Good, wonderful, scary, humorous, loving, jealous, impractical, undeniable, pushy, challenging me, quiet, loud, wanting attention, showing his favor, giving opportunities, confusing, irritating, and just. These are some of the things that I have been feeling this past week and it has certainly been a rollercoaster of emotions.
I don’t know where to start or what to really say, but here are some of the highlights of this past week:
GOSPEL CONCERT:
The Gospel Academy held a concert at J-House and it was really good! God has truly used this group in a way (strange way for me) to reach out to non-Christians. I believe less than 15% of the Gospel Academy students are actually Christians (weird huh?) and through the love of Gospel music, they leaders teach them about God and the message of the gospel! Many people showed up and seemed interested in coming out to J-House also! Praise God. I was doing PA for the concert and it felt like I was standing for several hours straight (maybe I was?). From the time they practiced at 9:00AM till 5:00 PM.
SAME DAY, DINNER WITH WATARU (GAIDAI STUDENT):
So right after the Gospel concert, I had a dinner meeting with one student that I personally saw as a person who is open and has potential in becoming a Christian. The night started off just with the usual small talk and catching up on what he has been doing during his summer break. After dinner we went to some café and that’s when I really knew God was giving me a chance to talk about the gospel and my testimony. He brought up why I wasn't “like the other Christians he has met,” so I asked him what he meant by that. He replied that I wasn’t trying to force him to believe from the get-go and instead just wanted to get to know him first. Which was true, I just felt like he was the type of person to really be approached by many Christian missionaries or people and they would try really hard to evangelize to him. He is a really friendly and open guy (which is why people feel comfortable to approach him and really reach out to him). I just felt like I needed to let this kind of opportunity to come to me naturally, and it did. Praise God, now he wants to come out to our Big Waves and just learn more about Christianity.
So Jonie and Jenny's friend from Chicago (CFC) came to visit for a couple of days and me and Kyle took him around Osaka Castle! It was actually a really cool (both temperature and yeah... haha) day. Some of the nicer quality pictures are credited to Daniel! It made me want to have a DSLR even more! haha... Hope your journey and heart for the North Koreans will grow more and more! Thanks for coming and hanging out with us at J-House!
BIG WAVE (SASAKI GIVING THE MESSAGE):
It was really encouraging to see someone that I am currently taking care of give a message of the things that he has been learning recently. He talked about confidence and that is something he has been truly working on and it was good to see him look confident giving his message. Stay strong brother! You are God’s beloved son, no one can tell you anything that can or ever will change God’s love for you!
We went to this place called the Riverside Beer Garden (yes, there was a river and a garden, no, we didn’t drink beer). It was a good time of fellowship with a couple of J-House members + 1 friend. It’s just nice spending time with brothers and sisters of Christ. Good food, good people, good times.
I thought this was funny (this is on a place where people write their prayers out in Osaka Castle):
haha, the last pic probably isn't a great slogan for evangelizing folks in japan.
ReplyDeleteit's so sad how christians don't remember that non-christians are human as well, which means we need to begin at level 1: getting to know them; becoming friends with them, and forming a relationship with them before anything else. for most missionaries, because they're so short term, i guess it's difficult to establish a relationship, but maybe that's why you were sent there (among many other reasons). you're there for the whole year (which is almost over!!) and God is using you to form a relationship with these people and through you, they would be able to see living proof of God's love.
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