Friday morning during my quiet time I got to read Haggai 2. Wednesday was Haggai 1 and that was some really heavy convicting scripture reading... Then Thursday's smiles happened, and then Friday morning I read Ch 2. Here are some exerpts:
"Be strong, all you people of the land,' declares the LORD, 'and work. For I am with you,' declares the LORD Almighty."
"'The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,' says the LORD Almighty. 'And in this place I will grant peace,' declares the LORD Almighty."
"'From this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the LORD's temple was laid. Give careful thought: Is there yet any seed left in the barn? Until now, the vine and the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not borne fruit.
" 'From this day on I will bless you.' "
We were feeling very dry here. I mean, spiritually speaking, God was working on us... HARD! And we were being blessed beyond measure all over the place. But in terms of fruit, we were getting a little discouraged. We felt like we were sowing and sowing and not reaping all that much- not seeing much fruit at all. I guess we were failing to realize that the point is to love on the people, share Christ with them, and then trust God to do the rest. It's HIS work... How silly were we?? But God spoils us. Thursday, as you know, we saw two girls come to Christ! They'll be joining us at church on Sunday. Friday I read in Haggai about how dry the people's land has been- that they've been sowing and not reaping, eating and not being filled, drinking and not being quenched. BUT FROM THIS DAY FORWARD, I WILL BLESS YOU (in a different version). I felt so spoken to by that. I was so excited to go out and WORK for God.
So we get to campus, and find out that no staff or STInters would be joining us for English lunch. Oh well. We like time with just our team anyway. But we got there twenty minutes early as usual so we went to the garden to find a place where we could sit and pray together. But Kohei was standing there, already waiting for us. Twenty minutes early...
...Kohei was a guy that I had shared the Gospel with on Tuesday. The thing is, I had been very discouraged about how the conversation went. I shared with him the Gospel, but suddenly I felt like it wasn't enough with just my words, so I pulled out the "Knowing God Personally booklet" and went through it with him, and as he left to take an exam, I handed it to him to keep. I really wished that I could be confident enough in God speaking through me to be able to share the Gospel without any written help...
...So we're taken aback cuz we weren't expecting anyone yet, and so we had to change our schedule- we weren't gonna have our team meeting, and so we left Kohei to wait with Christina while Kris, Russell, Cherie and I went to HokkaHokka to buy some bento (box lunch). We get back a few minutes later and Christina JUMPS up and comes running up to us, and Kohei comes running behind her. Christina says, "Can I tell them??" He consents and she blurts out, "He received Christ!" and I'm like... "WHAT?!" I ask him, and he's like, "I believe in God now. I am a Christian!" He told Christina that he'd accepted the gift of salvation and received Christ into his heart right after my conversation with him. I could not believe it! What a humbling experience! To put a limit on God, worrying that I'd used the KGP booklet in sharing my faith with him... silly Gen!!
What a joyous occasion it was for me. Sarah got to lead another girl to receive Christ that day at Rikkyo too.
The rest of the day, I got to hang out with Ryo (the guy I shared the Gospel with two Tuesdays ago) and Mei (a guy Russell's been hangin out with whom he's gotten to share the Gospel with as well). Here are some pictures!
"FROM THIS DAY ON, I WILL BLESS YOU..."
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