Wow, God's weaving

One small thing that's encouraged us in the last week would seem almost like a lucky coincidence, except that we know differently.

Here's the story:

Last year we camped around the north and eastern sides of Hokkaido. One weekend we

Nishi Okoppe, nestled in a valley.

spent in a small town (Nishi Okoppe, 1,190 people) with a family we knew from CAJ, but who'd moved up to Hokkaido (if you want to read more about that day, check out this post). 

We camped in the local park free of charge (but no shower or bath). On the Sunday they invited us to worship with them in a local couple's house. For worship we sat around their dining room table and watched a live broadcast of a church service in Sapporo. This is the only church there is in this little area. 

That local couple has been praying for a local evangelical church to be established. We told them of a church plant planned for a nearby larger town that OMF would be involved in. They were excited to hear that news.

We were thrilled last week to hear that at the second ever worship service of that church in Nayoro, this Japanese couple joined our missionary colleagues, even though it is nearly an hour's drive away.

So delightful to catch glimpses of God's bigger picture. Who else could have worked this out? An Australian missionary family who happened to be on holidays and meet up with friends we knew from Tokyo who introduced us to a local Christian couple. This missionary family happened to know one piece of information that would make a huge difference for this couple: that a church would be starting in their area. 

The missionaries who are starting this church in Nayoro probably needed this encouragement too! This is what they wrote to us:

It's exciting to know that the Lord is weaving all these meetings together for the extension of his Kingdom here in Japan!

Amazing! Praising God!