I remain a story teller...a long update
Hmm...my long distance communication is either dead or in the 'Critical Care' unit of the hospital right now. This is at least kind of a good thing...my Tokyo relationships have been really great these past couple months, and it is nice to have that stability. My supervisor and I can joke around a lot now...he frequently threatens to leave the Center all to me and I get to tease him about holding goat sacrifices without his permission. (this was the one thing he told me I was not allowed to do during Bible Studies, which means I have to threaten to do it all the time. ;) )
Life especially these past few weeks has been really amazing. For several months, I feel like I was trying to invent a calling here in Tokyo. It's not that I wasn't doing things...I was building relationships, having great conversations, learning things...but it didn't feel like anything was actually turning into anything lasting. Good things would seem to happen without any real change.
A few months ago, I was praying through a prayer guide and it ended with "Pray for some kind of 24/7 prayer in your city". I thought, "Huh...there has to be something like that in Tokyo." And thus, my true ignorance became clear.
For a long time, I'd assumed that other churches, ones that are normally more prayer oriented than my church, surely had a prayer presence in Tokyo. And some of them probably do. But it is really, really impossible to find any of them on the internet. And a lot of the organizations I can find are very evangelism focused, but don't say much about prayer. The more I learn the more I am like...what are you all doing?!?! Sending missionaries into one of the countries named "The Missionary Graveyard" to work themselves into the ground without even running after the Holy Spirit for help?!?! It has been very eye-opening.
In my digging around, I've discovered the international organization 24/7 Prayer...there are two prayer rooms through this organization in all of Japan. One is in Hokkaido (the northern island) and the other is somewhere near Nagoya. It seems a little odd that the largest city in Japan would not have one. Gradually, that feeling has grown into "I want to start one."
I kept that feeling entirely to myself for about a month. That month was spent pretty much being like, "God...are you crazy?!?! Are you stark raving mad?! Do you know how many people I would have to put together to get us to pray non-stop for one week? Something like 50! I don't know if I even know 50 Christians here, let alone 50 Christians who like praying enough to sign up for an hour of prayer at 3 in the morning! Have you seen people's work schedules here?! Have you seen your *missionaries* work schedules here?! And are you aware that I'm not actually allowed to lead things in terms of my contract with my church?" God was pretty silent through all of this, except that I kept remembering that, somehow, this desire made it back to the purest, most idealistic desires I had when I first came to Tokyo. Back before I started to "learn" what could and couldn't happen. Back when all I had done was study Japanese and observe the Japanese church and I somehow was thinking, "This city must start praying together." Pretty lofty thoughts for one hired to teach English and Bible to 40 some Japanese college students and professionals.
Do you ever have one of those moments or periods of life where you go around doing nothing, because the only thing you can think of that would really be worth doing is so huge you don't even see why you should start?
I started! It feels incredible. Mostly, it has just meant beginning to tell other people: "This is what I'm dreaming about!" And saying before God that I was willing to go for it all the way if it was what He wanted. Even if it meant staying in Japan longer than I had planned. And with the decision, I feel like an adventure has started. I met a girl on Facebook who lives in Hong Kong and tries to lead multiple prayer groups just for Japan each year. I went to a church within walking distance of mine and introduced myself to a pastor / missionary who leads prayer walks for Japan for the Japan Evangelical Missionary Association and I told him about my hope / calling for a prayer room in Tokyo. I was given permission to begin organizing a system to get all our Hongo students prayed for in a week by church members.
I think this year is going to be hard, but exciting. We'll see how things go.
Life especially these past few weeks has been really amazing. For several months, I feel like I was trying to invent a calling here in Tokyo. It's not that I wasn't doing things...I was building relationships, having great conversations, learning things...but it didn't feel like anything was actually turning into anything lasting. Good things would seem to happen without any real change.
A few months ago, I was praying through a prayer guide and it ended with "Pray for some kind of 24/7 prayer in your city". I thought, "Huh...there has to be something like that in Tokyo." And thus, my true ignorance became clear.
For a long time, I'd assumed that other churches, ones that are normally more prayer oriented than my church, surely had a prayer presence in Tokyo. And some of them probably do. But it is really, really impossible to find any of them on the internet. And a lot of the organizations I can find are very evangelism focused, but don't say much about prayer. The more I learn the more I am like...what are you all doing?!?! Sending missionaries into one of the countries named "The Missionary Graveyard" to work themselves into the ground without even running after the Holy Spirit for help?!?! It has been very eye-opening.
In my digging around, I've discovered the international organization 24/7 Prayer...there are two prayer rooms through this organization in all of Japan. One is in Hokkaido (the northern island) and the other is somewhere near Nagoya. It seems a little odd that the largest city in Japan would not have one. Gradually, that feeling has grown into "I want to start one."
I kept that feeling entirely to myself for about a month. That month was spent pretty much being like, "God...are you crazy?!?! Are you stark raving mad?! Do you know how many people I would have to put together to get us to pray non-stop for one week? Something like 50! I don't know if I even know 50 Christians here, let alone 50 Christians who like praying enough to sign up for an hour of prayer at 3 in the morning! Have you seen people's work schedules here?! Have you seen your *missionaries* work schedules here?! And are you aware that I'm not actually allowed to lead things in terms of my contract with my church?" God was pretty silent through all of this, except that I kept remembering that, somehow, this desire made it back to the purest, most idealistic desires I had when I first came to Tokyo. Back before I started to "learn" what could and couldn't happen. Back when all I had done was study Japanese and observe the Japanese church and I somehow was thinking, "This city must start praying together." Pretty lofty thoughts for one hired to teach English and Bible to 40 some Japanese college students and professionals.
Do you ever have one of those moments or periods of life where you go around doing nothing, because the only thing you can think of that would really be worth doing is so huge you don't even see why you should start?
I started! It feels incredible. Mostly, it has just meant beginning to tell other people: "This is what I'm dreaming about!" And saying before God that I was willing to go for it all the way if it was what He wanted. Even if it meant staying in Japan longer than I had planned. And with the decision, I feel like an adventure has started. I met a girl on Facebook who lives in Hong Kong and tries to lead multiple prayer groups just for Japan each year. I went to a church within walking distance of mine and introduced myself to a pastor / missionary who leads prayer walks for Japan for the Japan Evangelical Missionary Association and I told him about my hope / calling for a prayer room in Tokyo. I was given permission to begin organizing a system to get all our Hongo students prayed for in a week by church members.
I think this year is going to be hard, but exciting. We'll see how things go.