One of my biggest encouragements this year was a phone call I received from a missionary at the beginning of January, and which began: “I’m at McDonald’s and Christian [a fellow missionary] is sitting opposite me with a cheeseburger…”. The pair of diners had just visited a property in Sapporo which sounded ideal for use by missionaries to store their things while on Home Assignment (HA).
After hanging up, I immediately started composing a report: preparing advice for the Field Leadership Team (FLT) about the property, which ranged from a description of the building, consideration of whether the land might be contaminated, funding options, and whether the toilet worked. I ran the report by two committees before presenting it to FLT the following week. We made an offer straight after that meeting and OMF Japan is now the proud owner of a warehouse in Sapporo’s Kita-ku.
Why was this such an encouragement? Well, first, we had been seriously looking for a HA Storage facility for half a year, and had dismissed a number of options already. I’d more or less given up, so it really felt like something God had sovereignly put back onto the table. I always love it when he is obvious about getting involved in my work!
The second reason is because we really needed a new storage facility. Storage is extremely expensive and difficult to find in Japan. When missionaries leave for Home Assignment, it can be a real headache to locate somewhere they can cost-effectively put their things when leaving Japan for half a year or more.
Support ministries involve handling the thousands of practical things about being a missionary that should be simple, but never are. Home Assignment storage is a good example. Doing due diligence and making a carefully considered decision to buy a storage facility with the Lord’s money is another instance. None of this directly results in a Japanese person being told about Jesus, but hopefully it will mean more missionaries freed up to do just that, and I am grateful the Lord has called me to be involved in his work in this way.
By Simon, an OMF missionary
