2015 Inaugural Women’s Conference in Kansai
With great anticipation, I travelled to Higashinada Baptist Church to attend my first women’s conference since coming to Japan 3 years ago. It was so exciting to see almost 50 women coming together for Bible teaching, fellowship, singing, and prayer. It was a rare opportunity to be encouraged in our first language – how joyful, to sing from the heart in English!
Our speaker, Judy Dyer, is the mother of a long-term missionary in Japan and so had experience and wisdom to understand some of the challenges faced by her audience. Based on the book of 1 Peter, she encouraged us to consider the ‘clothing’ we were wearing in our lives. In the same way that we wouldn’t go to a job interview straight from the gym in our work-out clothes, we need to be dressed appropriately as God’s children. Judy reminded us to clothe ourselves in hope and holiness, with humility and joy.
The hope described in 1 Peter 1 is not a feeling of something that may or may not eventuate but a living hope with 100% certainty – no chance that this inheritance will perish, spoil, or fade! But in times of fear, despair, and loneliness it’s easy to lose hope. Like Elijah, defeated, discouraged, depressed, hiding in a cave, God ministers to us in our dark place with compassion and sustenance. He restores hope and eternal perspective, and gently sends us back to the difficult place. To the work he has prepared for us to do.
Judy explained that, as God works in us, we recognize how holy he is and our own unholiness comes into focus—discontent, ingratitude, impatience, pride, irritability, competitiveness, criticism, and so on. But 1 Peter 1:16 orders, “be holy, because I am holy”. Christlike behaviour is not an optional extra, but something we need to pursue with humility and concern for others, and also with joy. As Peter writes in 4:12-13, joy is related to suffering. When we have grief and trials, we need to seek our Lord who fully understands us and offers us the promise of eternal glory. And so we can go out with joy – loud joy, even – in the midst of suffering, because our hope is certain and our God cares for us.
After a tasty lunch and great conversation, we met again for prayer and praise as Flossie Epley led us in a moving prayer time of praise, confession and intercession. We sang joyfully to our God, our strength, and clothed in hope, returned to our ministries.