Serving in Sendai: Who will we run to?

Hi everyone!

Here's a story for all you runners out there. Or if like me, you wish you were a runner.

Indo Curry round 2! Ft. random lady in the background

Sister Bean and I were biking down the streets of Yamagata when we decided to approach a young, college-aged man. He was wearing a long-sleeve shirt, jeans and had a large messenger bag draped over his shoulder. He was clearly in the music zone and enjoying life as he jammed out on his headphones. I walked right up next to him and waved to get his attention. He stopped in his tracks and just looked at me. I barely managed to finish my introduction before he answered, "Sorry I'm not interested."

An expected answer was soon followed by the most unexpected reaction.

The guy just started booking it fast! And I don't mean a light jog fast, this was Usain Bolt training for the olympics fast. I thought he would just sprint to the end of the block and stop. But no, he kept going faster! I thought he was going to lose his messenger bag as it flailed against his body. He kept running and running until he became a tiny dot in the distance. That was the last that I saw of the man who ran.

You've got to admire his determination to some degree, but this incident got me thinking: Why did he run? We were just two missionaries who wanted to share the truths of the restored gospel with him.

A couple days prior to this story, Sister Bean and I had our own "running" experience. Not my favorite moment in my mission experience, but it taught me an important lesson.

Last Wednesday, we decided to take the train and travel to a neighborhood about an hour and a half away to visit a potential investigator. When we arrived we had to walk about 30 minutes to get to her house. Upon arrival, we realized that we were given the wrong address.

Disappointed, Sister Bean and I had to change our plans and decided to catch an earlier train to go back. Only problem was, the next train was coming in 10 minutes and we were a 30 minute walking distance from the station.

Knowing that if we missed this train, we would have to wait another 4 hours before catching the next one, we had to book it fast.

We tightened the straps on our bags, pulled our hair back, readjusted our shoes and started running! We would run for a solid two minutes, die, walk briskly for a couple minutes and run again. This cycle repeated for the next 10 minutes as we raced uphill to the station as fast as we could. There were moments of weakness when we would try to hitchhike from drivers, only to realize the thumbs up signal didn't translate over in Japanese.

When the station came into view we realized there was only a minute left until the train came. We ran faster, giving our all. We arrived the exact same time the train did and managed to get on before the doors closed.

Sitting on the train, Sister Bean and I let out a great sigh of relief. We made it!

This experience reminded me of the important truth of when we give our all, the Lord will make up for our shortcomings and weaknesses. When we run to Him with all our might, He will give us strength to overcome our burdens and lift us up. However, sometimes we might have the tendency to be like the first guy and run from the help of our Savior. We rely on or own strengths rather than trusting in a loving and all-knowing God.

In every instance we can either choose to run from the help of our Savior or RUN TO Him.

I promise the latter is always the best decision:)

So much love for you all!

Matsuura Shimai