Glory to God in the Highest! Emmanuel!
Last night's outreach was incredible! God truly worked through our weakness and inefficiencies! His will was done and He was glorified! Our outreach was called the American Farewell Party since we are leaving on Monday. Many new students came to the outreach. We started the outreach by having some of our team members share what they will miss most about Japan. We then performed our Lifehouse Everything skit and it brought some students to tears. After that, I got up in front of everyone and shared my testimony, and my friend, Yukiko, translated. I was pretty nervous and my voice was still not fully back, but the Lord spoke through me and got the message that I wanted to share across. The main message was about the ultimate, never ending, unconditional love from Jesus Christ that can not be experienced from another human being. I talked about how even in my sin, shame, and guilt, God loves me. No matter what I have done in the past, where I am at now, or what I will do in the future, God loves me. I then told all the students that they too can experience this incredible love. I ended with sharing 1 John4:16 "So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him."
After my testimony, my roommate, Casey, came up and played the guitar and sang a song. Then the Japanese staff surprised us by singing us a song to say thanks and gave us all gifts. It was very moving and quite sad.
We then proceeded to break up in small groups to talk about the skit and my testimony and use this time to share the Gospel.I was in a group with my team member, Katherine Anne, Yukiko (the staff member who translated for me) and two girls names Yumi and Shiori from the Gai Dai campus. Katherine Anne had met Yumi for the first time on Tuesday when they got "randomly" paired up to play badminton together. Katherine Anne invited her to our party and she brought her friend, Shiori, who we had never met before.
While talking to the girls, I really felt the presence of the Holy spirit and I knew they would both decide to come to know Jesus that night. During my testimony, Katherine Anne also heard God tell her to be ready to pray the prayer with someone tonight. After having a long spiritual conversation with both of them, the time came to share the Gospel. Yukiko asked me to go through the Knowing God Personally booklet and that she would translate when needed. The Lord really spoke through me and at the end I asked them if they understood everything. They not only told me they understood it but that they also believed it and WANTED IT!!! They were able to tell the Gospel back to us and clearly had a good understanding of it. Yumi also told us that she saw how I had an English bible and Yukiko had a Japanese bible and how that showed her how God is for ALL PEOPLE! WOW! That blew my mind! They wanted to pray the prayer right theew to accept Jesus in their hearts. So Katherine Anne, Yukiko, and I prayed with them. We then did follow up and rejoiced with them for being our new sisters!!! They were so joyful! The Lord truly blessed me with allowing me to be a harvester in these two girls' lives.
Today, we had our final picnic on the Gai Dai campus and both Yumi and Shiori showed up. Both had already started reading the bible as soon as they had returned to their homes after the party. Yukiko and another staff member, Fumi, came to out picnic to specifically become closer friends with these two girls since Katherine Anne and I are leaving. Yumi and Shiori asked for Yukiko's and Fumi's contact information and were excited to start a Bible Study with them! PRAISE THE LORD!
Tonight we are having one last dinner at our apartments and we have invited many of our Japanese friends to come, so please be praying that in these last hours of ministry that God be glorified and we continue to pour out love and be bold!
Thanks for all of your prayers! They truly are Powerful!
Till His kingdom comes,
Courtney
Pictures of the Outreach coming soon! I was just so excited to share this story that I couldn't wait for pics!
Janis Joplin Natal Chart
5 months ago