Osaka Plans

Osaka is turning out to be full of opportunity!

There is a small international church gathering here that my friends Asuka and Luke attend. We arrived Friday night - me with tired puffy eyes from crying - and had dinner with the pastor and another brother in full-time ministry. The next day we met a lot of people, had lunch, and again I talked with the pastor. Still at this point I wasn`t sure how much opportunity I would have here to teach and preach.

On Sunday at the end of the church service, the pastor says "Jayne, if you have something to share with us, please come forward."

I was really taken by surprise, but didn`t want to miss an opportunity. So I went to the front and just started talking. I ended up talking about how God created Japan and Japanese people for His own purpose and glory, and that He created each of them individually unique for His own purpose and glory. The Church is His treasure in the earth - He died to purchase this treasure. Though the Church in Japan may seem small, it is precious in His sight. I talked about Elijah being on the mountain, completely surrounded by an army sent after him. His servant was afraid, but he prayed for his servant and his eyes were opened to see the army of God also surrounding them. "Greater are those that are with us than they that are with them." I applied this to the Church in Japan and also mentioned the scripture from 1st John: "Greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world."

Yesterday - Monday - we met with the pastor again. He said "Well then, let`s talk about what we can do."

Yay!!

There are a lot of really new believers here, and I love to teach bible studies, so we set up a bible study for the following day. Then he said "A couple of brothers are free this afternoon. How about having bible study in about 30 minutes?"

Oh, uh, sure! I`ll start preparing.

So we met with one brother who was just baptized a month ago and another brother who has been around a while, and an older sister who is recovering from the loss of her husband. I taught on forgiveness; the forgiveness that Jesus offers has transforming power and gives us the strength of a new life to "Go and sin no more". I talked about the need to recognize how bad sin is, to not make excuses, to confess sin to the Body of Christ, and also about receiving forgiveness by faith when we have asked for it. Through discussion afterward, I talked about other things in response to questions that people had. Later, the pastor said that the things that I taught are the same things that he teaches. He was happy with my explanations and answers.
I`m glad that he knows he can trust me. I`m happy to be his coworker. But I have learned that, around him, I need to be ready to speak at any moment!! :-)

Here is the schedule for the week:

Monday: afternoon bible study on forgiveness (already happened)
Tuesday: afternoon bible study on prayer
Wednesday: I will preach at their prayer meeting that evening
Thursday: still uncertain. I would like to have something in the evening for people who work during the day.
Friday: still uncertain. possible bible study in the morning. We leave at around 3 or 4 to go to Yuko`s city.

This gathering is mostly Japanese, but because so many of them speak English, they do a lot of outreach to international students at a nearby university. There are also a couple of brothers that go to the train station every Friday to share the Gospel. In general, this group is young and excited about Jesus! They are hungry to read the Word, talk about God with Christians and non-Christians, and work for the Lord.

Even before I came to Osaka, I thought that God really wants to use this group to win people to Christ. Since being here, I now realize that the Lord might just be responding to their desire. I hope to encourage them in this and see them "endued with power from on high".