The Best Is Yet To Come!

“Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NLV)

This was the view from Mount Fuji taken by my teammate. Absolutely breathtaking, right? I wish I could have been there to see it, too. But God had something else in mind. And as usual, it was better than I could have ever planned. 

It has been awhile since my last post, but I thought I would share some great news and a great lesson learned. I mentioned before that I would be climbing Mount Fuji with some of my teammates this past weekend. I was so stoked, because I don’t know when or if I will ever come back to Japan so climbing the mountain seemed like a must if I had an opportunity.

The hike was scheduled for Sunday. On Saturday, a few teammates and I participated in the homeless ministry early in the morning and then spent the rest of the day at the zoo with one of our new friends from Hitotsubashi. It was an amazing day, and we also saw a panda for the first time! Unfortunately, after the long day I started feeling pretty sick. I woke up on Sunday morning with a fever and started dreading the climb I was supposed to leave for right after church at 3 pm. We were going to climb from 10 pm that night to 5 am in the morning in order to make it to the top of Fuji by sunrise. I prayed that if I should go, that God would heal me, knowing He is fully capable, but that if I shouldn’t, He would make it clear. I spent the day preparing for the hike and was packed and ready to go with my other teammates at church. My teammate Rachel and I had invited our new friends, two Chinese students we had met at Hitotsubashi (one who came to the zoo with us on Saturday and the other student we had just met that Friday!). We were so happy to have them join us at New Hope International Church. By the time my teammates who were going to climb were getting ready to leave at 3 pm, it was clear that I wasn’t going to be able to go with them. I stayed after the service, initially pretty disappointed that I wasn’t going but still very much enjoying our friends being with us at church. But because I stayed, I was able to hear about how much our two friends loved New Hope! We introduced them to a Chinese small group, and they were very welcoming and encouraging. It was so great to see, and we also found out that our two new friends are from the same hometown in China (and they had only just met each other that day!).

The following day, we had a chance to meet up with one of our new friends. We talked more about New Hope, and she was so happy she went and wants to continue meeting with the small group. She has accepted Christ in her heart, and she is so excited to learn and grow more in her faith! It has been amazing to witness God work in her heart and bring her to know His love for her. And it was infinitely more beautiful than that picture from Mt. Fuji. 

Through this weekend God has shown me that I often don’t live out what I believe.  Yeah, it would be have been pretty amazing to see that sunrise over Japan. But I know that the best is yet to come:

“They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country – a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”

What if we lived like we really believed this was true? What if we believed that the best is yet to come, that there is more to life than getting good grades, finding a secure job, raising a proper family, working and storing up as much as we can here and now, always preparing for the next chapter of our lives but never really being content and living out the current? It takes God to change us. Growing up I was always ready for the next chapter– going to high school, going to college, finding a boyfriend, starting a family… It just kept escalating! What happens when I run out of chapters?

I only just turned 21 today, and I feel like this past year was the first one I really lived. I came to know Christ’s love for me last summer. It would take awhile to tell the entire story, but I think it really is as simple as “I was blind, but now I see.”

In His forgiveness, God promises us eternity with Him in a new creation. The most glorious scene you can imagine, only infinitely more beautiful!

Before I left for my trip, my pastor gave a message that has stuck with me, and I think will stick with me for the rest of my life. Out of all the amazing things we will see and experience during eternity with God in a beautiful and completely restored world, we will no longer be able to introduce people to Christ or bring healing and love to the broken.

No, I didn’t climb Mt. Fuji here. Maybe I never will. But I know there will be mountains with views more breathtaking and staggering than any we will see in this life. And I will see them in the next. But seeing a friend come to know God’s love and choosing to follow Christ is an experience I wouldn’t trade  – and God knows that.

I came on this trip expecting to serve God, wanting to know Him and love Him more. Instead He has shown me how much He loves me and loves this world, how faithful He is and how unfaithful I am, how patient and gracious and worth my complete trust – worth my very life -- and just how very unworthy I am. It’s been a humbling summer. I’ve found that choosing Christ is not something you do once in your life. It is a day by day decision – am I living knowing Christ has risen, that God doesn’t just want my actions but my heart, my complete trust because I know Him?

This is one of my favorite quotes, and it’s from the Narnia series (as it is my birthday, I’m feeling fairly nostalgic J)

“Is he –quite safe?”

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. “Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe.

But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

My desire to be fully known and loved came from somewhere – God desired it first. I hope you come to know that He fully knows you, His creation, and has a love for you stronger than death itself. And I hope that if you do know of His love, that you take steps every day to know Him more and desire Him for Who He is – we all need to stop creating Him in our own image and have the courage to truly see Him. I believe getting to know Him and follow Him has to be the most exciting life there is here. 

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my posts J I will be posting more again before we leave!

Sadly this has been our last week meeting with students on campus. We are having our good-bye party on Thursday night so please be praying that students find time during their busy exam schedules to come! We are going to be putting on a skit, a popular one performed to the song “Everything” by Lifehouse, and a teammate will be sharing their testimony. Please pray that we rely on God and that He prepares their hearts!

My team is leaving for Tohoku to do tsunami relief for the weekend and then we will be back to tutor elementary school students with CCC on Monday for a few hours between cleaning and packing (the children here are ADORABLE so I can’t think of a better way to end our trip!). I will post an update on the relief work before the end of my trip J Please keep praying!

Love in Christ,

Liz

Land of the Risen Son

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Romans 12:12

Our second and third weeks here in Tokyo have been amazing! My team and I have continued visiting university campuses, and God has been teaching me a lot through talking to students at Hitotsubashi. A highlight of my time ,here so far has been going to the international church New Hope and a Student Impact weekly meeting on Thursday night (Campus Crusade For Christ goes by the name Student Impact here in Japan). I cannot fully explain how uplifting and humbling it was to hear students praying and worshipping God in Japanese. Meeting brothers and sisters in Christ in Japan has opened my eyes more to how amazing He is, that He truly is the God of all nations, all cultures, all languages. I never thought He was only our God, but I don't think I have fully comprehended what "every nation" and "every tongue" really signifies. I find myself praying to "Kami-sama," ("God" in Japanese) being completely moved by the fellowship I have found here with Japanese brothers and sisters. I am so encouraged when I hear their testimonies, that God may open the heart of any student we interact with here to know His love, forgiveness and redemption.

And we have definitely needed this encouragement. Many of our conversations have been difficult, as the language barrier is hindering and the Japanese rarely open themselves to spiritual discussions. We were told at briefing that many of the Japanese people are very spiritually closed, but we are only just now facing it ourselves. However, praise God that many have been open to sharing their beliefs and hearing the Gospel.  God is growing our faith when sharing with students, realizing that we have to trust Him completely with the results. We are not here to force anyone to become Christian - we are here to tell them how much God loves them right where they are at, and the lengths He went to redeem them. Only God can open their hearts to receive Christ. Our prayers are that they would accept His love and follow Christ, knowing that He has loved them perfectly from the beginning and wants them to be with Him in the end. Only God saves, and it has been a humbling truth we all as a team have known in our heads but are having to learn in our hearts by finding joy in Christ everyday we are sharing regardless of "good" or "bad" conversations.


And God is showing His faithfulness on a daily basis. One of our friends has recently come to accept Christ as her Savior. My teammate Rachel and I shared the Gospel with her last week, and we met again to talk about anything she wanted to ask. She was interested in hearing how we became Christians, and Rachel shared her story with Nana. There was a rather large language barrier, but with God working and opening her heart, our friend came to understand His love and what He did for her in Christ. She was moved by how kind and loving God is, and was so happy when we told her that she only had to believe in Him and what He did for her in Christ. She accepted His love, and prayed with us to receive His forgiveness and Jesus in her heart. It was the best day I have had here. It was amazing to share and witness God save! We are looking forward to introducing her to our new friends in Student Impact so that she may have fellowship even after we have to leave. Please pray that God keeps opening the hearts of students here in Tokyo!


My time in Tokyo on this trip has been stretching in many ways that I never anticipated. It is too easy to get sucked into what others may think of you, how students are receiving the Gospel and doubt your own effectiveness in sharing. But I forget that it has never been dependent on me. My teammate, Rachel, shared with me this quote from her book No Greater Love when I needed to be reminded of God's love most. I thought you may enjoy it too:


"No need for us to despair. No need for us to be discouraged. No need, if we have understood the tenderness of God's love. You are precious to Him. He loves you, and He loves you so tenderly that He has carved you on the palm of His hand. When your heart feels restless, when your heart feels hurt, when your heart feels like breaking, remember, 'I am precious to Him. He loves me. He has called me by my name. I am His. He loves me. God loves me.' And to prove that love He died on the cross.
How unlike Him we are. How little love, how little compassion, how little forgiveness, how little kindness we have. We are not worthy to be so close to Him -- to enter His heart. Let us find out what part of His body is wounded by our sins. Let us not go alone but put our hands in His. Our Father loves us. He has given us a name. We belong to Him with all our misery, our sin, our weakness, our goodness. We are His. Our way of life depends on our being rooted in Christ Jesus our Lord by our deliberate choice." - Mother Teresa


God has already proven His love for me in Jesus. And my Creator's love, His affirmation, is all that matters. This joy drives us to share it with the world, but it is not dependent on sharing. If we learned nothing else from this trip, knowing God's love more and loving Him more as a result is more than worth the hours spent here spreading His message of love and redemption.


Thank you so much again for all of your encouragement and prayers :) 


Also, my team has recently received some great news! God has provided us with drivers through New Hope church to take us north to the Tohoku region so that we can volunteer with Tsunami relief. We will be cleaning and building during our last weekend here, from July 29th to July 31st. We would love to be able to stay longer, but it is a blessing to be able to help at all.


In other amazing news, some team members and I are going to climb Mt. Fuji!! A non-profit organization working to alleviate global hunger is organizing a hike up the mountain on July 23rd. From what I heard, we are going to be starting at the 5th station at 10 PM and hiking to the top by 5 AM in time to see the sunrise. It's going to be a hard hike, but totally worth it I'm sure. Starting from the bottom would take 22 hours, and we definitely aren't in shape for that. This is going to be plenty tough as it is. Expect some amazing pictures from all of these plans, both the hike and relief efforts. I can't think of a better way to end our time here than by spending time up north volunteering.


I'm also sorry that this post is so late, my computer has died for good and I have been borrowing my roommate's. I think the wattage is different here in Tokyo, so it may have permanently damaged some circuits in my computer so it cannot pick up a charge (if anyone has ever experienced this problem and knows how to fix it, please email me ASAP). I had been taking footage to make a video for my blog, but it is all on my (now dead) computer. So here is a link to one that my teammate Cody made: Tokyo - Week 2 :) . He did a great job, I hope you all enjoy it!


Love in Christ,
Liz

Week 1 - Hitotsubashi and Harajuku :)

My team and I are in Tokyo! During our few days of briefing, God provided the rest of our funds (about $16,000). It was amazing to see God come through for our team, He used the entire support raising process to grow us in ways we never expected. Thank you so much for everyone’s support and encouragement, it is so amazing to finally be here! It has been quite a week, but it feels like we have been here for much longer already.

We left on Saturday afternoon from L.A., and after an 11-hour flight and 2-hour train ride, we arrived in Nakano, Tokyo, late on Sunday night. We were greeted at the station by a few of the Campus Crusade For Christ staff members who live in Tokyo, and they treated us to “gyuudon” (beef and rice) after showing us to our apartments. It is a great place to be staying, and we are getting used to the different lifestyle, like rolling out our futons every night for bed and having to sort our trash into seven different categories. My roommates and I currently don’t have any silverware so we are even eating our cereal with chopsticks (great practice). The jet lag was a little rough at first for most of the team, but our daily schedules have exhausted us enough so we are ready for bed by the time 9 o’clock rolls around.

We spent our first week in Japan becoming familiar with the campuses our team will be ministering at. On our first day in Tokyo, we had a day of orientation at the student center for CCC. The staff members shared with us a lot about Japanese culture and prepared us for how some of our conversations might go with the students we are meeting. In Japan, most students do not associate themselves with any particular religion. They are very absorbed in their studies and do not often question their purpose or the meaning of life. However, ever since the earthquake and tsunami that occurred on March 11, students are questioning more and are more open to having spiritual conversations. We spent time praying that God continues to prepare their hearts to be searching for more in this life beyond schoolwork and employment, to be made aware that all here is fading and could be gone in an instant. It’s a harsh reality we have all come to face, and we pray that God gives the Japanese a joy that is anchored in Him, a hope and love that will never fail them.

God wasted no time in showing us how much the people here desperately need Him. On our way back home from orientation, we experienced our first suicide in the train system. Red lights flashed, “Delay 25min” in English on the screens, with no explanation. Our leaders translated, and told us that the red lights flashing in Japanese meant “suicide.” It was a shock, and even though we had been told that Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, it is so much heavier when you’re surrounded by it.

Please be praying for Japan. God loves each person here so much, and many die never knowing. They measure their worth and identity in education and employment, and feel so empty when those things fail them that many end their lives. When these things in life only take from them, God is waiting to give them everything. Please pray for the Japanese, and that God will show them the unfailing hope found in Christ’s resurrection.

the view from our apartment balcony... so cool :)

The beautiful truth is that God loves each of us right where we are at, that nothing “good” we do like reading our Bibles or trying to be better people can make Him love us more and nothing bad can make Him love us less. He is relentlessly pursuing each of us, no matter how many times we push Him away in our lives. I came to love God when I realized that He loved me as I was. He shows me that I can’t do anything to earn His love. He doesn’t love me for reading my Bible or praying. I don’t know why God loves me; I couldn’t even love myself most of the time so how could He? But He has already proven to me He does. And when I realize what He did for me, all of my fears and doubts don’t matter and I’m amazed! I couldn’t get to God because He is all that is perfect, all that is good and beautiful, and I am full of selfishness and sin. I can try with all that I am to be perfect, but it is impossible.

I used to ask, “If God is so loving, why can’t He just forgive everyone?” My pastor gave us a good illustration. If I wrecked my friend’s car and he forgave me, it doesn’t change the fact that his car is still totaled. Someone has to pay for it. My friend can have all the grace in the world and not hold me accountable because I am broke, but there is still a debt that must be paid to fix the car.

We are all so empty handed and incapable of being perfect that God has forgiven us and paid the debt Himself.

People describe hell as awful because of “fire and brimstone.” Hell is awful because it is eternity separated from God: the source of our every desire and pleasure, all that is good and beautiful. God saved us from this separation by bridging the distance between our failures and His perfection Himself. He lived the perfect life we are all supposed to live and died the death we all deserve. When we believe in Christ, we are found in Him and His death. All our sins die with Him. But this is the most beautiful part: it doesn’t stop at death. Jesus was resurrected, and where I am included in His death to pay my debt, I am included in His resurrection to perfection. When you understand the depth of this grace, you realize that you did nothing to deserve it and can’t do anything further to earn it.

My lifestyle changed because of what God did for me. I am not better than anyone because I read my Bible or pray. I do these things because I find God in them. It is a natural response: how could I not want to spend time learning about this God that loves me so much just as I am? No one here could ever love me while I’m shoving them away over and over again.

My team is spending our summer here in Japan to tell students this beautiful truth: that God loves them and wants them, and it has never been dependent on their successes or failures but all on Christ restoring us to God.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ ad gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.” 2 Corinthians 5:17-19

We have a new life in Him. And it is the most freeing. Everyone deserves to hear this truth. It breaks my heart knowing so many people here take their own lives never hearing that God wants so much better for them.

If you want to talk about anything I’ve posted in my Blog, please email me, I would love to hear more about where you’re at in this. (enmoser@email.unc.edu)

On Tuesday and Wednesday our team visited three universities. We spent a couple hours at each campus praying and learning about each one. I’ve honestly never walked so much in life, but it was so rewarding. Once we had finished visiting the campuses, our leaders prayed and decided who should be placed at each campus. We were divided into two teams, and I’m going to be sharing the Gospel at Hitotsubashi. Thursday was our first day spending four hours at our campuses, and it proved to be very difficult. God humbled our team immensely, and is teaching us that our joy is to be found in Him and our salvation, and not in what seems like “successful” ministry.

The following day was as different as night and day: we were able to share the Gospel with so many students and many are interested in learning more. We are trusting God with the results, resting on Him to give them the faith to believe. I have a few lunch dates planned next week, so please be praying for my new friends J

My team and I are also going to be doing service while we are here in Tokyo. Yesterday we were blessed with the opportunity to participate in a homeless ministry early in the morning at a park in Harajuku. Members of our team led a couple of worship songs and helped bag the food being handed out. Three of our team members also shared their testimonies with the group that came.  It was such a blessing to be able to serve them and share that it is because of Christ’s love for all of us that we were there.

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”

1 John 3:16-18

Our team was also told that we might be serving up north amidst the devastation from the tsunami. We are all praying that God will provide the two drivers we need to take us there, as well as to and from the sites we will be volunteering at each day. Please be praying with us, they need as much help as possible. Many people are still living in shelters and may be there for as long as a year.

It has been amazing to see so much of God just within our first week here. He is growing each of us so much in our faith. Thank you for all of your support and encouragement, please continue to pray for my team and the students God has led us to. Every interaction we have is a chance to share God’s message of love and hope in Christ. I look forward to posting again with more stories of God’s amazing work in Japan soon J

Love in Christ,

Liz