Apple of His Eyes

He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field" - Luke 10:2 (NIV 2011)

As those who are following my Facebook would know, I was away for a relief mission trip to Japan over the past one week. To be honest, I never thought that I will one day end up in Japan doing mission, but God's sovereign plan works differently from what we have in mind. I wonder how am I going to start this post updating all of you what happened in Japan over the past one week and some of my thoughts.

It really all began when I received the brochure from Hope Centre calling for volunteers for the disaster relief mission to Japan. At that time, I just felt that I would like to join in the trip but I wasn't quite sure if I want to commit given the cost and time. It wasn't until I received an email asking if anyone is interested that I decided that I wanted to go for it, just to experience what is it like to be part of disaster relief.

The programme was coordinated by OM and Samaritan's Purse, focusing on the affected houses that were damaged by the Tsunami at Ishinomaki-shi. Our job there was to tear down and clean up the houses which were damaged by the tidal waves so that the carpenters from Samaritan's Purse were able to come and refurnish the houses. Below are some of the pictures from Ishinomaki-shi.

On the right: a house that was destroyed by the tsunami

The outside of the church that hosted us

More damages of the town

It used to be a house there

Yes... It is flat now...

Some of the houses across the church

The second house we worked on

The dirt and debris we cleared from the house

The owner's name is Minami Kawa

We were joined by fellow brothers and sisters from other churches in Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau and Australia. The work included pulling out wood and floor boards, pulling out nails, clearing the mud and dirt from the tsunami, cleaning and bleaching the leftover.

It was also quite sad when we visited other affected areas:

This used to be a church... It was wiped clean by the tsunami

I can only say one thing... It was flat, it was really flat.

What can I say after the whole ordeal of seeing and working in the houses?

It is very easy to ask why did such things happen to anyone? It is very easy to think of an unloving God when one sees the level of devastation that occurred in Japan, or even in Sumatra back in 2004. It is heart breaking enough. I remembered I was standing in front of what used to be the entrance of a building, only to see flat land in front of me. I remembered attending a prayer meeting there and the pastor shared that the body of the wife of one of the residents at Ishinomaki was found the week before we arrived, 8 months after the disaster. I remembered seeing the heaps of debris and all the technological advances of one of the most developed economies in the world could not handle the destruction of nature.

Gone, it was all gone in one wave.

And I was really asking God, 'Why?'

Can you imagine standing there, right after the wave came, seeing what you used to know is not what you know now? I thought I was looking at Singapore without Sumatra. I vividly remembered reading the news in 2004, that if not for Sumatra, Singapore would have been wiped out by the tsunami. I thought I was looking at that possibility back in Japan.

But yet, at the aftermath of the disaster, when all hope seemed lost, we know intuitively, as Christ followers, that Jesus is the hope. I remembered in an interview conducted with one of the fisherman, who happened to be the first family to open up to Samaritan's Purse and OM, that he almost lost all hope until the Christian volunteers came. Almost all the Japanese whom we randomly talked to along the way thanked us for coming to help with the relief work. We visited the temporary shelter and the ladies were so grateful that we brought them food and clothing for the winter. It is at the aftermath of the disaster that the hope from Christ became apparent to the people (and I hope it won't take one for Singaporeans to realise too)

I was reflecting over the past one week on the work in Japan and other mission works around the world. Jesus is right. The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. There are so much work remained to be done. Not only in Japan, where houses remained to be rebuilt and lives remained to be restored, but also in other countries, in our own workplaces. The aroma of Christ is waiting to be spread but the workers are few. How much can we accomplish?

And I was reminded by the words of encouragement from Ming Siew, the incredible lady from OM leading the work there. She mentioned that we should not measure successes by our standard but by the standard of God. Of course, when one sees the work she is doing, when one sees the work that her assistant, Tomomi, is doing, you know that they need more. As I think about what other churches are doing in other countries, I know that they need more workers. But even as I think about our own workplaces, I also know that the workplaces need more people who are willing to stand up for God.

But where are we?

For me personally, I just wonder how can I just stand it, being here in Singapore, while knowing that the world still needs more workers out there for the harvest? Granted that the workplace is a mission field by itself.

One good thing from this trip is that it further confirms God's calling for me to the mission field. It's becoming clearer and clearer by the moment. I was working in the house, pulling out nails when I found myself enjoying the work a lot. It is the kind of work that we get foreign workers to do back here in Singapore but when I know that it's for an eternal purpose, the work takes on a different meaning altogether. It is there in Japan, working with Ming Siew and Tomomi and Jason - the real missionaries, that I caught a glimpse of eternity, of the work that missionaries do. (To qualify, the work they do are not exactly the church planting missions that we often talk about in Hope Church). It makes me want to take a three months no pay leave to engage full time in missionary work - just to see if I'm cut out for this in the long term. I guess I can never look at my own work, and my own calling the same way again. It is now almost sure that I will want to devote my life to mission work.

The only question is in what form.

The secondary question is when and where.

But I was reminded of the passage from 2 Kings.

Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.” 

At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there, for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!” So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives. 

The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp, entered one of the tents and ate and drank. Then they took silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also. 

Then they said to each other, “What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace.” - 2 Kings 7:3-9 (NIV 2011)

In the passage, God used 4 lepers, who preceded Aristotle and demonstrated excellent and impeccable Greek logic, to take a step of faith to go to the Arameans. They had nothing to lose by going to Arameans, since 3 out of 4 choices they had, they were going to die anyway. I was just asking myself, what do I have to lose if I decide to obey to God's calling and go into the mission field? What do I stand to lose?

And when the lepers realised that that was the day of good news as they 'rampaged' through the empty camp, they did not hesitate to go and report the news. We, as Christ followers, know the Good News of Jesus but do we hesitate or wait to spread the news? Do we just talk but display no action? One thing that I learned over the trip is that our actions count. The Japanese may not be receptive to the gospels by word, but they see us helping, and recognise the gospels in deed.

So what do we got to lose?

Can we trust God to bring us through if we decided to obey and submit to His call? One thing which inspired me a lot was the faith and obedience of the long term workers there. It was really heart touching to see people responding to God willingly, giving up so much in the eyes of the world for so little (which reaps a lot of eternal rewards).

Of course, even as I reflect through, I am also reminded of one danger point. It is very easy to be touched and inspired by a mission trip. The question remains: what are we going to do with it? It is very easy to be burdened with the people whom you serve during the mission trip, but it is the onus of the individual to earnestly seek God to ask Him for the direction and path and not merely allow ourselves to direct our way just simply based on any seeming burden. It takes prayer and a lot of prayer. Burden cannot be taken lightly and should never be. It is easy to say that you feel burdened for Batam, Cambodia etc, but it is another thing to determine where God is exactly leading you towards.

The trip did not end on Friday. I was glad that we had a chance to join the brothers and sisters from Hope Tokyo on Saturday for fellowship and to tour around Waseda University:

The mission did not just end at Ishinomaki. We joined Hope Tokyo at Waseda University to tour the ground. Found out from them that they wanted to target at the university students and needed strong leaders there. I smell an opportunity for support mission. It was also heart warming that they are concerned over the development of the disaster areas as well.

Overall, I think my perspective changed a lot over at Japan. It is difficult to see things the same again, and I think I am fairly prepared to take my prolong no-pay leave. 2012 might well be a more missional year for me.

We are the apple of His eyes.