God who Helps Me

Zeydan Viranda Saylen — INA AKP to Japan YP 22/23

Hi All!

This time I will tell you about God’s help and grace during my 3 months living in Japan. God has helped me a lot since I was born until now, but this time I want to bring up this theme because I find it interesting and also as a material for self-evaluation. And also thank you for willing to read this, and I hope you can enjoy and can take valuable lessons from my writing.

Before that I would like to introduce who I am. My name is Zeydan Viranda Saylen, I am a child from an ordinary family and a moderate family. In my family there are Father, Mother, Brother, and I. Yes, a small family. I was also just an ordinary person who at that time had a hobby of watching anime, so often that I could speak Japanese even a little. Yup, I was a “wibu” at that time. Also, I am a person who likes to see the happiness and joy of the people I love, especially my parents, so I always work hard in things that can make my parents happy, especially in education.

In 2021, it is the year that I become closer to God, the time when I begin to know God more and be more obedient to God. However, at the same time I also received news about this Kakehashi Asia Program. If you look at what I have described about myself, of course you can think that I will definitely try to register because I am a “wibu”. I just want to try, I don’t know anything about student exchange programs, and I don’t take any seriousness in planning and improving my education. But thank God, after prayer, hard struggle while maintaining my faith, and sacrifice of time, thought, and energy…

I was selected to be a student of the Asia Kakehashi Program and was given the opportunity to study in Japan. Actually I am aware that I am not worthy, but God is the one who made me worthy. God made it happen because of my prayers and the prayers of my parents as well.

The first story is about my public dorm. Long ago before I left for Japan, I had prayed to be placed in an area that was easy for me to worship, such as close to a place of worship. But by God’s destiny, I was placed in an area where if I wanted to go to a place of worship it would take 30 minutes by train and bus, but around where I live there are lots of shops to buy daily necessities and even Indonesian restaurants are also around where I live. In the dorm, every Monday to Friday food is prepared with breakfast that we make ourselves from ingredients that have been prepared by the dorm staff and there is a chef who cooks lunch and dinner. Besides that, I think the facilities are complete, if you want to play or watch movies together, there is a Lounge Room and there are lots of fun games. If you want to learn, there is a study room, toiletries, and much more. Although maybe my Japanese development is slow because I usually communicate in Indonesian or English, but here there are many people with various characters and I have learned a lot from these people and I have become more enthusiastic to be closer to God because of these people. that God destined to meet me.

God’s help which in my opinion was very extraordinary was when my roommate moved rooms. In this dorm 1 room there are 2 people. When I first arrived, I shared a room with an exchange student from another country. I’m a person who tries to worship on time but at that time I couldn’t do that because later it would disturb my roommate, so at that time I was late to worship and often worshiped in the hall of the dormitory so as not to disturb him. At that time I really didn’t think to talk about my problem to other people, even LP. I just talked the matter over to God. A few days after praying, with God’s wisdom, my roommate and I started a conflict. From that conflict I was really hit and learned a lot of lessons, I became more aware of what kind of person I am. In the end the problem peaked and my roommate moved to another room. However, now we’re better so it’s okay. So we have space for our own daily life and indeed that is the best choice. In the end, my prayer was answered, which was to be able to have my own room to carry out worship more comfortably. Although it was full of trials, the reward of my patience was great, I got my own room for free and could be more free.

The next story is about my school, 高槻高校(Takatsuki Senior High School). There are many conveniences and gifts that I get; such as my classmate who was very kind to me. Thank God there was no bullying that happened.

Next, I got a private class for exchange students who taught me Japanese so that I could improve my Japanese language strength. Thanks to God, Almighty God, even though my Japanese language development is slow because of where I live, everything is resolved with God who destined me with this school.

Furthermore, God gave me the opportunity to follow and learn one of the Japanese martial arts,合気道(Aikido). Yes, there are very few exchange students who can learn 合気道because usually what they learn is like 剣道(Kendo).

Recently, 合気道 members have also increased and I have made new friends and I believe I will make new friends because I prayed that day so that God would allow me to meet a good friend as I prayed. Also, this school has a very large library so that it increases my desire to cultivate the habit of reading books so that I have a lot of knowledge and improve my literacy skills.

Last but not least, the ease of worship. So that it is not only mandatory worship that I can do.

Then recently, I joined a school club called the Karuta club, which I recognized after praying for guidance in choosing a club. At that time my exchange student friends already had a club, so I also wanted to but didn’t know which one was the best. By the way, that day was the preparation day before the 文化祭(Culture Festival), so my friends were busy with their preparations and because my preparation was only to make decorations from origami also finished, so I had no plans at all that day, then decided for a walk around the school. Not long after that I met the Physics Teacher of my class and we talked for a while. We talked about my plans for today because it seemed that the teacher could also see that I had nothing to do. With God’s plans, who made me ask about “なんかおすすめのところはありますか？(Is there any place recommendation?)” and my teacher’s answer was to visit the Karuta Club because there are many Japanese traditions that can be learned and It seemed that the teacher is the coach of the Karuta club. I am interested and would like to visit after a walk around the school. When I visited, I was greeted warmly, made new friends, and learned how to play Karuta. It was a very fun and challenging day, it made me want to become a member of the Karuta club. Until now I have become a member and have started to actively participate in club activities, it is very fun because I can learn new things and can chat with friends. I’ve been busy and busy lately, but I think this is the best God has given me. God has guided me. Even though I come home late at night and I have trouble managing time, I hope that the busyness I face will be a lesson for me and I will get used to it when faced with other activities.

Next is a story that really helped me when I was having trouble doing tasks, such as school assignments, student exchange assignments, and other tasks. I don’t know why lately I’ve always been working on assignments close to the deadline and it’s been repeated many times. The reason could be because of my sins and my unstable faith. My biggest problem living in Japan is that my faith is always decreasing. It happens because I live here as a minority and it’s difficult to worship because there are no places of worship nearby and I usually remember to pray because there are places of worship nearby that remind me. I’ve also recently been trying to become a religious person. Faith for me plays an important role in my life, with faith I can learn, can be excited, can be confident, and others.

I actually really hate working on something close to a deadline. There are days when I try to do something close to the deadline, it’s really tiring. Doing the task and praying for ease while shedding tears, being patient with hunger, sleeping only for a while, and so on. Even though the task was actually completed that night according to my prayers and so many miracles happened. As I am currently working on this newsletter, honestly I am working on it close to the deadline and if I manage to finish it before the deadline, it means that God has accepted my prayer, although I am not finished I believe God has prepared the best plan for me.

ps I finished on time

There are many gifts that God has given, food, life supplies, comfort, fun, convenience, and many more of course that we can’t count them.

There are also trials that God gives, laziness, busyness, failure, sadness, trouble, and so on which of course His gifts are more than the trials given.

However,

Have I fully given my rights to God?

Am I already a grateful servant?

Have I fully used the facility for good?

Have I really thanked God until I shed tears for His gift that not everyone gets this gift, some even want to be in my position but I underestimate this gift?

Have I fulfilled His call as fully as God has fulfilled mine?

Have I also returned to love God as God loves us all?

I’m just an ordinary person. Ordinary person who wants to change for the better. However, that was my wish. Now I want to be an obedient servant, spread love as God gives His love to all mankinds, become a knowledgeable person, and become a person who changes this world for the better, especially the country I love, namely Indonesia. I don’t know how I can achieve this desire, but I have a guarantee that the guarantee is the best guarantee, namely my God. The Supreme Lord of Heaven and Earth, the Almighty, the Most Great, and the Most Merciful.

If God wills, God can make thugs the most pious people, God can make even unemployed people the most knowledgeable and beneficial to society. and don’t forget that God can make the most pious and knowledgeable person into thugs and unemployed.

We have come to the end of the story, before ending I want to share a verse from Islam religion book. that inspires me when faced with failure, difficulty, sadness, and so on.

“… But perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah Knows, while you know not.” (Surah Al-Baqarah Verse 216)

Thank you