So, I just realized I never gave you (my wonderful blog readers) an update or recap on Japan! Sorry! The honest truth is I was so busy experiencing it, I didn’t want to take the time to share it with you! That being said, Japan was amazing ministry wise, but was a little lacking for me personally in my spiritual walk which I will explain later… For your sake, I think this will be a 2 part blog… 🙂
First! If you remember Amana from a few blogs ago, we never got the chance to meet up again. She was too busy for our schedules to work, but please, please continue praying for her. Her family is Buddhist, but she went to a Christian school where she learned about Jesus, and she said she prays to both. So pray for God, the one true God, to show up in her life in an undeniable way. Romans 10:20 says, “I was found by people who were not looking for me. I showed myself to those who were not asking for me.” So that’s my prayer for her. That God would meet her whether she is looking or not!
Next, I have to share a bit of backstory. So on the race, a lot of times we decide to go places where we really have no sense of direction or even a clue how to get there. Nearly EVERY time God does something really cool out of it just by asking people for directions. There’s something super cool about being lost and asking for help, and then turning around and offering help to the “lost”, but I guess that’s another blog! Anyway, we were traveling back from a journey to sight see on our off day, and were unsure about which train to take. After a few minutes of unsuccessful blabbering in both English and Japanese with an elderly lady, Jesus sent us Kaara who just so happened to be going the same place we were! So, she helped us buy tickets and said to follow her. I know I’ve mentioned before how insanely amazing Japanese hospitality is, but let me just emphasize my point by saying we followed her to our stop, she left the station and went out of her way to make sure we were on the right bus, and paid extra fare to go back where she needed to go. Just because its their culture, not for any sort of personal gain. I love Japan! So we were super blessed by her and wanted to repay her by going for coffee. So we exchanged Facebook accounts and planned to meet again.
We ended up meeting at Starbucks for coffee and had a wonderful time with Kaara and her friend that came with her. We explained we were living at the church and that we would be doing the entire service that Sunday (sadly it was our last Sunday in japan, we met later in the month). To our surprise, she knew where the church was and wanted to come! With a friend! At this point, we had been promised visits by a few people that hadn’t happened so we didn’t want to get our hopes up too high, but we were really excited that she said she would come. She even put it in her phone which to me means its set in stone!
We parted ways and on Sunday, right before the service started she walked in with her friend! I was so overjoyed! At this particular service, each of the members of my team were sharing about a country we had been to already on the race, and Lindsey was going to preach. We also led worship, so it was really cool that they came on a day when we were extremely involved! After the service our host, who is a preacher at the church talked with them and she translated to us in English that they both prayed to receive Jesus! The conversation was in Japanese, so I don’t have many details, other than the fact that they said they enjoyed coming and hearing us share, and that they had never prayed to Jesus before. So praise God! Please be in prayer for Kaara and her friend. She has mentioned coming to the states and I told her she has a free home in Kentucky anytime! Of course, Kentucky versus New York or California… Probably wont happen! But hey, I can dream. But be in prayer that God would continue to send them people to disciple them and they would grow in Christ through the spirit.
That’s all for part one! Part two will be a bit more personal and I will share about my struggle in Japan even with all of this Joy! Sounds crazy right? Thanks for your support and sorry I kept this one from you for so long!
Kaara’s friend, Me and Kaara (I forgot her friends name in English!!! Her facebook name is in Japanese!)
