September Update: Let us tell you a story
Welcome back! This month we'd like to share a story with you of a very special journey that has been taking place in the heart of a lady we've been meeting with weekly. For the sake of this story, we will call her Mrs M.
Back in July, Mrs M contacted Jo. She had received one of our flyers in her letterbox and was interested in improving her conversational English. Jo arranged a day and a time that would work for her. She also let Mrs M know that we were missionaries and so enjoy using the Bible to teach English. At first this was met with some hesitancy as she thought that the Bible would be really difficult to understand. She really just wanted to come and have a good time. Jo assured her that we could run the sessions with a mix of Japanese and English and just look at little pieces at a time so it wouldn't be overwhelming. That was somehow enough to convince her and she decided to come and give it a go.
The day of the first session arrived. We were nervous! We weren't really sure of Mrs M's English level and we certainly did not want to scare her away with English that was too difficult. We decided to start with a conversational game to break the ice. She loved it! We hoped we were in. We started the lesson content for that week, using a conversational English program that goes through the Gospel of John. The first week's session was just an introduction to the Bible. This was Mrs M's first encounter with the Bible. She nodded with interest, we taught her some English words and phrases. All seemed to go fairly smoothly, much to our relief. At the end she said she had fun and asked if she could come again. Of course! This was the start of what we believe is, and continues to be, an exciting journey of watching God draw someone to Himself.
The second session brought with it a very important question from Mrs M, "Wait! I am a bit confused. I need to ask something. So the Bible, and this story we're reading, is this history?"
"Yes!" we both answered.
Mrs M: "Oh, I didn't realise. Well this makes a bit more sense now." She accepted that the Bible was a historical document. This began to establish a solid foundation on which she now can see that subsequent stories and passages we have studied are in fact real stories that took place, and not fairytales or folklore.
As the weeks have gone by, we have built a really good friendship with Mrs M and it has been a joy to journey with her and watch as piece by piece, her understanding of Jesus grows. In one session we were reflecting on what that week's passage had said about who Jesus is. Is He really the Son of God or just a prophet? Given what Mrs M had been learning, the study lead us to ask her her opinion. Mrs M: "What do I think? Well I believe that Jesus is really God. The problem is, I don't think many other people would believe that." Wow! We were blown away. That was the Holy Spirit opening her eyes and revealing the truth to her.
Another interesting conversation we had was in talking about Jesus being like a Good Shepherd but also like a gate to the sheep pen (see John 10:1-18). Mrs M picked up right away that contrary to the story we had looked at the week before, this story was not a historical recount but rather an analogy. In this session, we had a rather interesting diagram of a sheep pen with some sheep (interesting due to Jo's lack of artistic skills in the drawing department). Through discussion and reading of the passage, Mrs M came to understand the meaning behind what the sheep represented and Jesus' role in the story. Her attention was drawn to the sheep we had drawn outside the pen. Mrs M: "If Jesus loves all the sheep, even that sheep outside of the pen, why can't the sheep just go in the pen?" Our response: "The sheep can, but the sheep have to choose to follow Jesus. We all have a choice to make. We can choose to ignore the voice of Jesus calling us or we can choose to follow the call of Jesus. If we believe in Jesus and repent, we can enter the pen."
There is usually an aspect of each story that amazes Mrs M. This makes sense. The Bible is amazing! Jesus' miracles are incredible. Towards the end of this month though, we believe the Holy Spirit really started to stir in Mrs M the relevance that what she has been reading and learning has for her life. In the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, Mrs M was almost left speechless. When you stop and think about it, that story is pretty unbelievable. We know it's truth because it's in the Bible and Jesus can do anything but can you actually imagine what that sight would have been like? He had been dead for 4 days!! This is significant because in Jewish culture it was believed that after 3 days dead, the spirit separated from a person's body. Therefore, Lazarus was really, really dead! This lead us into a conversation about the type of life God can give us if we choose to believe in Jesus. The study directed us to ask Mrs M if she would like to receive the promise of God's eternal life. Her answer at first took us aback. It was a firm "no". Really? We thought to ourselves. Why would you not want eternal life? Her elaboration lead us to realise we had neglected a very important detail that was assumed knowledge for us. Mrs M: "I do not wish to spend all of eternity in the body I have right now. This body is weak. I'm getting older. No, I would only want eternal life if I could have a brand new, better body."
"Ah," we replied, "but that is exactly what God offers! Jesus came to bring us brand new life. When we die one day, those who are in Christ will be fully restored. No more earthly, weak bodies. Brand new life." The wonderful truth began to sink in and then the wonderful truth also brought a heavy weight. Mrs M: "If Jesus can raise people back to life, and God promises eternal life, He could raise my parents back to life!"
Jo: "You're right, God does promise new life but you can only receive this new life if you choose to accept Jesus before you die. The promise has to be accepted, you have to choose Jesus. When you die, it is too late to choose."
Mrs M: "Oh. Before you die..."
Why have we chosen to share part of Mrs M's story to date? Because God is always working and it's an absolute privilege to be part of what He's doing. You can never assume someone's knowledge or understanding. It is an absolute joy to be able to introduce someone to the truth of who Jesus is and watch them encounter His nature through the words of Scripture for the very first time. To date, we have invited Mrs M twice to church. She has not wanted to yet, but faithfully comes every week to our house to practice English and learn more about the Bible. We have had the privilege of gifting her a Bible. It is bilingual so she can do some English practice as she reads. She enjoys taking the following week's lesson home with her so she can pre-read the Scripture passage (in Japanese!) and prepare for our session. She seems hungry to understand and despite our less-than-perfect language skills or ESL teaching capabilities, she books her next session each time and chooses to come back the following week. She loves singing with us. We have been learning "Open the eyes of my Heart" and "Jesus Paid it All". We hope to see Mrs M come to faith before we leave. However, we're also aware that this may or may not be the Holy Spirit's schedule so we trust in His timing and we rest in the knowledge that God knows exactly what He is doing.
Then Jesus said, "God's kingdom is like seed thrown on a field by a man who then goes to bed and forgets about it. The seed sprouts and grows- he has no idea how it happens. The earth does it all without his help: first a green stem of grass, then a bud, then the ripened grain. When the grain is fully formed, he reaps- harvest time!
"How then can we picture God's kingdom? What kind of story can we use? It's like a pine nut. When it lands on the ground it is quite small as seen go, yet once it is planted it grows into a huge pine tree with thick branches. Eagles nest in it." Mark 4: 26-32 (MSG)
Praise God for:
seed-sowing opportunities
continued provision for our needs
Mrs M's journey
Pray for:
the Salvation of Mrs M and our Saturday English class families
our final month and a half here in Japan as we wrap up ministries and start preparing to return home
continued good health for all of us (Baby Zerna included!)