Epilogue [Josh]

I write this now with a torn heart. This is my third day in tokyo trying to get home and it looks like the flights are all booked again and I will stay another day in tokyo most likely. It's frustrating staying in the airport all day. Looking back, I wish I didn't go standby as right now, all I want to do is go home or go back to taiwan.

What can I say about this trip? Last year, it was awesome because every night at Tien Liao, we cried out to the Lord together and prayed for the children and the Lord was evident in those camps.

This year? Like Arthur, I was frustrated as it seemed like we were going through the motions and we weren't spending enough time with the Lord asking for His help. If there is one thing that I can say about missions is that there is power in genuine prayer. Cao Ya was difficult, as we were thrown a curveball that we had to deal with 2 locations instead of one. I know that I instantly started thinking logistics and how we could handle all the kids with just half the staff. The Lord started breaking me of the "work first" mentality and is starting to give me a "pray first" mentality. Cause if we start working first, then we'll see a great program that doesn't have the Spirit and that isn't how ministry works. Ministry only works through the Spirit because it is the power of the Spirit that pierces the heart.

Like most others here on the missions trip, the Little Princekin school was the highlight of the trip. God's spirit was really moving in most of the kids there. It was awesome, because prior to that for 4 days, the kids didn't seem to be interested in anything except for playing around and horsing around, which was disheartening to me. Praise God for the missions team, as they held up great and handled the kids no matter how difficult they were.

God sees in different ways than we do. I was struck by this on day 4 when we were talking about the children and I was suprised about how many of them came from broken families. You wouldn't be able to tell by looking at them, as they seemed like happy kids. Rambunctious at times, but generally well adjusted. Just goes to sho you how Satan is at work underneath the covers.

The last night that we were there at Princekin, we gave the gospel story (again!) and also had a time where we played music and the teachers (mission team) would pray for them. and the Lord had plans for that time. in both sessions we had the Holy Spirit come down like fire. In Hebrews it talks about Ministers being flames of fire. And in this case, the Holy Spirit came down upon the kids in a mighty way. We started praying for the kids and the kids who didn't seem to care for anything in the world and were only interested in horsing around were englufed by the Holy Spirit and it was so evident that the HS was working. I remember one girl in particular who was sitting alone at the time and I remember sitting next to her and holding her and just weeping for her as the Spirit was so strong that words were inadequate. After we were able to pray for the kids for about a hour (which was half the time that we had with them) we ended with song and the camp was over. Bu the Spirit was still working so evidentally that we had a bit of a celebration praising God and shouting to the Lord. You see, Princekin is a normal school. One of the mothers of the mission team member fought tooth and nail with the school board, parents, husband to have this english camp at the school. So I can say with pretty good accuracy that this was probably the first time that these kids have ever heard the gospel and many of them have never heard any of the bible stories that we ended up talking about. How awesome is that, to be praising God here in a school, where we may not ever get the chance to do this again, that God showed Himself mightily in these children. I pray that the Lord will provide them follow up to be able to nurture that seed that is within them. I pray that Satan will not snuff out this flame.

My laptop is running out of juice and I have nowhere to charge it. So I must end it here. All I know is that I will be returning back and that nothing is going to stop me. God's work must be done here and I know God has called me! Praise the Lord!