Two Months!

Today, I celebrate two months here in Japan. It's hard to believe it's been that long already and it's hard to believe that it's only been that long. Debbie said that she was surprised because she feels like I've been here way longer than that.

Anyway, for one of the first times in a long while, I'm sitting here peacefully eating breakfast, with a whole half hour before I need to leave for any place. Normally, it's the last thing I'm doing in the morning, running around, trying to remember everything before I run out of the door.

So this last week was the Tokyo 2010 Global Consultation Conference in... well, Tokyo. It was pretty awesome, and I learned so much. We are getting closer and closer to completing the mission of reaching the world with the Gospel, but at the same time there is a lot of work yet to be done with 3700 people groups still unreached with no known work going on there. So, we talked a lot about that, and the different ways of reaching so many peoples-- Hindus, Muslims, Japanese, etc.

What's really cool about this conference is that there was a conference held in 1910 in Edinburgh and it was a huge conference for the coming together of leaders from every major mission agency, etc., to reach the world. It was the first conference like this. Now, a hundred years later, we've come together, peoples from all over the world, to celebrate the progress we've made, but also to spur us on to work together to reach the rest of the world that remains unreached.

One of the cool things about this conference was that in 1910, the majority of the people who came together for this conference were from Western nations, wanting to reach the world. It looked like over a thousand delegates in the pictures that they have, and wow- what a history! But, there were only 19 delegates representing non-western nations, and I believe there were some there from India included in that 19. I'm not sure how it all came down, but 19 from non-Western nations.

As as gathered in the huge, 2-story auditorium in Tokyo this year, there were over 1000 delegates from non-western nations. In fact, I felt like a minority! I think they represented around 80 nations. It was amazing! Not only that, but our speakers were not just Westerners putting on a conference. We had Korean speakers, Nigerians, Egyptians, Japanese, Swedish, Peruvians-- and this was just in the main plenary sessions-- not even the vast number of workshops that I wasn't able to attend. But the speakers names were not John and Bob, I can tell you.

A particularly touching thing happened on Friday, the last day of the conference. The Swedish speaker got up to talk about the state of Europe and what's needed to reach Europeans. In the past, Europe has sent so many missionaries who were passionately focused on one thing: reaching the world with the Gospel. Many who went out did not return, and so many gave their lives. Through them, the Gospel was spread to places like Asia, Africa and Latin America. In fact, in this conference a hundred years ago, most people were Europeans. It was held in Europe! In Edinburgh, Scotland! We have such a huge debt to these fearless, determined Europeans whose heart is was to share the Gospel with those who had never heard.

Now, a hundred years later, the church in Europe is very sick. While in other parts of the world, the Gospel has grown in the 1000%s, the church in Europe has declined. With the growing ideologies of secularism and humanism, so many churches have either compromised with such liberal theology that it denies itself, or it has withdrawn, also withdrawing its ability to reach out.

As we listened to these things and also talked about what was needed to reach secular and post-modern Europe, our hearts were broken for Europe. We cried out in prayer after that session for Europe, and though my heart is here in Japan, and it's for the Japanese people, I felt like my heart tore open to see what has happened and to cry for the church-- but also, we cried out for the strength of the missionaries working there. They went down from the different parts of the auditorium, and we all prayed in our own languages for them and for God to send more "Pauls" to this European continent crying, "Come over here and help us!".

We believe it-- these people are still God's children needing to be called home.

The conference days were long. The day started at 8:30 (though I left my house at 6:30 avoid the unbearably crowded express trains, and even so, they were still very crowded)... and the last session of the evening ended at 9pm. There was an hour long break for lunch and an hour long break for dinner, a half-hour break in the morning, and in the afternoons, 10-15 minutes between sessions... so, it was a full day!

I got to meet a lot of people... it was exciting to meet brothers and sisters from around the world, and though we didn't all speak the same language, it was fun to watch everyone making the effort to communicate. They had translations in a number of languages for the sessions, and people tuned in on their FM radios... it was interesting too, because some people were not able to be photo-ed or video-ed, for reasons I'm sure you understand. But they seemed to think of all these things ahead of time.

So, that was the conference. I really, really enjoyed it, but boy was I exhausted after it. Friday night, as I spent with our Fuse team in prayer, dinner together, lifegroup and then street performance, all I could say was, "I'm so tired"... like every few minutes.

Saturday was a great, great Fuse day! I did a little bit of prayer walking before we all met in the morning, and then we went to do street performance to hand out flyers, but we got kicked out after one song. :/ Making too much noise, I suppose. Anyway, then we walked around and handed out flyers, had some lunch and then came back.

After talking this morning with the girls in our girl-leaders lifegroup, we were really, really encouraged. Even though there weren't many people there yesterday, the people who were there-- it seemed like we saw everyone go to the next level of where they were. We were all sooooo encouraged to see what God is doing in their lives and how they are growing and are committed to FJC.

Mark had told us about the story of one particular person we know and how it seemed like he wasn't that into participating anymore in something they're involved in. We all really love this person and I was disheartened and troubled to hear about that. Anyway, when I saw this person show up at Fuse and then explain themselves and really see leadership from other Japanese and this person also communicate and show their humility and I was overjoyed to see it afterward. We all were! Anyway, I don't know if that all makes sense, but it was really cool-- it was the next step up for this person.

So, anyway, that's kinda where we are... keepin' on and praying and believing for God to do more things here. We won't be satisfied until it comes to the completion of what God wants it to be... which is a continual process-- so, we'll keep pressin' on and seekin' God. It's so exciting to see that He is answering our prayers and responding to us!

Well, I need to get... I'm in the middle of making lunch and I need to leave in not too long for a church meeting, planning meeting and etc.... and tonight, I'm going to get lots of rest... because....

Tomorrow I start school!!!