From Death to Life

The Tuesday following James' death I was back in Edmond after being with the students at SWOSU for a couple days. We decided as a team to go up to UCO to meet some students and hopefully talk about Jesus with them. After all that had happened, we all just felt like dropping other plans and going to talk to people about Jesus.

I had brought several different copies of the Knowing God Personally booklets that we use including one that I had in Japanese. As God would have it, I ran into a Japanese friend that I had not seen in a while. I had watched the Jesus film with him and two other students last semester, but we had not talked much since then. At the time he was interested, but not ready to make any decisions. I told him, Taiki, that I had something about the Bible in Japanese and I wanted to know what he thought about it. As we were reading through the booklet (he was reading really, since I don't know Japanese), I asked him if he had ever heard this before (I knew he had, but I thought I'd ask). To my surprise, Taiki said, "No, I've never heard this before." So, at the end, I asked if he wanted to trust in Jesus and invite Him into his life, and Taiki said, "yes, I do"! Well, it was clear that the Spirit had been at work and that having it in Japanese made a huge difference!

Over the past couple of weeks we have met to read through the first four chapters of the Gospel of John, and it has been encouraging to see Taiki become more and more interested in knowing Jesus and following Him. I hope to include him in a Bible study with other international students, including one other Japanese Christian guy, so that he can grow with them. Please pray that he would grow, that I would have wisdom in helping him, and that he would seek opportunities to share his growth in Christ with others.