Children of The Light#40 Plying the waters (26 Mar 2017)

Children of The Light#40  Plying the waters (26 March 2017)

Dear….

There are three things which are too wonderful for me....The way of a ship in the midst of the sea....

Proverbs 30:18-19

This month, me and my partners completed and launched our Japan Real Estate Fund( JRE ).

It has been nearly a year journey from our coming together and by the grace of God what seems daunting is now a reality.

Our little ship is now ready to set sail into Japan and who will we bring on board and who will we meet as we cruise down the waterways of this well watered land yet once spiritually dry desert?

What has a boat got to do with an investment fund in Japanese properties?

A couple of months back, I met a new friend who does a medical boat ministry in Indonesia. They do regular sailings into the waterways of Sumatra where on the banks of the meandering river, sits many unreached souls.

Two dear friends of mine has a boat that sails into the inner reaches of the Amazon River for ministry through the digging of water wells for the natives.

HMS JRE, sounds like a pretty official sounding name to put on any boat worth its salt.

For us in Japan, there is no physical seaworthy boat. But as we were putting the Fund together, our good Lord reminded me that in my continued obedience of what has now been a 4 years plus journey since He first pointed me to Japan back in Nov 2012, He has at every stage brought people related to Japan into my path. Much as I was very much a landlubber in Singapore and only occasionally stepped foot in Japan.

I have met more Japanese in the past one year than I ever did my entire life. And primarily God brought them to me in Singapore than I looked for them in Japan. But with the launch of our Fund, I sense terra firma in the Land of the Risen Son is where I will find myself in more often.

Our good Lord prepares us even when one has no inkling of His plans for us.

For one who has never been willing to go to Japan for fear of earthquakes, a fear ingrained in me at the beginning of my career back in 1985, when the first thing I learned as a trainee banker was that the land mass( ie Tokyo and California) straddling both sides of the Pacific Ocean was overdue for a major earthquake, I never imagined being so deeply involved with Japan.

My first trip to Japan was in year 2001 and we were greeted by a lovely early snowfall in Tokyo.

Love does overcome fear and Japan was where we spend a few nice vacations since and interestingly to parts of Japan where He was to lead me to make my property investments a few years later.  And a chance exposure with Japanese art through my dabbling with Namiki lacquer pens have inculcated a level of familiarity for me with the intricate crafts of Japan.

Today, I am no expert on Japan. But from my little dabblings at the prescient arrangement of God, the Japanese have been respectful of

• My familiarity with their cultural heritage through their arts, which many of them are unfamiliar with.
• My boldness in making a foray into Japanese properties back in early 2013 when few dared step in. And in places where most urbane Tokyo types will never venture.
• And the fact that I have properties in Kumamoto( a double earthquake) and in Fukuoka( near a sinkhole) yet come out unscathed.

Silver Tower, that was the name that our good Lord put in my heart 4 years back when He impressed upon me to built a place where His people could gather and be used to shepherd the flock.  Silver for the wisdom of years spent with our Lord. Tower, a strength that come from resting in our Lord.

Our Fund has set up a company in Japan. And by His grace, we have named it Silver Tower.

Took 4 years for this reality to happen. And interestingly, till recently for almost 4 years, I only have one good Japanese Christian friend.

Yet today, or like more precisely since Feb 2017, our good Lord has brought on board into my life

• 5 very committed Japanese Christians based in Tokyo whom I have had the privilege of connecting with
• A prayer group Covenant Japan in Singapore,  focussed on praying and reaching out to the Japanese

Truly for each of us who are willing to seek after our Lord with our all. God will bring us to the wonderful journey of life that He has preordained for us. In being willing to let Him lead us, He will use circumstances and people to mold us into His likeness, for the day when Christ will return.

Wherever He places us, He will use us if we are willing, as the vessel upon which His glorious light will shine forth where there darkness once exist.

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

      John 8:12

God Blesses

Ang san

26 March 2017

An afterthought - Jonah and the submarine

Now the LORD provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

        Jonah 1:17

I am mindful of what our good Lord says about adding or subtracting from His Word.

But the thought just came to my heart. Jonah was in the belly of a whale. Just like a submariner in mean steel version of Moby Dick.

Do you get a sense that God is speaking to you about His purpose for you. But like Jonah, it is natural that most of us will run away, for we think we are not ready. And indeed when God calls, we will never be ready. And in stepping out we will realize that indeed we are not ready.

But what is ready?

In spending time in the belly of the whale, Jonah literally rested and over time learn to abide in our Lord. He came out of the whale more willing and determined to follow the command of our Lord.

If God calls you. There is no running away. Either be willing to step out by faith and rest and abide in Him under the azure blue sky. Or disobey and you will find yourself ensconced in the dark recess of the next available whale.