturally encouraging & exhorting me onward in Christlikeness. He specifically charged me with Isaiah 50:4, which speaks of the faithfulness of the prophecied Servant of Israel, to take time in the mornings to study the Word and hear from Him Who came as that Servant in order to strengthen myself and others. That's true education. May we also continue speaking the Word to one another and grow up together in all things into Christ our Head. Thankfully, that growth will develop through times of rest.

Ministry in Motion

It's been three weeks on campus so far and the weather is slowly getting summery, a nice mirror of how our team has been growing together and slowly seeing the Lord work among our new Japanese friends. One thing that has been personally difficult is that few of the students I've met have become friends--I'm not used to slowly building relationships, and my desire to move things to a Spiritual level may have alienated some of the guys I've talked with thus far. That said, one person in Gakugei University's wind ensemble with whom I had a long chat came out to our English lunch, which was exciting.

To balance this out, I am learning to rejoice with those on my team who are rejoicing, sharing in their triumphs. My co-leader Jess, for instance, struck up a near-instant friendship with a girl who works at our local bread shop; after several brief conversations while she was on the job, they met and talked for 4 hours! Jack & Kyle met someone who could speak English well and had such a great conversation that their new friend skipped work to come to our "Discover Friends" party last night!

Yes, it's frustrating to spend an afternoon walking around campus (especially on a bright, sunny day) and find no one willing to talk--partially because class schedules are more like American high schools and lounging around isn't popular. However, I can take joy in the special things God lets me do, like serving as a translator when the language barrier is high or directly addressing Spiritual things in Japanese with other teammate's friends.

While we have gotten to share about who God is and why He sent Jesus with several people, it's awesome to know that two have definitely accepted Christ as their Savior and others are seriously considering it! Considering that the Japanese culture is generally apathetic to Jesus and hostile to religion, this is amazing. The other team has been barred from returning to one of their campuses, in part because the administration thinks that we are out to recruit their students. They are wrong--God is doing the work, and He cannot be stopped!