OMF Day of Prayer

Today was an awesome day :)  sorry, no photos though until tomorrow :( I'll give you guys some general photos I find off the web then =P

one of the prayer groups :)

Every half a year, OMF Hokkaido region has a Day of Prayer where all the missionaries in the Hokkaido region come together to the Hokkaido Language Centre, where people learn Japanese intensely for 2 years before they become long term missionaries in Japan.

They come together because the bible says that prayer is powerful because God is a father who listens to the concerns of His children and He loves it when they bring their worship, concerns, worries and hopes before Him.

These 30 (?) missionaries come and pray together for the mission fields, the homesides, the diaspora ministries (for (asian) people who are staying in another country - eg. the East Asians in Korea who are staying for work or education etc) and the Singapore International Head Quarters Office for OMF, and also for ourselves personally, for the whole day.

It was such a blessing to be invited to today! It was incredibly structured and today's meeting was led by Steve and Saeko, the two of the three missionaries we are staying with while in Omagari.

God started the day with a bang - I got woken up by a violent earthquake (lasting 1-2 seconds), some smaller earthquakes and another violent but short earthquake that shook the whole room. Nobody came to get us after a while so I went back to sleep - though some of our teammates slept through them!

In the morning, we went to the Sapporo Food Centre to buy bento boxes for lunch which we could later heat up. As our budget for lunch was 500 yen per person (about $7 something), Grace handed us each a 500 yen coin and like kindergarten children we ran loose into the aisles of scrumptious looking lunches which were mostly 298-398 yen, and most of us chose a drink to go with it or an onigiri (rice ball) or in Cerise's case, a cream puff.

It is here where I've come to witness the cutest sight in Japanese yet - a mother shopping with 4 children trailing after her - and all 5 of them are carrying empty shopping baskets :D :D

As we arrived at the centre, we hear Karin inside the room starting the meeting at 10AM on the dot, and was introducing the Australian team.. but we were still outside! So as Australians we gave a pretty bad first impression =P

The day was divided up into 7 sessions of prayer, 45 minutes each where we prayed with different missionaries for places all around the world. We opened and closed with older hymns sung together and it was really encouraging to be reminded that God does answer prayers and some of the missionaries shared testimonies of how God has answered prayers for Japanese pastors for their church, and workers that God has sent from overseas.

The prayer meeting really opened my eyes up to the needs of missionaries all over the world, and His workers' humble requests and worship of their God - creator, lord, father and king. How great is the gift of prayer, which we so often choose to neglect or we reluctantly take as a burden, and obligation instead of a joyful gift God blesses us with!

After that, we went as a team to the onsen which was a very culturally interesting experience and very relaxing too, and we went to a sushi train place where every plate was 129 yen each, which is less than $2 :)

Cerise and her yummy dinner.. :P

We head to Omagari tomorrow (where we're going for mission!) after the 2nd half of our orientation :) please be praying for us and that God will be changing the hearts and eyes of the people there to see His glory.

Praise God that from what we have heard, the Omagari people there are quite responsive and please pray that while we live in non Christian homes that we may be witnesses that shine the light of Christ :)