On July 9-11, my wife and I attended a house church conference at Hosanna Church in Melbourne. After the meeting, we stayed another five days to explore Hosanna Church more deeply. The following is a short window into my wife's mind. 
I share with my Facebook friends what has been on my wife's mind lately.

Hajimemashite and the Gospel (Hye Young Song)

Hosanna Church in Melbourne, which hosted the house church pastors' conference, is a church where most of the members are young people who came to faith in Jesus through evangelism. It was impressive to see the worship songs displayed on the screen in English, Chinese, and Korean, and to hear people sing in their language. It felt like the nations were praising the Lord in their languages.

I was able to hear the testimonies of the volunteers as we were being picked up and personally ministered to, and it was great to see young people living a Jesus-centered life. And almost all of them came to know Jesus through evangelism. So after the conference, I participated in street evangelism. It was quite chilly that day, and I noticed a few young couples with young children in strollers. On Saturday, we gathered at the university in the center of the city from 12:30 to 1:30 for prayer and then went out in pairs to evangelize. The Chinese leader who led the prayer that day still rings in my ears with his urgent call to evangelize China by reaching the unchurched Chinese in Melbourne and, by extension, their parents back home. At that time, there were Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, Shintoists, Chinese cults, and others evangelizing in the neighborhood. 

After the street evangelism, I also participated in barbecue evangelism in a park in the city. I felt that it was very precious to see the people who spent their own time and money to share the gospel.

In particular, I met two Japanese people during the evangelism. We introduced each other with the word Hajimemashite. Hajimemashite is the Japanese way of saying, "I'm sorry to meet you for the first time. In the middle of sharing the gospel by talking about this and that and giving them tracts, the Japanese man stopped listening, and I was very disappointed.

I hadn't spoken Japanese in a very long time. I remembered my major, Japanese, and a Japanese lady I met in the early days of my immigration to New Zealand. My husband was attending an English language school at the time, and I invited him to my home because he was struggling with his English. We were living in Hamilton, and it was a place where Japanese people were everywhere. He spent more than two hours talking to me in Japanese about his difficult situation. We met a few more times, and I gave him the Kiwi Church bulletin, and we talked about Jesus from time to time, but he didn't accept Jesus. However, after a few years back in Japan, he told me that he had come to faith in Jesus and started attending church. I remember my husband and I were so happy for her.

Here's a Bible verse that resonated with me while evangelizing in Melbourne. 2 Timothy 4:4 Preach the word; always be ready to do so, in season and out of season~.
1 Corinthians 3:6 I planted, and Apollo watered, but God made it grow.

Today, I want to live as a daughter who cools the heart of God by keeping my gaze on the Lord's gaze on lost souls.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)