Day 62

A brief explanation on the title of this entry to begin—shortly before we came to Japan, I downloaded a few free apps from the Apple Store, free because Apple was celebrating the store's anniversary. One of the apps is called "Day One". It's an app for keeping a journal. I began making daily entries since August 1, which is how I can quickly calculate the number of days we've been in Asia this time around.


In a little over two hours, we will be going with the students down the mountain into town to hold a church service at the historic Karuizawa Union Church. We began holding morning services there for the students last Sunday. The occasion was the baptism of one of our students later that afternoon in the cold water run-off from nearby Mt. Asama. More than fifty people from several churches attended the baptism. The student being baptized, Melissa, shared her testimony with the group in English, as one of her fellow students stood nearby and translated into Japanese. After Melissa shared, we walked into the water to a deeper spot and baptized her. When Melissa came up out of the water, she raised her arms and hands to the Lord, as everyone sang a chorus of these words: "kohitsuji yesuni, misakae areya, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, amen." Translated into English, the words mean: "To Jesus, the Lamb of God let there be glory! Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Amen!" What a blessing for all!

On Friday of this week, I met with one of the persons on the list of people we are praying for. He is a former student of SYME and lives in the area. We went to his favorite restaurant in the area and ate ramen. While there we talked about the Lord, of course, and then afterwards went to his house to continue the conversation and to meet his parents. It turns out both of his parents are Christians. They became Christians a little over two years ago. They are retired now, but actively involved in church and Bible study. The father, in fact, was studying in the book of Romans when we arrived to their house. He had some questions about what he was studying, which I was able to help him with. In the course of our talking, the three of us (our student's father, mother, and I) turned our attention to the former student and his own need for the Lord. He told us there are things he still does not understand. He also is trying to study the Bible, but gets hung up when he comes across unfamilar metaphors. (For example, he did not understand what Jesus meant by the image of Caesar being on a coin and "render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, and unto God that which is God's." We explained to him that he did not have to understand everything about the Bible to qualify as a Christian. Becoming a Christian begins simply with knowing who Jesus is, believing on him in your heart, and confessing him with your mouth. 

Please keep praying for this young man and all of the others on the list. It's obvious that the Lord is working in his life, surrounding him with others who care about his soul. I believe the Lord is hearing our prayers. This young man leaves for the States in a couple of weeks to meet up with some friends who are Christians and attend a Christian retreat. So the Lord is definitely at work!