Japan, Day 11

A lot has happened in the past six days. The relationships we've formed with the people in the church and surrounding community have undoubtedly strengthened, but much of it has opened our eyes to see the problems and things that Satan has placed that distract people from knowing God. It would seem as though He's done a pretty good job of creating a culture that is not naturally open to Christianity.

Often, my prayers become more and more simply as our time here shortens: that the love of God would be displayed and realized through our team, and that this love would in turn impact and transform the community here, both in and outside the church. If only God would powerfully meet with this church, His love would be so undeniable that people would turn to Him and give their lives to the Lord. We want to see God move. And God is love.

Beyond this, all prayers go towards various individuals and situations that we have witnessed and heard of. In the end, it's all about people's hearts softening to God and them being moved to respond to it.

And yet, though all these things seem to exist, these struggles and pains, God has already undoubtedly moved in the lives of many people here; we just want to see more.

Guess that's all for now. God is good, all the time.

Japan, Day 5

The time between last post and right now has been pretty good.

I'm not always too eloquent with words and I have a hard time condensing my thoughts. So I'm just going to link to Steve's post from the other day, which I think is a really good summary of what we're praying for and what would be amazing to see. Here it is:

http://tigerbot0.blogspot.com/2008/07/heart.html

I pray that we will continue to press on and that God's glory would be known in this place. Everything else will come after we are touched by God; transformation will come if God is present. And each day we pray that He will make himself known in deeper, more intimate ways than we have ever dreamed of. And we will never, ever grow tired of it.

Probably gonna take it easier on writing these posts for the next few days. Peace.

Japan Day 4

Today we started English classes. I'm teaching 4th, 5th and 6th grade, and we had four students in our class; Asato, Minori, Makato and Yuuto.

Class was alright. It was really hard to get me and Maria's four students involved. I think we need to shift our lessons to focus less on teaching english and think more about just having fun and enjoying ourselves; english can be on the side. Hopefully try to mix some like, children's worship songs or something in there too, but who knows...

Every morning we spend about 90 minutes together spending time in prayer and worship. Two high-school kids, Nozumo (or Non-chan) and Akira joined us! It was really encouraging to see them come and to get the chance to pray/worship with them. Bommy and Maria tried to translate them, and we tried to stick to songs that were really simple or that we had translations for. They seem to really enjoy having us around and take a good amount of time to hang out with us. Akira just started coming to church last year too, and he seems to be pretty involved with the community here. Pretty awesome.

This morning I prayed that God would continue to remind me of His love for me, and that my response would be to love God above all else, and love those around me. That this love would go beyond words and actions and would be unconditional, uncompromising... And that the people of Japan would see this love and understand the depth of God's love for them.

Today we're going to be handing out fliers for our outreach on Thursday in Toyohashi City, which will then lead to our worship night on Saturday. I pray that God will move through these things... that He will speak through us, love through us, use us to absurd measures for His glory. I also pray that how our team can love and serve each other would be a testimony to God's grace.

All in all, this trip has been an incredible blessing so far, in being able to see how God has been working here at THCC. And it has also been eye opening to see where there are needs and meet all different kinds of people who are desperately in need of God, and might not even know it.

And, still an overload of... everything. Okbye.

Japan, Day 3

Today is our third day in Japan. We arrived Saturday night, and had a jam packed day Sunday, going to three different services at the church here (Toyohashi Hosanna Christ Church or THCC), had lunch with the members, then spent the rest of the day meeting people at the church and giving them an opportunity to get to know us.

It has already been quite a rewarding experience, to say the least. The church here isn't in as bad of a shape as people have seemed to make it out to be, but from talking to one of the pastors and a local missionary, things have changed a lot in the past year. Talking to the church members has been an incredible encouragement as well. Many of the middle-aged members grew up in Shinto or Buddhist households, and met Christ many years ago, and are now faithful members of the church and disciples of Jesus.

But from hearing their testimonies, I have also heard firsthand the problem that we were previously informed of; there are very few new, younger Christians. Most came to Christ many years ago, between 15 and 20 years in the past. There is a desire to see more growth, but not a whole lot has happened until this past year. The few people that grew up in church often leave in high-school because their studies take too much time, or fail to continue in their faith as they go to college.

However, the people involved in the church here seem to be pretty dedicated to their faith and to serving at THCC. This dedication and hope to see more happen in itself has been very encouraging, given their circumstances.

Though there does seem to be this strong sense of community within the church and dedication to the body, it has been mentioned that we're not quite sure if everyone here is fully aware of what is going on. That we are in the midst of a spiritual battle, a constant struggle against "the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms," among many things.

There is a desire for more, but I am afraid that it might be easy for them to settle into what they now know and are familiar in Christ. I pray that we'll be able to push them to push for more in what we do. Of course, it's easy for anyone to just be happy with where they are, but it seems to be so much easier in this culture. A lot is swept under the rug, but things leak through here and there. It is not uncommon for people to die from working too hard at their job; they even have a special word for the act itself. Often, the choice must be made between work and family/friends; there is no in between.

I cannot help but feel that there is a constant darkness watching over this place.


Today we prayed for God's glory and kingdom to come into Japan, into Toyohashi, into the hearts of the people here. That the walls around people's hearts would come down, that we would see revival, renewal, a new generation risen up that is living for the Lord.

I prayed that love would fill our hearts and overflow into all of the hears here in Toyohashi.

There is an overflow of thoughts and feelings running through me, and most likely will be for the rest of the trip. I pray that God will constantly be on my mind and on my heart, that I will continually be praying for those I interact with and build relationships with. The Christ would be glorified in all that I do.

Much more is to come. God is undoubtedly doing something here. Please pray that more will be revealed and that our team and the people here would respond to His call without hesitation. And that His love would be what drives me to love my brothers and sisters, fully, unconditionally.

Time for dinner. Bye

(more on) my (biological) father.

My dad told me something along the lines of this: religion cannot advance. When religious people try to reinvent themselves, they have to break from their previous groups/associations and start a new religion; it is not something that is changing and/or cannot be reinvented. He claimed that science, the superior path, was something that was constantly evolving and advancing itself. That it was constantly being put to the test and being recreated, that it is constantly progressing, moving forward.

He also stated that science was the antithesis of religion.

It seems like we often have this misconception of what religion is. What faith is. What spirituality is. A lot of times it seems like a lofty idea that is unreachable without breaking the lines of logic and some sense of absolute truth. I think that's where he was coming from. That there was simply not enough proof towards the existence of a God.

There's a lot I could say about this. I could talk about how science is not advancing, nor has the ability to advance, any more than Christianity does (I can't speak for religion as a whole because I'm not really familiar with other faiths). I would bring up the point that though you could argue that there is a finite set of words and such in the Bible, there is also a finite amount to be learned/discovered about science. I could say that science actually argues for the existence of God, not against it. I could say that macro-evolution is only a theory, even though micro-evolution has been proven. I could expand on the argument against religion/the existence of God as a whole and then make efforts to refute each one of those points. I might do a good job, but I could try.

And we might be able to learn a lot from hearing each side of the argument, each push and pull.

But I think I will hold back on expounding on those points for now. Whether or not my father would ever realize those things, I think what's more pressing than debating with him is breaking this characteristic of his: that he does not even give God a chance. (Whether he sees God as synonymous to religion, I do not know. He might not. In which case, he does not even give religion a chance.) He's completely ruled out the possibility of a set of truths that is different from what he believes. He laughs at any thought that religion is something to be considered as truth.

How amazing it would be if one day he would come to realize the overwhelming power and truth of the Gospel. How much would God be glorified if my dad, after being so set in his ways, so convinced of his own truths, would humble himself and accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior. That one day, he might be able to look back, and wonder, "how could I have been so blind?" How then, would we see the power and grace of God in another sinful man...

I am praying for that day.

PS. What seems more odd to me is that my dad's totally cool with me being fully convinced of something that (in his eyes) is completely false. Interesting.

Missions.

I will be leaving for Japan this Friday on an 11:15AM flight, final destination Toyohashi, Japan. We will be serving the people in Toyohashi and the surrounding area by teaching English for two weeks, helping out in street evangelism by playing songs / worshiping in the streets, hosting a worship night, performing skits, a body worship, trying to build relationships with the youth there in hopes of empowering them to take ownership of their faith, helping out at a 5-day retreat doing who knows what...

And all this to spread the love of Christ. It looks like it could be pretty easy to get caught up in all of that, but when everything is stripped away, that's all that matters really.

I hope that my life will come to model this truth that I so easily forget. Seems like that's been the theme these past few weeks.

I'm not sure if I'll have the time and/or energy to put a post up here before I leave, so in the case that I don't, if you read this blog, please, please, please pray for me. I do believe I'll have internet access there on and off, so I'm going to try to post things up here when I get the chance. I hope to write a lot, whether on a computer, this site, or a journal; I'm sure God will do some really crazy things.


On a random side note, it's really frustrating when I think of something really great to write about during the day and then forget about it later (like, right now). Or, when I remember it, but just can't shake that feeling that there was something big about that topic that I can't remember now, but thought of previously. D'oh.

boldness, part II

While sitting in Union Square tonight, I spent about 15-30 minutes listening to someone preach the Gospel in the middle of the square. He had a microphone in hand with a Bible in the other, with a small hexagon of tape around him on the ground. Some people were sitting on the steps, some listening, some not. Some people seemed annoyed, others seemed angered.

He was approached by various people, posing different questions or setting arguments against what he was preaching. A few even stood in front of him, similarly pacing back and forth, proclaiming their own beliefs in an effort to drown out his.

I've seen all kinds of street evangelism. I've seen bands playing on a corner in K-town, people with huge signs saying that we're all going to hell if we don't repent, people handing out pamphlets with steps to knowing God. Maybe it was because this was the first time I sat down to listen to one of these people trying to share the Gospel in public, but by the time I got up to leave, for the first time, I was tremendously encouraged by what he was doing.

Can you imagine what it's like? To put yourself out there on the streets of New York City, where the last thing anyone wants you to tell them is what they should believe? To know that you'll probably get yelled at? Asked questions that you might not have the answer to? To be honest, I was probably more scared for him than he was for himself. But I think he had gotten to the point where the message of the cross had settled so deep into his heart that he fully understood the desperation that we all should have in sharing the Gospel. And he put that desperation, that urgency, into action. In a very bold way.

Maybe this is the confidence/boldness/urgency that we should all have; whether or not it comes out in us preaching the Gospel on the streets of NYC is another story. But if we really believe in the Gospel, shouldn't we be desperate to see it spread?

I think I need to become more desperate to see God move in the people, city, community, around me. Because if this is life and death, than I should want everyone to have eternal life. And I do. Not only because Jesus commanded us to, but because it is a pretty amazing thing to have.

But maybe, right now, I don't want it bad enough. Or I just don't know where to start.


This was a jumbled up post. I mostly wanted to give props to random-street-evangelism-man and point out that I have a fair amount of growing to do in this area.


PS. I need to stop worrying about how my posts sound. Or look like. Or... do I?

Foolishness.

Over the July 4th weekend I got to talk to both of my parents about my faith in different ways. In many ways it was God answering my prayer to be more bold about my faith, especially in ways that I haven't been. But sadly, after talking (particularly to my dad, which was more of me asking him about what he thought and just trying to start a very long conversation about spirituality/religion/Christianity,) to my parents, I further understood how much of the world really thinks about both religion overall and Christianity.

1 Corinthians 1:18 says "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

And after me telling my mother the message of the Gospel, and hearing my father talk about why he walked away from Christianity, from God... I felt pretty useless. Not hopeless, but useless; and this passage says it pretty clearly. Why would someone believe in something that is foolishness to them?? FOOLISHNESS!!! That's like someone coming up and telling me that cows can fly. Just plain silly. Imagine that. The only truth, the only grace that can save us, the message of the cross itself, is foolishness to the rest of the world.

Only God can change the heart of my parents, or anyone who do not know the true love of God. I can argue with them, reason, give them books, tell them how much God loves them, that He would send his ONLY son to die for us... and it would do nothing if the Holy Spirit did not move in their hearts.

There are a lot of people who are in desperate need of Jesus and have absolutely NO idea. The thought itself seems silly.

I pray for boldness not just in sharing the Gospel, but in loving. Radical, unsettling, unstoppable, love. Love that people would see comes from something that is not from me. And I pray that God will soften our hearts to His love, His sacrifice, His Son... because even if the world thinks that it's just a tease, it is so, so, so, so much greater than anything we could dream of. Anything.


edit/addition: even better...
1 Corinthians 1:25 - "For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength."
crazy.

...they prayed for boldness

Acts 4:29-31

..."And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus." And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

I think the passage speaks for itself... Now added to my many prayers, is boldness.

Funny enough, it turns out the Hopi missions team (where I went the past two years) did their devotional on Acts 4:23-31 this morning, their first day on the field.

In 11 days, I will be on an airplane to Toyohashi, Japan, for 23 days.

overload.

Currently in one of those times where I feel like I have so much to write/write about, but do not know where to begin. Maybe I will try tomorrow.