Ev: God's Amazing Grace

Today is Sunday morning. We had a typical Japanese breakfast of salad, rice, fruit, and salted salmon which Shirley and Kohichi provided. After a delicious breakfast in their home, we heard Shirley's and Kohichi's testimonies. It was so encouraging to hear how God brought them from where they were to where they are now. It was truly an example of Gods grace in their lives. Hopefully, we will be able to include their testimonies in our blog and newsletter. We prayed over them before we left.

At 2:00 we headed out for the Nokendai Bible Fellowship which has their service at 3:00. The service began with prayer, singing, and then a video of the VBS. After the video, we had the kids, Matt and I sing "Choose Jesus." As the service began to unfold, we were totally amazed at the hand of God. To us, everything seemed last minute but every piece of the service fitted so well together to proclaim that our hope and victory is in the resurrected Christ. We knew that God was putting everything together for His Glory. First, Janis shared her testimony which included the death of her father at 7 months, and the death of her mother and brother later in her life. She discovered that her father was a Christian and that gave her the freedom of looking more closely at the Christian faith. Through her study, she became a Christ follower. The speaker was Tom Sloan who was the head of TEAM in Japan until 2004 when he resigned because his son came down with brain cancer. His message was based on I Corinthians 15:3-4, 57-58 and he stressed the importance of the resurrection of Christ as the source of victory and as the core of our Christian faith. He shared how moved he was during Janis' testimony and asked questions that really got us thinking. "Her father died. Where is the victory? Her mother died. Where is the victory? Her brother died. Where is the victory?" Then he shared how the death of his own son, even after many, many people praying for healing, led to victory. It was how his son chose to die, trusting in Jesus, living each day fully, that many saw Jesus' love and power. Death is not the end for a believer. It is the beginning. He shared how the death of Christ magnified the deep love that God had for us, and the amazing grace and mercy He wanted to give to us. After the message we sang another song and prayed.

After the service, we began to put up tables and chairs for a dinner of fruit, sushi and rolled sandwiches. What made the dinner special was that the TMK team was able to join us. We really missed them. It was during this time that God continued putting the evening together that would end up blessing everyone there in ways we could not even imagine. One mother came up to the speaker to share that her father was dying and would probably not last the week. She was encouraged by the message. Shirley gave her a Bible when she found out that this mother did not have one, and encouraged her to read I Corinthians 15 as well. God's hand did not stop there. As we ate our dinner, we all had opportunities to talk with the parents. One parent asked Matt and I how the teams were chosen. Matt was given a chance to share why he decided to come. He shared that God loved him and had made such a wonderful difference in his life. He felt like God wanted him to reach out to the kids and show how God changed his life through words and actions. We also shared how Mei-Ling and Patti prayed about who should be in each team as well as looking at the applications. God continued to work as Mr. Onoe, one of the believers in NBF who took us to the nursing home, asked if Matt could play the piano. He had heard Matt play at the nursing home and enjoyed it. Matt began playing when Mei-Ling mentioned to Shirley that she wished she had asked Matt to play Amazing Grace. It was all spontaneous! Shirley whispered to Matt about playing Amazing Grace and picked up a hymnal. She had another idea - to ask Mrs. Nogaoka, a mother of two children attending our VBS, to sing. She is a friend of NBF. As she sang, her voice filled the room. It was beautiful. After she sang, Kohichi stepped in and suggest that we all sang Amazing Grace. It was so unplanned by human hands and intricately planned by God. The room was filled with God's presence and grace. It was truly holy ground.

"So my dear brother, stand strong. Do not let anything change you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord. You know that your work in the Lord is never wasted." I Corinthians 15:58

Both teams have worked hard to show God's grace and love to the Japanese children and parents. They have given their time, energy, and abilities that God has given them to do the work of the Lord in Japan. We know that all we do for the Lord is not in vain. We know that the seeds He has allowed us to plant will some day bear fruit. We cannot thank the Tamuras and the Nakamuras enough for giving us the opportunity of seeing God work in Japan, for allowing us to be a small part in that work, and especially for their hearts to serve God so faithfully. God is so good.

Blessings, Ev