Sunday with Taira Baptist Church

The team began our worship this past week by attending a worship service on Saturday evening at the Global Mission Chapel. The church was having a reunion of volunteers from all over the world who came to Fukushima in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami. It was wonderful to be invited to be a part of their time of prayer and worship. It was all in Japanese, so we weren't able to understand much. Pastor Tanno was kind enough to explain the service afterwards for the team.

The next morning I got up early to pray and prepare myself for preaching at Taira Baptist Church. Before we left the Global Mission Center to walk to the church, we ran into a gentleman who had been at the worship service the night before. He thanked us for coming even though we do not speak Japanese. He also shared a little about the work that God is doing right now in Iwaki and the Fukushima area. There has been a real openness to the Gospel message since the 2011 disaster. He asked for prayers for the work of the Holy Spirit in Iwaki City. Cole led the group in praying for the churches and people of Fukushima prefecture and Japan.

The service at Taira Baptist Church was wonderful! We saw several familiar faces from our time at the Wednesday prayer meeting. We began with the typical order of worship for Taira Baptist Church. Then the team sang two songs, and Ben introduced the team and talked about our reason for being in Japan. Abigail, Cole, and Nathan shared their testimonies again. This was followed by my sermon which Tanno-sensei translated into Japanese.

I preached on the call of Moses in Exodus 3-4. God called Moses to be the hero and leader of the Israelites. However, Moses didn't want to respond to this call. Instead, he offered up four excuses to God. As Christians today, we often offer up these same excuses when God calls us to do something. God calls each one of us to a task, and we must stand up in courage and the knowledge that God is with us and equipping us.

Directly following the service, Taira Baptist had a lunch to say goodbye to our team. It was a wonderful lunch of hand-rolled sushi, takoyaki (little fried dough balls of deliciousness), and tacos. The tacos were especially touching as I had mentioned to Tanno-sensei on Friday evening that when I return to the United States I always make sure to eat Mexican food. He looked up a taco recipe on Youtube and made them special for our goodbye lunch.

We spent Sunday afternoon driving back to Yokohama with Tanno-sensei. There we met up with Gordon and LeeAnn Hwang again. Then the whole group went to the Ramen Museum for dinner. It was so yummy! Also, there was a really cool juggler performing in the museum for some reason.   We ended our long day by going to the last location of our time in Japan—Kanto Gakuin University.

With much love from Japan!!
Sarah 

The Ramen Musuem!