Tea Stains

My little blue kitchen table.

My baby blue kitchen table with gold etching has tea stains now.

My mother painted and finished that table for my first apartment.

Since that day I've had many a guest come and stay for a visit.

These days I've hosted everything from making people dinner to evening coffee and tea chats that often turn into late nights.

This particular evening I had 2 young missionaries from North Korea come and stay for a while.

We talked about our missions, failures/successes, the places we wanted to go, and the differences between Japan and North Korea's cultures. We ate heartily, Chicken Alfredo, Swedish Chocolate cake, and hot Winter tea.

I never knew I could be on mission here in my own state an hour from where I grew up.

Yet here I am.

Ever since I went to Japan the first time, my life changed.

Life got harder in ways, but the trip changed the trajectory of my life and focus.

I think when you see a piece of heaven, a lot like when you meet God for the first time your world gets turned around. Like there is this piece of living that has opened up to you now and there is no way to deny that it's there.

It has altered the way I see reality.

Don't get me wrong I've known people to deny it, but it's better to wrestle with it to find the truth rather than flat out deny what you see ever existed.

However, with me, denial definitely hasn't been the case...

I saw another world... or worlds. I want to tell the world.

On the 2019 trip, we stayed in a missionary center for 2 nights that had set up a large Japanese home to accommodate missionaries from America.

Everything that might keep one from becoming homesick seemed to be imported to take care of these young people eating, working, and learning another language all in a country outside their own.

Things like a washer and dryer and even pictures were added on the walls to remind the missionaries of home.

I remember praying late one night in the lounge area while we were staying there.

God told me that when I had my first apartment that He wanted me to open it up to all the people who needed it like this place did.

God was asking me to make others feel more at home and accommodate their needs while they dealt with tough situations and foreign feelings.

To be on mission right where I live.

To say that God has opened and maintained those doors would be a HUGE understatement. He has and is blowing my expectations for what I thought might come out of it all.

I now have a list of missionaries to pray for as an answer to my prayers

I've had young and old come and stay during tough times.

I've had dinner guests.

Tea guests.

Held small groups around discipleship and missions.

Held K-Drama parties, princess parties, birthday parties, and Christmas parties.

I've had international students and missions students come to stay.

Friends.

I've hosted those prepping for the hospital.

I've been HONORED BEYOND BELIEF to call this apartment my temporary home.

To host so many.

I go to school at an institute that raises leaders for the mission field.

I've learned so much around missions, the Bible, myself, and about God.

Tonight, as we prayed together and then said goodbye, I closed the door and collapsed on the floor in gratitude.

I cried a heart prayer of thanks with tears in my eyes.

I lost my job 7 months ago, but I'm still here.

Each month, each day is an opportunity to host, raise, disciple, and learn.

Without His provision yet another night wouldn't have happened.

Another moment to thank God, to trust Him, to lean in, to PRAISE Him.

Grateful and HONORED, I wondered off to the kitchen for another late night clean up of tea cups and plates scraped clean of chocolate cake.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

I'm so GRATEFUL to be here.

Much more to come, I think.