YES! THAT'S IT!

Rio San Juan, Nicaragua.

I was 16 and I wanted to play soccer with my mission team friends and some natives. But I couldn't. My stomach was hurting and I was bummed. Instead of kicking a ball around with Nicaraguans, I had to sit on the side of the field beside one of the main dirt roads in the town. It was just me sitting there wishing that I wasn't. I would occasionally look behind me to watch people walk along the walk way, wondering if that big fat pig was still wallowing in mud pit in the middle of the road.

At a distance I saw a small, beautiful Nicaraguan girl wearing a pink dress and carrying an open umbrella. She walked closer and closer to me. She gave out a big proud greeting.

"Hola!"
I couldn't resist. "Hola! Como te llamas? (Hi, what's your name?)
"Rosa!" she said as she sat down beside me.
Pretty soon children kept coming. Boys and girls. The boys were just getting out of school and they were wearing there nice, white button up shirts and dress shorts.

We all sat in a circle and I talked to them in my broken Spanish. I don't remember everything we talked about, but I remember singing songs in Spanish like "Abre Mis Ojos" (Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord) and this one that has been a kid's ministry staple in my church:

"I like bananas
I think that mangoes are sweet
I like papayas
But nothing can beat that sweet love of God" (but we sang it in Spanish and did crazy hand motions)

I still remember some of their names: Rosa, Jamalise, Pablo, and... well that's all I remember. But that time under that tree was ten times better than getting to play soccer.

Sapporo, Japan

I was 19, eating some Japanese food and drinking weird tea. I looked up to see my youth pastor talking to the senior pastor of the church and pointing at me. What?

Later on, my youth pastor approached me to let me know that I was teaching kids church the next Sunday. What? I nodded my head and said, "Yeah, okay. I can do that. Sounds fun." He told me that he wouldn't be there, in fact, no one on the mission team would be there with me. I nodded my head again. What? I don't even speak Japanese. What am I even gonna talk about to a bunch of kids who don't speak my language? 

Sunday rolled around. My mission team prayed for me before the long van ride to some random church an hour away. I was in the back seat praying under my breath non-stop and reading the Bible--not because what I was reading was what I was teaching about, but just because it was the Bible. We got to the church and piled in the tiny sanctuary (a 50 people-sized one). After every worship song I begged God that the team would play another. C'mon, c'mon. Another one! Please! But one time, the band ended a song and started walking back to their seats. Great. It's time now. 

I got to meet the woman who would translate for me. Her name was Atsko. We walked with the group of kids down the street to the play ground on the other side. There was a cute gazebo in the middle of the playground. Atsko said something in Japanese and all the kids ran to sit down under the gazebo. She introduced me to the kids and then I started talking. I would say one sentence in English, pause, and let Atsko translate for me. I forgot what I started to say, but I remember bringing a piece of flash paper with the Japanese character for "sin" (sumi) written on it.

"This is what God's love can do to your sin." I struck a lighter, held the flame to the edge of the paper, and threw it in the air. It disappeared in front of their eyes.

I told them more about Satan and how he wants to steal joy from their hearts when bad things happen, but God can give them a new heart and take away the sin that ruins their lives.

Atsko raised her voice and asked them something in Japanese. The response was overwhelming. All but two kids raised up their hands and shouted "HI!" which means "yes."
She turned to me and said, "I asked them if they want God to give them a new heart. They said yes. Do you want to lead them in a prayer?" I said that she could.

That day, little Japanese children started a relationship with Jesus.

I've had lots of other experiences like those with children from the U.S.

When I think about all those sweet times I've got to play and sing and talk about Jesus to kids, I think "Hm, maybe this is something I wanna do for the rest of my life."

Maybe I wanna fill up kids minds with crazy ideas like the God of the whole universe cares about you and your tummy aches. He wants you to have fun and love growing up. I want to make them believe that they can change the world and be missionaries even if they're 9 years old. Who cares?

Yeah... I just might do that.

Do Something

East Africa Initiative from Josh Boston on Vimeo.

This is something that I feel isn't talked about enough at our coffee shop chats. It's not prayed about enough in our prayer meetings. Not preached about enough from the Western church pulpit. Not thought about and not cried over enough in our personal life.

We talk about the latest football game. We pray about the perfect spouse or our test or our grandma who's in the hospital. We preach about how God wants you to be prosperous and safe and how to receive spiritual gifts. We think about our clothes and our facebook profile and we cry about plans that didn't work out exactly the way we intended.

What does God think about and cry about?

He cries about people who don't know about Him. He thinks about how so many people go to church every week and hold up their Bibles and sing worship songs to Him and why they don't give a thought to what He cares about the most. He's wondering if Christians really take the Great Commission seriously.

He's wondering why people don't understand what it really means to follow Jesus. When we signed up to be a Christian, we thought we signed up for a life where God serves us--at least that's how we live sometimes, if not, all the time.

God says get a grip. What does it really mean to be a Christian? No, it doesn't mean you do whatever you want, buy whatever, marry whoever, go where ever we think will be safe, get a job that pays however much money we want. No. Stop that.

There are people who don't even have a chance to read the Bible. They think something else other than God created the earth and that they have to follow a bunch of rules to achieve salvation.

So. What are you gonna do about it, Jesus-follower? Hold on to your  life? Your ambitions? Your desires? If you truly follow Jesus, His desire to share truth would be yours. Take up His  life and ambitions and desires. Will you commit your life? Give money? Go on a mission trip? Pray? Talk it up? Will you at least just think about it and let God show you how he feels?

Do something.
Do something.
DO SOMETHING!

"My ambition has always been to preach the Good News where the name of Christ has never been heard, rather than where a church has already been started by someone else. I have been following the plan spoken by the Scriptures, where it says:

Those who have never been told about him will see,
and those who have never heard of him will understand."

Paul, Romans 15:20-21

Cherry Blossoms

I got an e-mail from my friend today.

Hi, Liz!

How are you? It's finally warm in Japan.

One month has passed since I went back to Japan. A new school semester started yesterday. I'm a sophomore, and playing in a softball team now!

Now cherry trees are in full bloom. So beautiful! There are some stalls on the street, and pleasure boats are very popular. A lot of people enjoying the cherry blossoms. I send some pictures I took. I hope you'll come to Japan and see cherry trees in spring!

Thanks,

Mikako

Here they are:

Treasures From Nicaragua

Today, I remembered them again.

If Only

On a busy street in a Japanese place
A man wipes tears from his Asian face
He feels limitations of time and space
A car, a house,
A dog, a spouse
Daily prayers at the shrine
People think his life is fine
He wants his life to cross the line
Unaware that the mountains scream
Of Someone’s love that is supreme
If only he knew, if only he knew

Beside the muddy Ganges water
A weeping mother watches her drowning daughter
To Goddess Ganges, she gave her best offer
The guilt of her sin still remains
After witnessing death that left much pain
In all of India there is no god
That can remove from her the iniquity rod
Tears are wiped to keep her facade
But there is a God who paid a price
Erased sin because of great sacrifice
If only she knew, if only she knew

Northern Nigeria in a small school
Where the Quran is taught and a Christian’s a fool
An African boy is forced to the Islamic pool
Each day, for hours he must recite
The Arabic words of God’s prophet with all his might
So that years later he will one day state
“Bombing a church is easy. Christians I hate!”
Not knowing that eternal suffering is his fate
He was brainwashed since age five
But he could have a transformed mind
If only he knew, if only he knew

Atlanta Georgia, inner city
Most drive by and give looks of pity
Fourteen years old, she’s tall and pretty
That’s what the drug dealers say
When she walks to school on a regular day
Knowing that her destiny is to please
And never live a life of ease
To always live on fixes and government cheese
But there is One who sees her as priceless
A beautiful jewel hidden in darkness
If only she knew, if only she knew

Sunday morning in a steeple
Pressed outfits on three hundred people
Cheerful faces, leather Bibles, and a heap of
Friendly handshakes and loud praises
Amens and excited phrases
Drowning in the complacency of abundance and freedom
They know full well that Christ died to redeem them
They cannot be awakened from this comfortable dream and
Will not see what can be done for the lost
They don’t know about the extreme cost
If only they knew, if only they knew

“You who can resist the half-articulate pleading of many and many a heart today, can you resist this? From millions of voiceless souls, it is rising now—does it not touch you at all? The missionary magazines try to echo the silent sob. You read them? Yes; and you skim them for good stories nice pictures, bits of excitement—the more the better. Then they drop into the waste paper basket, or swell some dusty pile in the corner. For perhaps “there isn’t much in them.” Very likely not; “there isn’t much” in the silence any more than in darkness, at least not very much reducible to print; but to God there is something in it for all that. Oh! You—you, I mean, who are weary of hearing the reiteration of the great unrepealed commission, you who think you care, but who certainly don’t, past costing point, is there nothing that will touch you?”

Amy Carmichael

From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
Luke 12:48

With Hearts as One

Tonight, I watched the Hillsong United DVD called the I Heart Revolution (Part I-With Hearts As One). Basically, The I Heart Revolution is Hillsong's mission trip around the world. How awesome is that?


In the DVD, every song is shown in a different country. It shows people walking down the streets of New York or London. You see kids from Africa carrying plastic jugs on their heads, or smiling, or running, or dancing. It also shows people in poverty and desperation. One of my favorites is the footage of their concert in Shanghi. It's incredible to see hundreds of people from China dancing and singing with so much passion because they know Jesus. It's literally mind-blowing to see that there are people from all parts of the world worshipping God in spirit and truth. It's so real. I always get chills from it. God is an awesome God! That's what those people scream because of their genuine love for Jesus.

And call me crazy, but I feel united to those people. We are all human and we all have one thing in common: Jesus. I had an experience in Nicaragua that made me feel like this for the first time. It was after a service in a small church and our mission team was at the alter praying for people in the congregation. I laid my hands on this elderly woman and started praying for her. Before I knew it, we were embracing each other with tears streaming down our cheeks. I didn't understand why we suddenly felt so much love for one another. I had never seen her before in my life, we spoke different languages, we were from completely different backgrounds of socio-economic status, but we felt completely united in love.

That was a taste of Heaven. That's what it'll be like. People from Africa, India, China, Russia, America, Europe, ...everywhere. Laughing, crying, dancing, embracing, sharing, sacrificing, encouraging, giving, singing, making joyful noises... all because of Jesus.

The thought of that is crazy. It's crazy, I tell you!