pardoned.net

90 days in Tokyo, 90 Robert Murray M’Cheyne sermons. Many more to come!

Well I am on my way back to Tokyo for another three months, right now I am at Seoul Incheon International Airport enjoying the free Wifi. You know, you can’t get free Wifi barely anywhere in Tokyo, but Seoul is ultra connected, I fell very comfortable here!

My fight takes off in about an hour, hopefully I’ll be able to get some rest on the connecting flight, I spent the entire flight here watching movies -Iron Man, Indiana Jones, Run Fatboy Run, Kung Fu Panda… I’m definitely more impressed with the entertainment options on Asiana than on my previous Korean Airlines flights to Japan! Unfortunately I was hoping to get some reading done, but that barely happened at all!

When I get to Tokyo I am going to be so tired! I should be arriving around 9:30PM, so here’s hoping that I get some sleep soon after landing. Over the next few days I’m supposed to help move the Myogadani Apartment… excitement and anticipation! Here’s hoping (praying) that there are no issues with getting a new tourist visa!

Things have been so busy the last couple of months here in Tokyo. I could probably write an entire book on the adventures that I have had. However I don’t know who would read it -since no one really ever read this blog either, it would be kind of a waste to go into any kind of detail here.

Instead of writing about the past two months, I’ll write about the future. I was originally only planning to be in Tokyo for a little over two months, I was scheduled to leave on August 14th; just three days from now. However shortly after getting here I approached Joshua JDSN about the prospect of me staying on an additional three and a half months. He heartily agreed granted that I get permission from Pastor Stephen in Seattle.

After getting said permission then came the tricky part -rescheduling plane tickets. A quick google search for Expedia customer service will reveal the epic adventure I was preparing for. After a lot of wrangling I finally got my ticket situation sorted out. I will be heading back to Seattle on the 27th of August and returning on a new round trip ticket for an additional three months on another tourist visa.

Of course, the reason that I could stay longer was because I pushed up my enrollment date for Wheaton College. Instead of attending on August 25th as I had previously stated, I bumped up the date a full semester to January, which freed me up to stay here in Tokyo. The reason I decided to wait to attend Wheaton was so that I could apply for the Billy Graham Scholarship -it would definitely help with the expense of attending Wheaton.

If I do end up getting the scholarship for Wheaton it will mean that I will have to serve as a missionary for four years after I graduate, which is what I intended and hoped to do anyways, but since it is obligatory it gives me a little less freedom to explore other doors which God might open -I’m still single, but who knows, I might meet a nice girl at Wheaton… but since most major missions agencies frown on newlyweds as missionaries (at least they did traditionally) then I might have to wait until after the four years of service in order to pursue a bride. Unfortunately that will add another problematic issue to my already lengthy list of character flaws which have detracted from the pursuit of a suitable wife -namely my receding hairline, frumpiness, wobbly teeth, bad eyesight, fur coat and shrill voice -put on top of that ‘over 30′ and I’ll definitely be an underdog worth cheering for.

Since the next seven years of my life are pretty much starting to appear upon the horizon, albiet a mere shadow of what is to come, there is a little anxiousness about it and excitement as well. Today I caught myself watching youtube videos regarding Wheaton College and reading about all the wonderful perks and benefits of being a graduate student. Gotta love perks and benefits.

I also sent out some emails making inquiry into a possible church to attend while studying at Wheaton; it may be a little ways off, but there’s never being too prepared.

I still have to fill out my scholarship application for the Billy Graham Center Scholarship so I don’t want to count all of my ducks before they hatch, maybe God has some radically different plan for me after attending Wheaton, or maybe He’ll show me some other path once I get there -that is where the anticipation is, I serve a God who is faithfully unpredictable in his faithfulness to love me.

This Friday and Saturday my friend Colin Wilson and I will be visiting the Great White North to attend Missions Fest Vancouver. I’m really looking forward to going to the key notes given by Bruce Olson and George Verwer. Actually, I’ve missed several opportunities to hear George Verwer speak in person, so I’m really looking forward to having an opportunity to hear him. Gotta come back early though, it’s New Covenant Baptist Church’s 11th Anniversary and it looks like it’s going to be a big event this year.

In some ways it feels like things are slowing down, but at the same time I feel like I’m caught up in a sprint fast approaching a heart attack. So much has changed in my life in such a short time, but the little details stand out brighter and clearer than ever. God has been confirming through many new insights into His Word that I am on the doorsteps of a grand new adventure, and this morning in talking with a friend about our impending old age I couldn’t help but remember a quote from the Will Ferrell movie Stranger than Fiction. Faced with his inevitable death Harold struggles to come to terms with who he is, I think hidden in here is some great wisdom.

Dr. Jules Hilbert: Hell Harold, you could just eat nothing but pancakes if you wanted.
Harold Crick: What is wrong with you? Hey, I don’t want to eat nothing but pancakes, I want to live! I mean, who in their right mind in a choice between pancakes and living chooses pancakes?
Dr. Jules Hilbert: Harold, if you pause to think, you’d realize that that answer is inextricably contingent upon the type of life being led… and, of course, the quality of the pancakes.

God has been preparing me for a new adventure, I’ve been praying about all of the things that I can do before going to grad school, assuming that I get accepted somewhere. I’ve been praying about visiting friends in different locations around the world, and about possibly doing some short term ministry. This morning I prayed about visiting my friend Yu in Japan, and while making some phone calls at work later in the morning I saw an urgent need for an English speaker to work with a church in Japan on the OMF website. I really want to see what doors God can open and what exciting adventures he has in store for this coming year, and for the rest of my life.

Dwight Lyman Moody said in a Sermon on the eighth chapter of Romans something which I find very refreshing in this present moment. ‘Note that the difference between a believer and an unbeliever is right here. An unbeliever is living in his day, and he has nothing but a long dark eternal night to look forward to; a Christian is now living in his night, and he has a grand morning that he is looking forward to. The day is ahead, the glory is ahead, the best of life is ahead; it is not behind.’ The best is yet to come.