MSN Summer Internship Update #3

Pray for Karis!

ヒックス・カリス | Karis Hicks
インターン | MUSTARD SEED クリスチャン教会福岡

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.” Jeremiah 31:3

“You have seen O Lord; be not silent! O Lord, be not far from me!” Psalm 35:22

“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and build up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” Colossians. 2:6-7

“Oh taste and see that the Lord is good! …. But those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.” Psalm 34:8,10

Praises

God moments, sovereign conversations!
Praising the Lord for so many fruitful conversations, from dinner with a contact on Monday night (she had a lot of questions, and she would like to start coming to church, pray that she will!), to the worker I spoke with in the church office building (who also wants to come to church!), to all of the people He brought across my path that I was able to have convos with and invite to neighboring Mustard Seed Churches during my time in Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka. Beautiful moments of seeing God at work! My favorite moment so far was meeting the owner of a coffee shop in Nara. He spoke English quite well because he had learned from a church in a nearby country where he lived for 6 years. He said he does not believe anything, but he had so many questions, and we had a conversation for over two hours. He shared that his wife is from Fukuoka, AND that they are coming to visit in two weeks! When I told him it was not a coincidence that I was in HIS coffee shop, he said with a smile, “This would be what you call… a miracle!” I laughed with so much joy and said, “YES! This IS a miracle! It’s what I call a GOD MOMENT!” The two-ish hours spent in that coffeeshop talking, laughing, sharing stories of God at work in my life, and listening to this man’s story as well, meeting his wife, (along with the homemade salted dark chocolate brownie and exceptional Ethiopian coffee!) was by far my FAVORITE moment of my time in Japan thus far. He is interested in coming to English connect and Sunday morning worship, please pray that they will come! And thank you for praying over my visiting weekend, praise the Lord for that time!
Time with Jesus!
Thanking the Lord for SUCH sweet time with Him these last two weeks! It has been refreshing and encouraging to my soul to be reading through Proverbs and now Job. The Lord has been reminding me of His constant STEADFAST LOVE and that He cares so deeply and wants us to cry out to Him when we are wrestling with questions, doubts, and fears.
Provision of permanent housing, sunshine, runs!
Praising the Lord for the new permanent Airbnb for the rest of the summer and a smooth transition from hotel living to a neighborhood dwelling. And thank you Lord for sunshine! It’s been such a joy to get up in the morning in the new Airbnb with windows that face the rising sun and bright beams of sunshine pouring in (such a natural light girlie, iykyk) especially after so many days of Japan’s rainy season. And similarly, with the sun comes the ability to run without getting drenched, and I’ve been thrilled to be running/working out more regularly again!
David and Alyssa
One sweet, unexpected blessing in the last two weeks has been David and Alyssa (lead pastor of MSCC Fukuoka and his wife), with their joy of the Lord, hospitality(*photo below, a sunset mountain view from their home!), humor, and calm manner of doing life on mission! It has been such a joy to laugh with them and an encouragement to listen to their heart for the Gospel to be central in all of life. They love people so well (Alyssa made INCREDIBLE chicken thighs with roasted veggies for Shania and I on Wednesday night! *photo below) and they truly care, and I praise the Lord for them.

Prayer Requests

BEING with Jesus
Again, my biggest prayer request is for a calm, loving, gentle and joyful heart that keeps delighting most in Jesus before I look to my thoughts, tasks, and to-dos!
Work tasks
Please pray for my specific tasks with slide development, formatting on ProPresenter, building short clips from sermons, assisting the audio/visual team with sound as well as sermon uploads, prepping to lead worship team for the last two weeks in Japan and leading English Connect class! Pray that I will catch errors quickly, be attentive to details, and be quick to learn. Pray for unity on our team and for gracious responses with each other when the work week gets busy.
Outreach
Please keep praying for the Lord to open doors for the opportunity to build relationships, both new and already established here in Japan! Pray that I would speak the gospel boldly when an opportunity comes up! Pray for all of the contacts that I have spoken with in the last two weeks (H-, S-, Z-, P-, F-, Y-, C-), and a few I have yet to meet with up with (M- and T-), that they would desire to come to church, and come to know Jesus and walk with Him!
MSCC Fukuoka Team
Please pray for David, Alyssa, Mai, William, Lydia, Lilian (pray specifically for her furlough in the States for the next 5 weeks to be restful and fruitful!), and Shania by name! Pray for strength and encouragement from the Lord, energy, joy, unity, and gracious attitudes!
MSCC Fukuoka Specific Prayers
More Japanese interpreters! More elders! More volunteers! Salvation for: Y-, Y-, Y-, R-, K. Continued unity as a church family and that the Lord would grow His church with faithful followers of Jesus!
JAPAN
Please pray for the PEOPLE of Japan, that God would bring growth from seeds planted, that hearts and souls of Japan would turn TOWARDS JESUS, that eyes would be opened to the Gospel! Please pray fervently for more workers, more gospel-centered believers to COME to Japan, for short-term or long-term, for the sake of the Gospel being shared with the millions who have never heard! During my time in Kyoto, I had some deep time of prayer for this.
Formerly Japan’s imperial capital for over 1000 years, Kyoto holds some of the most visited shrines, temples, and historic districts in the nation. With over 1600 Buddhist temples and hundreds of Shinto shrines, the region surrounding Kyoto sees over 60 million tourists every single year. I experienced a sliver of a taste of this as I explored the Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine, walking through hundreds of bright red torri Shinto gates. The air on the winding mountain path was lighter and much cooler than Fukuoka, but the atmosphere felt just as if not heavier. Thousands of people were on the mountain that morning, walking up and down, pausing for photos, taking in the red torri gates with such awe. My heart broke for the nations in that moment. Japanese, French, German, Korean, Russian, Spanish – these were just a few of the spoken languages I heard among the tourists there. I spent a lot of my time praying as I walked, for the visitors I will never know the names of, for the country of Japan. The harvest is truly so plentiful, and although it can feel overwhelming, we know a GOOD Father who desires that all come to know Him and I am so thankful that He invites us to be a part of the mission of telling others.

“ First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.” 1 Timothy 2:1-6

Thank you all so much for praying! Your prayers are felt, the Lord is at work!! I am praying for you and miss the FBC church family so much, and cannot wait to share more God-moments when I get back.

In the JOY of the Lord,