Japan 2016 Entry 4

Yo yo swageroo,

Today was pretty sweet. Traditional breakfast at Pastor's house. Children's English class day 2. Lunch. Beginner adult English class. A bit of worship. Visiting a wycliffe missionary for dinner.

I know I've said it before, but yo. We are so blessed here. Literally everyone is pouring out love on us and it makes it so much easier to love others.

The morning English class was a little bit less well planned out than yesterday's, so it felt like it was kinda lame, but it sounded like the students enjoyed it still, which is great. We have 7 great girls (and one of the girls really likes pokemon go. ;P) and I'm so blessed to know them. Today NP shared her testimony and it seemed like they were paying much more attention during chapel time than yesterday.

The afternoon class was with all new students, so we didn't know what to prepare for. Our class was 7 great men and women! They were so enthusiastic to try and speak English and were asking great questions and as such we only actually ended up getting through half of the material we had planned. ;P At one point one of the guys (instead of practicing the english we were supposed to) just asked AL about how she became a Christian. And later when she actually shared a testimony another guy who isn't yet a Christian was all like "Ya. What she said is actually in the bible". He had checked. ;D So happy to be their teacher. Haha

Had a few minutes between class and dinner, and I'd been feeling kinda accused and guilty, so I ended up praying a bit and grabbed the guitar in the chapel and played. Good times. God is good.

Dinner was taco rice. Amazing concept. Rice, chilli, other toppings, in a bowl. Legit. But the best part was hearing how MN had discerned to become a missionary with wycliffe to Papua New Guinea. It was a long process of fear and then taking steps to pursue God's calling to missions. She also ended up sharing part of how she had come to know Jesus. Q . Q  one time her friend had invited her to a Christian run English camp not expecting that she'd believe. She went because she wanted to know English better and ended up asking for God to be in her life. The effects of an English camp was salvation for her and likely for thousands more through the work of translating the bible into one of the about 800 languages in Papua New Guinea. Wow yo. Completely changes how you see this week on English camp here in Japan. God can do such crazy amazing things.

Her testimony also really resonated with the team. She shared how at one point she was reading Isaiah 27 or 28 while discerning her call and it was about a farmer who tills the field, then sows, working hard to bring in a crop or something. How can I expect fruit if all I do is till? We need to take the steps towards the goal.

And for me it resonates too, but more that that is what I'm trying to do. Being here this week is a step for me. I actually feel super at home here. I haven't done too much exploring yet, we'll do a bit of that tomorrow, but man. I think I could see myself living and working in Japan. I love so much about everything here and doing ministry with a church. MN's testimony also included to a degree how she was fully funded by this church (and she was there for 14 years!). And now we see her serving faithfully and working with the church while also inspiring others of missions and bible translation. A beautiful partnership of church and parachurch organizations. < 3

But yo. So good. Swagerooster. Ttyl

D.Fa

It Can Be Simple.

Yo.

Lately I've been thinking a bit about what it means for an organization or group or ministry to be 'parachurch' and how the parachurch should be working hand-in-hand with the Church.

I tend to meet two kinds of people: those who love parachurch organizations, have seen their greatest moments while part of them, and have seen God do amazing things through them and so they want to invest all of their time into it, often at the expense of being actively involved in a local church; and those who have seen parachurch groups lose sight of their partnership with the local church and as such these persons have decided to be involved solely in local churches to the extent of being wary of such organizations and keeping others from involvement.

And I don't have an answer per se as to how a parachurch group should work, or how the church should work. I do need to read up a bit more on this. However, from what I know and from the times I've spent as part of a seminary course on the book of Acts (the early church and Paul's work), I know that they should be working hand-in-hand. Often Paul's small missionary team is called a parachurch group. The way I've seen parachurch defined is that it is not the church in that it is focused to a specific task or peoples, but made up of people from the Church, and when done best seeks to support the mission of the Church in whatever means of evangelism, discipleship, or training. A campus ministry, a bible study group, a seminary; each fits into this category.

The question of how the two can work together is at the front of my mind since I've been so stuck between the two groups of people and have kind of flip-flopped between primarily being involved in parachurch or church 'activities' and trying to unify the two groups of people, but not really knowing how to do it.

I had recently talked to a friend of mine who is a staff member with Power to Change (P2C), a campus ministry in Canada and around the world under different names. I asked her, and asked specifically about how she sees it since I knew that she, herself, had not been so actively involved in both while in university. The way she answered was golden, and makes me love God, her, the church, and parachurch all the more. I will now attempt to paraphrase. The way she sees it P2C exists solely to help Christian students grow in evangelism and bringing the gospel to other students while in university. While doing that, to be encouraging active participation in the local church and preparing them to be so for the rest of their lives. The way she sees it P2C (or any parachurch for that matter) should not be trying to do 'church' things which would compete, such as deeper bible studies, sermons, worship services, generic fellowship, life discipleship, etc., but to do what it is called to do; in P2C's case, evangelism training, evangelism, and prayer for the gospel to reach ears that will hear, and nothing more. There isn't time in the life of a full-time student for 20 hours of overlapping content from both parachurch and church, in such cases a student will choose one or the other. To do so all of P2C's stuff would be concise and to the point allowing the students to best be a part of their churches and live as part of the family of God.

When things go like that, she tells me that students are actively involved in sharing their faith, are meaningfully involved in local churches, local churches suggest people to participate in the parachurch ministries while in school, it isn't a burden on anyone, and people are coming to know Jesus! So good.

I also asked then how new believers would be discipled. She replied that they would probably have a short 5 week or so basic lessons on the gospel and our life in Jesus, but in everything to direct them to a local church. I also asked about the desire for community in the parachurch groups. She said community around the mission is great, but that the real deep communities would be in the churches and as such, the students can have fellowship and stuff, it just wouldn't be a P2C event. If they wanted to have worship before a prayer meeting, great! That's a prayer meeting. haha

My desire is to see that day in Ottawa. To see the local churches and parachurch ministries on campus to work together, not against each other. And I think we've been seeing it go in that direction this year. Discipleship groups, acting more as 'action groups' where they learn how to share their faith and then go and afterwards they can do other stuff on their time. Weekly meetings focused around sharing Jesus with others, not on throwing a church service. Students involved at their churches, going on missions, living life together, and in everything lifting up Jesus.

So good.

I want to pray for that and I want to be a catalyst on both sides (church and P2C) to help communicate and work together for the sake of the gospel and good news of Christ going to all. May students be encouraged to share their faith, may they be encouraged to live their life in the body of believers, the church, may they seek after His kingdom and righteousness in everything, may God be glorified through His Church. Amen!

But what do we university students really need more from our church? I think discipleship is the thing. I'll talk more about this tomorrow.

Ttyl.

D.Fa