Paradise Lost

On my way to visit Dan and Amy, I'm standing on the platform waiting to catch the next train. A man comes into view six or seven paces to my left. Middle aged, average looking, sneakers, blue jeans, black t-shirt, black shoulder bag. What I notice before his apparel, however, is that he's mumbling to himself in an unusually animated way - his eyes opening and then closing abruptly. We've all seen people mumbling or talking to themselves in public, whether they're suffering from a deranged mind or merely rehearsing information for their anatomy test, who can really know. But I got the impression that this guy was having a conversation with someone. The impression was so strong that I looked to the other side of the tracks to see if there was someone on the other platform whom he was talking to, but there was no one. Then I see the open beer can in his hand and his behavior makes a little more sense, although not less disturbing. He continues to mumble (couldn't hear anything because my ear plugs were in) and turns casually to look at something behind him. I catch a glimpse of the decal on the back of his shirt and the irony is striking. "Paradise Lost" is written in white letters under the image of a distorted face (anger? fear? laughter?). This man tragically externally exemplifies the depravity and confusion of the human mind post-Eden. Paradise has indeed been lost, but thanks to the sacrifice of one man, it is not beyond our reach.

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

and are justified freely by his grace through the

redemption that came by Christ Jesus."

Romans 3:23-24

It is my prayer that this man may have an encounter with the only One who can permanently restore that which was lost in the paradise of Eden.

Seinen kai: small steps with a big God

"Lord I have heard of your fame;
I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord.
Renew them in our day,
in our time make them known;
in wrath remember mercy."
Habakkuk 3:2

The Lord continues to affirm what I know of Him and have heard spoken of through the Holy Scriptures and by those who fear Him - i.e. that He is awesome and that He does mighty things through small people and in seemingly insignificant places.
Tadaoka, the town where I live and work, is so small and so quiet that it often seems to be cut off from the rest of the world. Our church congregation is by no means large, but those who attend are faithful. The majority of our church family is in the 40-55 year age range; there are also a handful of early 20s and a few really young children. Over the past few months, I have been getting to know the other young adults (seinen kai) and I am so thankful for the encouragement and support that they provide. I've been able to hang out with all the seinen kai members one on one but we've never all hung out as a group. I don't know how it happened, well, ok, its because the Lord is amazing, but our little group seems to be picking up momentum.
Two or three weeks ago, the daughter of one of the church members moved to the area from Korea and we've had the pleasure of getting to know her as she joins in our Sunday and mid-week fellowship (there's a picture of her in my last post). Then this past Sunday, a guy came to Sunday worship who none of us had ever seen before. Come to find out, he's working in Tadaoka as a Junior High English teacher and he heard about our church because he visited the Korean restaurant in town owned by one of the church members. Because he's Korean-Australian (to the best of my knowledge), he wanted to check out our church. On Sunday, we decided that we should all hang out and everyone was game for doing dinner on October 16th. This is so exciting for me, for us. To the best of my knowledge, we've never had an official seinen kai here at Rakuen and the mere thought of what God could do with this group of people is ridiculously encouraging to me. I'm really praying that God will give us a sense of community and ownership as we begin to fellowship as a group and share each others lives. Also that we would have a sense of unity and that God would bless us with a vision of where and how He would have us serve.

"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity." 1 Timothy 4: 12