recapitulate

After 1.5 sleepless nights back in the USA, my body is slowly readjusting.
But my mind is still in Osaka. I thank God for the amazing time spent in J-House. One month flew through my fingers as we waved goodbye to friends, new relationships developed in Japan. God showed us a thriving Christian community with passionate followers of Christ, living as lights among darkness. Everyday was such an unexpected blessing and testimony of how God moves in Japan.
3 days out of the week consisted of Church gatherings: Sunday Worship, Wednesday Prayer meeting, and Friday Big Wave Worship. Tuesday-Thursday our team traveled to Kansai, Kansai-Gaidai, Handai, Kangaku for Campus Evangelism in the form of "Funky Club"- MELT (My English Lunch Time), RUSH, ENT (Eat N Talk), etc. Meeting up with each new student was a unique experience and blessing. After getting to know them and develop a friendship, our role was to invite them to events; God brought them in. In each of the events we hosted, we experienced God's grace and providence in who came out and how the night went.
Each night after the event-filled day, we had "team-time". Richard used this time to share a devotional from a Bible passage. These were gold. Afterward we'd take the time to pray and ask God for the things of the day or at hand, to thank Him for his unwavering faithfulness, and to confess our sins before God and each other. I truly believe these times molded our team in our heads and hearts; it brought back the focus on the only thing that mattered: Are we loving God and His people?
Before we slept, small-group met in each respective room. It started well in the beginning, but only grew deeper as we were able to open up and share our thoughts and feelings- matters of the heart. We acknowledged the struggle, identified the sin, and confessed it. Proverbs 28:13, James 5:16.
I can say that after this trip, our team has grown deeper in the Word and has become more conscious of the words we speak- are they edifying and building up? or is it merely crude joking which serves no good purpose. The Bible says we will be judged for every careless word we say, and that the tongue of the righteous is choice silver (Proverbs 10:20). Therefore, being aware that words can either bring life or death, we should guard our tongues. In this I see tremendous change in our team, and I thank God that He allowed us to grow in this way.
One thing we all developed and would love to take home: the discipline of Morning Prayer. To start the day off with immersing yourself in the Word, what can beat that? Every morning at J-House, everyone gathers at 7 (6:55am), reads/devo for 30 minutes, then we sings songs of praise, pray together, then someone shares a devotional of the day. What an amazing thing! And a great challenge/conviction to apply.
God has taught me so many things. But most of all, to cherish His word, and to love Him by loving people, with the loving grace that He has shown us and loved us with.
Praise God. Give thanks always, in all circumstances, be an excellent worker, for you work unto God and not man. Let's continue to strive whether it be in Japan, India, Nicaragua, Uganda, or even in the US of A. May God's word dwell in our hearts and mold us daily!