Prayer-Walking Time #56: Sunrise, January 1, 2025

It's officially 2025, folks! 

Instead of staying up really late last night, Stephen and I went to bed at 10 and got up at 6 this morning to be at the kencho (prefectural office building) by 6:45 to watch the sunrise at 7:05 from the 19th floor, specially opened this early for this occasion. 

I was surprised at how many Japanese folks were there (we were the only foreigners as far as I could tell), but it is a cultural thing here to welcome in the new year with the sunrise on January 1. 

And it was so lovely. There were some clouds, but just after the official time for the sunrise a glowing orange hole opened up in the clouds and sun rays shot out in all directions. 

I didn't go intending for it to be a prayer-walking time, but it turned into that as God pulled on my heart. 

We prayed for those around us, all admiring the incoming new year and the glory of the heavens, and we prayed as we walked around the whole floor, praying in all directions over the city. Thanks be to God for this new year, new grace, new mission, new vision, new light. 

Do any of you have the book Operation Japan? It was compiled and edited by Don Wright, a former missionary to Japan who runs RJC (Reaching Japanese for Christ). I hope you can get a copy soon and pray through the year each day for Japan. 

My phone camera couldn't capture the beauty, but it was spectacular, and unusually sunny for an Ishikawa winter day. It gave me extra hope and buoyancy.

May God lead us all, each step of the way, in 2025.