Praying Partners!
Thank you so much for your prayers and kind email replies for us here in Japan. They have encouraged us greatly. After emailing you the next morning I woke up with John 14:1 running through my head and throughout the next few days God encouraged me with His Word. Following are some verses God spoke to me through.
John 14:1
"Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me."
(It was nice to wake up with this verse ringing in my heart. So often I let my heart be troubled when I need only to trust in Him.)
Ecclesiastes 8, 10, 14
"The end of the matter is better than its beginning; Patience of spirit is better than haughtiness of spirit."
(We are at the beginning of this work – it will be hard as it should be. We need patience in it and insight to look beyond the difficulty of the beginning towards the goal)
"Do not say, 'Why is it that the former days were better than these?' For it not from wisdom that you ask about this."
(God used this in the form of a rebuke for me. It's easy to long for the past "good" days, but this is not wisdom and it is not trusting God for a better tomorrow)
"In the day of prosperity be happy, but in the day of adversity consider – God has made the one as well as the other…"
(God is in charge of the day of adversity as well as the day of prosperity – can't I trust him for both?)
Lamentations 3:25-27
"The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him. It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he should bear the yoke in his youth…"
(There is meaning in this struggle of hardship for us now that God may use years down the road, and so it is good for us to have it now and it is good for us to wait, to seek, to sit silently before Him)
To say the least, God has been encouraging us through your prayers and His Word. Thank you!
For our first introduction meeting 1 freshman guy came. But one is more than many and God can do more than we can imagine through just one person (as some of you have also reminded us of). For our second meeting we had 3 students from the Utsunomiya BEST club come down and join us as well us 4 students from Tsukuba (3 from last year and the one freshman guy who came before = so no new people for our second introductory meeting). Though no new people came, the night was amazing as we watched students interact with students. In fact the students were having so much fun talking together that they didn't leave until 1:30 the next morning. God used the students from Utsunomiya to encourage our students to be excited about BEST club. "Monday Bible" "Bible Time" "Freshman Bible" "B of BEST" throughout the conversation the Utsunomiya students continually referred to the Bible times of BEST club. I couldn't help but wonder what our students were thinking as they heard other students refer to the Bible without hesitation or suspicion! The night gave our students a better idea of what BEST club is and more enthusiasm to see it succeed in Tsukuba.
It the months to come we will continue to recruit for BEST and we are also beginning to see that God may have designed this year as a year to build depth in the relationships with the few He has led to us. Please continue to pray with us!
From Japan,
Tom and Ai
