Sapporo Japan will always hold a special place in my mind. It was a beautiful city with kind people, but what I will remember is the eternal impact that I had. It was my first mission trip with iWitness ministries (igoglobal.org) and iWitness' first official trip as well. The 13 of us left on Friday the 13th, on a 13 hour plane ride. This was my second trip to Asia, I traveled to S. Korea 6 months prior in November of 2000. The most amazing part of this trip was one of the witnessing opportunities that I had. We had been walking around passing out Jesus videos and prayer walking in different parts of the city. On this day, I remember Lance asking who wanted to get up early and go with Heidi the journeyman to do some ministry. I wasn't really paying attention as my e-mail had my full attention. After no one else volunteered I decided to volunteer. So another girl and I got to sleep in late (Lance was tricking us!) and headed over to meet Heidi and a lady for lunch. The lady immediately noticed my OBU shirt and told me that her daughter went to OBU. Kind of crazy since OBU was a campus of less that 2k students.
Heidi had spent the whole semester teaching the lady English by using the Old Testament. They had just discussed that Jesus was God's son and came to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies (Isaiah 53:5- He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed). We began to tell her about the cross, how Jesus was despised and rejected for her sins, and she began to cry. We paused and conversed with her about what was happening. She proceeded to slam her bible closed and refused to let us finish the story. I persisted by saying "It gets better!" She hesitantly let us continue showing her scriptures about our risen savior. Her face transformed from utter despair to over flowing with joy. She got it! She understood the saving power of Jesus through the story of his resurrection! Transformation happened right before my eyes!
This is by far one of my most favorite "mission trip" moments. God worked in this ladies heart so she would no longer be blinded but be able to see the truth of who He is, a loving, faithful, powerful, savior.
Any of you have moments like this? Seeing God at work?
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1 comment:
Lauren,
Great story! I had forgotten about most of this and I enjoyed the reminder. I cant believe I had forgotten about the trick I played on you guys with the volunteer to get up early thing.
Hey. Are you coming to the banquet this year? We are trying to track down alumni to come. I would love for you to host a table for us if you want to. Let me know and I will send you some details. Hit me up on FB.
Thanks,
shu
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