Back again

It's been forever since I have written on here, and I don't even know if anyone reads this, but I felt like writing anyways.
I am sitting here in my basement, knowing I should be doing homework but I can't help but think about other things. (Which means it'll be a late night tonight and tomorrow...)
Lately it feels like my life has been way too crazy to handle, and I seem to have lost sight of things. But now I feel more at peace with things. I think I am finally letting God be in control, and realizing that He is Almighty. Again.
My friend Lisa and I recently decided that we would work at holding each other accountable for things. All things.
There is a verse that I know is her favourite verse, and I am holding onto it tightly right now.

Proverbs 31:25
"She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come."

We were talking about how we want to learn to trust God more, and be able to laugh at the days to come. To laugh, and not worry about the future.
This image of a woman who is connected so closely to her Heavenly Father, and she walks around with His love shining through her. With dignity and grace. And I want to be that woman. Father teach be to be that woman. Lead me to be that woman.

Last night I talked to Bre. It was so good to hear her voice, and just to laugh with her about nothing. It's amazing how I feel God's joy when I talk and laugh with her. She was praying for me and her and us and we both just kept laughing, and it was uncontrollable and uncontainable. Pure joy. Everytime I laugh with her, even if it's just on the phone, because she lives far away, I just get the word "daughter" in my head. I think it's because we can't help but be the daughters we are made to be. Daughters of the King. And I know our Father is looking at us, and laughing with us, and just IS with us. Those are truly moments of unexplainable joy.

Thank you Father for moments like that. Thank you for allowing us just to be your daughters, who can laugh and cry together. And share our hearts with each other and with you. Thank you Father. I love being your daughter.

Back on Canadian Soil

So when I started this whole blog thing, I thought it would be a great idea, I would update it at least two times a week and people could keep track of what was going on in my life, in case it was too difficult over email. Apparently it was more difficult than I thought to keep it updated!

At this moment I am sitting in my room at the Mark Center, looking at all of the stuff I brought home, and the stuff that I left here to take home, and wondering where time has gone??? Sometimes I still feel weird being back in Canada. It's like I know that it's all almost over, but I don't want to actually believe it. I remember a year ago sitting in my friends car (who was also planning on going away and doind YWAM for 6 months) and we were just itching to graduate and begin new adventures. Now here I am, a year later and I can hardly believe how much has happened this year and how my life has changed. First off, I worked in a place where I fell in love with (MB House and it's neighborhood kids!) and God really showed me a lot there. Then I came to Abbotsford and spent two months with amazing TREKers and Leaders and Interns and Mentors and MBMSI Staff and learned so many things that will stay with me my entire life. Then I was sent off to Japan, to a country I didn't know, with a team of girls I thought I knew (but looking back I was oh so wrong, and I came to know and love them more than I thought possible!), and to work with a culture and missionaries and church that I knew nothing about. I know that looking back none of this would have been possible without my Savior in front of me and beside me the whole time. He has carried me each step of the way, and lead me to where He has wanted me. I know I haven't always done the right thing at the right moment, but I did try, and God's Grace is bigger than my mistakes.
Japan was an amazing time of learning about a new culture and people group and about team life and missionary life. Even though it's hard to remember it all, I know that the learning never stopped. I think that's how life should be, as long as we are learning we shoudn't be worried, but it's when we stop learning, and stop seeking that we are in danger.

Anyways, I will share more about our last couple weeks in Japan later, but right now all the TREKers are watchign a movie and I would love to join them. I am trying to just dive in and enjoy these last couple of days together. Debrief is a time of rest and relaxing and a time to slowly transition and re-enter our own culture. So far it's going so good, and I would say that I'm over jetlag already! I am really enjoying my time of hearing and sharing stories from the missionfield, reflection on good times on training, and looking towards the future. God is here with us and is going to guide us as we go out from here.

God is so sneaky..

I am trying to think of all that has happened since I last wrote on here. Let's see, last Friday we went to the Toyota main Headquarters and visited the showroom (which they have spent a lot of money on, and it looks great! Anyways, so when we got there, Laurence dropped us off at the door, and there were like 150 guys standing outside waiting to go in I guess. They all parted and we walked through the middle while everyone watched us silently. It was really funny and awkward at the same time. Then while we were in there we kept getting our picture taken, some were trying to be conspicuous, but some weren't at all. It seems that everywhere we go to sightsee, we become the sight to see. Interesting. So when we got to the showroom this guy came up and asked if he could be in a picture with us, so we said yes and posed for one, then with his friend. It was pretty funny! Then I was wating to go sit in the convertible (because it was a really nice car!) and that same guy sat in it with me and took a picture. As he was getting out he said to his friend, "Hot car, Beautiful Girl, It's my dream!!!" We all got a pretty good laugh out of that one :P The picture is of me and the Korean guy in the convertible.

On Sunday we were at church helping out again during lunch and also watching the kids in the afternoon. Ok so one thing is that every Sunday the woman always do the dishes, and we try and help but most of the time we just get shooed away. But this time we beat them to it, we started washing dishes before they were done eating, just because we wanted to. We like being able to serve in any way they can. It was really funny because they tried to kick us out like four or five times (and you have no idea how hard it is to fight with these ladies!! And when we don't speak the same language.) We usually lose the battle. But this Sunday we were determined, and even when they came and bascially grabbed the dishes out of our hands we stood strong and we won. THE VICTORY WAS OURS. It only took us three months! :)

One Wednesday, Brianna and I were invited over for supper to a couple from the churches house (and we teach her daughter english!). They have this small but very cute apartment. They made us a wondeful meal and we enjoyed our time there. I played on a Wii for the first time (I am not very good at it!!). After the games the food we went and sang worship songs in English and Japanese and then we prayed together. It was really great to worship and fellowship them! God has put so many wonderful people into our lives here and we are thankful for any and every opportunity we have to spend with them.

Friday Night we were very sneaky and had a Scavenger hunt prepared for Darlene because it will be her brithday tomorrow. Happy Birthday Darlene! (She turns 19.) It started up at home, went up to the 100yen store and then took the bus downtown to starbucks, then to Karaoke and then back home. We really surprised her and it was a ton of fun! On the bus on the way home I ended up sitting by this Japanese guy who asked me where I was from, why I was here etc. I said I was from Canada and here volunteering in a Church. He asked what Church, I said Toyota Higashi. His face brightened and he said that his wife took a class from Leona and that they knew the Hieberts, and had known them for over ten years! It was so neat how I ended up randomly sitting by him and him knowing the church and the Hieberts. Then we also realized that I helped out in the class that his wife took, so I knew her! That was pretty cool. We got to talk about the whole way home. He said although he and his wife aren't Christians he likes the church and the Hieberts and thinks its great what we are doing. It was pretty neat. It's amazing how things that seem so random to us, and be so right to God. His timing and His ways are always perfect. It's amazing, it really is. And He's so sneaky about it too!!

Last thing for this post, today we were in Fujjigaoka running a kids program all day. We weren't quite sure how it would go, but it actually was great! There were about 20 kids and we had translators. I think that everyone had a good time! We did songs and games and eating and a craft and more songs and more games! Everyone was tired by the end of the day, but as Joanna said it's an answer to her prayers (p.s. She prayed that we would be exhausted at the end of every day....God asnwered her prayers!) There was one girl, Soyoka (Soy-chan) who attached herself to my side all day, it was really sweet.

Being there reminded me of home and the inner city kids and made me miss doing stuff with them! But it was really exciting to be there with these kids and I will cherish every moment we had!

I thank God for all of the wonderful opportunities He has given us here, and I hope that we will continue to have divine appointments while we are here. Please pray for strength and endurance as we finish off our last two weeks here in Japan. We want to finish off strong, and we have a lot planned! Pray that we are able to get everything done, and not just because we have to, but because we want to. We want to have hearts like Jesus and let our every action be out of love for God and one another.

Little moments

On Sunday when we were walking back from the park, I was carrying Shin-kun (he's the cute little guy in the pictures in the previous post!) who was getting kind of tired from the long day. I was holding him and he has his arms around my neck, and he was singing softly to himself. I almost started crying because it was so beautiful. I couldn't understand the words he was saying, but it was just such a sweet moment. One of those moments that you want to hold onto forever and never forget. Thank you Jesus for children, and for the love and life that they have to offer. Without realizing it Shin-kun blessed me in that moment, he gave me a little gift from God, a reminder to never lose my childlike heart, to always sing and dance and laugh. To live a joyful life. Arigato Jesus. Thank you.

Pictures.

Lunch after the Service

















Team Singing in Church

Shin-kun and I

Wataro-kun and another guy from Church waiting for the Okonomiyaki to be ready. You can see it being made in the bottom right hand corner of the picture. So good!

Moe-chan and Cambria

Me and Shin-kun

Shin-kun and Trenton

Taro-kun playing guitar and singing during the "youth" event on Sunday night.

Dancin in the rain..

Yesterday (Sunday) the day began as normal, we got up, got ready and headed to church. Then when we arrived we found out that there was a woman there who was from .....PERU! It was so ironic that we found a bit of Peru in Japan. Anyways she spoke mostly Spanish and so Joanna ended up being her "translator." It was just so interesting, but really cool that she got to use that in Japan. Who would have thought??
After the service we had lunch with the church as usual, and then we helped with cleanup again. Then some people headed upstairs and we practiced for later on. Then we took some of the kids to the park (only because they begged us :P)
*Sidenote- I got to share my testimony in church, with Laurence translating. I think it went pretty well!*
After the park we came back and hung out with the "youth" (youth meaning anyone 30 and under!) where they sang some songs and we heard two testimonies, and then we (team+Cambria and Sean) sang five songs, the team performed the drime and Darlene shared her testimony. It went really well and it was a lot of fun!! Then we all went downstairs and had some Okonomiyaki. I can't even describe how good it is!! Hopefully I will learn how to make it so I will never forget the taste. (Although I will probably not be able to make it as good as the Japanese, but that's just life!) Once we were done cleaning it was about 8:30. We were at church for over 10 hours but it was so much fun!!

Today we had a calligraphy lesson with Misaka-san and Kisuna-san from church. It was so much fun. We were working at it for three hours and we did some pretty neat stuff! I have a bunch of practicie papers and a fan and another nicer one. I am so glad we got to do that. It's such a beautiful art I think.
Then after we got home we had supper and then worked on our new drime. If you want to see which one we are doing you can click on the link for the Lifehouse "Everything" Drime, and that's the one. I am the girl, Simone plays Jesus, Amber is the one taunting the girl with money, Darlene is the girl who is drinking, Brianna is the model and Joanna represents death. If we work on it hard enough I think we can pull if off!! We practiced tonight and I have to get tossed around a lot, and now my legs are all rugburned and I got hit in the face once. I won't be able to do that everyday, but I think it'll work out nicely. It's actually a lot of fun, but more exhausting than I thought it would be!!
After we were done practicing we went outside, saw it was raining and decided to have a party in the rain! So we danced in the rain. It was so much fun to just enjoy ourselves and enjoy the rain!! Sometimes you have to take hold of those moments, and just live a little. It's good to act like a kid every so often, and even if I wake up with a cold tomorrow morning, it was will totally have been worth it!

Make the most of every moment because you can never get them back. Don't spend your time wshing you had done something, but when the opportunity arises, go out and do it. Live for today, for right now. Live for the moment.

What do we do??

So with the recent natural disasters it keeps popping through my mind, what do we do with this? Thousands upon thousands of people's lives were changed in a matter of moment. With the earthquake in China, and the cyclone in Burma, people have died, are dying, and are injured. What does one do with this? How should we respond? The world is watching, waiting, wondering. We all feel the pain, but will this pass in a week, or two weeks? I honestly don't know. Like so many tragedies that affect so many people's lives, we cry for them, we send up a prayer, and then a week or to later we go on with our lives because it hasn't directly affected us. China is hurting, Burma is suffering. All I know is to pray.

And now that our attention has been drawn to Burma, and we know the situation they are in, we need to pray harder. They are not letting relief teams in, they are not giving out the amount of food that is being sent. It has been discussed to drop packages of food from the air to get some to the people, as a last resort.

And then we ask, where is God in all of this? How could he let this happen? So many people were killed, many that don't know Him I'm sure.

My answer: "I DON'T KNOW!" I honestly don't know. What I do know is that God is Sovereign still, and He is in control. He is there in Burma with those that are suffering and He is there in China with those that are hurting. God is moving through the Nations. I don't know anything else but this. I have to cling to the hope that God is still in this, or it's just too overwhelming.

I choose to believe that God is there. And I also choose to raise my hands in prayer, to intercede for the hurting. To thank God for those He has called to go in and help. Right now, praying is all I can do. The One who created the heavens the earth is in control.

He tends his flock like a shepherd;

He gathers the lambs in his arms

and carries them close to his heart;

he gently leads those that have young.
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,

or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?

Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,

or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?

"To whom will you compare me?

Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.

Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:

Who created all these?

He who brings out the starry host one by one,

and calls them each by name.

Because of his great power and mighty strength,

not one of them is missing.

Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The LORD is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

and his understanding no one can fathom.

Isaiah 40:11-12, 25-26, 28