Stop Making Excuses

There are things that I have been recently noticing in my daily life here in Japan. I have been making excuses. For example, if I am on campus and I am approaching someone to talk to, I start thinking, “maybe they are busy and they are studying for their next class?” or if I’m supposed to meet with someone, and I am really really tired, I unconsciously put myself before that person, very rarely of course, but it happens. I need to stop being so selfish and stop making so many excuses. If it blocks God from making his move in that moment, then I need to shut up and stop putting myself before God. I know God can use anyone, but if he wants to use me during this specific moment, then maybe I will regret it afterwards, I will regret not seeing God use me or that specific moment to further his kingdom.

I remember during one Morning Prayer, Sarah was sharing and said this, “Why build with other things when God gives us gold, silver and precious stones already.” What am I building with? I’m building up my foundation with unnecessary things that will only make it weak and eventually crumble. Even if my foundation is strong, if I keep building up with the wrong materials, then it’s only going to last for a while. If I build up with excuses, negative thinking, worries, etc. It will only be a matter of time before it collapses.

One of my devotions this week was from John 15 about Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. In verse 5 it says:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

I think this part hit me the most. I can’t do anything without God that will bear “good” fruit; however, there are so many times we feel like we can do things with our own ability and we don’t want to “bother” God with things that seem so little.

I NEED God, and there is no doubt about it. I have so many things on my mind and so many things I need to take care of that if I tried doing things by myself, I’d burn out so quickly. Here is a song I have been listening to again and the lyrics have been resonating within me. I Need You – Daniel Doss Band

Things are going to continue to move whether I’m going with the flow or not. I want to stop making excuses and just go with God’s flow. 

For some pictures!~

Simplify

God has been teaching me many things, but I think this week he has been teaching me to simplify things. Simplify what? Well, there are probably a lot of things that I am still not aware of, but for starters, I can say that I need to simplify the way I talk with people here. I need to remember that I am not in America, and sometimes the words I use, the gestures, and the way I am programmed to think in America are all very different here. What I think is so simple and easy to understand, maybe someone here will just not understand it for the life of them. Another one would probably be the way I worship. Whether it’s prayer, praising, listening to the message, I am trying to do all these things at once that I don’t (not always) get the full brunt of what I need to hear. My mind sometimes goes at 1000 mph that I start to lose focus and start easily thinking of different things. These two would probably be the main things that I have noticed about myself this past week.

Even though I was sick most of this week, it still was a really good week. God did some amazing things! Last Monday was Kyle, Ji Ah, and Tomoko-san’s birthday! Yes, they all have the same birthday! So we went to a zoo/amusement park (Misaki Park near Wakayama, みさき公園　和歌山近く) Other J-House members said that it is a small park with not much to do and told us to go somewhere else, but when you have good people around you, its good times. Yeah, there probably is a lot better places, but it was still pretty fun!

Tuesday at Kandai RUSH time, it was the first time we actually used the room we wanted to, because previously, there were people in the classroom, but for some reason, this day we decided to just use it regardless if people came or not. Praise God, because if we didn’t we would have missed two girls that Saya and me passed out fliers to two weeks before! We had a good time of talking and a good club time. Also Sam Song, the last Jesus Soldier of this season came and things have certainly been livelier here on the 2^nd floor and in J-House in general. Now all Jesus Soldiers have assembled and ready for action!

Regardless of these good things happening, everyday when I am praying in my room or in the chapel, I am asking God a bunch of “why” questions. Why do I have to go back to a place where I don’t have any thing for certain, or why do I struggle with this or that? So as I’m asking these questions, we watch a short video clip during Sunday service of an interview of Nick Vujicic (the man with no arms or legs Nick Vujicic) The thing he said that caught my attention was this: “The question was ‘why, why did you make me this way’ and the answer was ‘Do you trust me?’” Nick asked God why, and God replied do you trust me? God answered back with a question, a question that we don’t really want to hear. However, it is true, do I trust God enough that my circumstances and all the things that I went, are, and will go through is going to be an outcome that is both pleasing to God and enjoyable for me? Bottom line—do I trust God? Stop making things complicated, the answer he has is simple, I don’t need to answer that question in a complicated/fabricated way. Simple—yes or no?

And I decided to say yes, I do trust you God, and as soon as I said that, God answered one of my prayers. This month was a bit tight on the finances again, but I got this yellow envelop from one of the J-House members and it was 5000円. I am thinking to myself, why am I receiving this, but he said it was for helping out during the Gospel Concert back in September. I didn’t know I was going to receive this, but I certainly needed it. God truly provides! Amazing…

Yeah, I could write more, but I am a bit tired and still recovering from my cold/sore throat. Overall, it has been a good week! I’m excited for the things to come! Keep praying for me and for J-House!! 

JENGA!

I Wanna Yearn For You

What an interesting week it has been. I think it was a time of learning, celebrating, thanking, teaching and seeing what God has been doing in my life here and through each person I have encountered. I am amazed at all that God has laid out for me and every time I come before him in worship. I am always reminded of the song “The Heart of Worship” especially the part where it says, “I’ll bring you more than a song for a song in itself is not what you have required. You searched much deeper within through the way things appear you’re looking into my heart.” Worship is not only about singing or playing guitar for me; it is giving my whole life to God in hopes of my existences being somewhat of a help to God’s kingdom.

Recently, I have decided to have every night (well, as much as I can) to have a time of prayer and worship starting from 10 PM to 11 PM (ish). I made a promise to God that I want to do this as much as I can until the day I leave. Whether it is me by myself, or people come and worship/pray with me. God has really blessed me during this time and I can’t believe I didn’t start doing this earlier. But it’s never too late to worship God, right? From the first day I did it until the end of this week, it truly has been so good for me. I don’t even know who walks into the room sometimes or when they even leave, but I really hope and pray that during that time, they can encounter God in their own way—a very freestyle way of worship. Sometimes I would be singing a song, other times I’m just quietly playing some background music while praying to God quietly, or even I start playing loud and crying out to God. I’ve just really had a good time with God every night before I go to sleep. It is such a nice way to end the day.

Many good things are happening on campus and it is good to see God work when I leave my worries and doubts to the side and just go for it. God is opening up doors to certain people for us to go and be a part of their life. Celebrating with them, talking with them, encouraging them, hearing their stories, etc. It has been all a good part of evangelism and just getting to know them in a personal level.

This Sunday was FT Worship (Full Time Minster Worship [I don't know where the "M" is in FT Worship, but oh well]) So Ryo, Saya, Yui and Miki-san all spoke today. J-House believes in everyone within the church and committed to Christ is a Full-time minister. It is good to see members of the church stepping up and giving messages and challenging themselves as well as the church about what they have learned so far. I had a chance to do this also last Friday, and I believe this month, there are a lot of members speaking; whether it is Big Wave, Prayer Meeting, or Sunday Service. After talking with all those who have done or will do a message soon have said that the time they had preparing was a good time between them and God. They yearned for more of him! I must also agree with that too, when I was writing my message, I felt the same way too!

I have been really into this song recently and the words just really burn in my heart every time I sing or hear it. It’s called “YEARN” by Shane and Shane. Here are the lyrics:

Holy design

This place in time

That I might seek and find my God

My God

Lord I want to yearn for You

I want to burn with passion

Over You and only You

Lord I want to yearn

Your joy is mine

Yet why am I fine?

With all my singing and bringing grain

In light of Him

Oh You give life and breath

Through Him You give all things

In Him we live and move

That's why I sing

Please continue to pray for J-House and for me that we would be a people that wants to yearn after God. Many people think Japan is spiritually dead and think that God isn’t alive here, that is a total lie. God is ALIVE and MOVING here in Japan, we just need more workers to spread the Gospel to the people of Japan!!

Step It Up

Usually, when I am asked to do something, I am usually not so hesitant, but this week, I have been given these huge roles that I had to do and I honestly was nervous to do them all. Here some of things I had to do this past week: lead one of the campus ministries, do the Big Wave message, have the final decision on buy some expensive things (sound equipment), fixing things, explaining specific things to people, etc. Not that they were bad, I learned so much from it all, but it was just a little nerve-wracking… haha.

I honestly did learn a lot and one person I would really like to thank for teaching me so much is my Dad. I think if it weren’t for all those times I followed him everywhere and helped him out with things at work or at church, I wouldn’t have been able to do half the things I do now. 아빠, I know I always complained and wondered why I had to follow you or do things that seemed like I was no use, but I think I understand now that it was for me to watch and learn from what you are good at, so thank you.

I have been talking with some of Jesus Soldiers about sometimes we feel like on Wednesday, Fridays or Sundays we need to get things done and totally forget about the whole purpose of those days—to give God worship. Yes, we have our responsibilities, but we need to be doing it out of an overflow of love, energy, and time we put into it. Not just fill ourselves up to the brim and empty it out after, but to give from the overflow of our hearts. I know we all have it in us to really pour out our hearts into what we do, but sometimes we get caught up in trying to get things done first and realizing after how we have been doing ministry.

We also talked about how nice it is to be in a “small group” or “cell group.” I know Covenant doesn’t really have this system within the youth or gD, but the times when we do get together and talk about God or our lives in a deep way, I feel so blessed to be a part of that church. I just wish we could do more of that. We have no problem fellowshipping, but I want to be able to talk about anything and everything with my fellow brothers (sisters too, but maybe not everything. Hahha) in Christ! Even within the Jesus Soldiers here, I feel like we can talk about stuff we can’t normally talk about with just normal people. It’s nice, and I hope to bring something like this back to the States with me.

Wow, lots to talk about, but here will be the last 2 things I will talk about.

First one is we had a Jesus Soldier “welcome Sarah and Deoni” breakfast/fellowship time. We went to a beef-bowl (Sukiya) place and just chilled, talked and enjoy our time together. Pastor Katsuya treated us out, which was very nice of him. I think he wants to do more of these kinds of things more often. Good time to get to know the pastor as well as each other, and have fun at the same time.

Second, the highlight of the week: Big Wave message. I give much props to pastors who have to do this once a week, some more than once a week. Amazing. I actually have done a message before at CUMC, but this one I tried my best to write something that was for me first, because if I don’t follow what I say, then what is the point of listening to me. God really has been teaching me about taking risks and trusting that He will come through for me. It might not be the way that I expected it to be, but it probably was better than that. All I could do is watch and be in awe. I was using the story of Jonathan and his armor-bearer (1 Samuel 14: 1-15). I really like Jonathan and how much faith he had in God. He knew that God will help him get victory over the Philistines, but didn’t know how it was going to happen. So he had to risk charging in to fight and keep at it until God did His thing. Yeah… there might be a video on Facebook coming up soon (the whole thing maybe, but if not…yeah. Haha)

Anyway, I learned a lot this week, and I know I need to keep learning and never be content with the knowledge of God that I have now, but to yearn to know more of Him. I need to step it up!! 



::Edit::

If you REALLY want to see my message, they just put it up.. here you go... I can't watch it, haha maybe when I have the guts, then I will later.

クリスチャンって素晴らしい：Risk and See God Move! from J-House on Vimeo.

New Season

A new season has begun with old Jesus Soldiers leaving and new ones arriving, the weather (I haven't experienced real seasons changing before! It's quite exciting to actually notice the season is changing! :D), the start of the new school semester, doing campus evangelism a little differently, having more of the church members involved for doing messages and leadership roles, a new room that I moved into, etc. So many things going on it is tiring yet exciting to be a part of it! Time truly flies, I am already on my 9^th month here in Japan and it feels like I just got here...

This week was the start of the campus ministries again and it was good times! It was good to see the students we haven’t seen in a while and reconnect with them. This semester I go to Kandai on Tuesday and Thursday, and on Wednesday I go to Kansai Gaidai still. I am excited for this new season; I just hope that the Jesus Soldiers can work well together and just have fun together!

We also went to this all girls school (Osaka jo gakuin 大阪女学院) for morning prayer on Thursday and it was awesome! This is a mission school and most of the teachers here are Christians, but I say 99% of the students are not. A couple of the J-House members graduated from this school (Yaeko, Rie, and I forgot the others o.O) but also one of the teachers, Baba Ayako-san (who recently accepted Christ and got baptized at J-House!) also works there! Pastor Katsuya gave a message about “what’s your life’s purpose?” and we got to sing “How Great Is Our God” in front of 700 students! Though no one sang and no one really said anything, I could tell that it was just something refreshing for them instead of the usual hymn, quiet chapel time. Ayako-san told me on Sunday that her students really enjoyed it and said it was like a breath of fresh air! Hallelujah!! I hope this could be a start of something cool for J-House in the future! A youth group!!! :D

This past week Sarah and Deoni came and Sam will come in a week or so. It’s only been a couple of days but they are really cool people. Just glad to have another Californian here with us :D

This coming up week I have to do my message during Big Wave, I just hope that I will be able to speak with confidence and excitement. It’s 30 minutes total (with translation) so about 15 minutes. I have done that before at CUMC, but I feel kind of nervous that there will be people who have never heard the gospel or never experienced what I will be sharing. I guess you can say it will be half testimony half teaching. I will be sharing from 1 Samuel 14, the story of Jonathan and his armor-bearer and how they took a huge risk by revealing themselves in front of the Philistines, but through that allowed God to show them something miraculous. (If that made any sense…which is why I will be working on this diligently all week before Friday)

Anyway, I am hungry now… time to look for some food! Mata ne~

 (eating dinner/dessert outside on the roof with Jonie, Ji ah, and Sarah)

 (I normally don't eat desserts as much, but this was really good!!)

(We had some time before we went to Osaka jo gakuin and we stopped by this cathedral and it has a picture of Mary in a kimono...interesting...)