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Why Japan?

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

Romans 10:14-15

I have often explained to people why I decided  to get involved in missions to Japan. The simple answer is that there were many factors involved which, taken together, led me to believe that that was what God wanted me to do. However in this post it’s not necessarily my intention to go over those factors which led me to Japan, but rather to present some information that may lead you to be involved in the work God is doing in Japan.

Japan is an island nation, comprised of four main islands, and thousands of smaller ones. It has a throughly unique culture which means that the Japanese mindset is very difficult for westerners to grasp. Geographically the majority of Japan is covered by mountains and forests. It has a land mass roughly equal to that of California, and a population over 1/3 that of the entire United States. This explains the stark contrast between serene natural beauty and crowded, sprawling cities. Economically and politically Japan is among the most successful countries in the world.

From a spiritual perspective however, things are not so bright. Out of a population of 127 million, less than half of one percent follow Christ. The other 99.5% are trapped in materialism, Buddhism, Shintoism and ancestor worship. The suicide rate is more than double that of the United States. Though most have heard the name Jesus, the vast majority have never heard the gospel, or even know a Christian who could tell them.

The Church in Japan is small. Average attendance is less than 40 people per a congregation, and there are more than 1,600 cities towns and villages which do not have a single Church within their borders. It has been said that in order for a group to influence the population as a whole, the group must comprise at least 2% of that population. Currently the Church in Japan falls far short of that. For the last 150 years Protestant missions have been working in Japan, and yet the Church in Japan is still not large enough to evangelize the rest of the country on its own. There are few Christians that can afford to go into full time ministry, because of the high cost of living and small Christian population to support such efforts. There is a continuing need for missionaries in Japan.

Seeing this need first hand was what kept forcing me to consider whether God could use me in Japan, and if that was the direction He was calling me. I was made aware of the need, and God began to show me that He had given me the opportunity to be a part of meeting that need; that He could use me to do so. We’d like to present that need to you, and give you an opportunity to help meet the spiritual needs of the Japanese, by partnering with us to take the hope of salvation to Japan.

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Why Missions?

For so the Lord has commanded us, saying,
“‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles,
that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'”

Acts 13:47

You might have noticed that this verse appears frequently on our support raising material. You’ll find it on our prayer cards, brochures, even in the banner of this website. We put it there to remind us why we are doing this, and to remind others why they should be doing the same.

Missions is simply the practical act of bringing God’s salvation, through the preaching of the gospel, to the ends of the earth. If you are a Christian here in America you can trace your salvation through the work of missions all the way back to Christ, who not only died to pay the price for your sins but also initiated the the method by which you, two thousand years later, would hear about it, repent, believe and be saved. Were it not for Christ’s command to take the gospel to all nations, salvation would have never reached you.

Participation in missions is not an optional thing for Christians. One cannot be said to be a follower of Christ unless they obey what Christ commands. Missions is not something that we do when we have the time, or the money, or the desire to become involved in. It is something that we must insert into our budgets, our schedules and our hearts, even if that means sacrificing other things to do it. We as Christians must cultivate a war time mentality of sacrificing and suffering want in order to fulfill the mission which Christ has given to us.

There are millions here in America who need to hear the gospel. Even though the Gospel has reached America, and most here have heard it before, many will need to hear it a second, third, fourth or fifth time before their eyes are opened and they see the truth of it. But outside of America there are millions who have yet to hear it even once. The Gospel has not yet reached all the world. Christ’s mission to the church, though 2,000 years in progress, is not yet accomplished.

That is why Tomo and I are going to Japan. We desire to obediently participate in the mission Christ gave to the church, by going to Japan to work with other Christians in proclaiming the gospel and starting new churches, in the hope of seeing God call many Japanese to salvation. I would like to invite you to prayerfully consider sharing in this exact same mission, by partnering with us financially and prayerfully, to send us to Japan.  This is just one way out of millions that you can be involved in missions, but if it is the way God is calling you to be involved, click here to let us know.

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The Parable of the Laborers

In Matthew 20, Jesus tells a parable about a man who hires laborers at different times throughout the day and at the end of the day he pays them all the same. He offers no explanation for this parable, other than the sentence: “So the last will be first, and the first last.”

This parable has long confused me, and I still am wrestling with it. But I think I’m starting to get it. Let me know if you have another perspective. Here goes.

The most common explanation of this parable is that Jesus is saying that no matter how old you are when you accept Christ, you will get the same reward, eternal life. If a person serves God from the time he’s 5 till the time he dies at 90, he gets the same “pay” as the guy who accepts Christ on his death bed and does virtually nothing for God his entire life. On the one hand I think this explanation hits on the point of the parable, and at the same time causes people to miss it altogether.

Consider the previous chapter, where the disciples had a discussion with Jesus which prompted Him to give this parable. The disciples ask what their reward will be for leaving everything behind to follow Him. Christ replies that they will be rewarded greatly in heaven, as will everyone who sacrifices earthly things for the cause of Christ. He concludes that “Many who are first will be last, and the last first.” (Mat. 19:27-30). Here Christ seems to say that the disciples are the “last that will be first.” They give up everything in this life, and gain everything in the next. They’re last here, but they will be first there. But then He gives the parable of the Laborers.

In the parable of the laborers, some guys started working at 5 in the morning, and some guys started at 5 at night. Quitting time for both was in the evening, and they both got paid for a full days work. This is not fair. The laborers who labored all day complained about this. They worked longer and harder, they should get paid more for it. Jesus concludes that the last will be first and the first will be last.

So how were the laborers who labored last made the first? They all got the same reward. The laborers who started in the beginning of the day still got their pay, they weren’t disqualified because they grumbled. The last were certainly a lot happier. They got what they didn’t deserve. They got way more than they deserved, it was a great day. They appreciated the master who hired them. But the laborers who toiled out in the sun all day long, they were mad at the master. They felt short changed. The master defends his actions in verse 15:

Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’

And that I think contains the point of the parable. Even though the disciples had done good and would be rewarded for their self sacrificial act of leaving everything to follow Christ, they were in danger of developing a sense of entitlement. In the parable they were the first laborers who would be made last. In the parable, the reward for the work was not based upon the amount or quality of the work done, but rather on the generosity of the one who hired them.

Christ wants His followers to have the attitude of the ones who worked for one hour, and got paid for an entire day’s work. He wants their joy to rest not on what they feel they’ve earned, but in the generosity of the one who called them.

I think that in Matthew 19 and 20 Christ is pointing out an apparent paradox. In Chapter 19, Christ implies that Christians will be rewarded for their acts of service to God. Some will probably be more greatly exalted in heaven than others. But in chapter 20 He’s saying that all will be greatly exalted, and all will be glorified and all will receive eternal life. And none of that is earned. All of it is a gift from God. Somehow Christ wants His followers to work hard for eternal rewards, and not have any thought in their minds that they deserve the rewards they are working for. He wants us to have hope and joy that our hardships are not in vain and that everything will be worth it, and yet be completely humble before God and before other believers. We’re supposed to seek rewards, but not link our rewards to our self worth. This is completely counter to human nature.

Our worth before God is not measured by the amount or quality of service we give to Him, but by His grace and generosity in saving and redeeming us.

I think there is some mindset of eternal humility here. I think it’s sort of like this. Our glory right now is like a match lit in a dark place. Maybe some people are even as glorious as a candle. But in eternal life we’re going to be exalted and made as big and bright as a bonfire. Maybe some people’s bonfires will be bigger than others. But all these bonfires will be orbiting a the sun at a distance of about 6 feet. God will be in heaven, so glorious, so exalted, so bright, that we will both enjoy the incredible glory we’ve been given, and at the same time have no thought of comparing ourselves or exalting ourselves over others because we’ll be in the blinding sunshine of God’s magnificence for all eternity. Who cares if my fire is bigger than yours, when the sun is right there infinitely outshining all of us?

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Support Raising Lesson #1

Doing is secondary to being. I tend to forget that. Doing what God wants me to do is a good thing, right? It’s obedience, and obedience is simple: “do these things, don’t do these other things.” So I try my hardest to obey, only to fail time and again. The reason I fail is simple: there are many things God wants me to do, that I don’t enjoy doing. I can only force myself to do things that are unpleasant, frightening or just plain boring for so long before I turn to find some comfortable, time wasting, fun distraction. If I focus on doing what God wants me to do without being the person He wants me to be I’m doomed to failure from the start. Who I am determines what I will do. But how can I focus on being something I am not yet? If who I am determines what I do, then there’s nothing I can do to change who I am. Left to my own I am doomed.

Thankfully God does not leave me alone. Only He can transform my heart and my desires so that I long to do the things that He commands. I can’t transform myself any more than I could make myself be born again, but I can go along with the transformation. I can chose not to resist it. I can get rid of the things that might slow it down. I can surrender the things that my flesh desires, and cast off any hope or dream that would distract me from doing what God wants me to do. I can find refreshment and encouragement and wisdom in God’s word. I can come before Him in prayer asking Him to work in my life, begging for a new heart that longs for His glory, and finds the greatest joy in His presence and in obeying His commands. And I can do that every single day, in fact I have to, because “my heart is prone to wander.”

But doesn’t doing all that land me right back where I started: with a focus on my own actions and exercising my own weak will? I don’t think so. In this case it is not about God giving the instructions and me following them. It’s about inviting and trusting that God is in the middle of those actions, giving me the strength to do them, that He is in me and working through me, that He commands, and then gives me the desire and the ability to obey, and for some inexpicable reason rewards me for doing so.

What does all this have to do with support raising? Support raising requires a lot of actions. I have to make phone calls, give presentations, speak at churches, write letters, and do many other things that are incredibly difficult for me. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the task before me, or to equate being a successful fund raiser with being a successful Christian. I presume that any ministry can fall into this same trap.

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A Twofold Return

This past Saturday was my Grandma’s funeral. I stayed up late the night before working on a slideshow of her life. 80 years in ten minutes. It was fascinating sorting through so many pictures of my Grandma that I’d never seen before, shuffling through her life from growing up in Okinawa, suddenly seeing my grandpa enter the pictures looking younger than I ever imagined he had been. Soon enough there were little girls, my aunts and my mom, all growing up, and my grandma, getting older year by year. It wasn’t long before my dad and my uncles strutted into the pictures and there Grandma was again, proudly watching her daughters get married. Then I finally came along, a dumb looking fat little infant, and things slowly started to look familiar. Grandma was older now, as old as I remembered her when I was old enough to remember anything. The final years raced by, and then I was down to my last picture, taken at my wedding reception in Huntington Beach 6 months ago. Grandma had wanted to come back to Japan to watch Tomo and I get married, but she had gotten sick the night before I left and had to stay in the hospital for a few days instead. I had been so excited at the thought of getting to be in Japan with Grandma.

She was really the reason I visited Japan for the first time. The first time I went to Japan, I went on a six week missions trip to teach English at a church in Tokyo. I didn’t go for any of the right reasons.  I didn’t go to minister to other people, or to share my faith, or help the church in Japan. I went because my Grandma was Japanese, and through her I had always had a curiosity and a positive impression Japanese culture. I went because hanging out in Japan with my brother, and visiting the country that was somehow a part of us, because of Grandma, sounded like the coolest summer trip I could think of. There was no way I was going to miss that.

When I got there, I struggled and I learned. I stepped further outside my comfort zone than I ever had. God used me to share my faith, and minister to other people. He gave me a love for the people of Japan, and a heart for the church there. I met my wife, and changed my career goals. But none of that was the motivation for going in the first place. God used Grandma and the heritage I inherited from her to push me into that life changing experience.

At the memorial service I heard a story I had heard a number of times before. My Grandma, when she was young, before World War II, had been befriended by some American missionaries from Texas. They shared the gospel with her, and she placed her faith in Christ. Maybe that had a little to do with my desire to go back to Japan as a missionary as well. God took her to the US to live. Her faith grew, but she never moved back to Japan. She had kids, and they never moved back to Japan. But my brother and I, God’s sending back. I suppose that’s a good investment. Japan lost one of its few believers 60 years ago but because of that, it’s getting two missionaries in return.

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New website! (…almost.)

Those of you who have visited this URL before might have noticed… 

..that David’s been working on the new look on our website! It’s still under construction and more contents will be added, but we’ve got the top page and blog so far. We are planning to add a download tab where you can go and download our newsletters, etc., and there will be our testimonies and more information on Japan too! We are hoping that this easier-to-manage website will be helpful in letting interested people know about our ministry and keeping them updated. So keep coming back to see what’s been added!

<Prayer update>

In my last post, I asked for prayer for David’s grandma. She passed away last Saturday after a week in the hospital. We are very sad but we are also happy for her for we know that she went to be with the Lord. Thank you all for your prayers.

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Back in California

It’s good to be home! Thank you so much for praying for us. We are back in California after two weeks of SEND’s Candidate Orientation Program in Michigan. We’ve been back since Saturday and been enjoying the nice, mild, southern California weather. I’m quick to get used to nice things I have (like this weather) and forget to thank God for it, so going to Michigan was a good reminder of that. (This is Tomo writing by the way)

David is working full-time this week and getting many computer-fixing jobs too. He left his phone when we went to Michigan so we thought he might be losing business. When we got back, however, we found out that he didn’t get a single phone call for computer job while he was gone. But once we got back, he already has 4 or 5 jobs lined up! God knows our schedule so well, doesn’t He? Since David started working part-time in September, it’s been really amazing to experience how God provides just enough amount of jobs for us.

I’ve been working on several things for our support-raising since I got back such as updating contacts and getting newsletters ready. I also made an appointment with DMV to take a test for a permit, which I am very excited about. Last time I went to the DMV office for the test, first I was mistaken for a 16-year-old, then I was handed a Spanish booklet on driving rules, and then was rejected to take the test because of my immigration status. This time, I’m definitely prepared to clear the third obstacle. Hopefully I will look old enough and Asian enough too. I’ve never driven because Tokyo has a great public transportation system, so getting a driver’s license is going to be another exciting adventure for me (Probably a nerve-wrecking one on David’s part). Another item on our agenda is for me to get a part-time job so it’ll be easier for both of us to spend more time on support discovery. I am hoping to work at a child-care facility. Anyways, that was a little update on what we’ve been up to since we got back from freezing Michigan.

And here is an important prayer request: David’s grandma has been very ill since we got back. She’s in the hospital right now. Please pray for God’s sovereign hand on her and the whole family.

Thanks again for your prayers! Hope your week is going well.

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Tomo was accepted!

Just a quick update to let everyone know, Tomo was accepted as a SEND missionary! She did great on all the evaluations she took, and the interview went really well also. There will be a ceremony on Thursday to make everything official. The rest of the week will consist of further training on support raising. Please continue to pray for God’s guidance as we try to work out a schedule for getting out to Japan, as well as strength for Tomo. It’s been a very exhausting week for her having to use so much English everyday, and this coming week looks to be just as hard. We’ve got a practice presentation we have to do in front of some SEND staff, and we’ll be giving our testimonies in Chapel.

Thank you for all your prayers! God is good!

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Michigan pictures

Here’s some pictures from Michigan! Lots of snow!

This is where we do tests, trainings, etc.

Some of the other candidates.. Heading to Spain, Ukraine, Kosovo, and Alaska

Tokyo time!

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Thank you for praying

Thank you all for praying for us!
Like David wrote last time, we’re in Michigan attending SEND’s COP (Candidate Orientation Program).
This is the third day into COP and I (Tomo) already feel exhausted.. The first two days were assessment. Yesterday, I took a Bible knowledge test first thing in the morning, which was very hard! I was running out of time as I was doing the essay section and I felt like crying. And as soon as the test was over, I was separated from David (!) and was told to go downstairs with half of the group to do case study, which was basically discussion. It was hard because the discussion was done in English and I was the only non-white, non-American person in the group. After the morning session was over, I had to go back to the room and cry for a little bit to get it all out of my system before joining everyone for lunch. We had a time after dinner to share our testimonies (there are 7 other candidates), which was very encouraging but it was again all in English. It was a loong day.

Today’s been less hectic. We got our picture taken for prayer cards and I met with a counselor in the morning. Now we’re waiting for our appointment with one of the personnel staff for a pre-interview interview.

This whole two weeks in a group of Americans sharing testimonies and being tested in a second language is certainly a challenge! I thank God for this challenge because “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope (Romans 5:3-4)”, I mean what I’m going through right now is nothing compared to the “suffering” that Paul had to go through, but still, you know.

Again, thanks for praying and please continue to pray for endurance and encouragement!