Month: August 2022

I’m “Akarin” enjoying the summer of my junior year of college.

Recently, I’ve been healed and encouraged in body & soul by attending my denomination’s online camp, counselor-to-counselor camp, and JCFN’s GiFT event.

Many thoughts came to me, especially at the first “in person” GiFT event in a long time, as we worshipped, prayed, heard a message, and met in small groups, and I couldn’t help but cry during the singing of Daisuke Yokoyama’s (DK) song “As Jesus Loved”. I was filled with a wonderful emotion and gratefulness of being loved by God, and His awesomeness.

My blog theme this month is: “I became a Christian.”

I’d like to tell you how I met God and was led to baptism.

I was born and raised in a Christian home by missionary parents. It was a normal for me to attend Sunday worship service as well as prayer meeting on weekdays. I envied my friends who went out on Sundays and wondered why I couldn’t go anywhere on that day. As a small child, I had mixed emotions, but these feelings faded away because attending worship service was a part of my routine.

Then a turning point came when I visited Japan in the summer of 2010. Once every four years, my family would return to Japan for a summer vacation to report on their missionary activities. This time, there was meeting for adults, and I attended the Church School camp for the first time. In the message at camp, I learned and understood that I had sin in my heart and that Jesus bore all those sins and died on the cross, and I prayed a prayer of repentance with the pastor and was led to faith. When I returned to Taiwan, I was baptized on Pentecost Sunday of the following year. The scripture given to me at that time was,

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

The days after I became a Christian didn’t change much from the past, and I changed from being called “Akari-chan “to “Miss Akari “at church, and I didn’t see any change in my mindset. As the days went on for a long time, I began to doubt God’s existence and could only experience His presence in my faith through prayer.

It wasn’t all fun & games, and I was increasingly running into every wall that a Christian encounters, and in next month’s issue, I will talk about “Christian Starting Over.”

“Blessings as WIT22 Staff”

Esther Kamura

It was a blessing to be on the WIT22 staff!

One of the reasons I was blessed was that I had so much time to prepare! (Yes, a plus. This is…)
This was a very valuable experience for me, simply because I don’t think it is very often that I have the opportunity to go into such depth on a single topic. We had been preparing since last October, and at the beginning the theme presented to us was just one word, “Fear,” so my first thought was, “That is too broad! I don’t get it!” (I’m sorry, Kou-kun. He was our director.)

We were forced to think and pray about this theme. But strangely enough, the Lord is truly a God who answers when I pray and ask, as His Word says, and He spoke to me in various ways. He spoke to me at every meeting and every time the framework of the program was created. Even in the midst of my everyday life, I was touched by God’s presence through the preparation for this WIT, and it was very fulfilling. It may not be an exaggeration to say that the words God spoke to me were truth, hope, and the power to live my daily life.

I also really enjoyed praying, praising, and listening to the testimonies of the participants during the WIT program. I was especially thankful and thrilled that we were able to pray for each other passionately and fervently even in small groups.

I was so thankful and impressed that we were able to dig deeper into this theme of “Fear!” I am grateful that together with staff, we were able to keep our eyes on the Lord as we listend to Him. Praise the Lord!