Forward to Zion: Ohio Hometown Camp Meeting 2011

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Forward to Zion

Alden Ho

Enough Excuses

Our gracious Heavenly Father, we come to you and we are grateful for a good night's rest.

We are thankful that you have protected us from the storms, and we know that you will continue to protect us through the storms that will be coming also.

And Lord, we ask and pray this morning that your Holy Spirit will continue to abide with us, and that you will touch my lips that they may speak your words.

That the things that I have ready to present may be pushed aside so that your message, Lord, may be heard.

May it fall upon a heart that is receptive to know, to grow, and to follow your will.

For we ask and pray in Jesus' name, amen.

On March 11, 2011, In the northern part of Japan, there was an earthquake that rocked the country.

If you look at your screen, I am going to be sharing a little bit from this.

There was an earthquake that hit the country that devastated it at 9.0.

What are the facts about this earthquake?

It was the largest ever recorded earthquake to hit Japan.

It was actually the sixth largest to occur on the Earth.

It was the largest earthquake to hit since the year 1960.

And just before this particular earthquake that hit the northern part of Japan, 200 miles off the coast of Sendai, there was another earthquake that hit in the country called New Zealand.

Well, just to give you some idea, you saw the news, you saw the images of what happened in Christchurch with the devastation that happened there.

This particular earthquake was actually 8, 000 times stronger than the 1 that happened in Christ's church, 8, 000 times.

And we find that what The earthquake didn't kill, the tsunami did.

Right after the earthquake happened, the earthquake happened on Friday, I noticed on my friend's Facebook wall, Dr.

Tim Riesenberger on Monday, he posted that he was cleared from his foundation to go to Japan.

We were on a mission trip together in Cambodia.

Then we were in an evangelistic series together to the Hmong people in Sacramento area.

And then we went to Haiti together to help out with the earthquake out there.

So when I saw when he posted on Facebook that he was cleared, I called him within 5 minutes of that posting and I said, are you going for sure, Tim?

He says, well, I'm just waiting for final clearance right now, but should be going soon.

Well, in between that time period, I thought, okay, I'm really excited to go.

But then I started reading a little bit about Fukushima, the little nuclear power plant and the radioactiveness that was happening there.

And all of a sudden my excitement was not so hot to be able to get out there.

I mean, I want to be glowing for Christ, but not glowing in other ways.

Tim called me Tuesday night, Wednesday night at 10 p.m., received a late phone call from him, and the words were, I'm cleared, I'm leaving tomorrow.

In my thinking, she would have said, you want to go where?

So I called her in my office and I turned around in my chair and I said to her, Tim's cleared for going to Japan, fully expecting the words to say, you're not going.

But you know, I am very thankful to be married to a very godly wife who understands the call.

And her words were, when she looked at me, she said, so what are you waiting for?

I went back to the computer and I started booking my flight.

Being in self-supporting ministry, I don't have that type of funds just to throw out there, but what I do have because of self-supporting ministry is I have miles.

So I cranked out 70, 000 delta points to be able to go over there.

Come to find out I didn't, I'm usually very meticulous in my planning, but I had not planned out carefully my return flight because I was just somewhere excited about getting there and making sure that my arrival time was on time because I had to be back home by Tuesday, the next week, I had to be home by Tuesday evening because I had a flight Wednesday morning to Southern Adventist University because I was going to preach at Southern on Thursday morning of all things for their Asian emphasis week.

But I had to change my flight when I was actually in Japan, because I forgot that in not looking carefully, I had a 7 and 1 1⁄2 hour layover in Minneapolis.

I didn't want to do that, so it costed me another 25, 000 points to switch that flight around.

So it ended up being a 95, 000 point flight, which was fine.

I said, okay, when we get there, because our cell phones aren't going to work, I will meet you on the opposite side of customs.

So as soon as you get out of customs, wait there and we'll meet because we were both coming in at 4.15 p.m.

So I arrived and I noticed His flight had arrived just a few minutes earlier than mine, and so I looked for him in customs.

So I thought, okay, as soon as I get out of customs, I'll find Tim.

Well, I walked out of customs and I looked around.

Now because, if you've noticed, I'm a little tall.

Some of the Japanese people, most of them are much shorter, especially when you go to the Philippines, they're even shorter than that.

And you might wonder, too, by the way, why am I abnormally tall for being Asian, and most of them are shorter.

They eat short grain rice, I eat extra long grain rice.

So that makes the big difference there, That says it all.

And so, I arrived there fully expecting to see Tim.

And I thought, uh-oh, this isn't a foreign land now.

I said, look, I have a friend coming in, and he's coming in on American Airlines.

He didn't understand anything I said until I said American Airlines.

Luckily, terminal 2 was just down the road.

We were fully expecting we would hop on a train and head up to Sendai right away.

So now we have to stay the night in Tokyo.

He says, well, I've got some people that I could call at the English Language Institute, and so we ended up staying in Tokyo that night, and we had to take a train on a bus on Sabbath morning.

That would take 7 hours now by bus to be able to get up to Sendai.

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Enough Excuses

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