Sunday, February 28, 2010

walk by faith

posted by Priscilla

Beland and I spent some time today with the Kondo-sensei, the head pastor of Hamadera Bible Church. We wanted to take him somewhere fancy, so we went to Burger King :) We sat in the fast-food booth with loud children running all around us, and we chatted about life.

For those that do not know, Grace Community Church sends short-term ministry teams every summer to countries all around the world. We send teams to our missionaries that request help for that summer. Since college, Beland and I have had the privilege to go on several summer short-term ministry trips to Hamdera Bible Church, located in Osaka, Japan. This church has a very special place in our hearts, and God has placed Beland as the leader of one of the Japan teams for summer 2010.

Anyway, back to lunch. We were talking to Pastor Kondo about our future plans, in particular Beland's aspiration to go into full-time ministry. Since we have been married, Beland and I have been praying a lot about if and when to go into seminary, and more importantly, whether God is leading us toward full-time ministry. At this time, God has put it on both of our hearts to move in that direction.

One large factor in our decision has been finances. I'm sure most would agree that it's a valid factor. We have spent time calculating out how much we would need in order to survive, how much we would need to dip into our savings until we have no more savings in which to dip, how to make a secondary income, etc. I would love for Beland to get seminary training, but my heart recently has been pondering a lot about the money part of the whole decision. I think I even told somebody recently that finances would be the only reason we wouldn't go to seminary in the fall.

When we were talking to Pastor Kondo, I blurted out "well, we'll see if we can afford seminary this fall." Kondo-sensei told us how he came to America from Japan to get seminary training. He had no money when he came, and he could not ask his parents for money. But he knew that it was God's will that he get trained to be a preacherl. There were no scholarship programs in place and no financial aid, but somebody reached out to him and gave him a special scholarship that allowed him to go to seminary. He told a number of stories like that about how God provided for him every step of his life.

And then he said, "I'm glad I don't have enough money, because then I would think that I didn't need God." In my own life, I always felt like my parents had "enough" money. I couldn't help thinking to myself that I was like the person who thought they didn't need God. Kondo-sensei spoke to us about the joy of depending and trusting in God. He sees these things as great opportunities of faith. I was reminded of the apostle Paul, and how he had learned contentment regardless of his financial circumstances.

On a similar note, Beland and I had heard of some spiritual and financial struggles going on with Hamadera Bible Church recently. We asked Pastor Kondo about these things. Again, he went on about what an exciting time this was for the church to exercise their faith in God. It was like he completely saw beyond what the natural man sees, and appraised the spiritual situation correctly. It was so encouraging to see how clearly he understood the spiritual reality of what is really going on with his flock, and how he entrusted the church's future and well-being to God.

In the end, Pastor Kondo encouraged us to make our decisions based on what is God's will. And if we are doing the will of God, then we must have faith that God is not limited by our financial situation.

As we left our meeting with Kondo-sensei, Beland and I agreed that we are going to change how we pray about the whole full-time ministry/going to seminary decision. Please pray for us, that (1) God would show us and convince us of what He wants for us and where He wants us to go next, and that (2) we would have faith that He will provide the means for us to get there.