The Power of Knitting Worship with Prayer Together

I was a prisoner of the internet at the beginner of this week. I mean, I was so hooked to the internet – searching and watching the latest dramas. Other than preparing for lessons, I was inside my cozy room watching dramas and catching up on Naruto. My eyes were sunken and wrinkled.

Something nudged me by Wednesday. No doubt it was the Holy Spirit trying to whisper thru my clatter of obsession, "Stop it, Aggie! Is that what you’re here to do? You can watch internet in Spore too. What's the purpose of you coming here? Watch dramas only?"

Then, I realized I missed spontaneous and lively congregational praise and worship. I have not truly worship like when I was in Faith service. I really missed Pentecostal worship. But I also know there’s nothing I could do about it coz this is what I should have expected before I came here. Reality only dawned upon me this week.

I have to do something. I remembered reading from Rev. Timothy's blog that we shouldn't wait for a revival service to be revived. Aiyah, I know this, of coz, but, my human mind is forgetful ne? Watashiwa need constant reminders. Hehehe..Thus, on Thursday night, I played one of my few Chinese worship CDs before I slept. The presence of God filled my room. It was so strong that I had to sit up and worship together with the song.

On Friday, I decided to put a stop to the non-stop downloading and searching for dramas. Nope, I don't mean no dramas at all, that's too drastic and extreme right? Heheeh... Just that I would not want to sit in front of my laptop continuously and religiously doing something that would distract me from God and ministry, to lose my focus. To some of you, maybe it's not internet dramas, it's VCDS!! Wahahah...or computer games, or even studies?!

So I went to the 2^nd floor to play the piano. Thank God for the piano at the place I stay. It's passed down by this church member who passed away. I began to play and worship. Then I prayed in the Spirit and played my good old 'G key walk down'. Wahahaha... The presence of God came again.

I decided to bring songs into my lessons for pre school, Grade one to five, and even my adults classes. That very afternoon, I taught the children "Roll away, roll away, roll away, every burden of my heart roll away" and "J.O.Y that is down in my heart", with actions, of coz. Wahahha...They loved it. Hehe..

After lunch on Saturday, instead of going back to the laptop, I went to the piano again. I began to worship and pray. This time, the prayer of intercession came. I asked for breakthrough. I prayed for the pastors at Ichinomiya Church and the church members. After being here for abt 3 months, I know some of the needs of the members. I prayed for the harvest from my English classes. It has been 4 years since the English classes started and no harvest yet. I interceded. Then more names came into my mind. I continued to pray for Faith A/G pastors, Ps Grace Cabusao in the Philippines and even Rev Timothy and his family from HK Bible School. In between the prayers were praise and worship songs. It juz came and flowed into my words. Such power and presence of God I felt. It's the first time since I came here to Japan. I could sense that God was doing something.

I let my Intermediate class listened to "Till I see you" by Hillsong in the afternoon. They had to fill in the blanks. Heheeh... Then, we read the song together line by line and I explained the song verse by verse. Unknown to us, the Holy Spirit has started to work in one of my students' heart. Next, I taught. The last ten minutes was bible study done by the new assistant pastor, Yamaguchi. Usually, the men would leave immediately after I closed in prayer. But today, Mr. Sobue raised up his hand to ask the assistant pastor a question.

Now, you must understand, it's very unusual and it's like a miracle coz he told me in the previous teachers' bible studies, he used to argue and quarrel with the teacher about the bible. Yes. Of coz, when I did the bible study, it was ok. But I’m trying to say that it’s a miracle Mr.Sobue asked a question. He asked, "What’s the purpose of living on this earth?" Amazing! He was saying that he find life a little meaningless, just work and work. He has a happy family and loves to read and watch English movies. HEhee..Well, since it's better to talk to him in Nihongo, the assistant pastor answered his question and even shared his personal testimony. The conversation went on for 30 minutes. I was praying like mad. Hehe.. By the end of the chat, yup, it was two way and they thoroughly enjoyed it, we invited him to our church service.

During dinner, Yamaguchi sensei told me that he could do the bible study so smoothly, as if there’s no need to do transition, all because I included the song in today’s lesson. God has used the worship song to prepare the hearts of the students.

In all these, I learnt the power of prayer and worship. If only I had done this earlier, right from the start. But now that I know, I cannot stop this anymore. With God’s help, I will do my best, to serve God and ... Hehe...I forgot the Ranger’s code. Ops. Whaahahah... Please continue to pray for me and the ministry here. I’m so excited. Please pray that I’ll never run out of songs to teach coz God will always fill me with new songs in my heart. Oh! I also need to remember all the Sunday School and Missionettes songs I used to sing. It’s so useful. Heheeh...

Intercede for the harvest together with me, ya?

To God be the glory!