The feeling started to come over me even as I was browsing the bookstore at the back of the Connection Hall. Exhibitors had yesterday and today to get set up, and yesterday SIM finished in four hours. I got the chance to meander among the other exhibitors and the bookstore in the calm before the storm of thousands of students thundering through the conference halls.
We have made it to Urbana! Boy, what a trip it has been so far. And we're only getting started...
This was the most encouraging Japan National Pastors’ Conference I remember in my 14 years with Asian Access.
The theme as set by Pastor Yoshiya Hari, Asian Access/Japan National Director, was “From 2020 to 2030” and Pastor Shinji Takita’s words captured it best:
Dear Family and Friends,
Joy to the World… This season is one giving us pause to reflect on the most important gift the world has ever seen: the Lord has come!
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth… — Psalm 98:4a
It didn’t take long for me to start feeling my age. I moved to Japan just two years removed from university, and from there most of my learning “to adult” happened abroad. During my first term as an SIM/Asian Access missionary, I spent the summer mentoring short-term missionaries who came to serve through our internship program.
In 2015, I made the transition from English teacher in Japan to missionary in Japan. Coming from a non-Christian background, I had quite a few conversations with family members who were trying to understand my decision. As an English teacher, I was doing good work and getting paid well for it, right? Why couldn’t I just keep doing that?
主の御名を崇めて賛美いたします。
激動の２０２２年も終わりに近づいている今日この頃、いかがお過ごしでしょうか。
コロナ禍で開催ができずにおりました、アジアンアクセスジャパン大会を開催することになりました。
I recently scoured the internet archives to find the blog I started in 2011 as an English teacher in Japan, about five years before getting connected with SIM and Asian Access missionaries. After over a decade of calling Japan home, I wanted to see with fresh eyes how young Bethany encountered Japan. How did God lead me there? How was I listening and following the voice of my Good Shepherd then?
By Jeanine Birdsall
“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His faithful servants.”
— Psalm 116:15
Video used by permission from Prayercast [https://prayercast.com/] a service of OneWay Ministries
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