Hey everyone sorry for the long delay with a new blog but it took sometime to process the new changes and the change of country. I’ve been in Japan now for a couple of weeks now and I have experienced a lot. When I first got here I was a little jet lagged from the plane ride and excited to finally make it to Asia. Our first couple days my squad stayed at a retreat center where we were the on,y ones there. We slept on real Japanese futons on the floor. It was so awesome! Had the sliding doors and the floor that looked like bamboo. I felt I was in the movie The Last Samurai. If you haven’t seen it you need to check it out shoud’ve known the kind of month it would be from the first night there. The first night I took a shower and a hot bath. That sounds so awesome. The only catch is that it’s with all the men on my squad and we are all sharing the bath together. So let’s just say 9 guys crammed into a hot tub was a very close bonding time together. So that’s how the month started out for me. So I started off Japan with a bang right out the gate.
The ministry i am at this month is a little but different from what I have experienced so far on the race. This month I am woraking at a mans house and my team and I are fixing it up because he is using it to house missionaries and other people to stay there. This place is huge. So when I got here my first thought was, well I was hoping to experience Japanese culture and I am on the top of the mountain with a British man. I can say I was a little jealous of some of the other teams for getting to experience culture here and live with Japanese families. I felt like God was showing me a different side of ministry this month. Where I’ve been use to hanging out with kids and sharing the Gospel with them and growing in relationships with them, I am now doing yard word and other household chores. God was once again taking my expectations for the race and he was changing them right there. I found myself wondering why I was here.
Last month I was learning to find rest in God and to just rest and relax in his precsense. I believe God wanted to continue my journey in that and to get away from it all and to just soak and rest in the peace of living in the mountains. Through working here at our ministry site, I have found God in many ways. Just learning that ministry isn’t just about working with kids and going to schools, it was about helping others and to learn to just sit back and serve their needs. This man opened his house to us and to see his face when he saw the work we were doing was enough for me. He tells my team everyday he is so happy to have us and for God to bless us. I’ve been so consumed with thinking ministry was always preaching or talking about God, but I’ve found out this month that ministry is so much more. It’s learning to serve others and through serving them, showing them the love of the Father. This month has been amazing so far. God is working in Japan in so many individuals and I hope you will continue not only to pray for my squad but pray for Japan. Pray for the work He is doing in this country.
