5 days left!!

Does it look like we are sweating at all???!!!!

Bomb Dome

After a couple busy days I'm thinking I have some things to share again!

We spent this last weekend at another church where we had the opportunity to perform more drimes, sing songs and share our testimonies. My high light of that church was our Bible study class and the youth there. First I'll talk about the youth; I can't imagine what it would be like to be a Christian youth in Japan, I imagine they must get very lonely, which is what I felt from them here. One of the girls shared that it was really hard because there was very few other youth that understood there faith. She had recently broken up with her boyfriend because he wasn't Christian and had told her he did not want to become one either. She was very sad about that and said that she just did not want to be in a relationship with a non Christian, which is very common here. We have met very few couples where they are both Christians, lots of marriages here break my heart. The youth were so sad when we left, they all looked so gloom I can still see there faces when I close my eyes.

I really enjoyed the Bible study class because we had many non-Christians come to see the "Canadians & Americans", so it was a great opportunity to share Jesus with them.... Our study was on Luke 12; 13-21 (The rich farmer), it made for great conversation as people in Japan are very much focused on material possessions and always working....It seemed that they all understood that regardless of there belief they were not going to take anything with them when the died. The one question that came out of the study was in verse 20, where God says "this night your life will be demanded from you". She felt that God was using that term very loosely, at first I thought, "what am I suppose to say to that question" but as I opened my mouth God spoke through me.... I shared with her that I felt that life is God's gift to us, and that as he gives it to us he also takes it from us according to his plan. She was a fairly new Christian so it seemed to me that she was afraid of death, so I shared that as Gods children we don't need to fear death, we can rejoice because Heaven will be so much better then earth... I shared a bit of my experience from March 2009, and pray that God will put a peace with in her heart.

Yesterday was a very hard day for me, we went to Hiroshima to see the Bomb dome and museum... We took the bullet train there and a super awesome pastor couple picked us up at the train station. As a team we had talked about what this day might do to us, but I was not prepared. As you get to the park, the trees cover the dome so I was just walking enjoying the greenery and then as you make a turn, there it is!!! I looked up and gasped, it caught me completely off guard. I just stood there for a minute as my heart broke, I couldn't hold back the tears.... After the dome we went to the museum, I can't even put it into words. There was pieces there that families found that just broke my heart. I can not imagine what it must have been like for those that did survive. As we were standing at the Children's peace monument, a Japanese man came to us and started telling us that all they wanted was peace, he repeated that over and over again, then he asked where we were from and never in my life have I been so glad to say Canada. I know that there is a long story of why it happened and that Japan was not innocent, but wiping out a huge city of innocent people in that horrific way is beyond anything I will ever understand. Needless to say that nuclear weapons stir up intense anger in me!!!!!!

We have 5 days of ministry left and then fly back to Winnipeg on Monday, where we will be for a week of debrief.

Until next time :)