team3 testimony 9

To the wonderful Team 3,

As I spent the weekend reflecting on what God has done for me, I was impressed on how many prayers were answered this past week. John already mentioned something about each family, so I'll focus more on what God showed me.

For myself, when I first heard about the devastation in the Tohoku region, my heart broke for them and I wanted to go immediately. But when I got my acceptance to go on Thursday night, my heart sank and I started feeling very discouraged. I kept thinking things like "You have no strength." "You don't speak Japanese, what can you do?" or the biggest one, "I'm going to be useless on this team." I knew in my heart that those were not true and could reply to those lies with the Word of God, and I had many people to pray for me before I went. So with such a discouraging start, I was wondering what God had in store for me in Sendai.

I got to see God working through our team to love the people. At first I felt saddened because we were only able to help one family out of the 300,000 people affected by the tsunami, but God reminded me of the immense value of each individual. God answered my prayers by allowing me to love the Yokoyamas, Yamajis, Chibas, and Nakamuras. I could see their faces light up with joy and thankfulness as I served. All I could do was smile at them and say "Arigatou", but it was enough to touch their hearts. Their smiles, tears, and laughter are proof of the beginning of the healing that God brought through us.

God gave me the opportunity to see the difference between my team and the team of volunteers from Sendai. He showed me how we were showing love as a team towards each other and especially how we were caring for the families that we served. The Sendai team didn't talk with each other, they didn't laugh or enjoy their company, and they didn't spend time with the people they served. Our team was constantly enjoying each others' company and spending quality time with our neighbors. At the end of the week, I was so encouraged to see all the fellowship and joy at our farewell lunch. We only stayed a week with the neighbors, but it felt like we were friends for a long time.

I was truly blessed to be a part of our team. God allowed me to be an encouragement to the team, gave me enough strength for the physical labor, and allowed me to have a bigger heart for the people in Japan. I loved our daily prayers (praying 6-8 times a day), our long drives, and the family-like atmosphere in our team. There are more things I could say about Sendai, but I will leave it at this. Thank you all. I love you guys.

Ariel(Stint)