秋 -- Aki, which means Autumn

芋煮会 -- Imonikai

In October I experienced my first imonikai. The very first one was my friend Shuichi's neighborhood imonikai.An imonikai is a gathering outside, usually near a river, at which the people prepare together and eat a soup called imoni. It has meat and vegetables in a miso (fermented soybean product) or soy sauce flavored broth. The miso flavored way is the "Miyagi prefecture way" and the soy sauce flavored soup is from Yamagata prefecture. I got to try both.

The neighborhood imonikai was on Saturday and our church had an imonikai on Sunday. In one weekend I had two great experiences of this tradition, which is so popular in this region of Japan.

Like Peter

Recently, I was reading Matthew and was particularly struck by the story of Jesus walking on water. The Holy Spirit opened my heart to see how I have been like Peter. And in that moment, I felt the full weight of my sin of not fully trusting in Jesus, but I was also filled with a sense of hope. When Peter stepped out of the boat, he fully trusted that Jesus would keep him afloat. However, from the outside of the comfortable boat, everything looked different and felt scarier; so Peter started to fear, forgot to trust and began to sink.

I stepped out of the boat into the mission field, because I felt Jesus calling me to bring his love to the lost. I knew and tried to constantly trust that the Holy Spirit would take care of all of my needs and fulfill his purpose in my life -- to glorify the Son and the Father. Yet, on more than one occassion over that past year I have doubted; I have felt like I was drowning. But my hope remains, because Jesus is always there to catch me, to faithfully keep his promises, to cover me in grace.

God is calling all of us to step out in faith and trust that he will not let us drown.

Spring in Sendai

Spring in Japan is beautiful!!! The cherry blossoms were in full bloom for a few weeks in April and now everything is green or blooming . . .

A Shaken Foundation

A few days ago I was awakened at about four-thirty in the morning because my house was shaking. (I wasn't really surprised, or even alarmed -- God has granted me a great peace in the face of earthquakes, which was an immense gift considering that we feel tremors once or twice a month here.) As I lay in my bed sensing my house rattling, creaking and trembling, God showed me how that earthquake was similar to the temptations of Satan.

A couple months ago, I felt that my relationship with God had gotten really distant, because of that, I was feeling tired, discouraged and really sad. In retrospect, I know that I was having a "faith earthquake" -- Satan started by chipping away at my prayer life and my time in God's Word with tiny distractions that grew and grew. Then he whispered to me that God would be angry with me, so I felt embarrassed and scared to go to God and the distance between us grew. And then Satan prompted me to doubt -- a life of following God is difficult, even Jesus says that, so wouldn't my life be easier if I went back to the way it was before God? Satan shook my faith to the foundation, mostly without me realizing it.

But God always makes a way out of evil's grasp. He blessed me with the most surprising reminders of His truth, and then sent me to Singapore and Cambodia to be filled and encouraged by the love of his family and heavily shielded from the evil one, for a time, by the faith of my brothers and sisters, as we served our Father together. I was able to return to Japan repentant, forgiven and comforted, in my Father's arms.

Satan may have shaken my faith, but my faith is built on the foundation of God's love and grace -- that truth will not crumble. I wanted to share this with you so that we can praise God together for the amazing ways he works in our lives. Also, please join me in praying that our eyes with be open to the ways that Satan is trying to weaken our foundations, and that God will strengthen us so that the devil cannot shake our faith.

My Testimony

This is the testimony that I shared on 16 December 2007.

Whenever I read any of the Gospels I am always touched by the miracles that Jesus performed during His time on Earth. As we have been looking at Luke this month I have been particularly moved by the faith of those who came to Jesus seeking His power and compassion.

I love the image of the sick woman who must have struggled so desperately through the crowd to get close enough to Jesus. Her faith in Jesus’ power and her hope for his mercy and compassion was so strong that only touching His cloak was enough to draw out the power to heal her physically.

Then there is the woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears at Simon’s house. Jesus could see that her actions were a demonstration of her faith. Because of her faith Jesus forgave her sins – he looked at her with compassion and blessed her with His power by healing her spiritually.

However, the people in Nazareth had little or no faith in Jesus’ power. When Jesus was in Nazareth, His hometown, He was unable to perform miracles, because the people did not believe that he was the son of God. Their lack of faith limited the impact that Jesus’ power could have on their lives. The Gospel of Mark says that Jesus “was amazed at their lack of faith” (Mark 6:6).

In contrast, Luke records the story of the centurion:

When Jesus had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. There a centurion’s servant, who his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” So Jesus went we them. He was not far away from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me, I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to this servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well. (Luke 7:1-10)

The centurion understood that Jesus was a man of power, a man with authority. Because the centurion was a man with authority over others, he also understood that it was not necessary for Jesus to come to the centurion’s house to heal his servant, but that, being a man of great power, Jesus need only say the word and the servant would be healed. Luke says, “When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him” – Jesus was amazed at the centurion’s faith!

In my life I often find myself surprised when God answers my prayers. But why should I be surprised when I ask something of God’s infinite power and He gives it to me? Reading about the faith of the centurion caused me to wonder how my life and relationship with God would change if I had more faith that God can do amazing things in my life and the lives of the people for which I pray.

I think it is very important to remember that our faith or lack of faith does not change God’s power. Psalm 102:25-27 says:

In the beginning you laid the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
They will perish, but you remain; they will wear out like a garment,
Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded.
But you remain the same, and your years will never end.

God’s power is infinite and unchanging. His power does not depend on whether or not people believe in Him, but he gives us a choice to believe. Just as God gives us the choice to accept his salvation or to refuse it, he also gives us the choice to allow his power to touch our lives or to limit his impact on our lives by having little faith.

John 14:12-14 says:

I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it.

If we have faith in the power of Jesus, we can ask him for anything that will bring glory to God and he will do it. Let’s pray that God will help us to grow in our faith in His power until we have faith like the centurion – faith that amazes Jesus!