God's Not Joking!                        by Eric (written in Sendai)

Sue and I love practical jokes. Sue's reputation for her pranks was known throughout Sendai L'Abri church even before we started our two-year term here.  At our church's recent young adult's camp, Sue was on camp staff as the "Practical Joke Coordinator." (see article) We have had fun teaching and pulling these pranks, and have been on the receiving end a few times.  As much as we love to play practical jokes, however, it is good to know that God does not share the same affinity when it comes to the lost.

Some time ago, I read an article in a missions magazine which asked the question, "Has God turned His back on Japan?"  The article gave compelling historical reasons to suggest that this might be the case.  Yet despite those arguments, my answer to the question posed by the article remains an unequivocal "No!"  Why would God call us all here to this nation if He has already abandoned its cause?  God is many things, but He is no prankster. 

It was God who orchestrated our working with L'Abri church and our living in this particular neighborhood.  It was this same God who led our next-door neighbor and block leader to new faith in Him this summer.  It was He who brought a shy high school girl named Mai-chan to our first English class, guided her to faith in Him, and led her to be baptized.  It was God, through our relationships with the neighborhood children, who brought Horie Sensei from our local elementary school to our door one day, asking if we could teach English classes at the school two minutes away.  It is this God who has since brought sixteen of those students to experience Christian fellowship for the first time at our church's children outreach; who arranged for the school's PTA to provide home stays for the youth group from a supporting California church who came to minister; and who brought three yochien moms recently to our home asking Sue to teach a class on parenting (thanks Barb for a great resource!).  There are so many other God-designed opportunities that I cannot recount them all here.