Ray's follow up letter
7/15-7/16/05
(Warning: I’m going to do a long and unconventional follow up letter)
7/15-7/16/05
(Warning: I’m going to do a long and unconventional follow up letter)
“One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak” - G.K. Chesterton
Lately my life has been marked with trials. When we got to the airport that Saturday morning and found out that our flight was leaving an hour earlier than what was printed on the ticket, I knew I had to be on my guard. Little did I know at that point that every single member of the team would get sick. I did not know that Dorothy and Leah go to the hospital. I did not know that Addison, Adler, Beland, Priscilla, and I would have stomach problems. I did not know that Hyo would lose her voice. I did not know that I would get both a fever and a cold and that even now I would still be coughing like General Grevious.
That was in Japan. Last weekend, while driving up to Sacramento with Beland, I got into a car accident. Around the Grapevine area my rear passenger tire blew out. We were going normal freeway speeds and I lost control of the car as I braked. The car did a 180 and we hit the concrete center divider. You can see the damage if you check out my photo website: Click to here to see damage. It might not look like much but it’s going to cost about $3000. Insurance will cover everything except the deductible. My car is still in Bakersfield being repaired even as I write this letter. I’m thankful that we didn’t hit anyone else and that no one was hurt.
My latest trial is that my employer recently informed me that I won’t be able to work full time any more when I start full time seminary. I’ll have to work part time with a lower pay rate or look for work elsewhere. Either way, I have to take out loans now, which means when I finish seminary, I won’t be able to go do missions right away. I’ll have to work until I can pay them off. People with debt don’t get sent overseas for missions.
I must admit, I’ve been feeling down lately and it has been hard to focus on the Lord. I feel like I’ve been spending all my time managing the consequences of my trials. But as the quote above implies, the valley is the place of vision and God has been using these trials to drive me back to Him. I realized that when I look down at my trials, I’m missing out on all the glory that’s around me. So with these trials, he’s been squeezing my will and desires out of me and replacing it with an attitude of surrender to Him. I must admit, it has not been an easy lesson at all.
“I would like to encourage you to stop thinking of what you’re doing as ministry…If you are a Christian, ministry is just an accident of being alive.” – Rich Mullins
One of the things I have emphasized during past Japan team training meetings is that missions is just being a Christian in another country. It is not a time to be special and go above and beyond what we do in our everyday lives. We should already be doing these things. The only thing that’s different is that the activities are concentrated into a few weeks. With that said, I’d like to give you a run down on the events that took place during our trip. I divided them up into three categories: “colleges”, “outreaches”, and “at the church.”
CollegesThis year we visited English clubs at three colleges: Osaka Prefecture University, Momoyama University, and Kinki University. We have the strongest relationship with OPU. We met many of the students in previous years and many of them have heard the gospel multiple times. We have been pretty aggressive in our gospel sharing with them and this year we received some negative feedback from the professor who is in charge of the English club. This raises an issue for the future of the trip and a prayer request for you. Some of the students complained about our evangelism and expression of our biblical views. But that’s exactly what we are there for. If we go and don’t talk about God and the Bible, why should we go? As you can see this is a pretty big issue so I humbly ask you to pray for the future of this ministry.
Momoyama is the smallest of the three schools. The English club has less than ten people and they are the least talkative of the three groups. Some of the team members have been able to develop some pretty good relationships with a couple of the students there. I hope that these relationships can continue and the gospel will take root in the students.
This was the first year we visited Kinki University. There were almost thirty students at the meeting (OPU averaged around fifteen). Since this was our first time with them, we focused on just developing friendships with the people there. They had topics picked out for us to discuss. This group was very talkative and I feel that the meeting went very well. I hope that they will invite the Japan team back next year.
Outreaches
One of the goals of our meetings with the English clubs was to get them to come out to events that college students at Hamadera Bible Church planned. We had three main events planned: a trip to Osaka Castle (6/25), a trip to Tsutenkaku Tower (7/2), and our going away party (7/3). Only a couple of students came to our trip to Osaka Castle, a few more came to our trip to the tower, and quite a few students came to our going away party. One of the difficulties we ran into was that many of the students had debates or part time jobs that conflicted with some of the events. But regardless of the number of students that came out, I believe that the team was quite faithful to be a testimony of Christ to them.
One of the big successes of the trip was that the many people of the church got to meet these students, which means they can continue the ministry that we began. The people at the local church are the real missionaries and we were there merely to support them.
At the church
This year we did a couple of things that we had not done in previous years. During the week, there are English classes that are taught at the church. This is one of the methods that HBC has to draw in unbelievers to their church. Almost everyday we sat in classes taught by Aaron Bitzer, my roommate of five years and fellow partner in crime. He has been there for about a year now and it was really good to see him. Back when we were living together, we constantly encouraged each other to pursue missions in Japan. He beat me to Japan but hopefully I will be able to join him sometime in the future.
The other thing was that we did some manual labor at the church. We painted the sanctuary and did some yard work. The sanctuary was in need of some painting and the yard was in some desperate need of help. The bushes were overgrown and they actually covered the sign in the parking lot. There were leaves everywhere and all the trees needed trimming. I must admit that it looks pretty good now. Also, as weird as it seems, it was really nice to do this kind of work. It reminded me of when I grew up at my parents’ home and I discovered that I actually miss doing yard work. Maybe, it’s the Adam in me that learned to enjoy earning bread by the sweat of the brow. I am the sweat mongster after all.
Click here to see my Japan trip pics.
“The way of God is a daily cross. No one has ascended into heaven through an easy life.” – Saint Isaac of Syria.
This was my fourth time going on this trip and second time leading it. The newness is definitely gone and more of the reality has sunk in. I had some good talks with Aaron during the trip and over the past year about the real cost of missions. I have come to realize that short-term trips are like going to spiritual Disneyland. You go for a few weeks, you are the center of attention, and then you leave before you can experience any real problems. Don’t get me wrong. I think short-term trips are great. However, people need to realize that going long-term is much more difficult than it may seem to be.
Here are just a few of the problems you will run into on long-term missions. There’s a language and culture barrier. We experienced some of it every year on the Japan trip. In the long-term the problems are multiplied exponentially. My last sermon for Grace on Campus was on forgiveness and I talked about how miscommunication can lead to sinning against one another. When we don’t understand another person, we tend to think of them (we would admit this if we’re honest with ourselves) as being stupid. This is an arrogant and sinful attitude. When you’re in a country you don’t understand with people who speak a language you don’t understand, the potential for this happening is very great. I can give you guys the sermon notes on this if you want. Just email me back.
Another problem is figuring out how to live every day life in a foreign country. In many countries you cannot find the same products in the store as you did in your home country. So if you got heartburn in Japan, you can’t just go to the store and buy Tums. You need to figure out alternative ways to remedy your problems. Things just work differently in other countries. You have to adapt to it because it certainly won’t adapt to you. You’ll be frustrated and you’ll feel like a kid again because you won’t know how to do a lot of things.
One last thing I’ll mention is loneliness and a lack of fellowship. Chances are, when you’re out on the mission field long-term, there will be only a few people there with you from your own country. When you go on missions you will be plucked out of your nice comfortable environment where all your friends are and placed in an environment where you won’t have the same kind of relationships with anyone. You won’t get preaching in your own language. You will have difficulty sharing your deeper thoughts with people. No one will do with you all the fun things you used to do back home (and when you do go and do them it won’t be the same). You can’t share with anyone your old inside jokes. There will be little encouragement because the Christians around you can’t express it in your language. You will probably spend much time alone and when you are with people you still might feel alone.
Do you still want to devote your life to missions? Many people even say they want to be medical missionaries. I think a lot of them just see the honor of being a doctor and a missionary and they don’t realize that medical missions is even harder than “regular” missions. Are you ready to amputate a child’s arm or leg? Are you ready to turn down hundreds of desperate people because you’re out of medicine? Are you ready to expose yourself to deformed and diseased people in unsanitary conditions? Are you ready to watch people die because you can do nothing about it? Being a medical missionary means you have to go either to a third world or a developing country. Can you live in those conditions with little or no pay? If you are, I commend you to God for the great work you will do. If not, I suggest that you stay home at least until God makes you strong enough to go.
“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” – C.S. Lewis
So what’s left for the future? Even though I won’t be working full time anymore, I still intend to move on to a new ministry. I’ll be checking out Immanuel Bible Church (IBC) starting tomorrow. I’ll also be starting full time seminary on August 30. Right now I’m trying to figure out if I should work for my current employer part time or look for a new job. I’ll be doing some math later today to figure out how much in loans I need to take out. Once I get a handle on the administrative aspects of my life I’ll be spending much of my time getting my Hebrew back. It’s been a year since I took beginning Hebrew and I’ll be starting the next level in August.
When my boss told me earlier this week that they won’t be able to give me the work hours I requested, I was faced with quite a dilemma. The thought of just dropping seminary and missions crossed my mind several times. I was thinking, “Man, this is so hard. I don’t want to take out loans. I don’t want to be in debt. Life is so financially hard right now with school and the car payments. Wouldn’t it be easier and nicer if I just left all that, pursued a career, and lived a comfortable life? I would make good money, get married (and actually be able to pay for a wedding), and buy a house. Full-time ministry and especially missions is really hard anyway.” These thoughts still tempt me every day. (A disclaimer: I think I’ve said this before, but I think that everyone’s life is hard no matter how much money you make but the path of missions has its own set of problems)
However, I know what the Word says about the life of ease (thank you Dr. Piper!) and that those things aren’t really satisfying anyway. So with RESOLVE, I will trust in my God, devote my life to Him, and continue on this path where I will get trained to serve Him in a greater capacity. I must say that I can see His sovereignty behind all these events. It is an act of grace and mercy for God to not put me through both full-time school and seminary. Also, when I’ll be working in the States to pay off my loans, He will cause me to mature and grow and I will be much more prepared for full-time missions. I am convinced that God works all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. This is where I stand.
Father God, thank You for allowing me to go to Japan for a fourth time. You have taught me so much over these past four years during those trips. You have widened my view of Your glory. You are not the God of the United States or even the Western World but of the Universe. You understand all languages and cultures. You love every single person You created and indeed You desire all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. You even went to the extent of sending your Son to Earth to seek and save the lost. Your Son had a difficult life that ended with a death on a cross. Your Son had to suffer the wrath that I deserve to bear. That is how much You love me. May my heart beat with Yours and may I emulate your Son and continue His work with the same passion that He has. Teach me to not focus on the things of this world but to look forward to the next for that is the world I was made for.
Lately my life has been marked with trials. When we got to the airport that Saturday morning and found out that our flight was leaving an hour earlier than what was printed on the ticket, I knew I had to be on my guard. Little did I know at that point that every single member of the team would get sick. I did not know that Dorothy and Leah go to the hospital. I did not know that Addison, Adler, Beland, Priscilla, and I would have stomach problems. I did not know that Hyo would lose her voice. I did not know that I would get both a fever and a cold and that even now I would still be coughing like General Grevious.
That was in Japan. Last weekend, while driving up to Sacramento with Beland, I got into a car accident. Around the Grapevine area my rear passenger tire blew out. We were going normal freeway speeds and I lost control of the car as I braked. The car did a 180 and we hit the concrete center divider. You can see the damage if you check out my photo website: Click to here to see damage. It might not look like much but it’s going to cost about $3000. Insurance will cover everything except the deductible. My car is still in Bakersfield being repaired even as I write this letter. I’m thankful that we didn’t hit anyone else and that no one was hurt.
My latest trial is that my employer recently informed me that I won’t be able to work full time any more when I start full time seminary. I’ll have to work part time with a lower pay rate or look for work elsewhere. Either way, I have to take out loans now, which means when I finish seminary, I won’t be able to go do missions right away. I’ll have to work until I can pay them off. People with debt don’t get sent overseas for missions.
I must admit, I’ve been feeling down lately and it has been hard to focus on the Lord. I feel like I’ve been spending all my time managing the consequences of my trials. But as the quote above implies, the valley is the place of vision and God has been using these trials to drive me back to Him. I realized that when I look down at my trials, I’m missing out on all the glory that’s around me. So with these trials, he’s been squeezing my will and desires out of me and replacing it with an attitude of surrender to Him. I must admit, it has not been an easy lesson at all.
“I would like to encourage you to stop thinking of what you’re doing as ministry…If you are a Christian, ministry is just an accident of being alive.” – Rich Mullins
One of the things I have emphasized during past Japan team training meetings is that missions is just being a Christian in another country. It is not a time to be special and go above and beyond what we do in our everyday lives. We should already be doing these things. The only thing that’s different is that the activities are concentrated into a few weeks. With that said, I’d like to give you a run down on the events that took place during our trip. I divided them up into three categories: “colleges”, “outreaches”, and “at the church.”
CollegesThis year we visited English clubs at three colleges: Osaka Prefecture University, Momoyama University, and Kinki University. We have the strongest relationship with OPU. We met many of the students in previous years and many of them have heard the gospel multiple times. We have been pretty aggressive in our gospel sharing with them and this year we received some negative feedback from the professor who is in charge of the English club. This raises an issue for the future of the trip and a prayer request for you. Some of the students complained about our evangelism and expression of our biblical views. But that’s exactly what we are there for. If we go and don’t talk about God and the Bible, why should we go? As you can see this is a pretty big issue so I humbly ask you to pray for the future of this ministry.
Momoyama is the smallest of the three schools. The English club has less than ten people and they are the least talkative of the three groups. Some of the team members have been able to develop some pretty good relationships with a couple of the students there. I hope that these relationships can continue and the gospel will take root in the students.
This was the first year we visited Kinki University. There were almost thirty students at the meeting (OPU averaged around fifteen). Since this was our first time with them, we focused on just developing friendships with the people there. They had topics picked out for us to discuss. This group was very talkative and I feel that the meeting went very well. I hope that they will invite the Japan team back next year.
Outreaches
One of the goals of our meetings with the English clubs was to get them to come out to events that college students at Hamadera Bible Church planned. We had three main events planned: a trip to Osaka Castle (6/25), a trip to Tsutenkaku Tower (7/2), and our going away party (7/3). Only a couple of students came to our trip to Osaka Castle, a few more came to our trip to the tower, and quite a few students came to our going away party. One of the difficulties we ran into was that many of the students had debates or part time jobs that conflicted with some of the events. But regardless of the number of students that came out, I believe that the team was quite faithful to be a testimony of Christ to them.
One of the big successes of the trip was that the many people of the church got to meet these students, which means they can continue the ministry that we began. The people at the local church are the real missionaries and we were there merely to support them.
At the church
This year we did a couple of things that we had not done in previous years. During the week, there are English classes that are taught at the church. This is one of the methods that HBC has to draw in unbelievers to their church. Almost everyday we sat in classes taught by Aaron Bitzer, my roommate of five years and fellow partner in crime. He has been there for about a year now and it was really good to see him. Back when we were living together, we constantly encouraged each other to pursue missions in Japan. He beat me to Japan but hopefully I will be able to join him sometime in the future.
The other thing was that we did some manual labor at the church. We painted the sanctuary and did some yard work. The sanctuary was in need of some painting and the yard was in some desperate need of help. The bushes were overgrown and they actually covered the sign in the parking lot. There were leaves everywhere and all the trees needed trimming. I must admit that it looks pretty good now. Also, as weird as it seems, it was really nice to do this kind of work. It reminded me of when I grew up at my parents’ home and I discovered that I actually miss doing yard work. Maybe, it’s the Adam in me that learned to enjoy earning bread by the sweat of the brow. I am the sweat mongster after all.
Click here to see my Japan trip pics.
“The way of God is a daily cross. No one has ascended into heaven through an easy life.” – Saint Isaac of Syria.
This was my fourth time going on this trip and second time leading it. The newness is definitely gone and more of the reality has sunk in. I had some good talks with Aaron during the trip and over the past year about the real cost of missions. I have come to realize that short-term trips are like going to spiritual Disneyland. You go for a few weeks, you are the center of attention, and then you leave before you can experience any real problems. Don’t get me wrong. I think short-term trips are great. However, people need to realize that going long-term is much more difficult than it may seem to be.
Here are just a few of the problems you will run into on long-term missions. There’s a language and culture barrier. We experienced some of it every year on the Japan trip. In the long-term the problems are multiplied exponentially. My last sermon for Grace on Campus was on forgiveness and I talked about how miscommunication can lead to sinning against one another. When we don’t understand another person, we tend to think of them (we would admit this if we’re honest with ourselves) as being stupid. This is an arrogant and sinful attitude. When you’re in a country you don’t understand with people who speak a language you don’t understand, the potential for this happening is very great. I can give you guys the sermon notes on this if you want. Just email me back.
Another problem is figuring out how to live every day life in a foreign country. In many countries you cannot find the same products in the store as you did in your home country. So if you got heartburn in Japan, you can’t just go to the store and buy Tums. You need to figure out alternative ways to remedy your problems. Things just work differently in other countries. You have to adapt to it because it certainly won’t adapt to you. You’ll be frustrated and you’ll feel like a kid again because you won’t know how to do a lot of things.
One last thing I’ll mention is loneliness and a lack of fellowship. Chances are, when you’re out on the mission field long-term, there will be only a few people there with you from your own country. When you go on missions you will be plucked out of your nice comfortable environment where all your friends are and placed in an environment where you won’t have the same kind of relationships with anyone. You won’t get preaching in your own language. You will have difficulty sharing your deeper thoughts with people. No one will do with you all the fun things you used to do back home (and when you do go and do them it won’t be the same). You can’t share with anyone your old inside jokes. There will be little encouragement because the Christians around you can’t express it in your language. You will probably spend much time alone and when you are with people you still might feel alone.
Do you still want to devote your life to missions? Many people even say they want to be medical missionaries. I think a lot of them just see the honor of being a doctor and a missionary and they don’t realize that medical missions is even harder than “regular” missions. Are you ready to amputate a child’s arm or leg? Are you ready to turn down hundreds of desperate people because you’re out of medicine? Are you ready to expose yourself to deformed and diseased people in unsanitary conditions? Are you ready to watch people die because you can do nothing about it? Being a medical missionary means you have to go either to a third world or a developing country. Can you live in those conditions with little or no pay? If you are, I commend you to God for the great work you will do. If not, I suggest that you stay home at least until God makes you strong enough to go.
“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” – C.S. Lewis
So what’s left for the future? Even though I won’t be working full time anymore, I still intend to move on to a new ministry. I’ll be checking out Immanuel Bible Church (IBC) starting tomorrow. I’ll also be starting full time seminary on August 30. Right now I’m trying to figure out if I should work for my current employer part time or look for a new job. I’ll be doing some math later today to figure out how much in loans I need to take out. Once I get a handle on the administrative aspects of my life I’ll be spending much of my time getting my Hebrew back. It’s been a year since I took beginning Hebrew and I’ll be starting the next level in August.
When my boss told me earlier this week that they won’t be able to give me the work hours I requested, I was faced with quite a dilemma. The thought of just dropping seminary and missions crossed my mind several times. I was thinking, “Man, this is so hard. I don’t want to take out loans. I don’t want to be in debt. Life is so financially hard right now with school and the car payments. Wouldn’t it be easier and nicer if I just left all that, pursued a career, and lived a comfortable life? I would make good money, get married (and actually be able to pay for a wedding), and buy a house. Full-time ministry and especially missions is really hard anyway.” These thoughts still tempt me every day. (A disclaimer: I think I’ve said this before, but I think that everyone’s life is hard no matter how much money you make but the path of missions has its own set of problems)
However, I know what the Word says about the life of ease (thank you Dr. Piper!) and that those things aren’t really satisfying anyway. So with RESOLVE, I will trust in my God, devote my life to Him, and continue on this path where I will get trained to serve Him in a greater capacity. I must say that I can see His sovereignty behind all these events. It is an act of grace and mercy for God to not put me through both full-time school and seminary. Also, when I’ll be working in the States to pay off my loans, He will cause me to mature and grow and I will be much more prepared for full-time missions. I am convinced that God works all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. This is where I stand.
Father God, thank You for allowing me to go to Japan for a fourth time. You have taught me so much over these past four years during those trips. You have widened my view of Your glory. You are not the God of the United States or even the Western World but of the Universe. You understand all languages and cultures. You love every single person You created and indeed You desire all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. You even went to the extent of sending your Son to Earth to seek and save the lost. Your Son had a difficult life that ended with a death on a cross. Your Son had to suffer the wrath that I deserve to bear. That is how much You love me. May my heart beat with Yours and may I emulate your Son and continue His work with the same passion that He has. Teach me to not focus on the things of this world but to look forward to the next for that is the world I was made for.