My goodness, time has absolutely flown by since my last update! I am sure you are all wondering what in the world is going on, where I am, and what has happened since my last update!
I will try to fill you all in....
My team got back into Japan last Monday after a wonderful trip to Hakone (just outside of Tokyo) for our team retreat. Hakone is known for it's Japanese style baths, as well as Yunessun, the 'Disneyland of Spas' http://www.yunessun.com/english/yunessun.html You can enjoy a coffee scented/flavored hot bath as well as one with green tea, wine or even Sake. It was a unique experience our whole team truly enjoyed!
Before we left for Hakone though, God worked in our last few days on campus in some beautiful ways. Although the spiritual climate of Japan is extremely hard, we were able to build into friendships that will hopefully, if not already, be used to express the gospel through the love of God. I had one particularly awesome experience with a girl named Chika who was very interested in learning more about Christianity, though just for academic purposes. I was able to share the gospel with her however, and she came to our last outreach (the American Party). It was there that we had a wonderful talk, and I discovered the potential for a beautiful friendship with her =)
Also, while we were in Hakone, getting dinner one night, God opened up an opportunity for me to have a spiritual conversation with a Japanese mom who was there with her Husband and son on vacation. She has already emailed me with an expressed interest in learning more english... and more about the Bible! So awesome!
As for being back in America, the transition was easier than I thought at first, and then, over the last few days, has been pretty hard. I have been wrestling through many things these last few months, and have found that many of the basic principles of having a realtionship with God to be challenging...
Through the process of sharing my faith, and the gospel, almost daily, I came to realize that there are some parts of having a relationship with God that I am not as confident in as I would like to be. I have found myself questioning some very basic truths, which, although can be very scary, have opened my eyes to a desperate need for faith which I am asking God for. My natural tendancy in this is to become anxious and really discouraged, but my prayer is that God is working something great, and that He would lead me to a new found confidence in Him. I ask that you would please pray the same.
I will be trying to keep you all updated as I continue to email contacts I have in Japan, and I would love some updates on how all of you are doing, as well as any way my trip to Japan or praying for me/my team/our ministry has impacted or encouraged you.
I sign off with love
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Emily,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your faithfulness to write about the experiences you and your team had in Japan. I have enjoyed reading about all the Lord has done in you and through you! God has used you to minister to me as well. I'll continue to pray for an expansion of the work that was begun in Tokyo.
Blessings,
a Cru Mom