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

A crowd of witnesses

Hi friends!

So God just showed me His amazing encouragement! In my devotionals, the passage of focus was from Philippians 3:10-16.

"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained."

The whole concept was how this Christian life is a race. Day after day, I trip and fall in my sin, and I have the choice to give up and walk away or to get up and press on. However, God doesn't expect me or you to do this all on our own; God gives us His strength and He sends us people to encourage us.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

I've actually memorized this passage twice in my life- first as a requirement to finish my church fellowship's "Amazing Race" event and second as a Bible Memory workshop in my university fellowship's "Couch Hop" event. I never really sought out this verse on my own, so it's funny and amazing how God reminds me of this verse once again just to stress the importance of it. I've always been confused about the "great cloud of witnesses" because I couldn't quite grasp the metaphor. But after the explanation of the verse in the devotional, I've come to interpret it as God's witnesses cheering me on from a cloud. My imagination depicts this crowd of God's people, sitting in a cloud, watching me run the race of a Christian life, and cheering me on as an athlete. (It actually reminded me of the cloud guy from Mario Kart, which makes me laugh, but that's irrelevant.) Knowing how the body of Christ, made up of all believers, encourages me to get up after I fall is amazing! I've realized that this truth will be important to remember when I prepare and when I go to Japan. I might get easily frustrated when I must wait on God to answer prayers, when the team is not united, or when the people there are not receptive of my faith. Please pray for me to remember these verses and to continue pressing on whenever I encounter these frustrations.

Lastly, the devotionals challenged us to look up Isaiah 40:28-31 and fill in the blanks:

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the ­­­­______________ ______, the _______________ of the ends of the earth. He will not grow ________ or ___________, and his __________________ no one can fathom. He gives ________________ to the _______________and increases the ____________ of the ____________. Even youths grow _____________ and ____________, and young men _____________ and _____; but those who _________ in the LORD will ___________ their _____________. They will _________ on wings like eagles; they will _______ and not grow weary, they will ___________ and not be ______________.”

And as I was doing that, I realized that my theme verse was in this passage! I was like, "Wow God! The way you work, the way everything falls into place (almost like a coincidence, but not really), and the way you encourage is beyond awesome!" Now I'm super super encouraged that God will be there in my weakness and weariness to strengthen me always. I hope you can all be encouraged by these verses too!

Love,
J