Japan

Every day, I continue to be amazed by God, who He is, His plan for me, how much He loves me, how beautiful His creation is, all the awesome people He has allowed me to meet and how AMAZING His grace really is.

Looking back over the past two years, I've realised now how blind I have been this whole time. At Mid Year Conference (MYC) in 2007, I first heard about "Mission Megumi", a four week mission to Japan run by Student Life, a Christian ministry at my uni. I had only been in Student Life for one semester and my relationship with God wasn't really close, so although I went to the information session, I really had no idea what it was about and what it involved. Nor did I realise that two years later I would seriously be considering to go on this mission.

Honestly, in the past I didn't really have much of an interest for Japan or for Japanese people as my interest in Korean things had overshadowed pretty much anything. I did watch a few anime though hehe which were good! But somehow I was never really cut off from Japanese things. From maybe sometime in highschool I had asked my dad to get me a Japanese book because I wanted to learn the language. (I still have the book!) However I never really committed to it because later on Korean overshadowed it. But still even after that, I discovered that my favourite Korean singer knew and sung songs in Japanese (as well as several other artists). I actually practised some of her songs in Japanese when I was in highschool haha :x After I started uni, I had wanted to study Japanese as well but because I had already chosen other subjects there was no room for it.

Anyway, even after God had allowed my path to cross with Shiho and Cecilia who were going on Mission Megumi after the 2007 MYC, I was still so blinded. I checked because I forgot lol but I did support both of them (I think), and I know Shiho had sent updates, prayer points and the newsletter after the project to me...but I don't think I really prayed for the team (-_-") nor did I read the newsletter until just today :x (after coming back with Shiho from Sydney!). I can't believe how blinded and dumb I was and how God had been giving me signs all along. I STILL have the "Mission Megumi" flier from 2007 as well which I had with my bible for the longest time ever.

Then last year I went on Beyond Brisbane and got to spend more time with Shiho, and met STINTers from Japan, Shubo and Nobu. It was a pleasure to serve with everyone on that team and I learnt so much. God really opened up my eyes as I got to know Shubo and Nobu and saw their passion for God and my lack of interest for Japan slowly began to change.

Anyway how everything seems to tie in is that when I went to Sydney with Shiho just a few days ago, she introduced me to Andy (we stayed at his house), George and Esther who had all gone on Mission Megumi as well. It definitely wasn't a coincidence that things happened the way they did.

Prior to going to Sydney, Cecilia had actually contacted me because she was preparing to go to Japan on a year long STINT (Short Term INTernational). I sort of forgot that I had supported her back in 2007 and had only had a few conversations with her before but after Beyond Brisbane I felt that God was really giving me an opportunity to be involved in ministry in Japan through supporting Cecilia. I never imagined that after meeting up with Cecilia and hearing about what she would be doing in Japan, that I would end up meeting the other two STINTers as well in Sydney.

I had always regretted that I hadn't made the most of all my time at uni to serve God but I'm pretty certain that He is giving me another opportunity to make up for lost time through "Mission Megumi". Although it's not until the end of the year I feel God is calling me to go. So many times I've missed God's call for me to serve Him but I know He's always waiting there patiently. His grace truly is sufficient for us all and I want to share this with the beautiful people of Japan! I started to think about how God has been graceful to Korean's as they have such a high percentage of Christians and I know it's about time for revival in Japan! I want to be involved and used by God if it's His will.

I'm going to study Japanese in my free time this year. finally!