How I saw God in Japan
The first day in Japan, the missionary host, Jason, taught our group a prayer lesson and it affected me. I appreciated the encouragement it gave to us before we went to intentionally pray. At the Yokohama Landmark Tower, I felt freed from the business of our schedule and regular American time urgency and met with God deeply. In the days and places that we prayer walked, later on, I felt Satan trying to tire us out, distract our prayers, and attempt to devalue prayer in our eyes, but because of the first day in the Tower, I could stand firm in peace, knowing God’s power. God really does work through prayer, as we learned. He cannot be held back by our estimations of what could happen during the week or what we could even imagine.
I was moved that God orchestrated for George to meet a college student at a local university, who listened to him give full Gospel presentations when he was with a few groups of students one afternoon. God arranged that student to have time to attend the English club that I begrudgingly volunteered for because George urged me to, and there that student came to faith in God. Without God’s master plan, none of these cogs could have fit together like they did. I shared my story with him as a friend of mine helped me share the Gospel again with him. I told him of God’s great power and how he healed me from Celiac’s Disease in an instant, which helped him understand that our God is real.
The Japanese will have a hard time with the Gospel. I learned some accept the cultural traditions as a religion but there is a scale that slides to just “what we do” and on to atheism. Even when I met with my Japanese friends, they didn’t seem interested in the love and plan God had for them. I think the biggest part to hurdle is that they do not like recognizing their sin. Confession of wrong-doing is hard for them because of their pride and cultural habits. Due to the shame culture, I think they already do not do “bad” things in their minds and will not be able to recognize what the Gospel is saving them from if not explained properly. The missionary leading the university ministry explained it like this: you need to present the concept of sin without using the word at first. Because of the bad history of Christians trying to convert the country, people have a wrong definition of the word and may already know the English word. To them, it means “capital crime” such as murder or rape or terrorism. When you present the concept, describe it as breaking the law of God, which is something you have to learn just like you learned your parents’ laws as a child or your government’s laws as an adult. After the foundation is established, you can label it “sin,” where all things kind of bad to them or really bad, are on the same level of breaking God’s law, therefore, deserving punishment.
A lot of them believe in fate. I learned the five yen coin is used for the temples so that you please the spirits because of its hole. It’s regarded as a lucky as well and other superstitions surround it. The temple experiences were difficult for me, but I appreciated the insight I got watching all of the worshippers and visitors.
What we saw God do :
I’m amazed by the darkness of Japan. It’s a first world country, steeped in their own sin and consistently running from Christianity. They borrow religions from other Eastern countries but won’t go farther into the Middle East and Christianity? I’m shocked at the Red Light District’s popularity and openness in Yokohama. When we walked down the streets and saw so many buildings with the sex symbol on the sign. I could feel the darkness and just questioned why God has been waiting to save Japan. I learned then that prayer was the only thing to do, prayer will save the hearts of Japan and God will start a revival when the Japanese start praying intently for their own country.
I saw God provide during this trip in so many ways. In preparation, He provided the donations we needed to cover the cost of the trip. He reminded me how merciful he is in that while generations have gone past as Japan refuses his Gospel, he will still send missionaries and his Spirit to save four this week. He has taught me that talking to people even at any age is difficult, but that God is the only one we should fear. He taught me in my quiet time that God harvests each person differently into his family because he has a specific plan for them, not a general plan. I also thought about how few Christians are in Japan a lot. They may never meet another Christian in their city because of the lack of communication with deeper matters. But God can use those lonely moments, or lifetimes, to show us his one enduring love and great power. When we realize how weak we are and call on him to save us, he can do such great things through us.
-lindy roo
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