I am going to Japan as a
missionary with Campus Crusade for Christ. While there, I will be going
onto university campuses and helping with their student ministries,
raising up student leaders, planning outreaches, as well as just going out and
sharing the love of Jesus with students. My team and I will also be
discipling the Japanese Christians that are there in order to prepare them to
go out and reach their families, their coworkers, and the rest of Japan.
So why Japan?
Honestly, I never
thought I would be doing anything like this at any point in my life, much less
right now. Two years ago, if someone had told me I would be going to
Japan for a year as a missionary, I would have told them no way. But the
truth is that God has changed my heart towards missions in a huge way.
Last summer I went to East Asia on a summer project with Cru (Campus
Crusade for Christ; I'll probably refer to it as Cru from now on) and while I
was there it really opened my eyes to the need in the world for Jesus. I
came back from that trip seriously considering ministry as something I could do
after college, at least for a year. I never considered Japan, though.
Japan was brought to my
attention by two of my friends who had been there on a summer project the year
before. Amy and Jack both fell in love with Japan, and when Amy was
deciding to go on STINT there she asked me to consider going there, as well.
Actually, she pretty much just told me I should come with her and I told her
that I'd rather pass, to which she responded, "I'll pray you on to our
STINT team." Who knew how true that would be! For the rest of
fall semester, I talked to both Amy and Jack about Japan and they shared their
hearts with me for the people there. Through them, I learned about the
need that is in Japan. Less than 1% of the population is Christian, and
there is a suicide every 15 minutes. The culture emphasizes tradition and
a collective mindset of what it means to be Japanese. Christianity does
not fit into that mindset.
Amy and Jack told me
about the students they had met and how they felt empty inside, with nothing to
look forward to except a potentially dead-end job. They told me how they
did ministry in Japan, building up relationships with the students. And
the more I heard about the need in Japan and the people, the more I connected
with it. I felt drawn to Japan.
So I prayed. And
prayed. And prayed some more. For a while, I was very much
convinced that I was going to stay at ASU and intern here instead. But
then I went to San Diego Winter Conference just after Christmas and God moved
in my heart. There were some amazing speakers there, and during one of
the talks I was seriously convicted. The talk was about leaving everything
behind and following Jesus. Following Him with your entire life.
And it made me think about why I wanted to stay in Arizona. I
realized that most of my reasons were selfish. My friends were here.
My family. My community. My church. It would be easier
to stay here. I realized that I wouldn't be giving Jesus my all if I
stayed here, and it was at that point that I accepted what I had known for a
while but refused to accept. God was calling me to Japan.
Even after that, it took
me a while to fully embrace the reality of what that meant. I
procrastinated on my application. I kept praying and waiting for a
different response from God. Even when I had finally submitted my
application, I still wasn't sure that this was what God had in mind for my
life.
And then the tsunami
hit. Three days after I had submitted my application to STINT in Japan, I
received a text message from a friend telling me to look at the news because an
earthquake had hit Japan. I remember looking at multiple news sites for
hours instead of doing my homework and crying as I watched footage of the
tsunami wipe out cities. Everything was sort of up in the air. What
did this mean for STINT? Were they still sending a team to Japan?
Was the radiation a serious danger? What was going to happen?
I was still waiting to
hear about my application while all of this was going on, and still I doubted.
I asked God to not let me get accepted unless I was supposed to go.
And eventually, I got my phone interview and my pre-acceptance and then a
follow up phone call and my actual acceptance and then an e-mail telling me my
placement in Japan. We were going.
So here I am.
That's how I got to where I am now. Going to Japan.
Coming next: My team!
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