4 Days

Hey Guys!

I am now 4 days away from leaving for Tokyo, and it still doesn't seem real.

Here are some more things to be praying for the people of Japan:

Japan has one of the highest costs of living in the world, which makes building churches there extremely difficult. To build a small church in Tokyo, in could easily cost up to 2 million dollars because of land prices. There was a statistic in my prayer book that there is only 1 church to every 10,000 people in Tokyo. So there is a desperate need for fellowship and a desperate need for people to have a place to go to be poured into spiritually. Because of the high cost of living, the easiest way to accomplish this is through house churches:

So please pray that the Japanese believers will be willing to open up their homes to create house churches, and pray that God will raise up house churches all across the city of Tokyo and throughout Japan.

I read tonight on the IMB website that the hope in reaching a people group is that at least 3% of the population will become believers in Jesus Christ because it is said that once 3% of the population are believers then those Christians could potentially have enough momentum to reach their people. 3% of the people in Japan is 825,000 people. 825,000 people!!! That is alot of people, and to think that is only THREE percent! That's ALOT of people that don't know our Jesus.

Our God is mighty to save! And he WILL be made famous in Japan, and those people WILL know the Love of our Lord.

5 days

Hello my friends!

Well, now there are only 5 short days until I head to Japan, and I am getting more and more nervous as Saturday gets closer. I know that God will take care of the anxiety I feel, and He will be glorified! Which is what it is all about!

And because this trip is in no way about me, this post is to ask for prayer once again. In preparation for the trip, we were all given prayer books, that were just filled with information about the bondage that the people of Tokyo are under, and how we can be praying for specifics needs there. So I am going to post a few of them in these last few days before I leave, so here goes:

I have learned through this book, that something the Japanese long for is friendship. They are not very interested in religion, because many have been burned by the different religions of the region, but most are just seeking out friendship. Pray that when we get to Tokyo, God will set up divine appointments for us to meet people, and then be able to further that by forming a friendship with them that will in turn provide opportunities to share Jesus Christ with them. On the same note, please also pray for boldness for myself and the people I will be serving with to seek out friendships with the people we meet.

I so appreciate all of you who are reading this, and praying for the people of Japan. They are already SO close to my heart, and I haven't even met them yet. I hope that is true for you as well. I cannot wait to see what God does while I am there, and not only that, but I can't wait to tell all of you about it! His name WILL be made famous among the people of Japan!!

9 Days

Approximately a year ago (give or take a few weeks) I was at a camp called Super Summer, or a place that I have formally named, paradise. Super Summer is a camp for teenagers that are already believers in Jesus Christ, and want to be better leaders in their youth groups and churches. I hesitate in calling it a "church camp" because that term does not even begin to describe the change that takes place at Super Summer. Anyway, I'm there at this camp and I begin to hear about a mission trip that Super Summer Global, and iGo take every year to Tokyo, Japan. I had heard about the trip before and always thought it would be a cool experience. But that is as far as my thoughts about the trip had ever gone, until last year that is. During a worship service at SS, we watched a video describing the people of Tokyo, and the amount of people who don't know the love of the Lord. At one point in this video, a statistic flashed up on the screen that literally took my breath away, it said that less than one half of one percent of people in Tokyo are believers in Jesus Christ. I remember literally not being able to breathe after seeing this. There are millions and millions of people walking around not knowing the love of the Lord that saved me from myself so many years ago. At that moment, sitting in my seat surrounded by hundreds of teenagers that are fire for the Lord, I felt so incredibly small. Not only that but I also realized how TRULY blessed I am. My heart began to break as I sat there motionless, and I heard the Lord saying to me loud and clear, "that's you, that's my plan for you." Of course, in my ultimate human state, I began to question what I had just heard so clearly from God. I began to think, "no, that's not for me, I'm no missionary." And with that, I had convinced myself that I had just heard wrong, and that was not really the plan God had for my life. Later that night, I went to my dorm room and found myself lying in bed, wide awake, and unable to fall asleep even though my body ached from the long day that had just ended. After tossing and turning for awhile, I realized why I couldn't sleep, or rather God revealed to me why he was keeping me awake-- to listen to him. So as I became still and quiet, I heard him once again say that Tokyo, Japan was where I needed to be in the summer of 2010. The only difference was this time I took him seriously. I decided right then that I would be going on that trip.

After a long talk with my parents, and then many months of praying and fundraising, I have found myself here. 9 days before I leave for Japan. 9 days! That's so crazy.

For these last few days I will be spending alot of time in prayer for the trip. I will be praying for the people that I am going to meet there, that God will open up their hearts and prepare them to hear the truth. I will be praying for the group of students and adults that I will be going on this trip with, that we will allow God to work through us and not let pride sneak its way into our hearts and stand in the way of anything God wants to do through us. And lastly, and most importantly that God will be glorified. That God's name will be made famous in Tokyo and all around the world. That is the ultimate goal, and truly the only thing that matters.

I guess the point of all of this is to ask you to pray as well, to lift up the trip and the people of Tokyo. We as believers should be broken for the things that God is broken for, and his heart breaks for the lost. We should be burdened for the people all over the world that have not gotten to experience our God. So, if you are not broken at the realization of the number of people in the world that don't know the Lord, then I encourage you to pray for that as well. Pray that God will break your heart for the lost, and pray for him to reveal to you what his calling is for your life, and in missions. Not everyone is called to go to a foreign country to preach the gospel, but we are all called to preach it at home. So as you pray for me to be bold in Tokyo to share with people the hope that I have, also pray that he will make you bold to share that very same hope wherever home is for you. I am not at all trying to preach at anyone, and I certainly do not have it all figured out. I just started typing, and this is what ended up on the page. But, I would certainly appreciate prayers for Tokyo. And I will pray that God will begin to break all of our hearts for the things that break his.

A Sweet Sweet Sound

I would first like to preface this by saying that Sarah Reeves has a song called Sweet Sweet Sound, which is where the title of this blog originated from. If you haven't heard the song, I encourage you to go listen. It's a good one.

I sat in my room for quite some time tonight, typing different things into the "title" line in the blog creating process. After hitting the delete button many times, I went with "A Sweet Sweet Sound". Which I want to start off by saying, in no way means that I think that the words that I type on a page are a sweet sound to anyone, haha. What I am really getting at is, I hope that is what my life is, a song that is a sweet sweet sound to my Savior. A song that brings glory and honor to the only name that deserves it.

I haven't really decided what my posts will be about yet. Some days it may be what God revealed to me through his living and breathing word, and some days it may just be whatever is going on in this crazy head of mine, but I have never really had a blog before, so we will just see how this goes. :)