Living in the Desert
Imagine being born into slavery. For hundreds of years, your people have been mistreated and disrespected. But a leader rises up among you and your people leave behind lives of backbreaking work and
desperation. You are promised a land of your own where living will be good! But before you arrive (because of your consistent complaining and lack of faith in your God), you will wander for more than 40 years in the desert. Your children will leave your body in an unmarked grave in the desert, and they will go into and inherit the promised land.
Life as a missionary can sometimes feel like that, perhaps especially in Japan. In missionary circles, Japan is known as "the graveyard of the missionary" due to the difficult nature of ministry here. Granted, life is comparably easy in Japan. When feeling sorry for myself that, for example, clothes dryers are not common here, I remind myself that I could be washing my laundry on a rock while staring down a water buffalo. Japan is modern! How could I possibly complain? Well, I do complain sometimes, especially about Japanese bureaucracy, and silly rules that seem to serve no real purpose.
But honestly, life has been particularly discouraging for me the last six months.
(This is where most missionaries dare not go, and I am questioning myself as I write this. Supporters want to hear encouraging missionary reports, right? Well, life is sometimes hard, even -- or perhaps especially -- on the mission field.)
Ministry in Osaka is very different from what I was recruited to do. As you likely know, we lost our founding "college planter" before we even arrived in Osaka. I fell into being the interim team leader. Replacing our college planter has taken much more time than we anticipated. My skillset has been stretched to the limit in being the number one leader; that's not a role where I function best.
Because of the incredible ways in which God worked to prepare me for, and then bring me to Japan and the Genesis team, I have been convinced that our team would not fail because of the loss of our leader. God would provide! I have often heard very undeserved praise for that confidence. But in the last months, that confidence is waning. Our entire team seems to be losing faith in the vision that drew us here, bringing about a real slump in team dynamics. It is a difficult season.
Please pray for us:
- Pray that God will renew our faith in His calling and in His leading of our team.
- Pray that the devil will not succeed in discouraging our team. He knows what we are up to, and does not want us to succeed.
- Pray that God will equip me to lead this team through a difficult period. I've failed in many, many ways, and contributed to the stress -- and conflict -- on our team.
- Pray that God will provide a new college planter-team leader very soon. We have two good prospects, but the process is taking a long time.
- Praise God that whatever happens, He will use it for the good of all those who love Him (Romans 8:28)!
Genesis Cafe Trial Event
On January 31, we held a free special event for our Genesis Cafe students. We had a regular English cafe event in our new office, trying it out for potential regular use for our twice-a-month event. Eleven students came, and the room proved more than adequate. Once we are able to make some acoustical improvements to dampen the sound, and purchase some needed supplies, we will move to our own space.
One of the advantages of this move is that we can make coffee for much less than what we pay at the Swissotel cafe (about $8.25 for a small cup!). We can pass the savings on to our student, charging a much lower fee. By charging less, we hope to draw more of our target students -- those who did not go to university, working part-time or low-paying jobs. We'd like to equip them with skills for better jobs, but through our lives and friendship, also share the hope of the gospel of Christ with them.
Men, have you bought chocolate or flowers for your wives or girlfriends yet? If you lived in Japan, you wouldn't need to! Instead, it's the women who buy chocolate. And not just for their boyfriends or husbands, but also for all the men in their lives, including their co-workers. The men treat you terribly at work? Doesn't matter; many see this tradition as obligatory, and it can get quite expensive.
