Waterfall of Grace

It's another beautiful morning in the mountains. This is no ordinary minister's retreat/conference where you wake up at 6:00am and shove loads of information down your throat until 10:00pm. Nope, Joel and I are down in Nagano at the NorthStar facility for a youth ministry conference, and not many of these folks are early risers! Which is fine with me! It's been an amazingly relaxed schedule with lots and lots of time for networking, great worship and personal renewal time, provocative speakers, incredible nature, and rivers of coffee. All of these guys have tremendous hearts for the youth of Japan, as is especially evident in their prayers and in the various works that God has given them.

All of us took a little hike to Ushidome Waterfall yesterday afternoon in the misting rain. Yutaro, or "Surfer Dude" as I like to call him, and I were walking together and talking about some of the problems Japanese youth are facing. What I love about Surfer Dude is that no matter how big the problem is, he always sees God as bigger. The issues are real, but so is our God. No matter how destructive suicide, depression, sexual immorality, and social pressures are to these children, our God has the awesome power to redeem, heal and save. Finally, we made our way to the waterfall. The Creator made this waterfall -- a reminder to me that He is still the One who has creative power to rescue the youth of a nation.