Little Arrows

On many different occasions Danielle and I have wondered why this particular time-frame seemed good to the Lord to enable us to move to Japan.  One week into being here we had this overwhelming feeling that life and ministry with two small children in Japan is impossible.  (Particularly as foreigners who know next to nothing of the language!)  What encouraged us a few weeks ago was realizing the truth in 2Cor. 4:7.  It reads, “…we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” The conclusion we drew was that we are designed to be weak and “easily broken” so that God’s power can shine through us and only serve to glorify Him more.  And so, we just prayed, “God please shine through our weakness!”

A few days later we added a prayer.  “Lord, let us see our kids for the incredibly valuable, beautiful people that they are and also important team members and not just distractions to the work.”  We’ve had several affirmations that that was exactly what He was looking for.

That same day we met with the directors of PAZ Japan, (the agency that has sponsored our visa’s) and Christine Huber told us that people treated her very differently the first time she walked around the neighborhood with one of her grandbabies.  We have certainly experienced that here in ours.  In my past experiences in Japan, people rarely make eye-contact with you on the street and it is REALLY rare to ever actually speak to someone when you’re out and about.  It has been a polar opposite experience this time.  Almost every time we leave the apartment with the kids we end up meeting someone.

Sunday night was the same.  Rebecca and I traveled out to spend some time worshiping and praying with the Wilson family (Ben was sick so Danielle stayed home with him.) and we took Mattie along.  We rode 4 trains – two there and two on the way back – and we had an engaging conversation on each of the trains.  And each began BECAUSE Mattie was there.  Whether it was someone giving up their seat so we could sit or someone talking directly to Mattie, we ended up meeting several people.  In one case I had an opportunity to share a brief testimony and gospel explanation!

The person we met on the last train said she was drawn to us because of Mattie. She explained “her smile is VERY special!”  Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time or the language skills to be able to explain to this woman WHY her smile was so special.

It has been great to see that it isn’t just possible for us to be in Japan right now with two small children but that it may well indeed be the perfect time for us to be here.