One Year Here

One year ago today, I got off the plane in Japan. I can't decide if it's been a long year or a short year. It feels like only weeks ago that I stepped off the plane, but then February feels like it happened a year ago. There's a book, "Voices of the Faithful", out that Beth Moore helped put together and is a collection of testimonies from missionaries serving throughout the world. I've only read the introduction by Beth Moore, and she beautifully describes missions and the call that each of us have to make His Name known. She writes, "The first thing I ever learned about God was that He 'so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son' (John 3:16, NASB). Did you hear that? God loves the world. Ah, maybe that means it's not so God-forsaken after all. And the more He overtakes our hearts, the more we will love the world...Make no mistake: this love is not without consequence. Loving the world has radical effects. It caused God to give up His one and only Son. It caused the Wassons (missionaries) to leave the relative ease of our small Arkansas town and move to Nigeria, for heaven's sake. What radical effect will it have upon you and me? Would you be willing to find ou? Would you be willing to let God shake awake that atrophied adventurer wrapped in the cocoon of your crisp, starched shirt? Admit it. Aren't you just a tad bored by your neatly compartmentalized, comfort-fit Christianity?...Whether we're called to pray, to give, to go on short-term mission trips or two-year mission stints, or to surrender entirely to career missions, we're all called to the nations. For God so loved the world." Beth Moore also writes, "[Missionaries] love the comforts of home and extended family just like we do. They love their children and desire their safety and health just like we do. They love American soil and American food just like we do. They have fears just like we do. They feel inadequate and ineffective most of the time just like we do. They feel fairly unspiritual sometimes like we do. They even want to quit sometimes...just like we do." Thankfully God's grace is sufficient so those days that I do want to quit and go home, He is always there to calm my fears, give rest to my weary body, and remind me of the joy of my salvation!