Remember Koko-san? Before you read on, click here for her history (at least from my limited perspective). Koko-san has been at our church for over a year now, she read the entire Bible straight through in a matter of a couple months, her entire countenance has changed since she gave her life to Christ. You should see the way she looks at Sam, as if he were her own grandchild. She loves him so sweetly every single Sunday. And she is one of the most beautiful, authentic Christians I’ve ever seen. Wow, God. It’s revelations like this, like her, that restore unto ME the joy of my salvation! Thank you!

Just this morning, as I watched beautiful Koko-san worship with all her heart, lifting holy hands to Him, my heart felt so full and so happy that I get to live here and worship the King of Kings here in Japan, among these precious Japanese Christians who have so few friends who are also Christians. What an honor it is to be friends with them, to encourage them and be encouraged by them, to challenge them and be challenged by them, to laugh with them, to tell each other our stories of grace, to raise holy hands together, hands that are holy because of the precious blood of Christ, precisely because of His amazing grace. There are sometimes when this missionary stuff is just plain hard, but I’m feeling pretty euphoric about it today, and so here I go again shoutin’ from my faraway rooftop people: God Is AWESOME!