His strength in our weakness
'So the body is not one part but many. If the foot should say, "Because I'm not a hand, I don't belong to the body," in spite of this it still belongs to the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I'm not an eye, I don't belong to the body," in spite of this it still belongs to the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed each one of the parts in one body just as He wanted. And if they were all the same part, where would the body be? Now there are many parts, yet one body.
So the eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" Or again, the head can't say to the feet, "I don't need you!" But even more, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are necessary. And those parts of the body that we think to be less honourable, we clothe these with greater honour, and our unpresentable parts have a better presentation. But our presentable parts have no need of clothing. Instead, God has put the body together, giving greater honour to the less honourable, so that there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same concern for each other.'
1 Corinthians 12:14-25
If we are to be honest, this past month has had it's share of frustrations and struggles. We thought by now we would have been able to establish a daily routine that would help us to work towards greater efficiency. Yet, we found we were still trying to find our feet, get used to the cultural differences, and the language- oh the language! It's hard to explain but you go from moments of "Wow! I understood that! I must be improving" and then literally in the next conversation, "Wow! I got none of that. I know nothing." It's a real roller coaster. A fellow OMF missionary shared some simple but profound wisdom around this from their own experience- "You will never really fully see your improvement because every time you "level up", you realise once again just how little you know. Others will see your improvement but to you, it will be barely visible." In other words, improvement is naturally there but will often be a source of discouragement for us if we let it. So, how are we tackling the language barrier? We attend free conversation classes twice a week to practise speaking and a textbook based class once a week. In between ministry prep and general "life stuff" we study independently and try to take up as many opportunities as we can at church, Bible study, etc. to talk to people. Despite what we view as a lack of ability, God doesn't seem bothered and still is bringing opportunities our way for which we are grateful.
英会話　English Conversation Class (ECC) Ministry
We are still getting our steady numbers from April. The same family continues to faithfully come and more recently another girl has started to attend a bit more regularly. A couple of weeks ago the mum of our regular family asked where we had bought the children's Bible from. We told her we just found it on Amazon. The following week we had very excited children rock up and tell us immediately, "We bought the book! The Jesus book!! We've been reading it at home." How wonderful! As Joel introduced the story for the day, we were again met with excitement- "Oh, we've read this story!" This didn't stop them listening and engaging in the activities and discussion for the day. God is doing good things! They are hungry and it's a privilege to take part in feeding them the Word.
New growth. New ideas.
In conjunction with ECC Ministry, we have had a young girl in her 20s come along. She is not yet a Christian although she has been attending church for a while and has read some of the Bible. She is keen to improve her English and so asked if she could come along to ECC Ministry. Of course we said yes but thinking it would be too simple for her (as she already knows some English), Jo offered for her to hang around after and we'd do a simple English Bible study together. She was keen and has been faithfully coming each week. She hears the story in Japanese at ECC and then afterward we take turns reading the English version. If she has language questions along the way, she asks. We use some simple discussion questions about the story to stimulate discussion and have a time of questions and sharing. It's very informal and we feel like we're building a good relationship with her. She seems comfortable to ask questions about the Bible and we are praying that she will come to make a commitment to accept Jesus as her Lord and Saviour.
Advertised on the sign at the front of our house is a prayer meeting on Wednesdays from 4-5pm. So far, no one has attended. So after praying and thinking, we have decided to take the meeting to the community and see what happens. There is a lovely park not far from our house and we have recently acquired a guitar. So, we are thinking we will sit in the park, sing some songs and pray. We casually mentioned our thoughts to the regular family at ECC on the weekend and they were keen! So we are expecting that they will join us on Wednesday. Our prayer is that people will hear the Gospel through the songs and the community will be blessed. We are loosely calling this idea "Praise and Prayer in the Park" (we rather like the ring it has). Stay tuned for what God does here...
God's Teaching
At the start I mentioned some of our personal struggles we've been facing. From May 19th to the 21st, we attended OMF's annual conference. It was a wonderful time to reset and time to ask God to heal our hearts from the unreasonable expectations we had placed upon ourselves that had taken our focus off of Him and what He has called us to do. 1 Corinthians 12, which we have quoted from at the start, tied together the conference's theme of 'United for the Gospel.' Back home in Australia, we were comfortable. We felt like strong members of the body. We were efficient, were involved in multiple ministries, were leaders in our workplaces. We came to Japan and felt so weak. Even the most menial of tasks such as grocery shopping was a struggle! 1 Corinthians 12 explains that all members of The Body are important. God accounts for our weakness. In fact, it says in verse 22 'But even more, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are necessary.' What an encouragement! When we feel discouraged, we can look to Jesus and know that there is always purpose in His calling. Furthermore, in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 Paul reflects upon what God said to him in a time of trial,"My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness."' He goes on to say, 'Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may reside in me. So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, catastrophes, persecutions, and in pressures, because of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.' Praise the Lord that He is always strong and His strength not only carries us in our weaknesses but our weaknesses are turned to strength in Christ and He is glorified all the more because of it!
Where do you feel weak? Do you feel like you have been called somewhere or are being called somewhere and are ill-equipped? Take heart! Do it! Watch God's strength lift you up and carry you in ways, you didn't think possible.
Praise God for:
His faithfulness
His incredible strength that encourages us in our weakness
The ECC family who bought a children's Bible and for the desire to learn more about Jesus at home!
The girl we have been able to have Bible discussions with
New ideas to connect with the community
Pray for:
Our ECC attendees to come to know Christ
Mrs S to come to know Christ (see our blog post from April)
The messages at ECC ministry to be planted deep in hearts and to be the messages that sow seeds of transformation in families
Wednesday's "Praise and Prayer in the Park"- that the community will engage and people will be drawn to hear the truth about God through song
Continued growth of our language skills and abilities