I give you thanks, O God…
0 comments // Categories: Inspiration // Tuesday November 16th, 2010
I give you thanks, O God, for those who mean so much to me – Those to whom I can go at any time. Those with whom I can talk and keep nothing back,knowing that they will not laugh at my dreams or my failures.
Those in whose presence it is easier to be good. Those who by their warning have held me back from mistakes I might have made. Above all, I thank you for Jesus Christ, Lord of my heart and Savior of my soul, in whose Name I offer this thanksgiving. – William Barclay (adapted)Signed ~ Just Another Broken Pot – Joylene Medom
0 comments // Categories: Sharing // Monday November 8th, 2010
I wrote this 2 years ago but would like to share it now. I know pain that crushes and shatters any will to live. I know desperation that will grasp for any source of escape. I know a tiredness that cripples the soul. I know emptiness so hollow that every smile or laughter is a pathetic echo of mere existence. I know a sorrow that parches the heart of every teardrop it can possibly create. And I know I am not the first to experience these aches of life, nor will I be the last. I have, no doubt, questioned, blamed and been angry at God for some things I have been through. I wonder why He didn’t stop it. I know some were consequences of my actions, but some were consequences of others’ too. Despite my frustration at being unable to understand the why’s of hurts in my life – I have come to respect brokenness and the hidden blessings it brings. Brokenness often results in forced humility. It shatters any illusion of self-righteousness, perfection, or pride. It pulls the rug out from under your feet just when you think you’re standing tall and strong. It’s a reality check that has permanent side-effects. Once you’re broken, the cracks remain. And I actually think it can be beautiful…if you’re able to pull those pieces back together and learn from them. The beauty of a broken person, when healed, is their tenderness and new perspective. I would have never pulled out of my tormented state if I hadn’t met someone else who was willing to share her own story and reveal personal things to simply show that if she got through that, I can too. The beauty of brokenness is also its testimony to tenacity and strength. Being broken didn’t stop this dear one from living. She refused to let it defeat who she could still be. And her courage to go on, and willingness to share her story, saved many despairing lives. I haven’t met many like her though. Showing any sign of vulnerability or honestly sharing your heart is rare, and faces ridicule or gossip. So we protect ourselves by hiding any insecurity or damage; sinful habits; any painful memory of abuse, divorce, unfaithfulness, betrayal, death; and we smile and do the norm for fear that if anyone finds out that we’re not as strong or great as we seem to be, we won’t be liked anymore. I say all this because I identify with some of these things. I know the pressure of needing to put a good front in public. I thought if I made myself vulnerable, I would be looked down upon and abandoned. I no longer believe that. We are all human. We all have failed and fallen short of the glory of God. We are all broken one way or another, in varying degrees. And we are all coping with it in some way, self-destructive or not. Perhaps if we stopped allowing the fear of rejection to dictate our actions, we’d discover that sharing one’s broken pieces with another begins a healing that can be complete and lasting. Healing takes a lot of love, and a lot of time. And it comes from the Lord as well as His people. A one-act play by Thornton Wilder – The Angel That Troubled The Waters – based on John 5:1-4, tenderly captures this. ‘A physician periodically comes to the pool of Bethesda hoping to be first in line and be healed of his melancholy. The angel finally appears but blocks the physician just as he is ready to step into the water. The angel tells the physician to draw back, for this moment is not for him. The physician pleads for help in a broken voice, but the angel insists that healing is not intended for him. As the dialogue continues, the angel says these prophetic words, “Without your wounds where would your power be? It is your melancholy that makes your low voice tremble into the hearts of men and women. The very angels themselves cannot persuade the wretched and blundering children on earth as can one human being broken on the wheels of living. In Love’s service, only wounded soldiers can serve. Physician, draw back.” Broken people are the best in the healing process of other broken people. There are no empty words, no superficial ‘It’ll be ok’, no false cheery smiles. Pain is pain no matter how much you sugar-coat it and scars do remain. But the wounds don’t have to stay fresh – that part of life is up to you. You can choose to leave your broken pieces scattered and engage in a variety of actions to suppress, camouflage or ignore them; or you can choose to piece them back together and allow the Lord and people who really care, heal you with their love. As one who found wholeness because the Lord brought one broken person to share her testimony of God’s grace and strength in the face of darkness, I’d suggest the latter because then, you can pass on the blessing to others who need it. There are many hurting people out there, and it’s nice when a few are ready and willing to share their own stories so others can find hope and strength through it. You can never control what happens to you. You can always control what you make of it. Brokenness does not have to be the end.Blog! ^_^
0 comments // Categories: Links //
For those of you who’d like to read a bit about the JCF retreat, check out Laura Popp’s blog! Thank you, Laura!Sermons
0 comments // Categories: Links // Sunday November 7th, 2010
| Here is a link to my home church’s semons. I hope they will be as inspiring and entertaining to everyone else as they have been to me over the years. - Carter Scott |
Links ~ from beckywithasmile ^_^
0 comments // Categories: Links // Friday October 1st, 2010
Here are some sites I’ve used/look cool: My home church’s sermons - http://www.newbergfoursquare.com/resources/listen-online I have a pastor at home who is always challenging my faith with his sermons. I love that he his going through this stuff just like the rest of us. Boundless webzine - http://www.boundless.org/ Some books online in pdf form: http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/online-books/by-title http://www.gfa.org/resource/books/WHY WORSHIP? – Aaron Peterson
0 comments // Categories: Words of Encouragement //
Why should we worship God? Why should we give praise to the Lord? Does God need our worship? Will God’s glory diminish if we do not worship Him? God is the self-existent, self-sustaining being, who is from everlasting to everlasting. He has no needs. His glory is beyond comprehension, and it will never diminish, no matter what we do. As C.S. Lewis said, “A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.” Does God need us to inform Him of how great and mighty He is? God is omniscient; He knows everything that can be known. He knows all about Himself, and He certainly doesn’t need fallible humans to tell Him about His features or deeds. Does our worship increase God’s power? God is omnipotent; He is able to do anything. Our worship can neither increase nor decrease His power. He remains all-powerful regardless of what we do. Does worshipping God cause Him to love us more? God’s love for us is 100 percent. It has always been 100 percent, and it will always be 100 percent. Nothing we do or don’t do can ever change that. Do we need to worship God because, if we don’t, nothing else will? God is surrounded by four living creatures that never stop praising Him (Revelation 4:8). Twenty-four elders are before Him, and they bow down before Him constantly (Revelation 4:9-11). The angels and the multitudes of Heaven worship Him (Hebrews 1:6; Nehemiah 9:6). Even inanimate objects worship God. The heavens declare His glory, and the skies proclaim the work of His hands (Psalm 19:1). Why, then, should we worship God? What reason is there for us to praise Him? We should worship Him because He deserves our worship. He alone deserves our love, devotion, and reverence. We should worship Him because that is what we were made for. That is why we are here. We should worship Him because only through worshipping Him can we ever be truly happy and free.Surviving in Japan
0 comments // Categories: Links // Thursday September 2nd, 2010
One of our JCF-ers, Ashley Thompson, has shared a link to her site that newbies (and old) can find pretty helpful! It has a lot of useful info and how-to’s that can make adjusting to Japan life easier. Go click it! ^_^ Prayer and Encouragement News
0 comments // Categories: JCF News //
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Prefecture Prayer Meetings on Skype The prayer and encouragement team will be using JCF Candlelight Prayer Schedule (google document) to sign up for prayer times during the week to pray for other JCF Jets on skype. Prefectures with no regional rep or small numbers of JCF members could join a neighboring prefecture’s prayer meeting. The focus of these prayer meetings would be to lift up any needs/requests of your kens. My hope is that these prefecture prayer meetings will be a source of encouragement and unity. Prayer Partners Another idea is to create male to male and female to female prayer partners within your prefecture. Accountability and encouragement would be the focus of the prayer partners. Partners would be able to share personal requests, struggles and praises with each other. Guardian Angels Living in Japan and growing in your faith can be difficult for many people. To encourage one another, I would like to start something called Guardian Angels this year among the JCF Jet community. Interested members would be paired up at random to encourage one another throughout the year. Each person would write their full name, contact information (email & address in Japan), hobbies/interests and special dates i.e. birthday and spiritual birthday. This information would then be sent to his/her partner. Partners should try to send their Guardian Angel some form of encouragement at least once a month whether its through an email, card, package etc..Be Creative! So please contact me… • If you or anyone else in your area is interested in joining the prayer team monthly meetings • If you or anyone else in your area is interested in being a Guardian Angel. In Christ, Kristin Hanaoka ~kristinhanaoka@gmail.com~My JET story – Joylene Medom
2 comments // Categories: Sharing // Wednesday September 1st, 2010
The one question that all us have faced/are facing is – Why did you come to JET? At first I’d launch into a detailed story of why but, as I realized that this question was going to be asked many, many times by people who won’t always have the time or interest to listen to your whole story and share their own answer, I shortened it to “Well, I love Japanese mangas and dramas and I just really wanted to come here!”. Real short and simple. So here I get to elaborate! ^_^ I never, ever, EVER thought of Japan as a place I’d want to visit, let alone live in, before. One lazy summer day in 2007, I borrowed a comic that I thought would be a simple, one-time read – Naruto. It wasn’t. I loved it and was drawn into its crazy, fascinating world. This wasn’t good because I was at a bible school in the States, living on campus. I would read past curfew, between classes, before and after work…it was pretty bad. It didn’t help that after Naruto, I craved for more which led me to shojo manga. I even registered on a site that allows you to keep track of all the mangas you’ve completed, are currently reading, and want to in the future. In a little over a year, I completed 50 mangas, was reading 80, and had 51 on my wishlist. And mangas can be LONG. What got me about mangas was that they were more than an Archies or Batman comic (that could just be me though). I felt they said so much about the beliefs and traditions of Japan. I started reading up on Japan’s youth culture, social behavior, social problems, etc. As part of our Missions class, I chose to do my study on Japan. I began to have a strong desire to come to Japan and interact with the young people. I found, and I don’t think I’m alone in this, that there is so much suppressed and hidden behind this culture of polite, quiet obedience to authority. And I really believed (still do) that this sudden love and passion for this place came from the Lord and would’ve come somehow even if I’d never read Naruto. There was simply no other explanation for the intensity of what I felt for Japan. So I shared this with my family and friends, prayed and waited. I knew the Lord was leading me to Japan but I didn’t see how. I heard that most people got to Japan by teaching English so I started looking into the online Professional TEFL Certificate offered by the TEFL Institute, Chicago (I had returned to India by this time). A family friend, after asking what I felt the Lord was leading me to next, said he’d take care of the costs for the certificate – one door opened by the Lord. 2 months later, after completing the course, I started working as a guest lecturer for ESL students at my former university. Again, another gracious opening by the Lord though I don’t think I did my best in that.
It was now the beginning of March ’08 and I was growing anxious and doubtful of what the Lord’s will for me was. Applying for jobs in Japan while in India didn’t go anywhere since they prefer those with American/Canadian/UK passports. I came across the JET program while surfing the net. I held out on applying for it for 2 -3 weeks – reason being that the Embassy of Japan said there was only ONE seat available that year. There were hundreds of applicants in Delhi alone and this was open to the whole of India… I figured it was impossible. A very close mentor though, kept pushing me so finally, literally the night before the deadline ( 5:30 p.m. 31st March) I sat down, wrote my statement of purpose, collected the other required documents, rushed around the next day for whatever else was needed (forgot what) and submitted my application at the embassy 30 minutes before it closed. I am a very last-minute person. ^_^
To make a long story short, He opened a mega door. In the end, 3 of us were chosen. I cried when I heard I was accepted. I was very, very moody during the 2 months of waiting though. But wow – what a humbling experience.
And it still is. I’m now in my 3rd year and though it’s been difficult adjusting to such a different environment – especially the lack of English service and having only 1 other Christian ALT in this city, the Lord is faithful! I still struggle and many times I doubt my coming has made any difference at all, especially in the lives of people around me but –I’m holding fast to a Lord who is so, so good, gracious and redeeming. And I won’t leave till He moves me like He did when He brought me here. ^_^ AND BE THANKFUL – Aaron Peterson
0 comments // Categories: Words of Encouragement // Tuesday November 10th, 2009
Colossians 3:15 “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.” Thankful? Why should I be thankful? It’s raining, I feel sick, my phone isn’t working, and I live in a country where no one understands me. Why on earth should I be thankful?? Well, for starters, I should be thankful that I can both see and hear the rain, as some people can do neither. I should be thankful that my sickness is not terminal, as there are people dying from disease every day. I should be thankful that I even own a phone, as some people are too poor to afford one. I should be thankful that I live in a country that, despite its flaws, is better than many other countries in this world. Furthermore, I should be thankful that I have a loving family, good friends, a good church, a dog, food and shelter, a good job, a bike, books, a computer, and a kerosene heater. I should be thankful for all of these things, for they are all gifts from God. Even the things I most take for granted are gifts from God. I should be thankful for the air I breathe and the ground I walk upon. I should be thankful for my intellect, for my power of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. I should be thankful that I do not have a disability or lack a body part. I should be thankful that I do not live in the midst of poverty or war. I should recognize that it is only by the grace of God that I have what I have. As a Christian, I can also be thankful that I am freed from sin (Romans 6:5-7), that I have new birth into a living hope (1 Peter 1:3), that Christ intercedes for me (Romans 8:34), that I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6), that Christ rescues me from the coming wrath (1 Thessalonians 1:10), that He is my peace (Ephesians 2:14), that He has called me His friend (John 15:15), that He prepares a place for me (John 14:2), that I can ask Him for anything in His name and He will do it (John 14:14), and that He is with me always, even unto the end of the world (Matthew 28:20). In the end, the question is not “Why should I be thankful?” but rather “Why shouldn’t I be thankful?” There are so many things for which I should be thankful, and so few things for which I shouldn’t be thankful, that it makes sense to live in an attitude of constant thankfulness. God has given me so many blessings; the least I can do is be thankful for them.