The Adventure

As many great men have said before me, the adventure is not in the destination, but the journey. How true a statement in our faith! Even in the most practical ways. I spent all day yesterday traveling to the mission field in Tokyo, Japan. But it was not without its bumps and glitches.

First, my plane from Minneapolis to Tokyo, which was a 12 hour flight, was delayed 4 hours on the ground. Why you might ask? Because of "a strip of aerodynamic rubber" had come loose. But this too was a blessing. The Chinese girl next to me was a believer, and she needed truth spoken into her life concerning how Jesus spoke and lived out forgiveness. Even one of the airplane stewardess was a believer who had lived in Japan for a time. I met a group of 7 Americans who were on their way to China to watch children as their parents learned more about the gospel. Would I ever see them again? Most likely not. All I could do was assure them I would see them on the other side. What an awesome day it will be.

After getting through customs (and the 4 hour delay), there were no more buses going to Shibuya, but there was a train leaving in less than 10 minutes. I had to run to a phone, let my supervisor know I landed and I was taking the last train to the station. Run down a couple flights of stairs, have a wonderful Japanese woman at the ticket machine to quickly get my ticket to the destination, run to my cart, and step inside with 15 seconds to spare before we took off. And I had no idea where or when we were going to get to Shibuya!

But our God provides. There was a young Japanese woman who came on the train right after I got on, and was sitting in the row directly across to me. She was kind enough to talk to me, and after telling me she was getting off at Shibuya too, would help me out. Then we had a purposeful conversation. She was kind enough to help me, so I wanted to know more about her. We ended up talking for around an hour, and I was able to infuse Christ into the conversation at certain points. She knew why I was here and my purpose for doing so. She is a newly graduated nurse who works no more than 10 minutes away form where we are stationed, and used the train station every day. I do not have my field phone yet, but she took down my information, and I cannot wait to bring one of the girls I'm working with to meet her again! She knows a little of the faith, but I cannot wait to see what God has in store! She was the man of peace (more so the woman of peace) for me in the time I needed it most. I praise God for what He is already doing! Even before I am moved in, God has placed opportunities and people before me. O how the journey is the adventure.

Heartbeat

Well. What a heck of a summer. I just got back from the Canaries, Portugal, and Spain with One Voice, and tomorrow I am leaving for Japan. It is still not real to me yet.

While in Europe, God did several small things to remind me of his sovereignty. To remind me of how great He is and how small I am. Every concert we sang at was amazing. It just clicked. I have never been so humbled or blessed through singing in my entire life. The people poured their hearts out to us as they told us how beautiful we sang...in a language I could barley understand. All I could do as to reflect all glory and praise to the maker of my song.

We did one concert for a gathering of all english speaking churches in the area (somewhere in Portugal). Crosby, our director, asked during the semester if anyone would like to give their testimony during the concert - he needed two people. We had one girl commit to giving hers, but I did not think about this again until one day before the concert. On a whim I remembered about it, and ask Crosby if he still needed someone to speak. So here we are at the concert. Do I really know what I'm going to say? Are you kidding me? Of course I don't!

As it is time for my testimony, they put up a slide with my name and all my information. It was so fancy I was surprised and got to joke about it with the people. But then I began to speak about what God had been showing me this entire trip - His glory. From the creation of the mountains and the beaches, to the sunrises and the sunsets, it was evident how God was reveling Himself through that which He created. And it was not only in the mountains we see God, but also through the little children at the orphanages. Even in them we see part of our God. No matter where we go on this earth, God is truly all around us. Especially in the form of the church body. Throughout history, no matter what time or place, there has always been a remnant left. God has continually up kept the church. He has kept His church. And the beauty of this is how we are not expected to carry the survival of the church on our backs. We are not called to save people. We are called to tell.

We are sowers of the seed. Paul writes I planted, Apollos watered, but God causes the growth. So what then is Paul? What then is Apollos? It is God who saves, not us. We are called to sow the seeds. We are called to be faithful. In Colossians, when Paul is finishing up the letter, he leaves certain instructions behind. He asks the church to pray for them there, so even while they are in prison, the Word would go forth. He then instructs the people in Colossae to be full of grace in their speech, and for their words to be seasoned with salt, so they would know how they should respond to each person. What an idea - to have our words seasoned with salt, so much to the point that they would yearn for living water. We dare not trust in ourselves for the advancement of the church - We trust in God.

What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one.

I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.

So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.

These were the words God spoke through me. This is what God infused in my heart with passion. After this, we sang the rest of our songs, and sat down to hear the reading of scripture. Tears silently rolled down my face - It was 1 Corinthians 3. The very same verses I spoke of above.

How appropriate for God to infuse the same passage and message for the speaker whom I never met nor spoken to. Out of 66 books in the Bible, our library, out of 1,230 pages, out of us coming form different backgrounds and different denominations, we had the same message. We had the same heartbeat. It knows no bounds of ethnicity, of age, of location, of language, or of denomination. Its center is the same - the heartbeat of Jesus.