New Life

We will always remember Valentine's Day 2010. It was a Sunday and Wataru came for the first time to our church. In fact for the first time ever to any church. He had been invited by Sambi who thought it would be good to invite him on a 'special' day. He was very nervous and uptight and that showed in the way he spoke - fast and to the point. He came again on other 'special' occasions. He was always keen to introduce himself as someone who definitely did not believe in God. His self-proclaimed philosophy was 'Life is war'. Yet over time he changed and softened, eventually reaching the stage towards the end of last year when he was coming almost every week and then wanted to start Bible study. He has been doing that with David and JP for the best part of a year. He is very sharp and good at analysing what the Bible says. He had lots of difficult questions too - we would often stray onto different topics than the ones we were meant to be studying. It was thrilling to see his heart begin to open but always there were objections. We sometimes struggled to find a way to deal with them but gradually he began to edge closer to faith. And that point was reached a couple of weeks ago as he confessed his faith and became a believer of Jesus. It is a joy to see how God has changed him. Certainly he has many issues to deal with. But now he has a power within which can give him the guidance and strength he needs. Life may well still continue to be 'war' but in a different sense and fought with different weapons. He is a young man who could be a great warrior for Jesus. JP and David will continue to meet with him week by week to help him become grounded in his young faith. We are looking forward to Wataru being the third person to be baptised in Izumi Church - the second one was yesterday and that will be the focus of the next blog entry. We praise God for these encouragements - small steps, but one by one Jesus is building his church in Hiragishi.