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View Blargh
To get an idea of how difficult it is to minister in Japan, many people around the world refer to Japan as The Missionary's Graveyard. After decades of missions in Japan, there has been almost no growth in the church. Still only about 1/2 of a percent of Japan is Christian. This is why the CPI conference is so important. It is a place for missionaries to be re-energized and to remember their vision for God. It is also a place where they can share their experiences and learn about what types of ministry are most effective so they aren't wasting their efforts. You can show important the conference is by how many people showed their gratitude for our work. Over and over, different missionaries would thank us and tell us that without us the conference wouldn't be possible. I met missionaries that are serving in Japan from all over the world: Canada, Australia, Norway, Singapore and more. Some are teaching english, some are working, some are leading house churches, some are planting new churches. It's amazing to hear the thankfulness from the missionaries. For some of them, this conference is the only time they meet other English speakers during the year. For some of their kids, the conference is the highlight of their year (some of you may find it interesting that they chose Son Games as the track to teach the children). Now that the conference is over, please pray for the missionaries in Japan that they may be continually renewed by God's love and that their service would bear fruit according to God's will. For me personally, I learned a lot of different things. I learned a little bit more Japanese and I learned more about video editing and running cameras. But the most important things I learned were about patience, pride and grace. Patience, because during set up time, some of us were asked to move six very heavy boxes from the lobby to the auditorium (which is up a very steep hill). Then we were told to move the boxes back down to the lobby. And then we were asked to move the boxes back up to the auditorium yet again. The exact same thing happened with a large number of tables that we moved back and forth a few times. Pride, because not everyone does things the same way as me, even when I think my way is the right way. Pride because when I made a mistake, I wanted to blame other people and come up with excuses. I had to constantly remind myself that my purpose there was to serve others, not myself. Which brings me to the next thing... Grace, because we're all imperfect humans and we're all God's children. We all make mistakes, including myself. Sometimes things didn't work out right, or things would just fall into chaos, but in the end, everything was ok. My inability to give grace in such situations is just further evidence that my faith is not strong. However, the people I worked with showed me grace many times over and reminded me of the grace given to us by God and the grace we should give each other. Another thing that I learned is that the thing I enjoy the most is meeting Japanese people and getting to know them. I realized that I miss teaching English like I did in the past and so I hope that in the future I will have an opportunity to do it again. I really wish that I could have stayed longer and I'm really wondering what God's will for me will be in the future. Please pray that my heart would continue to grow and learn about God's will for me. I also have something not so positive to share. One of the Christians I met in Tokyo informed me that she no longer believes. I was quite surprised and asked her if it was because she was too busy. She said that it wasn't because she was busy, she just didn't believe any more. That made me very sad. I don't know the entire story, but I do know that in 2003 she married a non-Christian and that she was concerned about being "unequally yoked". Since then she has given up her job and spends most of her time doing house work and pursuing her hobby of dancing. She says she's happy and that she's lucky to find such a good husband and I'm glad for that. However, part of me feels like she's more shy and less confident than she used to be and I can't help but wonder if perhaps she's not as happy as before. Please pray for her. I'm sure that with the extremely low conversion rate in Japan that having someone give up the faith and then come back again is even more rare, but with God all things are possible. Please pray that she would miss the Lord and that one day she may be believe again and bring her husband as well. Posted 11/16/2004 03:25 AM in Uncategorized | Total Comments: (10) Link To This Blargh Comments
That is why I felt sad when I heard she was getting married. Submitted by Cliff on 11/16/2004 10:45 PM mvAsCRLGQVVUmckD wowzers, Submitted by IKANNvEiGuVKag on 03/13/2012 02:10 AM LNDSTrwZwsHUwBQ wowzers, Submitted by VrkwDXUiT on 03/13/2012 03:13 PM odHohScdfKLH Wahooooo, Submitted by XwqNGGSMhiESQy on 03/14/2012 00:07 AM VaoluPRxGiO Wahooooo, Submitted by ITNxmbInTjmCHRj on 03/14/2012 01:15 PM FWoAFKKcIuxOE oh yes, Submitted by jPCHmkMnTNzblPoRzj on 05/07/2012 07:41 PM dFXPGPQqlKqfA hehaha, Submitted by gIHwYOrPumXIw on 05/15/2012 08:21 AM WenidWsEjfwKbdMKJNB Wahooooo, Submitted by unREYGfzjjUENZo on 06/21/2012 03:42 AM zatkVoQPipIDF hehaha, Submitted by iqiucTKgWOedspsS on 06/24/2012 11:20 PM AWuKwKoTiGHmi oh yes, Submitted by TKOcwuUPpiNVWcAw on 09/06/2012 11:51 PM Add Comment
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