I’ve been trying to get my support letters out and as long as I don’t think too long about it, then I don’t worry too much about having enough money for my term over there.  But here are a couple encouragements I received yesterday and this morning:

  A man came in to the office to get some banking done.  Remember, I haven’t mentioned anything to my manager yet about leaving.  This man saw my “Congratulations on Graduating” card and asked about my college and what my degree was in, and then asked what I was planning to do with it.  I told him, generalities like, “the mission field, maybe Asia, in language-based ministry.”  I went on to take care of his transaction and when it was over, he looked up and asked, “So what are you doing with it now?”  I was confused about what he meant, and then I realized he was talking about my degree.  He said that having a job, and eating, it’s easy to be distracted from the purpose.  He asked if I was focused on my goal.  I felt like a deer in headlights.  I looked down at my manager, and then up at him, grabbed one of my business cards and wrote on the back that I’m leaving for Japan in a month.  Then I told him that if he wanted any more information that he should use my email address.  He said that he understood and that he’d add me to his prayer list. 

  Then, I was talking with my eldest sister.  She was telling me how my 8 yr old nephew, Jason, has been figuring out my going to Japan for a year.  She was telling him how I’m raising support and going to need money and whatnot.  He left her and returned with 75 cents.  I almost cried when she told me.  And then she added that he kept the dollar her had because he wanted to buy a pop at daycare.  🙂  Such a cute kid!

  This morning, I was listening to another of Francis Chan’s sermons.  It’s entitled “Grace and Works”.  The part that I was listening to was an interview he had with Heather Mercer, one of the girls kidnapped and imprisoned in Afghanistan several years ago by the Taleban, for sharing the Gospel.  She was held for 3 and a half months before being rescued by US Special Ops.  One thing stuck out to me in her interview.  She said, “There was a season for telling our story.  But there came a point when I was afraid that it would be all that God would ever do with me.  I didn’t want to tell the same story for the rest of my life.  God is continuing to work.”  Now she is working on a special project in the north of Iraq.  Like her, I don’t want China to be my only story.  God is continuing to do things in my life, and my life’s not over.  So long as He keeps me alive, my story will keep going.  That is an exciting thought for me.  God is continually writing in the book of my life, and my next chapter is titled, “Japan or Bust!”