Get Real

We have been here in Japan for just about a week and a half, and so far it has been incredible. There are so many things to love here (see my previous blog). My favorite thing about this month, however, is how relational our ministry is. For the last four months in South America, our ministry has been incredibly focused on doing programs for kids, speaking in churches, and other organized forms of ministry. These types of ministry are great, and God moved in BIG ways through these things. However, my heart has always burned a little brighter for relational ministry. I am a relational being created by an even more relational being, after-all. Jeff and Aya, our ministry contacts here in Japan have huge hearts for discipleship. So far I have seen this overflow into everything they do, even plan our ministry. On a normal day we help teach in their homeschool co-op, do yard-work, visit families in the community to help with housework, and visit the university to do treasure hunts/build relationships with the students there. As you can see, everything we do is centered around building relationships, and today was no exception. This morning we drove to Kobe with to visit one of the men he disciples on a regular basis. Jeff dropped us off at his house on his way into work. We got to sit and talk with him for the entire morning and even have lunch with him. In the afternoon, we visited another lady that Jeff visits on a regular basis named Louise. She is 98 years old and lives in a nursing home. We had an amazing time visiting with her and just being a part of her day. The visit ended with Amy, Molly, and I singing “Amazing Grace”. With the two hours we had left in Kobe, we went to the coolest Starbucks I’ve ever been to only to find out that Holy Spirit wasn’t done with us yet. There we met a group of 7 local Jr. High teachers all about our age. We got to walk with them through the city on a scavenger hunt type adventure to find a flower shop and ended up with the start of a new relationship. So while this day consisted mostly of sitting on the floor around the coffee table at Bobby’s house listening to him tell us his life story and speaking incredibly loud and even singing to cheer up a 98 year old woman, it was one of the most amazing days yet here in Japan. While we sat and listened to stories from the past, some tragic stories of hurt, loneliness, and loss, I was overcome by the raw need for the love of God and the raw desire of God for his love to be known by his children. This, after all, is what it is all about. It isn’t about some specific pre-determined ministry schedule. While that has a time and a place, it isn’t real life. Real life is living relational: being open to even the most random of relationships that The Lord might place in front of you, fully willing to be interrupted so that the love of God might be shown a little brighter into someone’s life. I am so thankful for a month where our doesn’t look like ministry but instead just looks like life. Let’s get out of our comfort zone. Let’s live life with the expectancy that God is going to put opportunities in front of us to live relationally, because he will.

(Here is a picture of us with Louise, a picture of us with two of the teachers we met, and one of the starbucks we met them at because it was awesome)