Scott and Michica McDonald are friends of ours from Bluewater Mission. They moved to Japan in the beginning of 2011 to help care for Michica's elderly "Auntie." Little did they know that Auntie was only a piece of a much bigger puzzle. On March 11, 2011, Japan was hit with a devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami. I remember Scott saying, "Now I finally feel like I see the real reason for us being here."
Almost 5 months later, Monika and I arrive in Tokyo and begin our adventure in Japan. The McDonald's have been working hard. They have a steady stream of visitors that they shuttle up to the disaster site to volunteer. They have seen lives changed: those of the workers and those of the volunteers. In a land that is said to be less than 2% Christian (some statistics say less than 1%), this family has found people literally flocking to their home for prayer and encouragement. On Monday evenings, they worship with a group of YWAM students. On Thursday evenings, they host a small group of local Christians in their home. This small group, as well as Scott and Michica themselves, was the focus of our visit.
When Scott and I first discussed a visit to Japan, we talked about offering support to relief workers and ministering to those who had been in the thick of recovery activity since the disaster. Instead, we did something much more valuable. We ministered to those who will be there long term. As we ministered to the ladies of this group (yep, Scott is the rooster in the hen house) we recognized the beautiful giftings that God had placed inside each one. One example of this is Lena, our interpreter. We could sense from the beginning that there was a hunger in her. She had such a sweet spirit and it came out in the way she interpreted and participated in the sessions. She interpreted a couple of sessions for us and then had a personal session. Michica had planned to interpret the last Japanese session herself, but Lena asked if she could translate, instead. She loved what was happening in the sessions and wanted more! That confirmed our suspicions. Lena would be part of leading a sozo type inner healing team. We met other intercessors, as well as those with gifts of teaching, pastoring, and deliverance. By the end of the trip, we were referring to the small group that meets at the McDonald's place as their "house church." We have had a few updates from Scott and Michica already and I can't wait to see what God is going to do with this bunch!
A few extra fun details about our trip.
* Our flight over took about 7.5 hours. JAL is a nice airline, but there is not much legroom compared to planes of the same size from America companies. Literally, my knees touched the seat in front of me. In spite of that, we had a good flight. I think I watched 3 movies on the way over to ensure that I stayed awake!
* We staying in a hotel our first night. We thought it might be better to wait until we had some sleep to greet people and step into ministry. We learned that people smoke everywhere in Tokyo. You could literally see the smoke hanging in the hallway of our hotel. Thankfully, our room wasn't as bad and we were able to get good rest. The next morning, we woke up early (thank you jet lag) and went for a walk. We found a cute little park and enjoyed playing around there for a while. Scott and Michica got lost trying to find our hotel. Since we had a little extra time, we decided to play a little prophetic game. We jotted down words for Scott and Michica. We also got words for an unidentified woman and man. I found it interesting that the words for the woman and man very specifically fit the people Scott and Michica had arranged for us to minister to later that day. That was fun! :-)
*Day 2 found us up early again. The night before, we had gone out to walk and found another park. This was a real blessing - especially in the midst of a city. We visited the park again (it became a place of intercession for us) and had breakfast at McDonalds (the restaurant, not the home of our hosts.) We began to see a pattern of what we referred to as "power breakfast." The first day, our conversation around breakfast had brought prophetic words. The second day, it brought about an interesting time of revelation. You could tell it was revelation by the way I randomly started crying as it came. It was something to do with Japan, Germany, WWII, and a principality. If you want to know more, you will have to ask me. It all still seems a little surreal. After our breakfast, we went back to the university and felt compelled to stop and pray over the campus. We didn't understand what that was all about until we talked to Michica. She informed us that her grandfather had been a devout Christian. He had taught at the university and interceded for its students. No wonder we could feel righteousness in the land. . .
*Day 3 started at McDonalds for another power breakfast. We did a couple more ministry sessions with members of the "house church" and then spent some time ministering to Scott and Michica directly. They had put out a lot of physical and spiritual energy over the past 7 months! We then talked about the promise we felt like God had given them and the beauty of what God had surrounded them with. We ended the evening with our first "Joy Circle" at the university. From what I understand, they have had regular Joy Circle's every day since then. Praise God!
*No allergies! I am extremely allergic to mold and mildew. Monika is also allergic. We were sleeping and ministering in a room that had a fair amount of both (I don't know that one can get away from it in Tokyo) and neither one of us had ANY allergic reaction. We were completely covered!
*I ate a Japanese peach! I don't like peaches - at least I didn't think that I did. I was looking for apples when I saw a fruit vendor. He only had peaches and he offered me a sample. I took it, not wanting to be rude. Wow! It was fabulous! I have never had a peach that tasted like that. Amazing.
Check out my facebook pictures if you want more info. A few of you will get emails regarding some of the more "spiritual" things that occurred. It is hard to believe that all of this happened in 3 days. Whew!
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