Why Japan?

Japan is unique and has unique needs 

Top left: Beautiful sunset by the river close to my house. Top Right: Me wearing a traditional  Kimono (actually since it is summer it is called a Yucata) Bottom far left: My class of 1st grades students being silly before a field trip to the water park.  Bottom Middle Kyoto Temple gardens entrance. Bottom Right my Kindergarten class participating in classroom centers.

 Why Japan? 

Recently I was helping out with a non-profit organization as we repackaged and passed out food to needy families. While helping, one of the people asked me "Why did you come to Japan?"

I said I came as a missionary to teach English. Other people from all over the world have asked me

 "Why Japan?"  or "Why not a different nation." 

Many people think of Japan as the land of perfection and professionals. Even the Japanese people take great pride in what I call "keeping up appearances." You can walk down the streets in my town and see perfectly manicured hedges and beautiful flowers. Japan has lots of rules and customs that many westerners find strange -like the idea of eating and drinking while walking in public, which is generally frowned upon according to old traditions. Japan is a leader in many things including technology and business. Japan has a low violent crime rate in comparison to the rest of the world. 

*So that brings up the first important questions. If Japan has everything all perfectly together, Why Does Japan need missionaries?

Recently, I have been reading various blogs and Facebook statuses from my missionary friends all over the world. I have friends in Swaziland, South Africa, Kenya and Congo. Then I have friends in parts of Central and South America -Mexico, Honduras and the Dominican Republic. I have friends who are in places where missionaries are not allowed so they are "just English teachers" in China or maybe their Husbands are working in Turkey and the family was "just moved there as family support." Friends in Israel in all the craziness going on there. I have a few other friends and connections in various places around the globe. As I read their post I sometimes wonder myself 

"What does ministry in a first world country look like?"

I can tell you most of the people are NOT starving or living in the streets without basic needs being met. The majority of the population has a strong income. The majority of students attend school -even to the point of many going to Saturday school and extra school programs until late at night. It is estimated that 99% of the population are literate. Yes, Japan has a small population of hungry people or people needing government assistance. Japan is not a nation where Christians are prosecuted or religion is not allowed. 

So Why Japan?

Let me share some statistics to help you understand the need. Then I will share what I am doing to help. 

• *Japan ranks 3rd worldwide of nations with the highest amount of suicides. About 19.4 per 100,000. --Compared to the U.S. which is number 18 with a rate of about 10.1 per 100,000. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/suiciderate.html)

• It is difficult to give exact statistics on religion because many Japanese do not identify themselves religious or only choose to be so during special ceremonies like weddings and funerals.

•  "Shintoism 83.9%, Buddhism 71.4%, Christianity 2%, other 7.8% note: total adherents exceeds 100% because many people belong to both Shintoism and Buddhism (2005) (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ja.html) 

• "Japan is a destination, source, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Japanese organized crime syndicates (the Yakuza) are believed to play a significant role in trafficking in Japan, both directly and indirectly." Japan is also one of the highest producers world wide of  Pornography(http://www.humantrafficking.org/countries/japan  and http://www.ilo.org/public/english/region/asro/tokyo/downloads/r-japantrafficking.pdf )

So as you can see Japan is indeed a nation in need of missionaries. Actually every nation is and I believe in no such thing as a nation, or person who doesn't need God, the Savior and Redeemer.  But how about the simplest, most honest answer I have?- That God said Japan.

I am working as a Christian missionary teacher at a private, Christian school. The majority of our students do not come from Christian homes and many have very broken family situations. I am a prayer warrior for the nations and Carry the presence of God everywhere I go. I often find myself praying for the people while on public transportation systems. I may be only able to share a smile. Recently I have had the chance to connect to a group that helps distribute food to people who are homeless, single moms, immigrants and many needing government assistance. This has been a special privilege to get to work with this non-profit group. This particular organization is not Christian, so it is a ministry opportunity to both the fellow workers as well as those we serve. 

What does it look like to be a missionary to Japan? Living among, loving on and serving God and His people. What everyone is called to do no matter where you live or what job you have. OF COURSE I am far from perfect and no where near having everything all figured out. Sometimes I forget and I'm not the best example. But I pray that God can lead me to use every opportunity to serve Him. I have many questions but the answer is always the same -TRUST GOD! It is tough to live daily for God, and NOT lean on our own understanding, but that is the challenge. *Please Join me in prayer for Japan* 

Thank you for taking time to read this. May God bless you!

Kobe Habor

Long over due -a blog beginning

This blog is the first of (hopefully) many more to come. Many of you have been asking me to keep a blog post with regular updates. Why blog? Because it is the cool thing to do? Because I love to write and YOU want to know what is going on in my life? Or since I live on the other side of the world and others would like an update? Best answer is something to the tone of - I felt like God has given me an assignment to write. Honestly, my writing should have most likely started much sooner. But for many reasons it did not. But the past is past and now the season has come to write. I know this blog might have spelling and grammar errors. I know that everything I write might not fit perfectly into every person's mold -and that is all okay. I did not write for a long time due to fear and equally due to pride. I also didn't start writing simple because I didn't know where to start. I gave this blog the title of "Destiny Diaries" because God has given me a clear idea that He does have a destiny for each of His children including me and YOU. "For I know the plans I have for you' Declares the Lord. 'Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. To give you a hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11) Whatever the past may look like for you know that God wants to show you His good plans that include hope and prosper not harm. God has incredible plans for each of His children  if we choose to allow Him to guide our steps. I hope this blog can become an open book for God to write my story - a dairy of destiny.
   Not sure where you last left off from my journey. Many things have changed in a short amount of time. I can take no credit for any of the amazing things in my life. I want to give God all the glory for all that HE is doing and a heart-felt thanks to all the amazing people God has placed and continues to place in my life and alongside me. Sometimes I ask myself  "How did I get to this point?" The only and best answer I can come up with is by God's grace alone. God's grace allows common people like YOU and like ME to do crazy things we never dreamed possible. The beauty of grace is that it is completely undeserved and unfair.  I think that God likes to surprise me with what comes next, because if He doesn't surprise me I might find a way out of doing what He asks because of my own fear or worry.
   What am I doing these days? Where am I and why here? How did I get here? What comes next?
Those are all great questions. I am only a grain of sand on the beach and a speck in the picture so I don't have all the answers. I can't even pretend that I have most of the answers. But I serve a God who has ALL the answers because HE IS the answer. I can answer those questions to the best of my ability.
I could go back further in my testimony to explain more things but for the sake of time I will only go 4 years back. In 2008 I graduated high school and went on my first mission trip to Honduras. Fall of 2008 I started college at Family of Faith College. In 2010 I went on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic.  On September 21st 2011 my mom was hospitalized completely paralyzed. She remained in the hospital until  November 12, 2011 with the majority of that time in ICU. Technically she "died" for a few minutes.  Crazy time! But God's hand was on her and the rest of my family! I praise HIM daily for her complete recovery. he is literally writing a book on that so  I won't go into details 'cause I don't want to "steal her thunder." I graduated college with an Elementary Education Degree from Family of Faith College in May 2012. That summer I served as a missions intern with a group called No Boundaries International.
    In October 2012 I was working at my church nursery and actively looking for other employment. In a crazy series of events a door opened. My pastor sent me a text on a Friday night asking if I had an active passport. Long story short I left on Tuesday morning for JAPAN. CRAZY!?!?! I was basically an extreme substitute teacher through a crazy sting of only God possible events. I went back and forth from Japan to the state but committed to a full time teaching position at a small Christian school in March 2013 and just committed to (at least) one more school year  here in Osaka, Japan. (In Japan the school year starts in April and ends in March with a break in late July/August and then another break in December/January.)
       Another day I will write about an incredible chance I had to serve as a short-term missionary in Swaziland and South Africa this past summer (August 2013). But for now back to Japan...
   I am teaching Kindergarten and First grade English, First and second grade Geography and first grade Science. Honestly I never thought I would be a teacher. Most (myself included) thought I would be doing some kind of zoo-keeper job or training exotic animals. But by God's grace He had other plans. Instead of training wild animals God has placed me in the classroom training up future generations and children for His Kingdom. I could not ask for a more noble job and truly do not deserve this place. I often don't feel qualified for the task ahead but God gently reminds me that His grace IS sufficient (2 Cor. 12:9) Recently God showed me a verse that I have been holding on tightly.  "Now what I am commanding you today is NOT too difficult for you or beyond your reach." ( Deut.31:16)
God has given each one of us a task that is NOT too difficult or beyond what we are able to do. God is and will be (if you allow Him to be) Strong enough for the both of us (you).
Congratulations! You made it to the end of this newsletter! I'm sorry this one was so crazy long. I will try to post more often and less lengthy post in the future. I will write soon about some of the lessons God is teaching me and prayer request. Please tell me your prayer needs as well.
Blessings!