About a year ago I contacted an organization that goes by the name of ITPS about travelling to Japan with their help. My understanding at the time was that they would be in communication with schools, churches and the immigration bureau, working in my favor so that when the time came for me to leave I would have a job, a ministry and a visa. I must give pause here because I don't want anyone reading to think that I am displeased with ITPS, on the contrary, I am more disappointed in myself. It seems that I had fallen prey to the zeitgeist of my generation, something that I've talked to my older friends about on several occasions, and something I've done my best to fight, which is an enormous sense of entitlement. I felt as though the steps to leaving the country should all have been taken for me, while I just waited for it to happen. In the last six months, though, I realized that ITPS wasn't an organization that would take all the steps for me, but one that would walk alongside me as I took those steps myself. They have been diligently praying for me, helping me gather and keep support and have supplied me with resources to learn about Japan, Japanese culture, missions and christian discipline and spirituality. While I haven't used these resources to the extent of their full potential still, I have appreciated very much their accessibility.
In lieu of the staff at ITPS finding me a job in Japan I began to look for one for myself. I searched for two or three months, and applied to fifteen or twenty different positions all over the country before I finally heard back from one company, the Gaba Corporation. After extensive research into the company, the locations of their learning studios, and the nature of their employment (as well as much prayer into the situation) I decided to take a job with them. The job I took is in northern Tokyo, though there is still the option to transfer to Osaka after a few months. Since taking a job with Gaba, I have been contacting churches and ministries in the area near to where I'll most probably be living. This has been the most blessed, or blessing part of the whole endeavor. I have been finding contacts in the most unlikely places. It seems that all of my friends have friends with friends or family who are working in a ministry or who have worked in a ministry in Japan, and they all have information and encouraging words for me. I've met people at weddings, in restaurants and churches, and there's people I've never met at all, but have been in contact with via facebook or skype.
Right now I'm about two months out from leaving for Japan. I visited the Japanese Consulate here in Nashville in order to receive my entrance visa, meaning that I have 90 days from today to get myself out of the US and into Japan. My job as an English instructor starts on January 6, and I've been in communication with an apartment building to reserve a (super-cheap) dormitory-style apartment for a year. My contract with Gaba is for one year and so is my visa, however I'm open to where God will lead me after this first year.
I appreciate all of the support that everyone has given me, both monetarily and through prayer and encouragement. This period of waiting and wondering has been trying, but I can already see, even in the midst of it, how necessary this time was. In the last few months I have wrestled with things that I should have been dealing with for a long time. I have prayed in earnest, and while I am still struggling, I can see so much clearer God's plans for me and my life. I have, for the first time in a long time, a sense of clarity and throughout the last few months (especially the last few weeks) I have had to come to a realization of my worth in Christ. I've had to think of myself (and the people around me) in terms of ontology instead of in terms of function (thank you Dr. Thoennes!) These are things I wouldn't have been ready to deal with outside of this special, trying time of waiting. Thank you again, for everyone who has prayed for me. I have been humbled by your love.
This post is already waxing prolix, so I'll end it there. Thank you for travelling with me, and as always thank you for praying for me.
