Christine Lee

I had a lot of fear and worries before coming into Japan, especially since this was my first missions trip. I was worried about my faith, character, and effectiveness in doing God’s work. And while in Japan, some of my fears did come true. The heart that I had in America did not change miraculously as soon as my feet hit Japanese soil. I found it difficult to talk to people, to love people, to pray for people. Here am I, a “missionary”, and I didn’t care to spread the Gospel. I felt like a fraud. But I learned that my inadequate heart wasn’t the main focus, and it wasn’t going to stop what God was doing. God displayed how he was sovereignly working for the hearts of the Japanese to look towards him. And consequently, mine as well.

It was little things at first, almost unnoticeable things. The printer started to print pages with extra strange marks. After someone prayed for it, the printer started to work again. A USB flash drive with critical information on it stopped working. With prayer, it worked long enough to transfer the necessary files, and then never worked again. A computer running out of batteries ran long enough to play the music for a skit presenting the gospel, then died shortly after. Being pretty skeptical, I noted it but didn’t really take it as a divine act of God. But God started to open my eyes by showing his sovereignty over something bigger than that.

Wednesdays we had Funky Club at Kansai Gaidai, which is always held outside. If there was bad weather, there would be no place to have Funky Club, and it would have to be cancelled. The month of June is rainy season, and every Wednesday it was forecasted to rain. Every week we would pray for God to hold back the rain. The first week I head out with an umbrella in hand, but it didn’t rain a single drop, and in fact I got sunburned. On the way home, I talked with a staff worker who said that in the year she had been in Japan, it never rained for Funky Club. I was amazed that there was not even a single incident of rain, and it dawned on me how much God loved that campus. Without Funky Club, there would be little opportunity to share the gospel with the students on that campus. After that first time, I stopped bringing our umbrellas.

There so many other times that God was so sovereign over external circumstances. They all provided opportunities for the team to be able to share Christ with the Japanese people. I’m also blessed to say that God was able to use me in spite of my lacking heart. I became fast friends with a gregarious girl named Asami. One Friday, there came an opportunity to share the gospel with her. Thankfully, a missionary who spoke Japanese was also with us. Because of the language barrier, she was the one explaining the gospel to her. I ended up only drawing the diagram. Even though I felt pretty useless, I tried to really pray for this girl to know Christ. I was starting to realize that her acceptance of Christ as savior wasn’t going to be determined by the missionary’s persuasive skills, or by trying to show deep concern and affection, or even by my amazing diagram. It had nothing to do with my usefulness, my uselessness, or even my attitude. It could only be God sovereignly working in her heart to see him. What a great relief it was to know that! God is the one in the driver’s seat, not me. He takes me along for the ride, giving me the great privilege to witness and participate in the great work that he is doing in the hearts of the Japanese people. As my life goes on post-missions trip, I am spurred to keep praying that the nation Japan will one day see the same great God that I got to see. I pray that my life would reflect 1 Cor. 1:31, “’Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.’”