Tasting of God’s goodness

On March 2, 2026, over 70 ladies gathered together in Osaka at the VIP Kansai Building for the 12th annual Kansai Christian Women’s Conference. We were able to worship the Lord together in English, declaring the praises of Jesus, our Creator, Redeemer, and King. We received some powerful teaching from Shelly Volkhardt, who shared humbly from her own life in a winsome way that resonated with so many of us. This year’s theme was “The Undivided Heart.”

Although we had only seven hours together, we received some golden nuggets to take home to wrestle through with the Lord. We were encouraged by Shelly’s testimony of the loving pursuit and power of our risen Lord Jesus, who has equipped us to be able to live more wholeheartedly as His children.

Shelly shared three critical areas to help us cultivate an undivided heart in loving our Lord Jesus. The first was to cultivate “holy habits” in our everyday lives to remind us of the extravagant love, amazing grace, and whole character of our God, as revealed in His Word. Second, she acknowledged how shame, starting from the Garden of Eden, is a subversive enemy that all too often sabotages cultivation of wholehearted love to and from Jesus. Last, she shared how we would do well to tend to our hearts as gardens by identifying “anti-fruit”—essentially, wrong attitudes and actions that strangle the growth of the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

We also interacted with a panel of Kansai ladies from four continents—with an accumulated total of several decades of experience living as Christians in Japan. Together we dialogued about a range of topics such as

• ways love is given and received in Japanese culture;
• why details matter;
• how followers of Christ navigate Buddhist/Shinto ceremonies and expectations of non-Christian family members; and
• how we get a vision for a church—one where abiding in Christ and being His disciples in community is a reality—and not just be event-driven.

It was a day that left our cups running over with renewed motivation and tools to run the race with hope. We went home having tasted of the Lord’s goodness through His people, greatly encouraged by Shelly and her team having come all this way from the US to show us that, even in this land that can sometimes feel faraway, we are seen and loved extravagantly by Jesus. 

* JEMA Women in Ministry (WIM) event
Photo submitted by author