GospelRest

Just Breathe

Thoughts Along the Way©

Elaine Mehn

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10

We are spending several weeks in the mountains of Colorado and are once again discovering that the air is much thinner than we are used to breathing. The air is so wonderfully clean and in the morning crisp as it fills my lungs. Granted I would like more oxygen in it. This smaller amount of oxygen is forcing me to be quiet and physically slow down. What a simple and natural thing – breathing. But there are times when breathing does not seem so easy. Tokyo can be such a high-paced and high-stressed place that slowing down seems oddly uncomfortable.

Thin air is not the only time that I have to remind myself to breath. There have been times of pain, sorrow, and/or stress where remembering to take deep breaths was essential. Times when I need to remember to rest in Christ and just breathe.

At present I am thinking especially about stress and how it makes me feel wound so tightly that I feel like I am shaking inside. Yes, taking a few deep breaths may help for the moment but I need to look at the causes for the stress. Is it a response to what is happening in my life? Is it fear of what might happen? Is it concern over what others may think? For me it is often all of the above.

But the deeper reason is that I have forgotten whose I am. I have taken on responsibility for my life and forgotten that God now has that responsibility. God has not moved, changed, or forgotten His promises. He is still my Father who loves me. He loves me not only with an eternal love but with a real today love that I can trust. I need to not only take deep physically refreshing breaths but also deep satisfying soul breaths. I need to let myself be quiet before God and just breathe. Breathe in His love, acceptance, comfort, joy and peace. To let Him be the essence of who I am. I am His and I can trust Him with every breath I take.

Unfortunately, I live too much of my life Spirit deprived which leaves me tired, weak, and self-centered. I need times to intentionally breathe in the pure love of Christ. To let the Holy Spirit refresh my spirit. This spiritual breathing leaves me both intensely satisfied and also wanting more. I feel closer to the Father not for what He can do for me but for who He is. I am learning anew the joys of just breathing.

Prayer: Father, I am so thankful that You love me too much to simply let me wander into self-reliance. Thank You for using times of stress to remind me that I am not alone. Help me to turn from my self-effort and turn in faith to Your Holy Spirit. Refresh my spirit once again and fill me with the fruit of Your Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

1. Uplift John as he grieves the heavenly home going of his dear mother Alma on April 14th. Especially pray for strength as he preaches a Mother’s Day sermon.
2. Thank you for praying for travel safety out west and please continue.
3. Ask God to give us His words as we speak both in public forums and in private conversations.
4. Pray for wisdom and creativity as we seek to get up to full financial support. Pray that we will always desire God’s blessing and relationships more than the necessary finances.
5. Our church visits in Colorado have been wonderful but we are greatly missing time with family. Pray as we seek to keep a balance between church visits and family gatherings later in the month.
6. We are excited to share God’s love and His mission for Japan with our partnering churching. At the same time our hearts miss Japan. Pray that we will see God at work in both places.
7. Thank God for an extremely successful disaster response team from Sylvan Way church near Seattle. Thank God too that one injury was not as severe as it could be.
8. Pray for the preparations for the next disaster response team arriving in Japan in late May.

• May 1-4   ¾ day work, ½ day enjoy the mountains/rest in Colorado.
• May 4 – visit John’s aunt, travel to Village Church Thornton, Co
• May 5 – John speak at the men’s breakfast, Elaine speak at the women’s tea
• May 6 – preach/teach at Village Church also an evening meeting
• May 7 – meet with pastor at Conifer Community Church to make video for the church
• May 7-11 – ¾ day work, ½ day enjoy the mountains/rest, 5/10 Elaine mentors missionary in Japan via Skype
• May 12 – lunch with Bethel Baptist Greeley Colorado then travel to Albin, WY
• May 13 – (Mother’s Day) preach/teach at Albin Baptist Church
• May 13-14 – travel back to Rockford, IL
• May 19 – Memorial service for John’s mom (Alma Mehn)

April brings many more of God’s blessings during our Home Assignment. God has been working.

• Family – Much praise to God for his blessing of our four generation reunion last month.
• Japan Disaster Response Teams – The first team of the year has been very effective in cleaning houses, gathering people (100 at one meeting), and touching lives with the Hope of Christ.
• Learning – John was able to gain new insights by attending a great class at Trinity on developing leaders and the Converge Ignite Church Planting Conference in Phoenix.
• Future Ministry – The Japan Field Council approved our desired work designation for when we return to Japan in early August (see below).

APRIL TOUR SCHEDULE

This month begins our 6 week tour of Converge Rocky Mountain. In addition to church visits, we will be meeting with key leaders, completing writing projects, and enjoying the mountains.

• Apr 13 John presents on reproducing churches at the Evangelical Missiological Society regional meeting in Colorado.
• Apr 15 Speaking at Grace Mountain Church; Colorado Springs, CO.
• Apr 22 Speaking at Conference Baptist Church; Evergreen, CO.
• Apr 29 Speaking at Galilee Baptist Church; Loveland, CO.

We were in a church recently and they asked, “How is your support?” Well, we will need an increase of nearly $11,000 to end the fiscal year on April 30th at 100% support. We need around $900 per month to bring our support level to match budget. Help us deal with these “insufficient funds.” Unless more money comes in by 4/30 this will be the first year in a long time we were under-supported, and maybe the first time we will be delayed in returning to Japan on time this August.

Will you pray about our financial support situation? Will you consider before God what you possibly can do? Like someone recently did, some of you could begin giving monthly to our support, $10 or $20 per month. Or some of you could give a one-time gift of $50, $100 or $200. To give to our work or for more information see http://www.convergeworldwide.org/give/49651. We know God can do it, will you join us in praying in faith that it will happen?

This is a great story of one victim of the disaster struggling in his life and how a group of serious Christians can cause him to think about his life. A great story of really sharing Christ, a changed life, and the power of prayer. These are the kinds of relationships our volunteers and our partners are in everyday we minister.

荒木英夫　Hideo Araki – My Story of Hope (English Subtitles) from Jesus.net Japan on Vimeo.

Some of you may be aware of a network called Churches Helping Churches which has been very instrumental in assisting pastors in the Tohoku area with support, retreats, and other ministries to keep them from falling apart or burning out.  They have been partnering with Asian Access and JCGI Network all across the Tohoku area.

One of those Japanese pastors cooperating with them is Yoshi Ohari which shares a thank you to all who have helped.  He shares with many of us a vision for what God can do through this tragedy. Pastor Ohari is a friend of mine and also is the key leader in the South Tokyo Church Multiplication Network which includes the Crossroad church. I cannot wait to get back to Tokyo to be a part of Crossroad as they multiply their church.

If you have not already you will hear a lot in the news about the recovery efforts after the triple disasters in Japan last March 11th.  Much has been done but this is a 10 year project to rebuild the 86 communities affected in the greatest disaster for Japan since WWII.  

From a Christian perspective of missions – Japan has even farther to go. Before 3.11, for the Church of Jesus Christ Tohoku was hard very difficult soil for the Gospel.  The difficulties are revealed by the statistics. I blogged this a year ago: The areas affected by the earthquake and tsunamis of Miyagi, Fukushima, and Ibaraki are some of the most spiritually needy places in Japan. With over 4.9 million people yet only about 9,000 active Christians (about 0.15%). There are one city and 44 towns with no church. One town in Ibaraki has over 46,000 people with no church and several others have over 24,000 people with no churches. Average attendance for all the churches in Japan is the lowest (only 19) in Fukushima prefecture. Ibaraki prefecture has the least number of people claiming to have any religious beliefs.

Current Encouragements – Throughout the Christian relief efforts we would hear stories of Christians ministering being termed Kirisuto san (Mr. Christ) by victims receiving help.  Some would say “I got this food/clothing from Jesus.”  This illustrated that the incarnational approach of Christians meeting real needs have made Christianity to be seen in a great light.  In some cases Japanese have overlooked some other answers such as Buddhist cults or the communists. The wall between the church and the community has disappeared, local churches and believers are now visible to Japanese.  Churches are gradually springing up all over the area.  In Ishinomaki the number of churches has increased from 7 before 3.11 to now 11. 

Post 3.11 Opportunities

Last Christmas my wife and I sat with many disaster victims we had been helping. We came to share the story of Jesus.  We had never experienced more openness in our 26 years of working in Japan. The traditionally hard soil has been loosened in a country of less than 1% labeled as the second largest unreached people group in the world.

Future Challenges – The often used word since the disaster was “overwhelmed.” The challenges of recovery are still staggering, yet for the Gospel of Jesus Christ even more so. There has been much progress but are there enough Christians and churches to capitalize on this apparent openness? Who will plant the churches in the places that historically have never had a church?  Who will help equip and support those who plant these new churches?  Missionaries have declined in number by 25% over the last 8 years. Like General MacArthur after WWII, we need to make a great appeal for missionaries to head to Japan right now.

Please pray more fervently, and work more diligently that God would send out workers into his harvest field (Mt. 9:37-38). 

For an article written by our kids classmates see: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/marchweb-only/tsunami-aftermath-japan.html

This video to us has very familar faces.  Besides the families of victims there are people we worked side-by-side in Urayashiki with Dean Bengston. Some notables in the video are Paul Suzuki, SEND Japan director, Warren Janzen, SEND world director, Jonathan Wilson head of CRASH and a few people we worked with mudding out the Watanbe’s house. You can even catch a photo of our dear friends the Fujinos with Southern Baptist. Scenes are also of Minami Sanriku just up the coast. Keep playing, soooooooo much still to be done.

One year after the triple disasters finds nearly 20,000 dead, 400,000 displaced, over 1 million buildings destroyed, and very little rebuilding. Much of the debris has been removed, equivalent to 120 years of the whole nation’s garbage. Encouragement has come as where Ishinomaki City had 7 churches before the disaster, now it has four more, and counting! Converge Disaster Response ministry is now focusing on long-term help for people and building community. The Samaritan Purse rebuilding project will soon be completed with 400 homes rebuilt! March 2-4 will bring Franklin Graham to Japan for a series of meetings in Sendai to celebrate hope. Pray that all believers helping to alleviate suffering would be re-energized for more ministries to victims.