In February, that dream came true when i was hired as a temporary at a Japanese plant in Alabama. I was esctatic! And at the same time, i wondered if i could really handle it. The weeks of isolation at the farm since all my friends went back to Japan vanished. I enjoyed the peace and time to write, and i`m sure that`s what God had in mind for me, but i was getting anxious to get on to something else.
When interviewed,i told them that i didn`t have confidence interpreting, just translating. They quickly saw to it tho, that i got plenty of practice doing both. The first 3 or 4 weeks, i`d go back to my one-room mansion and after eating, get out the dictionaries again and work. I was determined to do the best i could. And...It was rewarded!!!! I`ve never been so thoroughly lauded and praised in my whole life:) I was told that i was the best Japanese-English translator there and that they really wanted me to stay longer and sign a 2-year contract. It felt REALLY good to have people appreciate what you do. I`d gotten maybe a "thanks" at other places i`d worked at, but nothing like this.
I`d been looking into opportunities to do mission work for a couple of years, and something that was bound to change my life showed up in March in the form of an email "we have a project in India". Of course i`ll go. So after stopping over for 3 weeks in my beloved Japan, i got on the plane and landed in Bombay. What a shock! You can read about it in my diaries.
In October i made it back to a `heavenly` Seoul and then back to the promised land - Japan:) I stayed with an American friend for a couple of weeks and then with some former English students for a couple of weeks. Both places treated me very nice and my trust in people slowly returned. Finally on November 19, i moved into a beautiful house where i have pretty much free use of the whole place. My former English student and her husband live here and they are very pleasant.
But now i`m thrust in a country where people are even more closely packed together and many people are mad at each other and try to rip each other off. No, it doesn`t have much to do with being packed together, growing rice or wheat, raising sheep, trade, education, etc. It has EVERYTHING to do with how much of a God-like character you have.
Here`s a country where they`ve been worshiping cows and rocks for over 4,000 years. No wonder many times you look at them and can hardly recognize that they`re human. It`s probably the same way Adam will look at me when i first catch sight of him in heaven (on the way?) I`m the result of thousands of years of people who were probably nature worshipers, breaking the commandments, and steadily losing their God-likeness. To an extent that de-evolution has been arrested, but I can`t go back and change my ancestors.
And it applies to countries too. The reason Europe and America have been blessed isn`t directly the result of smarter brains or harder work, it`s the result of living close to God and carrying out His kingdom`s principles. When did Europe really flower? - when the Reformation began and people turned to the true God. Why has America become the most powerful country on earth? - by making God`s principles the basis of the country. Peace, liberty, justice, freedom, these are all attributes that God blesses. No, i`m not saying that America hasn`t made mistakes. Over 600,000 people lost their lives in the Civil War because of not recognizing blacks as humans. And in the end times, because of trying to force a Sunday Law on everybody which goes directly against God`s commands, America will be much more highly punished than some country that has never really known God - like India and Japan.
So the reason Japan has become so materially blessed isn`t directly because of their hard work and determination after WWII, it`s because they had many principles of God`s kingdom like freedom and equality forced on them by the Americans. It`s interesting that the first time Japan really started to get materially wealthy was after being forced open by Perry`s black boats in the 1860`s. Soon after, they officially allowed freedom of religion. Not having any correct concepts of `peace` tho, they plunged Japan into a protracted, almost half century, war that reduced their country to ashes.
Even tho they still don`t know the only true God, in many respects they are following His commands without knowing it and are reaping some of the blessings. For example, they have the longest life-span of anyone on the planet. Why? They respect their parents. `Put them in a nursing home` is the absolutely last resort. Even if they can`t get along with them, they`ll try to take care of them. And they`ve been blessed. They almost never steal (umbrellas, bicycles, and bribes excepted) or kill, so they`ve been blessed with an attitude of not having to fear other people for bodily harm.
Is it arbitrary on God`s part? No, He wants us all to be saved. He made so many of us to fill up the empty space caused by the fall of all those angels and to show His attributes to all creatures throughout the whole universe (undoubtedly many more reasons). We call His Spirit or drive Him away by our own choices and actions. This explains why He will "give them over to a strong delusion so they might be damned" in the last days.