Everyone once in awhile God gives us these random encounters that keeps us in awe. Today was one such day. A group of us were walking toward the Takamori campus which is essentially in a neighbor area. Usually, on these walks we will encounter the random MeySen Family that will acknowledge us or the random person that will try to run to the other side of the road to avoid getting mugged by Gaijin (foreigners). Then there are days like today...
A 50 year old Japanese (*surprise) man walks up and says "how are you" in broken English. Generally, we thought eh that's kind of odd but we will keep walking. He then goes on to say that hes not fine. He's bipolar and going through a really tough time. Now were all like whoa and I'm even half feeling uncomfortable at his nonchalant ability to give deep details of his life to random people. At the same time, when someone is feeling down you want to try to help them the best you can even if it is to just listen.
He goes on to talk all about his life in somewhat understandable English. He spent time in America studying at Tennessee and made some random references about them winning a national champion in the 70s and other random tidbits about being picked on as a kid and what not. It was all kind of blurred together. He also talked about how he was having a really rough time lately because his parents were killed in the Tsunami and he had no real family. He also had a difficult decision because he has citizenship in the US and could move back there or stay. (I swear this is all within 5 minutes of saying hello to this guy.) He then goes on to say how he was a Christian and talked about a church he goes to and how the pastor there is helping him deal with his depression.
We finally got to a point where we were going to be late for our meeting but didn't want to leave a person who was extremely depressed alone. (Hopefully not that this was an issue but Japan is known to have one of the highest suicide rates in the world). Brian, one of our teachers, offered to pray for him. I don't like to act hokey about things but I could feel Gods presence through my whole body in that moment. As we all prayed, the man started weeping. You could see a deep change in his demeanor as soon as we finished, almost like a ton of bricks flew off his shoulders.
I don't know what will happen to that guy or if I will ever see him again but in that moment I know that God made a difference in that mans life through us. Its amazing how powerful a random encounter can be.
A 50 year old Japanese (*surprise) man walks up and says "how are you" in broken English. Generally, we thought eh that's kind of odd but we will keep walking. He then goes on to say that hes not fine. He's bipolar and going through a really tough time. Now were all like whoa and I'm even half feeling uncomfortable at his nonchalant ability to give deep details of his life to random people. At the same time, when someone is feeling down you want to try to help them the best you can even if it is to just listen.
He goes on to talk all about his life in somewhat understandable English. He spent time in America studying at Tennessee and made some random references about them winning a national champion in the 70s and other random tidbits about being picked on as a kid and what not. It was all kind of blurred together. He also talked about how he was having a really rough time lately because his parents were killed in the Tsunami and he had no real family. He also had a difficult decision because he has citizenship in the US and could move back there or stay. (I swear this is all within 5 minutes of saying hello to this guy.) He then goes on to say how he was a Christian and talked about a church he goes to and how the pastor there is helping him deal with his depression.
We finally got to a point where we were going to be late for our meeting but didn't want to leave a person who was extremely depressed alone. (Hopefully not that this was an issue but Japan is known to have one of the highest suicide rates in the world). Brian, one of our teachers, offered to pray for him. I don't like to act hokey about things but I could feel Gods presence through my whole body in that moment. As we all prayed, the man started weeping. You could see a deep change in his demeanor as soon as we finished, almost like a ton of bricks flew off his shoulders.
I don't know what will happen to that guy or if I will ever see him again but in that moment I know that God made a difference in that mans life through us. Its amazing how powerful a random encounter can be.
Doing Gods work!! Awesome!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to one of the greatest blessings of being a Christian. We just heard the Gospel two weeks ago when Jesus said in the judgment: "When you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me." Many blessings like these, nephew. I'm proud of all of you. Uncle Dennis
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