How Blessing it is to Share

So I am so jetlagging still. I'm pooped but I gotta share this. It's been four days now. It's only been four days but it feels like it's been at LEAST a week! And although it's been only four days, it's been such a blessing to me. I've gotten the chance to share Jesus with several Japanese already!! And I may look like a fool, and it may be difficult to start, but each time I've been able to share the Gospel, I am so blessed and so honored that I got the chance to share the Good News and be a part of God's Kingdom work. 

The second day I got here I did Free 5 min. English lesson outside a subway station (called train station for future references) with 3 other people. Wow it was such a great time. I was a little nervous - nervously excited to have the chance to share Christ, and nervously scared that I would actually have to do it with someone! Lol. Well I did get to share with this guy named Yohei, and it was a good time of me presenting to him the Gospel. I gave him my email, some info, and a postcard type thing where he can mail in with his info to receive a free Hope dvd. You can pray that he would follow up in any way - contacting me, getting the dvd, etc. I loved to see how one of the journeygirls who has been here for almost 2 years worked it. Wow it was so encouraging how she was so straightforward and so bold! I loved it! 

Today at the Easter party a journeyguy and an ISCer put together, I got to share the Gospel with two people who heard it presented specifically for them for the first time. Their names are Misato and Genryu (not too sure about this name!). I loved sharing with them who Jesus is, and why I love sharing with them. It was awesome. And Misato, I hope that I will be her friend for the rest of my time here...she is the sweetest thing. And then with another, who had heard the Gospel, I got to share more about Jesus with him.  

There are also so many things I've experienced and seen but I'm too tired to write about them all. I have pictures and videos too and they'll be up asap!!!

Verse

1 Corinthians 15:58 says, "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." Amen.

Getting Ready to GOOO ~

An update is very much in need :) Sorry to keep you guys wondering ~

So here I am, with only 3 full days left before I depart to Nihon! I am so excited!! But I am also bogged down with the worries and stresses of packing as much and as completely as I can for the next 2 years. I want to bring as many things that are important to me as I can. 

I had a week and a half to spend between training and departing for Japan, but I wonder where all that time went? I got to spend time with my Irvine family, sharing stories from FPO (training) and things I learned. I wish I could spend more time with them to share MORE, but it's ok, although it seems like it's not enough time, God will use the little time there was for His glory. Now I am in NorCal and I am trying to do as much as I can, except I'm so unorganized that I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing ;)...packing, more sharing with more people, spending time with family, and saying goodbyes. I'll be leaving right before my sister's birthday :( it's so sad. 

As I've been out and about taking care of last minute things, it's been interesting to see random strangers' reactions to my going to Japan as a missionary. Cause that's what I'm doing, if you didn't know yet :) I don't wear a sign that I'm going to Japan for two years as a missionary, but they end up asking me questions, which lead me to explain my next two years in Japan. It's actually been very encouraging. For example, at Chase the other day (I'm so sad it's no longer WaMu) I asked about using my account overseas, etc. and he asked me where I'm going, which led to for how long, which led to why? And I told him why although I didn't use the M word because it seems to have a bad stereotype attached to it for some people. Well he got it! He asked who is sending me because some church or other must be commissioning me to go, and it turns out he himself is going to somewhere in the Middle East for short term missions! Awesome. I love to see bits and pieces of what's going on with God's Kingdom work.

Well, sometimes two years seem really short and sometimes it seems reallllly looooong. So I go through these weird mood swings, where one moment I'm chill, and the next I am stressed out! I do have moments when I'm like, "What am I doing?!? Why am I going to a foreign land where I don't know anyone and I don't know anything??" hehe but my reassurance comes from knowing that God is with me, and God has been with me up till now, and He will be with me in Japan. I am so glad that God has already been at work in Japan and that there have been many before me. I hear about all the exciting news of Japanese coming to faith in greater numbers and I am super duper excited to see what God will be doing when I am there!

Let's pray that I will not miss opportunities to share my faith that someone might be brought closer to Christ :) Thanks.