This month my team is in the suburbs of Osaka, Japan. We are the first World Race team to come to Japan and it has been such a blessing to see God moving in this country known as the "missionary graveyard". From my experiences I just don't see it. These people are desperate for a fresh encounter with God, they want to feel valued and loved just like all of us. This month it is our role to do just that, show them our appreciation, our joy, and our love and point them to the source of it all- Jesus!
Here we live with host families and their hospitality and desire to serve and bless us blows me away. I live with a family of four: a mom, a dad, a 12 year old boy, and a 15 year old girl. They are all non-Christians or as our contact for the month puts it "pre-believers". We have been able to live beside them this month as we have prayed over their house and been able to build relationships with them all in hopes of waking them up to the presence of a living God who desires a relationship with them.
All that is to say this month has been amazing- a great breath of fresh air for me and my personal walk with God. Part of my team's ministry this month is to work at a Christian preschool, but it isn't what you probably think. Yes the kids are cute. Yes I love playing with them and helping them learn English. But no their families aren't Christian families. This preschool grows up the kids, ages 3 to 6, in God and they in turn take it back to their families and tell them about God. That's right people cute Japanese 3 to 6 year olds are living out the Great Commission and telling people about our great God!
So I want to tell you a few moments about how this preschool has humbled me and grown me closer to God.
Moment Number One
As I took out the trash after school on my birthday I came back to a classroom full of 20 preschoolers. They tricked me into thinking they had left and when I came back to the classroom there they were ready to sing happy birthday and give me birthday hugs! However the moment that really got me was what happened after this. Two little preschoolers prayed for me in Japanese! There is just something humbling about having a little kid pray for you even if you can't understand what they are saying.
Moment Number Two
The first day I was teaching at the preschool we sang this song called "Jesus, You're My Superhero". It's a pretty catchy song actually, but as I was listening and watching them singing I just thought this was a cute, funny little song comparing Jesus to superheroes. But as I listened to them and thought I realized something. Why did I laugh at the thought of God being a superhero? He is so much greater and more powerful than all superheroes! Superhero stories tend to be about good vs. evil, but isn't the story of Jesus the best story of good winning against evil? There was something different about the way these kids sang the song and I think it is because they believe it. They believe Jesus is a superhero and not just any superhero, but the best one! He has saved us from the sins that bind us to this world and offers a new life in Him, a life walking in the light!
Moment Number Three
The kids at the preschool are so eager to pray. During morning circle when the teacher asks who wants to pray all of the hands shoot up. To them it is such an honor to pray and an honor it is indeed. What an honor it is to bring our requests, hopes, desires, pains, everything to a God that hears and answers us. Why do we lose that eagerness to pray when we get older? Our understanding of God increases and our faith grows, but our eagerness and sense of childlike belief in prayer diminishes? These little preschool students are kindling in me the eagerness to pray and the belief in its power and purpose.
Moment Number Four
One day the main Bible lesson at the school was about how God makes us strong. The kids began to talk about how God has made them strong and as I began to think about the same thing I realized so often I rely on my own strength. I need to rely on God's strength for when we grow strong by ways of the world then we are tossed around by the ways and state of this broken world. True strength is found in the power of God alone.
Moment Number Five
Finally the kids interact in a manner that screams joy when they talk to each other and the teachers. This preschool isn't just for the kids, but it is for their families, it is for me, it is a place people can feel the Holy Spirit moving! These kids live in a way that screams Jesus and I can hear it. It is only a matter of time before their families hear it, it is only a matter of time before they grow up and share it with more and more people.
The Spirit is moving in Japan, I can feel it filling me up so I can pour out to these people who desperately need to experience God. It is an honor to be the first World Race squad to come to Japan and join in what God is doing here to expand His kingdom in Japan.
More to come about staying with a Japanese host family and the amazing Japanese people.
