Dear friends,

I have had the honor of clearly and intimately experiencing the Gospel.

In the past several months, the Lord has given me an account to proclaim his goodness. Last May, I experienced the greatest shame and pain of my life when my father, blinded by disappointment and rage in my decision to do missions, claimed that I should no longer have a place in our family.  Through this I learned what it was to be divided, father against son, and son against father, just as Jesus described in Matthew 10:35-36. However, amidst the pain I found peace. There was an indescribable peace stemming from the life and worth I found in Christ as illustrated in Matthew 10:39.

This experience taught me what it was to be in need. In late Spring, God set me on a path where I needed to plan for a new home every two weeks. I was going to be in a place of hunger. For five months, from May until September, the meal(s) I had daily were limited to strict budgeting, my support appointments, and the charity of friends.
 
This journey, which by all accounts should have been marred with fear, instead met a peace that unsettled me – a peace so paradoxical that I thought it unhealthy at first. I ended up reconciling what it really was two weeks into this season of life:
 
May 24, 2018
“Being afraid isn’t always an indication of real danger. Does this explain the peace I felt, when fear should’ve been my companion. Is it that I welcome the encounter with Jesus and do not fear it? The prospect of being transient and living off $1,000 over the course of six months somehow brought me no fear. I for the joy set before me chose this path and experienced a peace unlike any other. I have chosen God above all else, I have chosen a life dependent on His approval and not on the approval of others, I have chosen a life of little vs a life of a lot, I have chosen a life where my comfort is not all guaranteed, I have chosen God over my possessions. I have chosen to encounter God and I am at peace.”

But by His grace plans changed. I have been rooted for the last several months, and instead of division, I have been given the opportunity to allow room for reconciliation with my father and to prevent any bitterness in my heart from festering. This opportunity fostered a true understanding of the “secret of being content in any and every situation” as Paul describes in Philippians 4:12-13.
 
I have found the treasure hidden in the field and sold what I have in order that I might pursue it. Only God could change the characterization of my college years from depression, psychiatric visits, and medication to years defined by joy, growth, and an identity wholly invested in Him. This prior testimony and the one God has weaved with this summer has only reinforced why He has called me to Japan. I am excited to bring both testimonies of an identity in Christ and its accompanying peace to a place where both ideas are truly foreign concepts. A place where they could stand as a bulwark against ephemeral identities that lead to depression and the highest second highest suicide rate in Asia. The Lord has given me two testimonies that can open doors into the hearts of the Japanese students I am going to meet.
 
I am so incredibly thankful for all of you and am excited that I can share this to show how good our God is. Thank you all for keeping me in your prayers this summer, offering aid in all of the ways you already have, and for being lights to me in what should have been a pitch black summer. You have lived Matthew 5:15-16 well, shining before me and glorifying our Father in heaven.

 
By Christ’s grace I love my dad.
 
By the Father’s joy I will serve the Japanese.
 
By the Holy Spirit’s strength I know peace.
 
Our God is good and I am thankful.


Please be praying that I do not grow complacent in remembering and clinging to these truths. That my patience and grace with my family would only grow and not diminish. That for the Father's joy and glory, not my own, I serve the Japanese. That the peace I know remains healthy and not out of bitterness. And that I never take the goodness of our God for granted and be ungrateful.

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Yours in Christ,
Dean Madera