Pocari sweat

みんな、こんばんは！

Why Pocari Sweat? Because I've been sweating a lot these past few days! Japan is the land of vending machines and one of the most popular drinks they sell is Pocari Sweat, similar to Gatorade. Although the days get hot and humid, God has really blessed us with a cooler summer than usual.

The past few days in Morioka has been amazing and exciting and has made me so full of joy! Today I really couldn't stop smiling and was the first day I had so much energy all day long. I'll try to share as much as I can of what has happened, but with blogging, I can only say so much.

After a long ride to Japan where we lost a day (about 11 hours of time zone and 12 hours on the plane), we arrived safely and stayed at a local hotel for the night. Although everyone was exhausted by 8pm, we did our best to stay awake to adjust to the time zone. It was really neat to experience a traditional Japanese hotel because they provided all the toiletries and even pajamas! I loved bonding with people during that plane ride and especially got to know the girls my age when we stayed in a room together.

Us girls in Japanese pajamas!

I really admire one girl (R) who has only finished grade 11 because she is such a mature Christian already and obeying God's calling! I don't think God was important in my life at all when I was her age and it made me realized how much I can learn from people who are younger than me. The other girl (M) is a Japanese American who is a little older than me and I look up to her so much! She is only my team to Morioka while R is going to another city and the past few days with M has developed such a great sisterhood between us. I've been able to share my struggles, weaknesses, and excitements with her and she's also been sharing so much of her wisdom. I'm very very blessed to have her on my team, especially as she translates for me whenever I get dumbfounded by a stranger talking to me in Japanese.

Morioka Minami Church has graciously welcomed our team of five (3 guys, M and I) and we've been staying there since Saturday. We were able to meet and connect with the missionary family there as well as the pastor's family. Both families have two kids that are just bundles of energy! Through playing with them, I realized that having weak Japanese doesn't matter with kids. The universal sign of a big bear chasing them around the room is enough for them to squeal with delight and have a lot of fun. This made me more excited about working with kids during the VBS program because I felt so much joy making them happy and didn't feel nervous about the language barrier anymore.

On Sunday, I got to hear a message in Japanese, and that was truly difficult! We studied a passage from 1 Samuel 25 and I had to ask M to translate for me after what the pastor was preaching about. In summary, the passage was describing David's anger towards Nabal, who turned away David's servants when they came to reap some harvest. David was upset because he had treated Nabal's servants well under his care and expected the same from Nabal. He was all ready to kill for revenge, but God sent Abigail, Nabal's wife to stop him. She knew that Nabal was wrong and selfish, but she asked David for mercy and wanted to give him food and goods as atonement. The pastor explained that this passage could apply in our lives where we face enemies while doing God's work. Many times, we may feel that it is our battle and will fight in response with our own abilities, but instead, we should trust God and consult Him first as it is really His battle. Just like in this story, we may feel the right to feel angry and get revenge, but God may ask us to show mercy instead. I learned that I must be willing to give my battles to God, no matter if it involves conflicts with team members, frustrating children, or unwelcoming Japanese people.

Another great thing that caught my attention was the little sermon for the kids. Because the church is small, there is a message for the kids that is about 5 minutes before all the adults hear the sermon. I was really happy to be able to understand a lot of the Japanese and felt like a kid who was amazed by the story of David and Goliath. I guess learning a new language makes me feel young again!

We had more bonding time with the church members during lunch and after, when we headed to go bowling! It was great to laugh and talk with them, as well as get to know their kids. The kids were super silly and decided to wear bowling pin suits. I couldn't stop laughing when they jumped around, knocked each other over, and needed me to pick them up again. In the evening, our pastor took us to a gym where we played indoor soccer with another missions team that was doing a music tour in Japan. Other people who were not part of either missions group but wanted to play soccer joined us. It was awesome seeing how connections were being made by the pastors and local soccer players through something as simple as an intramural game.

Popsicles are the best after sauna
and soaking in hot tubs at the onsen!

Today was very much a planning day and preparation day. We spent much of the morning going over schedules and delegations for VBS as well as our trip to Iwaizumi tomorrow. There is some music that the missionary in Iwaizumi asked us to prepare, so we started practicing after lunch. This quickly turned into a worship jam session and we spent a few hours playing all the worship songs we had on our hearts. It felt like it had been so long since I was able to worship God in English that it was so comforting and easy to just let my heart out. I also loved that bonding time with my team as we were all chipping in with our voices, even though some were shy. After a little bit of shopping at the mall nearby and another daily shower at the onsen (public bath), we debriefed and prayed over melon/watermelon popsicles, and now we're ready for bed!

Here are a few prayer requests I'd like to ask of you:
- our time in Iwaizumi for the next few days, where we will be connecting with older people at cafes and doing a few kids programs
- discomfort for both of my ankles and M's knee after the soccer game
- registration for the VBS as the church reaches out to neighbourhood families

今、ねむいだから、おやすみなさい！

Love,
J

All is well with my soul (and foot!)

Hi everyone back at home!

きのう、LAでトレーニングをして、日本語をたくさん練習しました！準備ができています！

Yesterday was a looooong day of training and preparing in LA, SoCal. We spent our time bonding with our teams, learning about Japan, making a conflict resolution covenant, studying the Bible, and packing away gifts, food, and craft supplies.

In particular, we studied Colossians 3:1-17 to find how God wants us to work together as Christians in a team. The passage contains many commands and asks us to take off our "old self" of sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, and to put on a "new self" like clothes of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. These attributes and behaviours are how God wants our teams to interact. Most importantly,

And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (Colossians 3:14)

Teams that are driven by love are teams that work together best and are able to resolve any conflict. Our teams created our own covenants based on this passage in Colossians and found practical methods to confront conflict. I wish I knew this before my third year in university. The business school this year emphasized heavily on teamwork through 48-hour reports and 24-hour reports. Although I experienced both "successful" and "unsuccessful" team processes, I feel that if I had approached the group work with God's love as a priority, each project would have been successful.

I wanted to share this old hymn with you because of how I felt before leaving home. I didn't feel at peace with God a few days before leaving, mostly because of personal desires that were battling God's desires. Letting go of things I wanted selfishly was one of the hardest decisions I had to make but I knew it would not be good for me! I didn't want to use the Japan trip to help me ignore the issue, because then I would be going to Japan for the wrong reason. So after much prayer, I decided to give up this burden of temptation to God. WOW, did that give me so much joy! I finally felt at peace with God so I could focus on how to serve Him best in Japan. My mom was practicing this hymn on the piano that night and I couldn't help but join in and sing with her because all was truly well with my soul! There was so much peace in my heart when I fell asleep and I had the best sleep ever.

What I learned from this was how important it is to listen to God when He talks to us. It is rare to find that God will talk physically or audibly nowadays, but He uses methods that speak loudest to us. In this case, my troubled conscience and sleeplessness was the Holy Spirit tugging on my heart. He was saying, "Justina! You know there is something wrong and you know what's right! I'm letting you make your own decision and I will love you no matter what choice you make. However, I want you to make the right choice so you can better understand my love and receive my blessings so much more." God is really the perfect parent!

In addition to this victory, I have another reason to be grateful! Some of you may have heard, but the morning before I was to fly to LA, I twisted my foot badly. For some reason,  (much to the inconvenience to my parents), I always wonderfully injure myself before leaving for something important, such as a competition or first year of university. I had to hobble on my foot all day to run errands and even attend a dance class. By the end of the day, it was all swollen, purple, and quite painful. The next day, I rushed around to see a doctor, get an x-ray, and pick up anti-inflammatory pills. God helped me get on the plane on time but when I arrived in my first stop in Toronto, my foot was still causing me to limp. However, after the 5 hour flight to LA, the swelling had gone down by a lot and I didn't have to limp anymore. It is much better now and could only have been a miracle from God!

fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)

I realized that praying a lot and trusting God would be in control was all that was needed, and God would take care of the rest. :)

Along with these praise items, please continue to pray for:
- my foot to heal fully and no more injuries
- something unknown that caused my right eye to be puffy last night and unable to wear contacts
- a safe 12 hour flight to Japan today and smooth time zone transition
- our team to continue bonding and growing in God together

ありがとう！

Love,

J

Passion to serve

When we look at the world, it seems to be full of problems. There's political issues overseas, extreme poverty in many countries, bombings in neighbouring nations, and even conflict in our cities and communities. Sometimes watching the news is overwhelming and disheartening and is much easier to simply ignore. However, Jesus calls us to serve Him by addressing these problems. It is not enough to meet physical needs, as secular organizations do through good works. It's more important to give what Christ has given us, which is hope of eternal life and forgiveness of sins. But exactly where and to whom do we start serving?

Our church fellowship just started a series called, Outlive Your Life by Max Lucado. It challenged us to become aware of the physical needs around the world and to think about how we can make a difference. In our discussion, we talked about with whom our passion lies or to whom we felt an urgency to witness to. The advice was to look for the people whose language made the most sense to us. This didn't just mean linguistics, but the type of people we connected to. This would be our area of fluency.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, "are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? ... we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God." (Acts 2:4-8, 11b)

This passage talks about the apostles gathering as the first church in history and how the Holy Spirit was sent to them so they could proclaim the Good News of Jesus in different languages. Notice that each apostle was fluent enough in another language that foreigners were amazed that they could actually understand the apostles in their own language. This is the fluency that is unique to each of us so we also can witness to a unique type of people. We do not have this fluency on our own, but like the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit, so we have the Holy Spirit working in us and gifting us too.

What do I really mean by looking for people we connect to? I'll give you a few examples that our fellowship talked about and then share my own.

One person is an occupational therapist and she has been so blessed because her language of fluency lies with the clients she works with. They are people who have suffered from chronic injuries that are suffering both physically and emotionally. Those are the people she has a passion for. Those are the people to whom she feels the burden to share Jesus with.

Another friend has a passion for international students. She never really seeks out these students on her own but for some reason, God sends them to her. She connects with them well because she understands their feelings of being lost or loneliness. She loves to introduce them to a loving community by inviting them to church or fellowship and that has become her fluency.

My sister has a heart for inner-city kids. While studying to become a teacher, she has spent her summers working with missions that cater directly to inner-city kids coming from low-income families. She has found a love for those kids and hopes to teach in schools in their area. She's able to "speak" their language and finds her passion with these people.

As for me, I may still be looking for my language of fluency, but I feel I have a heart for survivors of natural disasters. My first experience was in New Orleans in 2012, where I built houses with Habitat for Humanity. It was 7 years after Hurricane Katrina, yet there was still such lack of development in the hurricane-hit area. I was able to meet a man who lost his home in the hurricane, moved away, but inevitably returned to New Orleans. We were there when he finally gained property of his new backyard and this small thing made him so happy! I realized that although the people there were surprisingly happy (this may have been because it was Mardi Gras week), they could receive so much greater, everlasting joy if they knew God. I want to bring this gift of joy and hope to the Japanese as well, especially as I will be visiting people on the coastline. They will be the people who have lost their homes in the tsunami and are still restricted to living in temporary homes. However, I think I'll only be able to confirm whether or not I have a passion for these people after this missions trip.

With these examples, it is important to note that we all have a different passion. Just because we don't feel equal burdens doesn't mean we don't care about other people who don't speak our language.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. (1 Corinthians 12:12)

As God tells us in this verse, we as Christians are different parts of the body of the church and therefore have unique gifts for different ministries. However, together we are one body, so our purpose for ministry should be the same, which is to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

As you think about your passion, it might be hard to really know or define where it is. But as evident in the examples above, no one starts by choosing their passion first and then going out in the world to make it come true. The passion is found after going through experiences and discovering where God wants you to be. So what should you do? Get experience! Find those opportunities, pray, and pursue them! God will help you find your passion and you'll have so much joy serving God! I'll cheer you on! :)

Love,
J

Everlasting God

みんなさん、こんにちは！今日は本当にあついですね！

So I have an exciting announcement today. I've raised over $3,200 from friends and family, getting a surplus over the $3,000 I was responsible for raising! I am soooooooo thankful and blessed for the contributions and I never could have raised so much money without God's help. He is faithful! ありがとうございます！(Arigatougozaimasu!) Those extra funds will be going to the missions trip to help out other participants if they need the money and to continue the work of the Japanese Evangelical Missionary Society.

What is more exciting is the prayer support I've been receiving. I was given the opportunity to speak at my church during our Sunday service and share about the missions trip. After, the congregation prayed together in groups, and the pastor prayed over me at the end. It was a little awkward standing on the stage while those around me were praying, but I closed my eyes and I could hear the whispers and mumbles of prayers. It was then that I thought, "Wow, God, you love me so much that I don't know what to say. You've blessed me with a loving church and such loving brothers and sisters. How great you are!" I really felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in the sanctuary and it filled me up with so much joy.

After that church service, I left a little early to help set up Coffee Corner, where I would be accepting donations and talking to people. However, as I was leaving, an auntie that I had never talked to before stopped me. She told me in her broken English that she was so grateful to hear me share about my trip and she felt my passion when I was talking about Japan. She gave me a donation, saying that it was a small gift, but it came with her love for God and her joy that I was going to Japan. I was so touched and speechless! I couldn't do anything but give her a smile and a hug and say thank you!

This was only one of the moments where God has showed His love through people as I have been raising support. I could keep writing of many other stories but that would take forever. (Talk to me though, and I'll share!)

Oh! One more awesome moment. Last week, I was invited to share again during my church's prayer meeting. It was similar to the sharing at the church service. What was new, however, was at the end, I sat in the middle and everyone there laid their hands on me as one person prayed. I really felt like they were lifting me to God in prayer. In the Bible, there was a man who was paralyzed, so his loyal friends found a way to get him to Jesus by carrying him on his mat to the roof and lowering it. They loved their friend so much and had so much faith in Jesus that they went through all that trouble. In the end, the man was healed by Jesus and walked away celebrating with his friends. (The story is from Mark 2:1-12) That kind of love is what I felt, and it's a feeling you won't know until you experience it!

With all these experiences, all I can do is praise God! Please continue to pray for me, my prayer warriors (prior worriers for the ACF friends)! I will need it during these days of preparation as our full team hasn't met yet on Skype to discuss children's program planning. As well, please pray that I have discipline to continue spending time daily with God so I can go to Japan as spiritually strong as possible. Thank you!

OH MY GOODNESS. I was listening to Everlasting God by Chris Tomlin while writing this and it was background music until I paid attention to the words. This song is actually about my theme verse, Isaiah 40:31. What is this amazingness!?

One last thing. I have a prayer schedule in a Google Doc set up so there will be prayers every day of the missions trip for me, my team, and the Japanese people. If God places this in your heart, could you please type your name on one or more days so I can praise God for you and thank you for your prayers? Thank you!

Sorry for such a long post, but as you can tell, God is too good for a short post!

Love,

J

Are you on fire?

Are you on fire? Or are you lukewarm? I know for myself that I'm terribly lukewarm.

I came across this video while researching on hope and prayers for Japan. I never realized how disgusting I must be to God when I talk about my own lukewarmness to others, ask if they are also lukewarm, but don't do anything about it. I remember when I first had the conviction to do missions. I was talking to a friend who asked me, "Isn't there more to a Christian life than this? More than just going to church, doing the daily devos, going to prayer meetings, going to fellowship? There must be something more!" I slowly thought about it and realized that to be a Christian means that our lives should look completely different if we weren't following Christ. But so many times, I fall into the materialism of the world and try to live my life out like a "normal" person. But I shouldn't be normal! I should have God, the Holy Spirit, actually living inside me guiding my life.

I admit every day is a constant struggle between living life the way I want and the life the way God wants for me. In my selfish mind, I don't see why God should hold on to the control over my life. But, when we think about ourselves, we are little, itty bitty specks on earth in this giant universe. We are nothing compared to God, who is greater and more powerful than all things and created us. Therefore, why shouldn't we trust that God knows the best for us and has greater things planned for us than we can ever imagine on our own? That should be reason enough to live life on fire.

But, what does it mean to live life on fire? I believe this is different for everyone, but when we are on fire, we'll know. It may be small things in life, like boldly starting conversations about God with our friends and colleagues. It could also be handing out sandwiches to the homeless and refusing to ignore the poor when we walk by them. It could mean following God's call to go to seminary and becoming a pastor. It could even mean dropping everything and moving to another country to minister to people who don't know God. The most important aspect to this life on fire is where we no longer can trust in our own skills or knowledge or pension plans or whatever we have to make sure we're in control. Instead, we place ourselves in a vulnerable position where we can't do anything except trust that God will take care of things.

That is my hope for this missions trip. That I will drop everything that allows me to believe in my abilities and turn to God so He can show me His power. I want to be on fire for God!

Love,
J