Recently, my friend had been praying for a very specific sign because she wanted proof that God is real. But one week during our Bible study, we read how Jesus called out the religious leaders for asking him to give them a sign, even though God had already given them all of the signs they needed, and my friend wondered if it was the same for her. “How can you tell when God has already given you a sign?” she asked. What immediately came to mind was “looking back”.
I had just read through the 2024 prayer requests we sent out in January, and what did I find? That prayer list is now a praise list! Our good Father has been faithfully answering those prayers, and working and moving in ways we didn’t think to pray for. And that’s what I want to share with all of you today. ^_^
Praise God for more Bible studies.
Anna is doing two different Bible studies while I’m doing one. Our friend Naomi is doing a study once a month with two non-Christian members of our English/Bible outreach group. Sean, one of our missionary friends, stepped in to help us and is doing a Bible study with a different non-Christian member.
Praise God for connecting us with believers from other churches who want to work together to bring His kingdom to Miyazaki.
The Bible study/prayer meeting we started (Building God’s Kingdom, a.k.a. BGK) is still very small numbers-wise, but members from five different churches have participated on and off over the last several months. Through meeting together we have gradually made steps to reach out to believers and unbelievers alike: handed out water bottles at a nearby park and chatted with people, found potential places for an evening fellowship for foreigners, started planning a Christmas event at the local prison, and more. Not only that, but two of the ladies who only just recently joined BGK want to do Bible studies with people they know--one lady wants to ask her sister (who isn’t a believer) and another lady plans to ask one of her friends.
Praise God for other willing laborers.
We asked the Christian members of our English/Bible outreach if they would be willing to do Bible studies with anyone who was interested. While it didn’t work out for two of them to lead studies, all of our other Christian members were ready and willing to lead a study as well. Hopefully they’ll get the chance to do that soon!
Praise God for Anna’s new job and my time as a student.
Anna’s part-time job at the university has given her a lot of free time, which she has been using well to spend quality time in His word and in prayer. She also met two Koreans in the last several months who have helped her practice Korean. Anna hopes to learn it well enough to do a Bible study with her best friend from college and her husband, who are Korean. For me, going back to school brought a variety of good things. Not being able to communicate in Japanese all these years has been discouraging to say the least. The communication struggle was no different at school, but because of it, I was the recipient of a lot of patience and kindness from my classmates and teachers. I also had many opportunities to write and talk about Jesus through classwork and assignments.
I could go on (the prayer-turned-to-praise list is quite long and detailed, afterall), but there you have it! For anyone who prays for us and for the Japanese people, I hope seeing these praises was as encouraging for you as it was for me.
After I shared these praises with my friend, we looked back on the last couple of years of her life too. She had a hard time thinking of anything, but Anna and I pointed out several examples for her. Some would chalk those examples up to chance, good luck, or maybe even fate. But how much greater it is when we see these things for what they really are--signs pointing to the merciful, almighty, living God!
Praising God with you,
April
Things Hoped For