So-long, Niigata

While things didn't go the way I had in mind, I'm really thankful for this past week in Niigata.
It was a slow week and we only met a few people, but the time spent with them was really really good. Conversation and fellowship was great.

Tonight we went to the home of a mother and daughter who pray every morning with another woman and who worship together on Sundays as well. They're not really sure what they're doing, but they know they want to try something different than the traditional route. At dinner, the daughter described it as having church "in a new way". I said that, actually, it is a very old way. :) Again, conversation was really good and we all left dinner really encouraged.
After dinner we sang worship songs and God gave me a scripture for them.

Isaiah 66:1-2
Thus says the Lord: "Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest? For all those things My hand has made, and all those things exist," says the Lord. "But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word."

The message was not a rebuke to them at all, but rather an encouragement that the Lord looks on them because they're humble.

After I said the verse, I started praying. I prayed for walls to be torn down in the Body of Christ and for the women there to have grace to know how to walk in love toward their brothers and sisters. I started praying about how when Jesus was rejected, He received people, and when He was struck, He forgave.
I prayed some other stuff, too, about staying humble, and about ministry. I don't remember now what all I said. I just remember being impressed with how simple and pure and powerful the Kingdom of God is.

These women and others like them have already been rumored about and rejected by many who are in institutional churches. I'm just guessing that the verse and some of the things that I prayed were a result of that situation, but I don't actually know. I never fully know why God says what He does when He gives me things to say to people. It's not about me understanding; it's about Him and them. So, I just figure it has something to do with what He's already got going in their lives.

Tomorrow we head back to Tokyo for a prayer and worship meeting with a Christian woman whose body is saturated with cancer. Tomorrow night we will have dinner with an old friend from UNT.
On Sunday I'll be speaking at a small house church. What I have to say could be heard either as correction or as freedom, depending on the condition of their hearts. I really hope for the latter.

Well, it's almost 2 am.

Nighty night!