Seek and ye shall find

Disappointed ...running low on spiritual gas...feeling empty! Those were my feelings this morning as I sat at church. I was preparing myself to be fed fully but instead just got morsels. What happened? We all sang songs and hymns; read the Bible and prayed together . Ahhh... why do I still feel empty inside? I was begging for more. More...

I looked for God today at church but could not find Him. Was He there? I'm sure, He was. He was not in His rightful place though. For He was not in the center seat for everyone to bow and worship because, sadly, we put Him aside today. We moved Him to another place and instead put men in the Bible like David, Moses, Absalom and other Japanese novelists in the center of the worship.

I felt edgy midway through the worship service this morning because I did not get what I wanted, what I expected. I looked around me and wondered whether the others felt the same. I thought, could this be one of the reasons why the Japanese churches are not growing?

The morning dragged on...finally it was over. The worship service , I mean.

We had lunch at church. Then I had to attend a very important meeting. My mind was engrossed for a time at something I needed to prepare for Christmas.

The church phone rang. It was for me. A good friend called, wanting to meet me for tea somewhere. OK, great!

We first went to Starbucks...all seats occupied. "Let's go to Honey House", I suggested. It is my favorite place to chat and chill.

While there, lo and behold! God appeared . He was there. He sat with us for two hours. No, He did not just listen to us ladies chattering ...He was feeding our souls! My soul, in particular!

You see, my friend visited a high-end Anglican church in the morning just to observe their service. Surprisingly, she had more than what she expected to get. The sermon at that church today turned out to be very good and spiritually nourishing. It was so~ good that she wanted to share the message with someone. Who did she think of? Yeah...me!

So over cups of jasmine tea, I listened to her share God's truths , His character... about Him being transcendent and at the same time imminent. OK, those are big words for a non-seminarian like me. She understands those things because she went to a seminary in Florida for her Biblical studies. But yet, in an amazing way, as my friend explained those things to me, I felt God , not her, talking to me.

God was feeding me. Touching me. Filling my spiritual need and thirst.

Wow! I got my nourishment for today that I so desperately wanted. In fact, I felt so full deep inside, that I came out of Honey House spiritually burping!

So I thought...

Isn't it great to know that when we seek Him in our heart, we will find Him? Isn't it great to know that God cares for us so much that when He sees that our hearts and souls need watering, He will do amazing things like leading friends to other churches to get the filling and whisper in their hearts to share His truth with us? Isn't it great to know that God is not confined in church buildings but He can be found everywhere, even in small places like the one three blocks away called the Honey House?

I was seeking for Him this morning...before the end of the day, we found each other! What a blessed Sunday!

the Genesis Ladies

This photo was taken last Christmas during our annual Christmas dinner.

The professional single ladies group at our church used to be called "Euodia" (Greek for aroma, as in , we are to be God's fragrant aroma). For some reasons, we decided to change the name to Genesis. The name implies something new...new beginning, new creation, new dreams, new hopes, new lives, new hearts (and loves??) , new passion, new...whatever! :)

In 2005, we used to meet at cafes and bistros. A year later, we decided to move our meetings to the church living room. This way we would have unlimited....chatting time! You know what usually happens when middle-aged single ladies meet. We can chat and giggle like there's no tomorrow!! Also, we would save much of the yen that we used to pay cafe owners who sometimes shoo us away if we stay more than a couple of hours. Now, our precious yen can be spent for more lady values like beauty salon, clothes and makeup. Haha!

The joyful upside to our meetings at church is that we were able to get the Pastor to spare us a little of his time to share us a thought or two from the Bible. Last year, we studied the lives of famous women of the Bible. This year, we got lifetime truths from the stories of some men in the Bible.

Working beauties are always busy, we agree. So we do not hold meetings regularly. Only during holidays or on selected Saturdays of the year.

Our activities during meetings vary. There were times when we had cooking demos by church friends who are good at baking. There were also times when we had sit-down dinners. Most times, though, we were just content to have coffee/tea, cakes and sweets over endless chatter and laughter after our devotional time.

We invited some of our non-Christian friends to join us in some of our meetings. Some of them kept coming , until they had to move to new workplaces or until something pressing came up. We are just thankful that we were able to minister to them during our Genesis meetings. We just hope and pray that God blessed them with not only happy memories but also by touching their hearts with His love and truth .

Halloween - our version

The kids asked me why we don't hold Halloween parties here in our school - all the other English schools in our area have that.

So, I changed my lesson plan for that day and we did an activity that explained why we don't celebrate Halloween. I bought a book for children that is titled, "Halloween is..." and we did the Halloween lesson.

First thing, I made sure that they learned and understood the English words : evil, scary, afraid, ghosts, jack-o-lantern, haunted, witch, skeleton, etc. Then, I went through the book with them and explained the most important part of the lesson, that God loves us and is not happy when we do evil things ; He also does not want us to be scared of these evil and scary decorations because He is more powerful than evil. I made them memorize Psalm 118:6, "The Lord is with me, I will not be afraid."

The younger children did crafts : making doorhangers and Halloween hats with the Bible verse.

Game time was playing a boardgame, a modified Trick or Treat thing. I made a boardgame for this lesson. They throw dice and move markers, and if they stop at a Trick square, they have to say the verse. If they stop at a treat square, they get a candy or small chocolate.

It was fun to watch them go for the treats, but I tell you, it was more fulfilling to hear them say the Bible verse instead . We'll do this again next year, I'm sure.