Getting away from the hectic city life of Hong Kong and back to my 3rd home, Ishinomaki for the 3rd time in the past 12 month was an incredible experience, as we have got to have some real time to see how powerful God was. God is always at work and I'm always amazed when we return to the fishing town, Ishinomaki, in the northeast of Japan.
This time round, I could only joined the team half way through the trip and I might not be speaking Japanese as fluent as some other members in my team do, but what matter was that it was making myself available to serve God and others who were in need. Being an empty vessel for God to use for His glory was far more important than what I think I could do. That way, I could only serve love and joy at their best.
Another great thing on returning to Japan for mission trip was hoping that my friends and families in HK and overseas, will get to know more of God’s Love better in a country like Japan. Japan only has about 1% of the popularity knowing about the hope of Christ, but little acts like sowing the seeds during all our 3 missionary trips do matter. Little acts have never got such big touching impacts, not until they have been sprinkled with His Love.
I was reading an article of a humble watchmaker on the plane heading to Narita, I was convinced that God gave me the word, humble. I needed to learn and to be a truly humble servant like how Jesus was. Even though I didn’t really have any holiday leaves left for this year, I chose to obey Him. Surely with just so little time to serve at Ishinomaki, God will never cease to pour His Love out for the communities at Ishinomaki and I will never stop serving for His glory.
Upon my arrival at Ishinomaki, I was quite surprised that my Japanese friends from Sydney, the custom guy at Narita and my Tokyo friends were all saying thanks to me and my team for our help! I have yet to learn a few more great things from my super polite Japanese friends!
God for one, only one thing. To live with Him my whole life. I’ll contemplate the beauty of His Love for Japan, and to be at Ishinomaki to study at His feet (Psalm 27:4). This makes me more committed in going back to Ishinomaki and other tsunami affected areas. I was looking forward in seeing the hope of Christ being re-written there. So on the bus, I was also thinking what God has in stored during my time at Ishinomaki with Grace Mission Tohoku (GMT), the local ministry at Ishinomaki whom we worked with in the last 2 trips.
I admired their serving hearts and seeing their post updates on Facebook on how the community is progressing well with God have been blowing my minds. The awesome spirits of the long-term volunteers there at Ishinomaki offering themselves as living sacrifices in reaching out to the locals by instilling hope and life back to the community have been amazing. The other thing, was hoping that me and others would get to catch up with the Kitami family and the home owners like Takahashi-san, whom we met at the last few home repair programs with Samaritan's Purse Japan. So I was praying about how to listen for Him better so that I could be flexible in serving more wholeheartedly.
After travelling for 10 hours straight, I finally arrived at Ishinomaki bright and early. It was definitely nice to be back. The sky was in a perfect blue and nothing beated by starting the day with God at the morning devotion at GMT. On the way from the station to the Hope House, I could definitely noticed that the city is showing signs of recovery like with more cars traveling on the streets, some more fixed sites and with school children on the streets.
We got teamed up with another Japanese team from Shiga for our tasks on the day I arrived. Such an honor to work as one Body with people from different countries and with different backgrounds. We helped out with moving some mattresses for the volunteers living at the Yoshida’s house (now a home for the male volunteers) and the Igarashi’s house (now a home for the female volunteers). Really happy to see the transformations since our first trip in September 2011. Little things like having a veggie patch outside Yoshida’s and the flowers outside the Igarashi’s are pleasing to see how the community is set for more exciting things to come. The Japanese girls from Shiga were really helpful and learnt a lot from their serving hearts throughout all our different delegated tasks such as unscrewing nails and sorting woods, and through to our cooking duties.
One of our main tasks there at Ishinomaki was to give support and to pray for our local missionaries and volunteering friends, so I was very pleased that we managed to have some prayer time in small groups together. I got teamed up with Ly-ann and Rimpei. Rimpei san is part of the local missionaries at GMT and really amazed by his love for reaching out to not just to the people at Ishinomaki but now for the community at Minamisanriku! GMT is currently expanding and praying that God will help them to find the extra hands that they need for their expanding ministry!
The constant thing on my mind this time was how to use my creative gift well and I had the time to do some GMT logo signboards as they have a few different sites where they are serving at. It was a one person task but that means I had more quality time with God. Not only that, a few Japanese locals walked pass and made a few basic Japanese conversations with them. I could really tell that they were really interested in what GMT and other volunteers are doing for the community. It was really lovely to see their smiling faces too!
Meeting Takahashi san again, the home owner of the house, which we and our friends from Samaritan’s Purse Japan helped to mud out on, was one of the most touching moments. She showed such an intense of hope while she updated us on how things have been progressing with her and her family. Her courage had greatly touched our hearts. The other highlight was meeting up with the Kitami’s, the local family whom we have continuously met up with during all of our 3 trips. We shared many laughters and happy moments together and just so thankful for their openness to us like a bunch of good old friends hanging together.
It might sounds like that I hadn’t done much during my time at Ishinomaki, but it was not about how many things I have done, but it was about doing what were pleasing to Him. To be used by God, is the most wonderful thing that I can ever imagine.
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