As much as I was loving my time at Emmaus Bible College, it was exciting to see the end of my time as a student approaching. One of the wonderful blessings from the Lord was that my younger brother, Victor, who had just graduated from high school, came to Emmaus and we roomed together! It was a big blessing for both of us and we grew much closer together. As with the previous three years at Emmaus, I went on (and led) a short term missions trip during the Spring Break. However, unlike the other years, we did not go to Mexico but to Peru instead. I had gotten to know a missionary family, the Tuttles, really well and we went to where they were in Trujillo, Peru. God worked in some great ways. Primarily it was exciting to see the team so dedicated to prayer and watch how God answered each prayer one by one in so many cool ways, from financial provision, to the salvation of a tag along church member, to boldness in preaching, to the encouragement of the believers, to alternative transportation to Lima when we missed our flight to so many more. It was a great reminder once again of how God loves to answer our prayers, especially when we pray in faith and with eager expectation.
God has brought many different people into my life over the years who have influenced me and drawn me closer to Himself. While at college one of those such people was Micah Tuttle. I learned so much through watching him evangelize, dig into the Word, but most of all I loved to watch his relationship with his family. His wife and his kids never played second fiddle to his ministry in spite of his enthusiastic passion for the lost. I have taken much away from him and his family that I look forward to implementing into my own family as well as my mission work. Praise God for such people! =D
That last year of college was also the start of something wonderful that caught me totally unaware yet something that God had but planning all along. I began a relationship with a beautiful and godly girl who was to become my wife! Much could be said about this too, but one of the things that excited me was when I clarified with Amy that God had been calling and leading me to Japan and that that was where I was planning and preparing to serve and live, she was ok with that. Not only was she fine with that but she had know about this desire and passion of mine and long before anything happened between us, she was ready to go should God bring the relationship about! Basically she had a heart for God and had already surrendered her will to serve Him wherever and however He would choose! God is so great!
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Caleb's Preparation Part 5 - College 2006-2007
Summer 2006 was yet another wonderful summer in which I was involved in all the same ministries and activities of the previous summer. God brought many blessings my way as well as many stretching and trying experiences. I entered my junior year once again full of the joy of serving God and ready for another year of studies.
Another year of studies progressed and again I grew in my relationship with God through classes, ministries, involvement with my church, and through my peers. Through one particular event God stretched me and grew me. The church that I had been involved in, Riverside, was a young church (about 5 years old) and filled mostly of college age students (most of whom came from Emmaus). God had taken this small church through a lot of trials and testing, and it had come through the better for it. I had the joy of becoming very involved as I helped to strengthen the prayer, and had several chances to use my gift of preaching and teaching. Through this body of believers God changed several views that I had toward what a church should look like and how to "do church." When I first began coming to the church I didn't feel comfortable with young people preaching on a Sunday morning. I felt that the old, wiser, and more experienced believers should do the preaching. God changed my understanding of this to see that age is not so much a factor as gifting. The church taught me that one of the important roles of leaders is to encourage the youth into roles of responsibility, growing their gifts, and using them. In this way, I discovered my gift f preaching and was encouraged and guided in my utilizing it. The other way God changed my view of things was that I previously would never have considered a church closing its doors to be a good thing. Here also, God showed me otherwise. Because the church was mostly full of college students it was a very transient church. Even the leadership consisted mainly of recently graduated college students. The leaders saw that despite the many strengths of the church, its primary weakness was its instability. The leaders themselves could not guarantee their being present within a year period. Wisely, and with much prayer, they saw that instead of leaving that problem for someone else to deal with down the road, and because there were other good churches in the area, they decided that it would be best to close the doors and help each of us to get situated into a new group of believers. While this was very hard since we had grown very close to each other, we also felt God's peace on the whole situation. Looking back, I can see how God used it to strengthen the surrounding churches therefore furthering, not hindering the Church, the Body of Christ.
Another year of studies progressed and again I grew in my relationship with God through classes, ministries, involvement with my church, and through my peers. Through one particular event God stretched me and grew me. The church that I had been involved in, Riverside, was a young church (about 5 years old) and filled mostly of college age students (most of whom came from Emmaus). God had taken this small church through a lot of trials and testing, and it had come through the better for it. I had the joy of becoming very involved as I helped to strengthen the prayer, and had several chances to use my gift of preaching and teaching. Through this body of believers God changed several views that I had toward what a church should look like and how to "do church." When I first began coming to the church I didn't feel comfortable with young people preaching on a Sunday morning. I felt that the old, wiser, and more experienced believers should do the preaching. God changed my understanding of this to see that age is not so much a factor as gifting. The church taught me that one of the important roles of leaders is to encourage the youth into roles of responsibility, growing their gifts, and using them. In this way, I discovered my gift f preaching and was encouraged and guided in my utilizing it. The other way God changed my view of things was that I previously would never have considered a church closing its doors to be a good thing. Here also, God showed me otherwise. Because the church was mostly full of college students it was a very transient church. Even the leadership consisted mainly of recently graduated college students. The leaders saw that despite the many strengths of the church, its primary weakness was its instability. The leaders themselves could not guarantee their being present within a year period. Wisely, and with much prayer, they saw that instead of leaving that problem for someone else to deal with down the road, and because there were other good churches in the area, they decided that it would be best to close the doors and help each of us to get situated into a new group of believers. While this was very hard since we had grown very close to each other, we also felt God's peace on the whole situation. Looking back, I can see how God used it to strengthen the surrounding churches therefore furthering, not hindering the Church, the Body of Christ.
Caleb's Preparation Part 4 - College 2005-2006
I returned to college filled with joy and praise for what God had done during the summer. The year went very well and one of the things that God led me to do was to start a prayer meeting at the college as He had led me to do during the summer. It was hard to see how few people would come to pray even though it was available three times a week and they could come or leave as needed during the hour and a half time that we met. Nevertheless I was greatly encouraged by those who did come and when no one came had wonderful time with the Savior, just Him and me.
As the year progressed God kept working in my heart, drawing me closer to Himself and developing the passion for Japan that He had placed in me. I began thinking about what I would want to do in Japan. I wanted to be a missionary, but doing what? Through several situations I began to realize that what I really wanted to do was planting churches. As I prayed for Japan I saw that there were still 10 cities (albeit small cities) that had no churches in them and hundreds of towns of villages. This was not to mention the many cities and towns that had only one church. My heart broke over those cities. "No churches!" I thought and began crying out to God for those places, knowing in my heart that I wanted to see churches started in those ten cities. By myself, I was dreaming the impossible, but with God . . . this is more than possible!
As the year progressed God kept working in my heart, drawing me closer to Himself and developing the passion for Japan that He had placed in me. I began thinking about what I would want to do in Japan. I wanted to be a missionary, but doing what? Through several situations I began to realize that what I really wanted to do was planting churches. As I prayed for Japan I saw that there were still 10 cities (albeit small cities) that had no churches in them and hundreds of towns of villages. This was not to mention the many cities and towns that had only one church. My heart broke over those cities. "No churches!" I thought and began crying out to God for those places, knowing in my heart that I wanted to see churches started in those ten cities. By myself, I was dreaming the impossible, but with God . . . this is more than possible!
Caleb's Preparation Part 3 - Summer 2005
Summer 2004
The summer after my freshman year was, to put it mildly, awesome! God gave me the most amazing summer. Looking back on it I look at it in three sections. In the first section I stayed at home with my parents and two younger brothers (Victor and Ethan). I was able to hang out after school and talk with the students as they left the buildings. I had so many discipleship opportunities in the span of about a month. I already felt like my summer was going really well.
The second section was during the month of June and the beginning of July. I served as a counselor at Joy Bible Camp in the Okutama mountains. It was my 5 year as a counselor and this time I was asked to lead the counselor training as well. Like so many other times God placed me in a situation where I felt unqualified and ill-prepared. It forced me to lean heavily on God for strength, guidance and wisdom. I prayerfully put things together and the training time went very well. That summer's camp went especially well. The unity of the staff was wonderful. We had many trials that came up yet each time we responded with prayer and trust and God answered in wonderful ways. The response of the kids (from 3rd to 8th grade) was good as well. Following Joy Bible Camp I went to help at Hi-B.A. camp in Chiba-ken, near the ocean. I wanted to work as a counselor but God had another idea. He had me serve on the Grounds Crew. This turned out as the best option for me because I had tons of time to pray (for myself and for the campers) and to think. In addition I was still able to spend a lot of time with the campers during their free time. The camp itself was like non-other I have ever experienced but that would take too much to talk about. During this time I faced a very difficult decision. My love and passion for Japan had grown to such a degree and I felt so strongly that God was about to do a might work in Japan, that I did not want to return to the States for college. I remember going out at night and having a long talk with God during which I poured out my thoughts and frustrations and questions to God. I felt like God was asking me to give up Japan to Him after He had placed into in my heart. He had given me a burden for Japan and was now telling me to give it back to Him. I have never given up something that was so hard to give up. Finally I came to the point where I voiced my sacrifice to God. I committed into His hands Japan. he could choose to take it from me or give it back to me, but it was in His hands. If He wanted me to stay or return in a year, or in 5 years or ten or twenty or never, that was His choice, and I submitted myself to His will.
The summer was not yet over however. After this submission, I began asking God to help me serve Him in anyway while still in Japan that summer. He placed an idea on my heart and gave me the strength to pursue it. The third section of my summer was while I was with my family at NLA, in Nojiri, Nagano-ken. It is a missionary vacationing place with cabins and a big beautiful lake located in the mountains. I went full of joy and excitement in serving the Lord and seeing what He had already done so far that summer. The idea that God had given me was to start a prayer meeting at Nojiri. I talked with people, put up a few fliers, and announced it in church on Sunday. We met three times a week and often met for a good two to three hours! It was a wonderful time of prayer and had a whole range of ages came too (9 to 81!). There was rarely more than 10 of us but God blessed us with His presence and answered in some really neat ways. In addition I lead a youth group that had gotten started a few years earlier but had not continued. I found some others to join me and as we served and prayed we saw God bless us amazingly. By the end of August I had seen God answer so many prayers in NLA, seen so many people encouraged and strengthened and was so pumped and excited about what God was doing. All that time I had been praying about whether or not I should go back to college. I came really close to not returning, in fact there were more reasons for me to stay in Japan, but God overruled. One other highlight of the summer was how I had come to Japan with the feeling that God was about to do something big in Japan and that the time of a great turning and revival in Japan was very close. All throughout the summer I kept bumping into other people who also ahd the same feeling. It was so encouraging!
The summer after my freshman year was, to put it mildly, awesome! God gave me the most amazing summer. Looking back on it I look at it in three sections. In the first section I stayed at home with my parents and two younger brothers (Victor and Ethan). I was able to hang out after school and talk with the students as they left the buildings. I had so many discipleship opportunities in the span of about a month. I already felt like my summer was going really well.
The second section was during the month of June and the beginning of July. I served as a counselor at Joy Bible Camp in the Okutama mountains. It was my 5 year as a counselor and this time I was asked to lead the counselor training as well. Like so many other times God placed me in a situation where I felt unqualified and ill-prepared. It forced me to lean heavily on God for strength, guidance and wisdom. I prayerfully put things together and the training time went very well. That summer's camp went especially well. The unity of the staff was wonderful. We had many trials that came up yet each time we responded with prayer and trust and God answered in wonderful ways. The response of the kids (from 3rd to 8th grade) was good as well. Following Joy Bible Camp I went to help at Hi-B.A. camp in Chiba-ken, near the ocean. I wanted to work as a counselor but God had another idea. He had me serve on the Grounds Crew. This turned out as the best option for me because I had tons of time to pray (for myself and for the campers) and to think. In addition I was still able to spend a lot of time with the campers during their free time. The camp itself was like non-other I have ever experienced but that would take too much to talk about. During this time I faced a very difficult decision. My love and passion for Japan had grown to such a degree and I felt so strongly that God was about to do a might work in Japan, that I did not want to return to the States for college. I remember going out at night and having a long talk with God during which I poured out my thoughts and frustrations and questions to God. I felt like God was asking me to give up Japan to Him after He had placed into in my heart. He had given me a burden for Japan and was now telling me to give it back to Him. I have never given up something that was so hard to give up. Finally I came to the point where I voiced my sacrifice to God. I committed into His hands Japan. he could choose to take it from me or give it back to me, but it was in His hands. If He wanted me to stay or return in a year, or in 5 years or ten or twenty or never, that was His choice, and I submitted myself to His will.
The summer was not yet over however. After this submission, I began asking God to help me serve Him in anyway while still in Japan that summer. He placed an idea on my heart and gave me the strength to pursue it. The third section of my summer was while I was with my family at NLA, in Nojiri, Nagano-ken. It is a missionary vacationing place with cabins and a big beautiful lake located in the mountains. I went full of joy and excitement in serving the Lord and seeing what He had already done so far that summer. The idea that God had given me was to start a prayer meeting at Nojiri. I talked with people, put up a few fliers, and announced it in church on Sunday. We met three times a week and often met for a good two to three hours! It was a wonderful time of prayer and had a whole range of ages came too (9 to 81!). There was rarely more than 10 of us but God blessed us with His presence and answered in some really neat ways. In addition I lead a youth group that had gotten started a few years earlier but had not continued. I found some others to join me and as we served and prayed we saw God bless us amazingly. By the end of August I had seen God answer so many prayers in NLA, seen so many people encouraged and strengthened and was so pumped and excited about what God was doing. All that time I had been praying about whether or not I should go back to college. I came really close to not returning, in fact there were more reasons for me to stay in Japan, but God overruled. One other highlight of the summer was how I had come to Japan with the feeling that God was about to do something big in Japan and that the time of a great turning and revival in Japan was very close. All throughout the summer I kept bumping into other people who also ahd the same feeling. It was so encouraging!
Caleb's Preparation Part 2 - College (2004-2005)
2004-2005
My college years was a time of testing, stretching, and growing in the Lord. Our God is so faithful to continue the work that He started in us; the work of perfecting us into the image of His own Son, Jesus Christ. I entered the first semester pumped and excited. I remember thinking how awesome it was that I had the privilege to study the Bible for my degree! What could be better than studying the Word of God at a good Bible college with other godly Christians! =D The first semester started off well and I began to make some friends. I loved my classes and was being stretched and challenged. However, beginning sometime in late September and lasting until the beginning of November God took me through a period of depression. Things were very dark and I remember waking up wishing it were night time and going to sleep wishing it were morning. Two things got me through this time. The first was the promises in God's Word. I clung to the Bible telling God that he and His Word were the only things that made sense at that moment. The other thing was something my grandpa encouraged me to do; praise the Lord. I began praising Him all throughout the day, in words or in song. This got me through each day, and though I didn't mean it much at first (or at least didn't feel like it) it developed into a genuine overflow of my heart! The remainder of the semester went was recovery and went better. I nearly didn't return to college after Christmas break but I did and God blessed it. Since this freshman year, I have looked back often and seen how much God taught me and stretched me and grew me through that dark time. I am more sensitive and understanding to others who go through depression as well. During the second semester of the year God began to place a burden on my heart to pray for Japan. I began to pray regularly and then daily for Japan. I began encouraging others I knew back in Japan to be praying faithfully for Japan. I began to realize how much I had come to love the people of Japan and how much I longed to see salvation come to that nation. I also began sending out a weekly e-mail giving different things to pray about concerning Japan (this lasted about a year) and before the semester was over, I knew that I wanted to return to Japan as a missionary.
My college years was a time of testing, stretching, and growing in the Lord. Our God is so faithful to continue the work that He started in us; the work of perfecting us into the image of His own Son, Jesus Christ. I entered the first semester pumped and excited. I remember thinking how awesome it was that I had the privilege to study the Bible for my degree! What could be better than studying the Word of God at a good Bible college with other godly Christians! =D The first semester started off well and I began to make some friends. I loved my classes and was being stretched and challenged. However, beginning sometime in late September and lasting until the beginning of November God took me through a period of depression. Things were very dark and I remember waking up wishing it were night time and going to sleep wishing it were morning. Two things got me through this time. The first was the promises in God's Word. I clung to the Bible telling God that he and His Word were the only things that made sense at that moment. The other thing was something my grandpa encouraged me to do; praise the Lord. I began praising Him all throughout the day, in words or in song. This got me through each day, and though I didn't mean it much at first (or at least didn't feel like it) it developed into a genuine overflow of my heart! The remainder of the semester went was recovery and went better. I nearly didn't return to college after Christmas break but I did and God blessed it. Since this freshman year, I have looked back often and seen how much God taught me and stretched me and grew me through that dark time. I am more sensitive and understanding to others who go through depression as well. During the second semester of the year God began to place a burden on my heart to pray for Japan. I began to pray regularly and then daily for Japan. I began encouraging others I knew back in Japan to be praying faithfully for Japan. I began to realize how much I had come to love the people of Japan and how much I longed to see salvation come to that nation. I also began sending out a weekly e-mail giving different things to pray about concerning Japan (this lasted about a year) and before the semester was over, I knew that I wanted to return to Japan as a missionary.
Caleb's Preparation Part 1 - Up through high school
As with any job or assignment, serving the Lord has it's preparation time. The Lord has been preparing me in a number of ways, nearly all of which I never expected or predicted!
So, how has He been preparing me to serve Him in Japan? Let me take it one year at a time.
1984
Ok, this is the obvious one. He had me born in it!!!
2001-2002 (skipping ahead a few years)
Up to this point I did not really have much of a love for Japan. In fact, at several points in my life I actually disliked Japan and wanted to be in the United States. However, as I grew closer to the Lord and spent more and more time in His Word and in prayer, He began to change my heart and my attitude. Sometime during my Junior year of high school (at Christian Academy in Japan) I began to see the Japanese people through God's eyes. I began to no longer see them as masses of black haired people, but as individuals, precious in God's sight. When I would go on the trains my heart would break as I viewed the hundreds, even thousands of people and realize that the vast majority of them did not know the Savior! :( I began to pray for the people that I passed on the sidewalk. I prayed even for people going by in cars! God had begun to burden my heart for Japan.
2002-2003
My senior year of high school. Many things happened this year and I grew a lot. One seemingly small thing happened that turned out to be bigger than I had thought. Beginning around January 2003, I joined a group of fellow students, led by a college intern, in leading a middle school youth group called JAM (Jesus And Me). We would meet mid-week to plan, fellowship, and worship. At the end of the year, the college intern, Cami Potter, was heading back to his college in the States and it appeared that the youth group would have no leader the following year. One of my classmates, Jay Dillon, suggested that the two of us lead it since neither of us were going to college right away. I agreed, and the pastor of the church that JAM was connected with also agreed. But then God stirred things up. Jay ended up going off to college after all leaving me to lead by myself! I would never have done it if I had known that I'd be alone in the leadership! But God was stretching me. He provided me with a lot of support through TJ (the pastor), Cami (in a three week crash course on leadership), my family (parents & Grandparents) and many people praying for me.
2003-2004
With high school behind me, I entered the year feeling strange to not be studying. My primary responsibilities were to lead the high school volunteers for JAM and together with them lead the middle school kids in JAM. This was not a paid job so I also taught English on the side, something that I was very reluctant to do but did anyway. Basically, my mornings and evenings were all filled but I had a big chuck of each day (about 10-4) free. I took advantage of this time to do a lot of reading, primarily in the Bible and God took me to new heights in my relationship with Him. This year was one of the best in my life. I went through some really hard stuff but the rewards were worth every bit of it. Despite the hardships and the tears, I would gladly do it all over again! God taught me a lot about leadership and prepared me for later roles of leadership, including church planting.
So, how has He been preparing me to serve Him in Japan? Let me take it one year at a time.
1984
Ok, this is the obvious one. He had me born in it!!!
2001-2002 (skipping ahead a few years)
Up to this point I did not really have much of a love for Japan. In fact, at several points in my life I actually disliked Japan and wanted to be in the United States. However, as I grew closer to the Lord and spent more and more time in His Word and in prayer, He began to change my heart and my attitude. Sometime during my Junior year of high school (at Christian Academy in Japan) I began to see the Japanese people through God's eyes. I began to no longer see them as masses of black haired people, but as individuals, precious in God's sight. When I would go on the trains my heart would break as I viewed the hundreds, even thousands of people and realize that the vast majority of them did not know the Savior! :( I began to pray for the people that I passed on the sidewalk. I prayed even for people going by in cars! God had begun to burden my heart for Japan.
2002-2003
My senior year of high school. Many things happened this year and I grew a lot. One seemingly small thing happened that turned out to be bigger than I had thought. Beginning around January 2003, I joined a group of fellow students, led by a college intern, in leading a middle school youth group called JAM (Jesus And Me). We would meet mid-week to plan, fellowship, and worship. At the end of the year, the college intern, Cami Potter, was heading back to his college in the States and it appeared that the youth group would have no leader the following year. One of my classmates, Jay Dillon, suggested that the two of us lead it since neither of us were going to college right away. I agreed, and the pastor of the church that JAM was connected with also agreed. But then God stirred things up. Jay ended up going off to college after all leaving me to lead by myself! I would never have done it if I had known that I'd be alone in the leadership! But God was stretching me. He provided me with a lot of support through TJ (the pastor), Cami (in a three week crash course on leadership), my family (parents & Grandparents) and many people praying for me.
2003-2004
With high school behind me, I entered the year feeling strange to not be studying. My primary responsibilities were to lead the high school volunteers for JAM and together with them lead the middle school kids in JAM. This was not a paid job so I also taught English on the side, something that I was very reluctant to do but did anyway. Basically, my mornings and evenings were all filled but I had a big chuck of each day (about 10-4) free. I took advantage of this time to do a lot of reading, primarily in the Bible and God took me to new heights in my relationship with Him. This year was one of the best in my life. I went through some really hard stuff but the rewards were worth every bit of it. Despite the hardships and the tears, I would gladly do it all over again! God taught me a lot about leadership and prepared me for later roles of leadership, including church planting.
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