In 1998, I was sent to Okinawa as a domestic missionary of the Evangelical Free Church. Back then, the Evangelical Free Church was one of the most developed denominations in Japan.

When my husband and I entered into church planting, we were too excited to consider any negative emotions or possible hardship. We wanted to see every sickness healed and every sin defeated but failed to see God’s bigger story.

As a pastor, I have been led to think about the prophet Elijah in recent weeks – exhausted after his confrontation with the prophets of Baal. Running for his life, he sits and asks God to take his life away.