Japan, Fuji-san, and Building Houses!

Greetings from Japan! For those who did not know, I returned three weeks ago, coming back on the Word of the Lord and in faith without full support for my two year commitment with YWAM Tokyo. Honestly, the past three weeks have been absolutely wonderful! We have spent a good amount of time in worship, prayer, and fellowship with one another while also preparing for the upcoming DTS and the annual YWAM Japan staff conference. I have been sending emails covering some of the weekly happenings for the past two weeks, and if you would like to receive them, please email me at jpcorhern@gmail.com, and I will add you to my email list!

Honestly, with all the things that have been happening, it would be hard to recount all of them now. However, I wanted to share some from the conference this past week! Every year, YWAM Japan holds a staff conference hosted by one of the bases, and we had the pleasure of hosting this year's! We traveled to a conference center at the foot of Mount Fuji (Fuji-san) this past Tuesday, and we were there until Friday afternoon. It was a wonderful week of worship, prayer, and unity for the entire organization as we spent time together, getting to know one another, sharing our hearts, and leaning into the Lord. Honestly, it was honestly like a huge family gathering (without the disagreements!).

Honestly, most of our time seemed to be spent in worship, and I do not know of a better place to be! Often times we become so focused on doing things for the Lord when we fail to spend time with the Lord, loving the Lord, ministering to Him! When Martha was reprimanded for her work, it was not because she was working but because she had become distracted with it!

One man who truly understood what it was like to minister to the Lord was King David. In 2nd Samuel 7, David shows interest in wanting to build a house for the Lord (check out Psalm 132:1-5 to grasp an image of David's heart!), and the Lord replies, "Are you the one to build a house for me? I have not asked this of anyone yet!" The Lord's heart is moved by his offering! But you know what happens instead? God tells David that He will establish his line forever! He will a House for David instead! Instead of David getting to build a house for God, God came to dwell with him! All pre-Holy Spirit!

Today, we now have access to the Holy of Holies, the intimate place with God! We are the temple He chooses to dwell in! Who is this God that He would dwell with us! Oh, how great and worthy He is!

I felt like the one thing God desires from us is for us to say "Yes!" to Him no matter what comes in the way! Paul says he is convinced nothing can separate us from His love, yet we tend to disqualify ourselves from being able to receive His love! Who are we to stop His love? Who are we to cheapen the cost of the Cross? Who are we to say, "You cannot love me?" His grace and love is free, and it covers all! All we need to do is say, "Yes" and receive it!

Wow! Is not God good? He blows me away so often! Anyway, to close, I would like to share some pictures from this week!

This is Kaare. He was a fellow student with me during our DTS last year, and he has come from Canada to bring revival fire to Japan!

Every morning and evening we would do "stretches" to warm up in this gathering area!

This is Samuel. He is a staff with the Osaka base, and he is going to change the nations with his voice and heart for the Lord!

Beautiful Fuji-san at sunset