Self Reflection by Jonny

This is Jonny. I am writing a self-reflection on the trip. I will not be writing too much about the day-to-day, since we have already documented most of it on the blog already. Instead I will write about my thoughts about the trip as a whole, and what God has taught me.

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“I can’t believe that this is actually happening,” I thought. “This is real, and we are on our way to Japan.” We were flying out of San Francisco as the downtown disappeared from our small plane window.  Many of my team members shared the same sentiment as I did as we were finally on our plane ride to Japan, after months of preparation time. I know it wasn’t my first time going, but it was no less exciting for me. We weren’t foolproof in our day-to-day plans, but we had prepared enough that we could adapt easily when we were there. However, God provides, as He promised that He would. Flash forward two weeks, and suddenly, what seemed like a world away has quickly faded into seemingly distant memory.

Memories were made, relationships formed, and the gospel of Jesus Christ was ministered to some of the Japanese families of the Otawara community. The Japanese parents, as well as Pastor Tomio & his wife, and the church expressed their gratitude to us throughout the time we were there. We received many blessings in the form of thank you notes written by the kids, Japanese “hand-fans” (lack of better term) with our picture on it, countless pieces of candy, dinner, and even a thank-you ceremony for the team.  Despite them saying they were blessed, I want to say that the pleasure and the greater blessings was mine. All throughout the trip was an amazing tale of God’s work in the short time we were there. I could not have expected any better.

While we were only there for two weeks, my teammates and I witnessed first hand how God was working. As a result of last year’s program, we had five times as many kids as we did last year (there was about 40 each day this time around), which is a major testament that the church had gained some trust among the Otawara community and opened the door for the church to serve. But the bigger blessing is that a few of the mothers of the children that came to our program had expressed interest and made appointments with Pastor Tomio to study the Bible with him.

We knew well that the mission trip could simply be one of planting seeds without seeing fruit, which I would have been content with. It is still true that we did plant seeds. Pastor Tomio had explained to us that many of the Japanese Christians who became Christians actually have had some experience with the church before as younger children. If God wills, then perhaps our children’s program would one day lead them back into the arms of loving brothers and sisters in Christ, and ultimately the Lord Jesus. Earlier, I said that we were the ones that received the greater blessing, because of the fact that we had the privilege of not only planting the seeds in the children’s spiritual destiny, but also witness some of the beginning effects of putting on these programs. Praise God.

On deciding to come to Japan this second time, I expressed that one of my reasons for going is to make sure that my heart is fully committed to the Great Commission whether by going myself, or supporting those who do. Going on this trip was to remind me of this holy duty. God has definitely fulfilled my desire. I have witnessed first hand on how God can work powerfully through missionaries who truly care for God’s glory and genuinely desire to love the people as Jesus loved. Whether in the future I would go again to Otawara again or not, one thing is clear on my mind: by God’s will, I will do my best to support the efforts of the Great Commission. I am so thankful that God has allowed me the opportunity to have gone a second time.

 God has grown me personally in other ways while I was on the mission trip. The trip itself was definitely not without its bumps along the way. These bumps are trials that God puts in our paths to grow us and to mend us more to be like Christ. We experienced no persecution at all while we were there (and no kanchos), but we did experience team tensions that have arisen not only during the trip, but even in the preparation stages for the trip. And while most of the tensions do not directly involve me, it did involve me in learning how to best love my brothers and sisters in Christ in the most edifying way possible. I will not go into too much detail about these tensions, other than to say that it was an actual and very real challenge for the entire team. Much grace and forgiveness were needed, and there is still many ways for the entire team to grow.

For me, there were times where I felt an extremely strong passion of antagonism that came over me, which manifested in some passive aggression as well as a isolated stand-off moments. Thankfully though, one of my brothers and I were able to have some open discussion and prayer about it very early on, which helped greatly for the rest of the trip. God had taught me to have grace and to have patience, lots of it. Thank God that I did not fall prey to these temptations for too long.

In conclusion, amidst all the busyness and exhaustion of preparation, the chaotic scenes of children running amok, and challenges that arose among the team, I am glad that I was able to participate in such privileged opportunity. My team and I were highly blessed to have been rewarded with much fruit and blessings from God as well. I do have to remind myself that all this was because God had given these blessings. While we did accomplish much while we were there, there is still much to do in proclaiming God’s kingdom in Japan. Only less than 1% of the entire country truly know Christ, and hopefully with our efforts, God would increase that number in the future. But even above that, I must rest my identity not on what I did, but what Jesus did on the cross for me. Great things have precipitated on this trip, but the greatest thing has already been done. For this I thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

“Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” – Luke 10:20