The quaint, cosy restaurant was filled with the background chatter of busy government employees. The traditional Japanese food was cooked and served before your eyes by friendly, hard working ladies dressed in plain aprons and headscarves. It was the kind of place where you rinse off your own plates and serve yourself at the drink fountain – affordable, practical and full of character. We had just finished the paperwork to register our fourth child as a legitimate resident in Japan and were having some lunch before driving back to our hometown from the state capital, Aomori. Then something happened that is quite unusual in Japan.
The father in the family sitting next to us leaned over and started up a conversation with us. Sometimes Japanese mums or grandparents will tell us how cute one of our kids are, or ask how old they are, or perhaps ask us where we are from; but this man was friendlier than usual. After a nice chat and a yummy lunch we started to get ready to leave. Yet in the foyer my wife was convicted that she should go back and pass on our details to this family, who happened to live in the same town as us. Despite being a little shy, my wife did it…
This is just one example among many of a key part of missionary life – being faithful in the little things. As missionaries (and hopefully as Christians in general) we long seek some of the ‘bigger’, more visible results like conversions, church growth etc., however the daily work we are involved in as cross cultural missionaries is much more ‘mundane’. We attend school events, we chat with next door neighbours, we run English classes, we hand out church flyers, we become friends with the staff at our favourite cafe and basically make the most of the opportunities the Lord gives us each day to be his ambassadors.
And ambassadors we are.
“And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” 2 Corinthians 5:19-20.
More often than not the lessons I have found God teaching me in Japan have not been about the ‘big’ things or the technical skills, like how to preach a wonderful, eloquent sermon in Japanese (although this has value) but rather about my character and willingness to be obedient in the small things. For example:
- Knocking on my neighbours door to invite them to a church event, even when I am really nervous, I don’t feel like it and my Japanese is not very good.
- Praying in Japanese for a church member when it is very hard and stressful to pray in another language.
- Giving your contact details to someone you just met in a restaurant when you are embarrassed to do so.
I have found that these steps of faithfulness seem to do much more work in my own heart and character than achieve anything visible or noteworthy – at least in the short term. But more often than not that’s what the Lord seems to be interested in doing. Denying ourselves, taking up our cross and following Jesus (Mark 8:34) is a daily challenge. We offer ourselves as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1), not considering our own insecurities, fears or concerns but remaining obedient to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
By doing so we become farmers. We faithfully sow our seed every day, no matter how futile and fruitless it may seem and no matter how silly or pathetic or weak we may feel. Then we trust that God will bring the fruit. For it is the power of God at work in our weakness that is effective. As one of my OMF co-workers put it so well on the Tohoku Japan Blog:
We’ve found that weakness removes the mask of strength. Others then see the reality of our frailty and the power and beauty of God at work in us. And we, de-robed of our proud self-reliance, are being taught to work as part of a body of Christians and rely on the Lord.
In this way we simply must rely on the Lord’s strength and abide in him (John 15:4-5). It is the only way we can bear fruit.
The day after we met the family in the restaurant we received an e-mail from our new friends. They not only got in touch but they also wanted to come to our church! We were delighted, excited and shocked at the same time! Sure enough the next Sunday they came to our church, stayed for lunch and seemed to have a really good time. All we could do in response was praise God for his provision, kindness and work. We had done so little but God had done so much.
That is our great God. He takes weak things and makes them strong, he takes small things and makes them great. When we are faithful in the little things, he does big things.
Reflections from the field 