A Sigh of Debrief
hello! its ashley :D
Friday was our debreif day even though it wasnt our last day here in Japan. Time always goes by really quickly so it was good to stop and talk about how we felt about all the school visits and other ministry activities we were doing. In the morning we talked a little bit about living our lives fully for Jesus like Peter declares in John 21: 14-23. Then we had a time of prayer for the students that we got to talk to these past two weeks.
hello! its ashley :D
Friday was our debreif day even though it wasnt our last day here in Japan. Time always goes by really quickly so it was good to stop and talk about how we felt about all the school visits and other ministry activities we were doing. In the morning we talked a little bit about living our lives fully for Jesus like Peter declares in John 21: 14-23. Then we had a time of prayer for the students that we got to talk to these past two weeks.
Priscilla, Beland, and a couple of church staffers- Jun and Aaron went to have lunch with one of the students that Priscilla and Beland met a few years ago. Im not exactly sure how that went so please be praying for him, his name is Satoshi but he goes by Ash. The rest of the team ate lunch with HBC's senior pastor, we call him Kondo Sensei. The wisdom and heart of the pastors at HBC have been such a blessing and encouragement to fellowship with these past two weeks.
After lunch we talked a little bit about what we liked and didnt like about this years ministry and ways we can improve things. Overall we really enjoyed more fellowship time with the church members, we got to know them a little bit more so that when we serve together and pray together its not just a shallow thing, but we really are loving each other as we are serving God. This year was also the first time we visited a couple of schools, but establishing the relationship between the school and the church was very important and we think that both will have us back next year.
Then the guys got to play some basketball with Kondo Sensei's son Takashi, while the girls did some scrapbooking for their host families. After about an hour of that it was off to the Mortimer house! They are a missionary family at HBC and they have English Bible study every other friday night so they were very gracious in welcoming all of us into their home. They have 5 boys between the ages of 10 and 2. um wow. Seeing their heart for their children and the love they have for each other as well as many of the unsaved people in their neigborhood is amazing. We ate and got to sing a lot of english worship songs that many of the people living in Japan dont always get to do. After that Chris Mortimer led us in discussion about our time here.
He stated that ultimately all of us are missionaries, and looking at the Great Commission the emphasis isnt about going, its that wherever you do go, you make disciples. And in making disciples its apparent that we need to create relationships for us to come to make those disciples. So much of this trip was about forming relationships with the students to have that perspective that in order to make disciples we have to make relationships was good to have. Christian ministry is mainly relational. We also talked about how God has gifted us individually with different talents for us to form relationships by. So we were encouraged to use the gifts that we have to go and serve God by making friends using the things that we do best. It was a very encouraging night.
Oh, in the morning Tricia and I got to share the gospel with our host parents' son. He is 28 years old, we were eating breakfast and they said to us, in front of him, to please say the gospel to him. We got it out, it was kind of difficult because they dont speak english that well, and my Japanese definitely is not that good. We asked him to think about what we told him and he said he would come to church tomorrow. We hope that his parents will actually do more sharing than we do or other church members. We will try and encourage them to show their love for him in that way.
Today is the barbeque! Please pray for the hearts of the students that will come, and for the relationships that they hopefully will form with the Japanese staff.
After lunch we talked a little bit about what we liked and didnt like about this years ministry and ways we can improve things. Overall we really enjoyed more fellowship time with the church members, we got to know them a little bit more so that when we serve together and pray together its not just a shallow thing, but we really are loving each other as we are serving God. This year was also the first time we visited a couple of schools, but establishing the relationship between the school and the church was very important and we think that both will have us back next year.
Then the guys got to play some basketball with Kondo Sensei's son Takashi, while the girls did some scrapbooking for their host families. After about an hour of that it was off to the Mortimer house! They are a missionary family at HBC and they have English Bible study every other friday night so they were very gracious in welcoming all of us into their home. They have 5 boys between the ages of 10 and 2. um wow. Seeing their heart for their children and the love they have for each other as well as many of the unsaved people in their neigborhood is amazing. We ate and got to sing a lot of english worship songs that many of the people living in Japan dont always get to do. After that Chris Mortimer led us in discussion about our time here.
He stated that ultimately all of us are missionaries, and looking at the Great Commission the emphasis isnt about going, its that wherever you do go, you make disciples. And in making disciples its apparent that we need to create relationships for us to come to make those disciples. So much of this trip was about forming relationships with the students to have that perspective that in order to make disciples we have to make relationships was good to have. Christian ministry is mainly relational. We also talked about how God has gifted us individually with different talents for us to form relationships by. So we were encouraged to use the gifts that we have to go and serve God by making friends using the things that we do best. It was a very encouraging night.
Oh, in the morning Tricia and I got to share the gospel with our host parents' son. He is 28 years old, we were eating breakfast and they said to us, in front of him, to please say the gospel to him. We got it out, it was kind of difficult because they dont speak english that well, and my Japanese definitely is not that good. We asked him to think about what we told him and he said he would come to church tomorrow. We hope that his parents will actually do more sharing than we do or other church members. We will try and encourage them to show their love for him in that way.
Today is the barbeque! Please pray for the hearts of the students that will come, and for the relationships that they hopefully will form with the Japanese staff.