Finishing Well: STM2013

You know that saying, “All’s well that end’s well”?  Well, that’s how we wanted STM2013 to end…  To end “well”.  Each of the three summer teams left us with monetary gifts at the end of their stays. With the help of these funds, we treated the pastors and their wives + a volunteer staff member and his wife + Jess + Scott to a Thank You Lunch.   

We don’t often get to just chat with the pastors and their wives, so it provided a great time of fellowship as well as a time for reflection and for giving feedback.  By God’s grace, a lot of good discussion took place and we all left encouraged and amazed at how much God had accomplished during the almost 6-week period the teams were here.  

One thing that stuck out for me personally was how the wives commented on how Jenny was probably too busy and too burdened as a mom with two young kids.  On the other hand, the husbands (pastors) commented on how the churches created extra events that the teams could participate in.  This in turn created a burden on the churches as the church members had to do more, but it also meant that a wider variety and a greater number of people attended events this summer.  So if they push themselves more, God can do more through them. J

One of the wives commented on how the JSC (what the churches here call their youth group - "Junior Senior Church") BBQ was just too much.  It was an event that the JSC staff had put together so that the youth of the churches here could spend some fun time with the youth kids that came over from Hallelujah English Ministry's (HEM) youth kids.  Part of the reason for the HEM teenagers coming over was to encourage the kids here in their walk in Christ.  The events that were planned and the crafts & everything else that they brought were also a part of their reason for coming, but encouraging the kids here was a big part of their trip too.  The BBQ was the finale of a super busy week and we were all pretty excited but also tired.  The pastor's wife son had asked his mom for help as he's one of the leaders of JSC.  She said she didn't mind helping him, but wasn't sure if the event was really necessary and was maybe a bit too much.

One of the other wives, who has two sons who are a part of JSC, said how the BBQ was one of the most meaningful events for her.  She talked about how her second son is now always a good witness as he's a bit of "black sheep", but the BBQ allowed her son to invite his friend over who is interested in English.  The friend had a great time practicing his English conversation with the HEM kids and trying Korean style BBQ too.  He saw a full gospel presentation too, as the HEM kids had prepared skits (Everything skit, Love skit) and songs/body worship that clearly portrayed Christ's love for us.  Despite language barriers, all of the kids and staff had a great time getting to know each other.  If you'd heard the amount of laughter and chatter that was going on, you would not have guessed that there were any barriers or that these kids had met for the first time!  It was amazing.  Two of the pastors who are actively involved with the youth group also commented on how the BBQ was one of the highlights for them and the youth here and that they were all very encouraged and impressed by the HEM kids.

For almost everything that was mentioned, there seemed to be a positive and not so positive viewpoint.  I think in general though, the positive outweighed the negative. :)

One thing that I explained to them is that there are lots of churches wanting to come.  We turned down two of our supporting churches this past year and we connected one church in the US (not a supporting church) to another church here in Hiroshima.  When our supporting churches send teams to us, it helps them to let the congregation know more about us, to get more excited and in tune with the ministry here, to pray more for the work here, and to really want to "support" us.  The churches here want the support and prayers.  But it means that they need to be open to having teams over.

We all agreed that a good balance is important and that it is something that we can improve on in the future.  Smaller teams, breaks in between, maybe not all in the summer, etc...

Toward the end of the meeting, I asked if they would be open to welcoming more teams next summer.  After a short silence, the volunteer staff member said, "Yes, definitely".  The others remained silent...

The meeting might not have made everything about STM2013 “well”, but we hope it was a good step forward in making things better for the next time.  And right now, only God knows when that will be!  But for now, about a year after I first contacted the Japanese pastors about the possibility of teams coming during the summer of 2013, STM2013 has finally come to an end.  A good one.  PTL!