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.
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