Great day with the Lord on the 88 Temple Pilgrimage trail

Had a real special day with my Lord Jesus on Wednesday, May 11, would like to share a bit about it.  I actually posted several photos to facebook through this day, which was fun to do, but this post will capture the sum of what I discovered.


Before I post the photos, here's the overview.  I'm on the island of Shikoku, doing a solo trip while Laura and the girls are still in the states, meeting my job requirement of doing some cultural travel.  There is a very famous system of Buddhist temples on Shikoku called the 88 Temple tour or Shikoku Pilgrimage, due to a old Buddhist walking the circumference of the island in his lifetime and visiting each of these temples.  Wikipedia has a good article on it, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikoku_Pilgrimage.


Lonely Planet has a good article on doing the first five temples in one day trip, so I decided to give it a try.  I took the train to the first town but walked to the first temple and then walked the entire circuit, about a total of 15 kilometers.  It rained hard almost the entire time, but at least it kept things cool, and I was comfortable enough.

I undertook this with the thought of stopping at each temple, taking some pictures, reading in my daily Bible reading through John chapter 2, a portion at each temple, and leaving a couple of tracts in respectful places at each temple site.  I boarded the train at 10:18 a.m. in Tokushima, and arrived back at 5:15 p.m.

The physical exertion and slow pace of walking to each temple really gave me time to listen to God, and here is the summary of what I received, from prayer and from reading John 2:

---The Japanese culture as a focused and revered system of beliefs and practices is older and more deeply rooted than I ever imagined, and I don't believe that many Americans can really appreciate that concept, and in fact I believe that Japan probably has the most unified and oldest continuous culture of any modern nation today.  I have more reasons why I believe that but if you want details please engage me separately, it would make a much longer post.

---There is a deeply sincere spirituality in the Japanese people that focuses on being humble and self-sacrificing, and that is a good thing since that is what the Lord Jesus Christ is the one and only true embodiment of.

---Jesus' very presence in any location changes things, so that if the Lord is shining through my life, I do not need to necessarily say anything when I come among people I wish would be saved, the Holy Spirit is working already in that situation, and I need to trust that His will be done.

---Jesus described Himself as a temple, and it is that temple which is the only one in which to devote oneself.  The enemy has cleverly devised substitutes and has deceived so many people, and continues to deceive.  

---The enemy stronghold in Japan is centuries old.  Therefore, it must require a missionary's lifetime of commitment to serve in this ministry field to be a witness to the Spirit's conquering of Japan.  Of course, salvation of any one person comes in the twinkling of an eye, praise the Lord, and the Lord can choose to save the nation just as quickly, but what the Lord told me was that to be a proper witness here I have to show unwavering commitment and sincerity to the Japanese people.

God bless you, thanks for reading!

April Update

Hi there!  It has been a very blessed month in terms of serving the Lord.  While it has been hard to have my family apart from me, Laura and I recognize that the Lord has allowed them to be safe and comfortable in the states while I participate in the Calvary Tohoku Relief ministry as it is just beginning.  I have actually spent more time over the last month in the Sendai area than in Tokyo!  But it has been wonderful to have been used by the Lord.  Please be sure to check out the Calvary Tohoku Relief blog for all those updates:


http://calvarytohokurelief.blogspot.com/

Over one Sunday at my home church, though, I was very blessed to participate in their monthly worship outreach which is done outside our local train station in Kokubunji.  It was a little chilly still then, but we played for two straight hours while members of the church handed out flyers for our Easter service and talked with people who stopped to listen.  Pastor Chizuo and the worship leader Chihiro said that in the almost four years they have done this outreach, they have never had such a strong response; we gave out all 500 flyers we had printed and had many great conversations.  


So things have been wonderfully busy which has made missing my wife and daughters more bearable.  I am on the way to visit them in Iowa now, and return on the 26th to be in Kokubunji for the Calvary Chapel Japan conference, then I plan to continue to serve in the Tohoku region on a regular basis, prayerfully for the remainder of my time here.  I will keep you posted!  God bless you!