I went for this mission trip hoping to bless others only to find that I felt more blessed in the end!

I was anxious about what would come out of the street evangelism in Fukuoka, hearing that Japanese people were very relationship-based. Why would they ever trust a stranger? But God showed up and proved me wrong that street evangelism was more than just going up to strangers and telling them about the good news. We learnt that just like fruits, some are not yet ripe and our roles during that time is to water it or soften the soil, to prepare it for their next encounter with Jesus.

I saw this happening as we paired up with local evangelists in a park nearby, there were times when two different pairs approached the same person at different times, though the first did not have the chance to share the gospel, they planted something which led them to be open to the gospel from the next pair. I personally encountered this when my buddy and I bumped into a boy who was fishing by the shore, we couldn't go further than exchanging pleasantries, I left feeling a little discouraged, but then found out later that another got him interested enough to download the bible app and take home a gospel track with him, this was because the boy and asked them "Are you guys together with the pair that came by earlier?" which sparked his curiosity and got the conversation going.

On the second day of street evangelism, I was with Kevin, Lynette and Rommel, one of the local evangelists from Japan. Lynette and Rommel spotted a lady who was sitting under a shed with her dog on top of a hill. At that time, Rommel mentioned he had a bad feeling about that dog and was hesitant to approach her. Nevertheless, they still did and as soon as they tried speaking to her, the dog started barking continuously. It looked like one of the Jack Russell breeds, which are really hyperactive. That didn't stop them from talking to her. The lady felt bad about her dog as she was interested in meeting Lynette and Rommel and was enjoying their conversations.

Meanwhile, Kevin and I decided to stop walking a little further away from them to enjoy the view at the hill and continued prayer walking. After about 10 minutes since Lynette and Rommel started chatting with the lady, we felt that we should pray for them as it seems like there was a really good conversation going from our perspective, just before we finished praying, the dog's barking came to my mind and I decided to ask God to "calm the dog down, give it peace" not thinking too hard about it. While still in awe of the view and enjoying God's presence, Kevin asked me a question which I felt was out of the blue, "Jared, did you realise?" "Realise what?" I said. "That the dog stopped barking", when I saw that the dog which was furiously barking at them turned around to look at the same view we were looking at, I felt God move in me, I felt grateful, disbelief and happy all at the same time, that God actually answered my prayer right there, in just a few seconds.

Later during the debrief, Lynette and Rommel also shared their struggles trying to calm the dog down and wondered why the dog had stopped barking and got curious about the view all of a sudden. We had a good laugh at how God shows up in small little ways and we all play a part in this team.

This was one of the many experiences I've brought back with me, and I was encouraged that each of us are created with our own gifts which God can use, just as there are different parts of the body of Christ, we work together to carry God's plan for his people. Amen!