What if this is about you?

I have spent the last six months carrying my ministry on my shoulders.

To some of you that may seem like a valiant thing, or a brave thing, or even a sacrificial thing.

Trust me. Its not.

It’s a stupid thing.

Since February I have watched the Lord do His work in Umeda and in the lives of the people I have spoken to and shared life with and ministered to. And I have seen light emerge from places that have before been filled only with darkness. All of those things are amazing, and all of those things are the Lord.

But what started out of a righteous desire to please the Lord, became a twisted desire to make sure I was doing enough for God.

Because the benefit of my ministry in Umeda was not meeting my expectations for what I wanted to see, I placed a burden on my own shoulders that was not meant for me.

A burden that said I needed to work harder.

A burden that said I didn’t have enough people to be efficient.

A burden that said I didn’t have enough resources.

A burden that lied.

God revealed this burden to me recently. Because my God is good and loving and caring and intimate, He whipped out the mirror and let me see the massive cantankerous weight that I was piling up on myself. And then, just as easily, He took it off by asking me this question:

What if the past six months was about you?

Seems simple.

It is. And it also isn’t.

But in that one question I felt a freedom I have not felt since I started this ministry. And in that freedom, lies were broken and the truth was able to flourish and come alive. Because this is not my ministry. This is God’s ministry. And there is nothing my God lacks.

Not effort.

Not people.

Not resources.

God is abundance.

Jehovah Jireh.

What God was asking me when He proposed that question was for me to give back His ministry to Him so that I could be free to do what He had planned all along.

To work on my heart.

He has been growing me and changing me and moving me into the man He desires me to be. He has shown me pieces of myself that He loves and pieces that He wants to work on. He has given me unbelievable gifts of abundance.

My God loves me more than He loves my ministry.

Now don’t get me wrong. I am still fully into this ministry. I love it. God has gifted me by allowing me to be a part of it.

I just don’t believe any of the lies I did before.

Because this ministry is His, and I am His, and He is mine.

I don’t have to worry or stress over where the people or the resources or the changes are going to come from.

I just have to hang out with Jesus and listen to what He is speaking to me at each and every moment. He’s got the rest.

Psalms 127: 1-4

The Most Peculiar Place to Find a Person of Peace

We were on our way home after a night of prostitution ministry and “girl’s bar” ministry where we engage working girls in conversations and try to convey in the short three minutes we are allowed to talk to them—before the bouncer shows up and shoos us off—that their value goes immeasurably beyond what a man will pay in order to spend an hour with them.

It was around two thirty in the morning and the two men I was with—Daniel, a Texan and one of the most passionate persevering men I have ever met, and Seira, a Japanese man who has recently been discovering his relationship with Christ and who voluntarily became the translator for these particular nights out—and I were heading home to pray and sleep.

That’s when God brought us Matty (Obviously, I’ve changed his name to protect him.).

The first thing I heard was a long string of the fastest Japanese I have heard since I have been here. I turned to look at our lingual assailant and saw that he couldn’t have been much more than twenty years old. I caught only enough to understand that he was advertising women that we could have sex with in the hotel behind us as calmly as if he were selling chocolate bars for charity. He quickly explained that we probably couldn’t have any Japanese girls, as they would feel uncomfortable with not being able to speak English, but that there were plenty of Chinese and Taiwanese girls who spoke English enough for the job.

Most of the time when this happens, we politely refuse the “scouts” and continue walking, but something told us to talk to this little Japanese kid pitching sex.

The speed at which Japanese flew out of Matty’s mouth was beyond what Daniel and I could easily comprehend, so Seira translated for us most times. After he had told us all of our options, and let’s just say that “all options were open”, we decided to tell him that we were not looking for sex and that we were actually Christians.

“I knew it!” He said and looked at Daniel. “I knew that you looked familiar. I’ve met you before! You prayed for me a few weeks ago!”

Because he was wearing a hat, Daniel hadn’t recognized him. Apparently a couple weeks before when Daniel and another of our friends were doing the same thing, he had found Matty, and Matty had opened himself up to be prayed over, something that is very rare to find in Japan.

“Thank you so much for praying for me, big brother!” You could tell that he meant it.

We continued to share our hearts with him about why we were there and what we were trying to do. We explained how we were only there to talk to and show Christ’s love to the girls. You’d have thought that our desire to minister to the working girls instead of sleep with them would generally send most scouts, whose job is to find customers, high-tailing it in the opposite direction. But when God enters a place, what is normal in this world is radically turned upside-down.

Matty became more and more excited the more we explained. He began to tell us how he had been working this particular job since he was in middle school and that he was very well known around the area. His reputation was so high, with both his employers and the girls that he works with, that his employers were wanting to send him to a different country to work on employing women from there. He even told us that if we were to get into any trouble while we were in the city, that we could tell whoever it was that we knew him, give him a call, and that he could take care of it for us. Kind of a “get out of trouble free card.” Say what you will about it, in this type of ministry, it’s good to have friends like these.

“I want to help you guys out because of what you are doing here.” Says the man whose job the past five years has been to enlist lust-filled men to sate their desires on the damaged women of Japan. My God is the God of the impossible.

He continued to explain that he could get us major discounts to any of the Girl’s Bars, Kyabakura (Girl’s Cabaret), or other scanty venues in the area where if you pay extra, you get extra. It is something that our group is still praying about, but if it is God’s will, then we will be spending around sixty to upwards of one hundred dollars an hour for two of us to minister to these women in the hope and faith that the Spirit will influence them enough that no man will ever have the chance to pay for their time ever again.

We decided to invite our newfound friend to visit us at the “home parties” we have been throwing for the people we meet at club ministry every month. He lit up like a match at the invitation and fervently accepted the invitation. We proceeded to tell him that if any of the girls that he works with would like to come, that they would be welcome as well. The match became a torch as he bubbled, “Wow! I am sure they would love to come! They never get to be around men who are not trying to have sex with them! I know that you guys are safe and I am sure they would be so happy to come! I know many prostitutes and even porn stars who would love to come! Is that okay?”

Ha. Is that okay?  You could imagine our response.

You see, my God did not come for the healthy but for the sick. I can hardly imagine anyone more sick, more abused, more wounded then the women that sit up in those hotel rooms. Every night they wait for men who are so severely tainted by their own wounds that they stumble in, throw some cash, and commit an act that’s original purpose is to bind two people into one. After, the women are left with nothing but some paper money and a heart filled with anguish and regret. Yah, these are the ones Jesus would have hung out with. These are the ones he would have eaten with, and talked with, and cared for. And these are the ones that He has sent me to. So I go.

We exchanged contact and information with Matty, thanked him for his time, and told him to give us a call anytime he liked. He said he would, and that he couldn’t wait to come to the next party.

I couldn’t help but think about what Jesus said about the “man of peace” when he sent out the disciples.

“If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you.” (Luke 10:6)

When we talked to Matty, peace unimaginable rested on the little guy, and it didn’t even try to come back. I think, through it all, God wanted to show us that He was with us. That He was beside us, and that He alone would pave a way for us and for the women trapped in this devastating lifestyle. Out of everyone He could have chosen, He gave us a city-renowned sex scout to be our person of peace. If this is the beginning, I am so excited to see what He has in store for the end. I pray that it’s soon.

Amen.

Watching Flowers Bloom

Hanami is coming up. For those of you who don’t know, this holiday specifies the blooming of the cherry blossoms in Japan. It is a spectacularly beautiful sight where millions of tiny pink, white, and red flowers open up and reveal their pretty subtle petals to all of Japan for a fleeting two weeks, and then fall from their branches until the next spring.

It is an almost unbearably short amount of time for such beauty, but while that beauty is in season, it is undoubtedly the center of attention. Japanese people everywhere stop what they are doing for the precious weeks and just sit with friends and family in parks and by rivers to awe at nature’s magnificent serenity.

Now, you are probably wondering why this missionary is rambling on about flowers instead of explaining what he has been doing in his mission field. The answer to that is merely that I love seeing my God’s personality and character exposed in the wonders of His creation, and this amazing phenomenon is filled with just that.

You see, the Lord has begun to open up his flowers since I have arrived in Japan. He has begun to bring ministries into bloom that I could not have imagined, and the beauty that I get to see every day is awe-inspiring. I have no idea how long this bloom will last or how long I will get to see them, but while they are here, they have my undivided attention. I pray that their beauty would catch yours as well.

The first fragile flower has sprouted in a small section of a town named Tennoji dedicated completely to semi-legal prostitution. It is called Tobito and it is lined with over one hundred and fifty small “restaurants” each boasting a highlighted girl at the entrance and a broker who manages the money exchange. Every day hundreds of men spend money to fill a void in their hearts, and women who know nothing of their true identity and value in Christ give their bodies over to those men.

Last week, at my house, a group of like-minded believers came together and decided to prayerfully and passionately ask the Lord how we can end this. We will be meeting twice a month to pray and plan a way to shut down every door in Tobito by allowing the Holy Spirit to invade that dark place and fill every heart with the true love of Christ instead of empty earthly passions that quickly fade to disappointment.

The second flower blooms only at night. Club Ministry. The clubs in Japan are filled every weekend with men and women who are looking to fill the emptiness of their souls. They choose to cover that lack with alcohol, admiration, or sex. They walk into those clubs knowing they are there because they are not content. Which is why the harvest is so unbelievably ripe! I and others have begun to go down on a Friday or Saturday and simply allow the Holy Spirit to direct us to whomever He desires, and the fruit has been incredible! Connections are being made, hearts are being opened, and lives are beginning to be changed! Amen!

The third and fourth flowers are much more natural in that they happen in my every day life. Work and study. My english lessons provide an incredible avenue into the lives and hearts of the adults and children that I teach. Often I am able to share pieces of God’s love and truth while teaching them of the intricacies of English, or pray over them for healing and a faster grasp of the language. My language study, as well, generally occurs by myself at a college campus near me where I am constantly in contact with students I can speak with, pray over, and share the gospel to.

I understand this is running long, and I may be losing your attention (if I haven’t already lost it!), but this is what I want to get across: I don’t know how long these seasons will last, I just know that they are in season right now. With that, I need you to recognize the beauty of the seasons, because I promise you, they are filled with beauty. I need your prayers every day as we enter the dark places, and I need your support and encouragement through these challenges.

I am not writing these blogs merely because its fun to chat about what I am doing. I am writing them because I need you to come alongside me and to fight this fight with me, even from across the world. Your prayers help. Your encouragement and support helps. And your finances help as well.

Don’t miss out on the beauty that is happening. Don’t wait till the flowers fall to look at the trees. Experience what God is doing in Japan.

Thank you.

The Call To Canaan

So there I was, forty thousand feet in the air, rocking back and forth, and giggling uncontrollably. I apologize to anyone in the economy class of flight MH 0052.

I am actually going to Japan. When I step off this plane, I will actually be in Japan. Thoughts such as these ran unceasingly through my head with a gale force.

Why was I so excited? Well, one: The last time I had been in my favorite country was three years ago, and also, this time I wasn’t just visiting. I was actually moving there. Two: I was Joshua entering Canaan.

Let me back up a little. A long long time ago, before the World Race, before mission trips, even before middle school, the Lord had snuck Japan into my heart. At ten years old, the Land of the Rising Sun had overtaken my thoughts and ambitions. I knew then, before I was even a teenager, that I would be going to Japan. That to make it there was my goal. The Lord fulfilled the desires of my heart when I was eighteen and again when I was twenty by providing an opportunity to teach English for three months at a time in a Japanese Christian Preschool.
Let me tell you this: Japan is where the Lord wants me. It is where I found the Holy Spirit, it is where I found Masumi (but that story is for another time), and now, it is where I find my home and my ministry.
For three years I prayed every day for the Lord to finally send me back to Japan. Six months ago He answered that prayer in abundance. Over the course of those months He revealed His will for me through dreams, visions, names, and His Word. My God is an endlessly creative and colorful God.

Here is the crux of the message He gave to me:
“I am calling you to be like Joshua. You are commanded to be strong and courageous. You are not to be discouraged. I am giving you the land of Japan for My Name and My people as I gave Joshua and the Israelites the land of Canaan. There are many giants in Japan, but I am with you.”
I am with you.
Those were all the words I needed to hear. I was sold.

After He had explained to me His will, He began to share more of His plan. Nothing major. Just little pieces here and there. Like a puzzle. I love my God. He’s so fun!
Top Left Corner Piece: A vision of me starting a ministry in the house I used to live at in Osaka.
Rectangular Piece with three hooks: You are going to start a Men’s Discipleship House. Ya know, like the ones back in Acts.
Left Wall Piece with a twisted end: You will also plant a Women’s House of Healing for women who have suffered prostitution, abuse, and other severe realities.
Bottom Right Corner Piece: You will stay for three years growing this ministry and multiplying my disciples.

He has given me a lot more of the pieces since then, as well. But He has also left a vast majority unfinished. Now this doesn’t mean that He can’t see the picture on the front of the box, this is just Him giving me the adventure of putting it together one piece at a time.
I can’t wait to see how beautiful it is when it is done.

I understand this is a very vague description of my ministry, but I didn’t want to introduce myself with the full structured plan of each specific detail that goes into Aganai Ministries (Yes, that is the name of my ministry. Aganai means “Redemption” in Japanese.). You see, God didn’t start me off with the details. He started it all with a vision, and that is exactly what I want you to see.
The Vision.

Takes a lot of faith to look at a vision and decide to invest in it, doesn’t it?
But that is what God asked me to do, and that is what I am going to ask you to do as well.
So…please support me. Please support my ministry. Financially. Prayerfully. Every fully you can muster.
The only people who were allowed entry into Canaan were those who had faith despite giants.
Amen.

Zacheria Cobos