Susan - I missed Japan!

It's been 6 days since we've returned home from Japan and my internal clock is finally back to West Coast time! Although I'm happy to be back home sleeping on my comfortable bed and having the luxury of the bathroom all to myself, I missed waking up to the sound of someone making breakfast and the tapping noise of someone using the laptop. I missed the team! most of all I missed Japan and all the kids who came to VBS. One thing I don't miss is the mosquitos bites! I swelled up like a balloon for a few days, and the bad news, Shirley told me that the mosquito bites only gets worse each time I come back... I wondered why?

Before and during the trip, I had doubts about whether I should be a part of the Japan mission team. I wondered whether I was heeding to God calling me to go to Japan, or was I heeding to my heart's desires to go? So I prayed about it. Two things had to happen in order for me to go. First, the original date the team was set to leave conflicted with my work schedule. Then the original date fell thru because the Reasoner's were going to be out of town the same week the JMT was going to be in Tokorozawa, so the date was bumped up a week earlier, yeah for me! Second, I had to ask for time off from work which wasn't going to be easy because, one, I had a fairly new manager who was still learning his job, and two, I will be leaving during the most critical time in the company's accounting cycle. Again I prayed and God opened the way for me to go. Nothing is impossible for God, if it's His will, He will make a way!

Satan was at work again filling my thoughts with doubts about being called to serve on JMT. At first I didn't realized this was a spiritual attack until now as I'm writing this, otherwise I would have prayed against Satan's attack. But I did share about my doubts with some of the team members, so they must have been praying for me. As I see the smiling faces on the children and their eagerness to learn more about God, my doubt began to fade away. It wasn't unil our final debriefing at the Tamara's that my doubt had toally vanquished. Kohichi, shared with the team the responses from the kids and moms who attended VBS. I was so overjoyed to hear that the majority of the children wanted to believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, even the moms said "yes" to Jesus! That was the best news ever!! I'm sure all the heavenly beings was shouting with joy over this.

I wish I could stay longer in Japan to help the Tamara's with the follow-up's. I'm praying that God would open the door for me to stay longer in Japan to help with the harvest and that He would provide workers to help the Tamara's, Reasoner's, and Nakamura's family to further His Kingdom.