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Most Japanese people know very little about Christianity. They almost never come across someone who claims to be a Christian, so a lot of people get curious when I (Tomo) tell them I’m a Christian and ask me questions. Here are some of the questions many people asked me.

“Have you read the Bible?”  A lot of people know that “the Bible” is the sacred book of Christianity. But they think it’s like any other book that you read from cover to cover once, or more if you really like it. Most of them don’t know that the Bible is made up of many different books. One time, I made a purse and embroidered Psalm 18:46 on it in English, and a friend of mine asked me if I finished making it at 6:46 in the evening. So I explained that it was a quote from the Bible and the numbers meant “Chapter 18 Verse 45” in a book called Psalms.

“Do you have a Christian name?”  I get this a lot. They’re thinking of baptismal names.

“Do you have to wear a robe at church?”  They were thinking of a robe that a priest or choir wears. They probably get this image from movies. For a lot of people, foreign movies (mostly American movies) are the primary source of information about Christianity.

“Moses, right?”  A friend of mine from high school knew that the word “Moses” had something to do with Christianity. I told her that Moses is a person in the Bible who parted the sea and she was pretty impressed, although she probably didn’t think I seriously believed it really happened.

“What’s the difference between Catholic and Protestant?”  This is one of the most common questions that I get asked.

“Is your dad gaijin (American/European)?”  I got this from a coffee shop manager at a job interiew when I told him my dad was a pastor. I told him no but he still thought it was cool and hired me.

“Is everything done in English at church?”  A lot of people associate Christianity with Western culture. When they think of Christians they think of Caucasian missionaries or a priest who performs weddings. 

“What do you do at church?”  One time when I was asked this when I was in elementary school, I said “we sing songs”. Then my puzzled friend asked me “What do you guys sing about?” So I said “We sing about God”. She looked like she was weirded out and she didn’t ask me about church again. In fact she didn’t really talk to me much after that. I was like, “Dang it, I should’ve said we hang out with other kids and eat lunch!”

Today Tomo and I went to the USCIS offices in Santa Anna to interview for her green card, and she was approved! It’s been a pretty time consuming process (to put it lightly), however we were somewhat amazed that throughout the entire process everything went as smoothly as it could. We are really praising God for this, as we have heard many stories of people with nightmare experiences trying to navigate the maze of immigration documents and procedures you have to go through.

We started applying for a visa for Tomo last summer, and after getting married and moving to the U.S. we then had to apply for an adjustment of status to permanent resident (Green Card). All in all it took just over a year or mailing forms back and forth from here to Japan or to the U.S. offices. But again, every interview went smoothly, we made all the application deadlines, and the government somehow managed to do things even a little ahead of schedule.

One of the “fun” things we had to do in all this was constantly prove that Tomo was not paying me to marry her so that she could get a green card. We had to submit emails, letters, photos of us at various stages in our relationship, and anything else to prove we really wanted to marry each other.

Things got off to a rough start this morning; we arrive a half hour ealry, but as we approached the Federal building in Santa Anna there was a huge line, and no one was being allowed inside, not even employees. As we waited in line I nervously watched the security guards placing caution tape around the building, effectively locking all of us on the inside of the danger zone, all the while hearing whispers about chemicals and gas. After waiting an hour for HazMat to come check everything out, watching news photographers walk around while helicopters circled overhead, and two guys being led out of the building in hand cuffs, we were finally allowed to go in. Still not sure exactly what happened. But after this slightly nerve wracking delay, everything turned out ok.

This last interview was one last check up to make sure we had a real marriage before granting her a (conditional) green card. We had to show pictures of the wedding (with all the guests that witnessed it), and that we opened up a joint bank account (Apparently this is what the government sees as the ultimate sign of trust).  After a nice twenty minute chat the interviewer was satisfied that there wasn’t anything fishy going on and she approved Tomo’s application for a green card.

It almost seems like a waste that we’re going to be going back to Japan next year, after putting so much effort into getting the green card, but as far as we could tell there wasn’t any other type of Visa we could get that would allow Tomo to stay in the U.S. for a year. This is a huge answer to prayer, as this has been a constant struggle to do everything exactly right. God has been so faithful to provide for us recently and we are trusting and relying on Him to continue to do so as we raise support to go serve Him in Japan.

As I learn more about Japanese culture, and begin to think about what ministry will be like over there, I’ve come to realize that approaches that are almost considered sacred here, in Japan would likely prove to be almost wholly ineffective. Particularly in the area of Evangelism, where Christians in America have devoted much time to developing strategies of effectively communicating the truth of the gospel to people who have not yet believed.

For instance, when you’re trying to share your faith with someone, what do you start with? If you’re with Campus Crusade for Christ, you probably begin with: “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” Others may start with sin, to explain the need for a savior. Almost always we will want to get to Jesus very shortly. However, the only reason we are able to get away with that here is because our culture has not only some idea of who God is, but WHAT a God is. As Tomo wrote in the previous post, Japanese people are at a disadvantage here.

Culturally Japanese believe in many, many different gods. Gods that have flaws, and strengths, gods that meddle in human affairs, gods that ought to be appeased, or if possible ignored and left alone. If you start with God’s love, or sin, or Jesus in attempting to explain the gospel, the odds of encountering some serious misunderstandings are quite high. So where should we start? And even more important, does the Bible give us any ideas on how to reach people from such a radically different worldview?

I think it does. In Acts 17:22-31, Paul (a Jew) addresses the men of Athens (Greeks). Greeks believed in many gods, gods who had flaws, gods who meddled in human affairs, gods who needed to be appeased, and perhaps at times better off just ignored. So where does Paul start? With God; explaining exactly who the God he’s talking about is. This is the God who created everything, who is Lord of both Heaven and Earth, a God who does not live in temples made by man, and does not require the service of men but instead is the God who gives all men life and breath. In short, Paul is talking about a God whom the Athenians had never imagined, a God totally unlike their concept of god. It’s not until the very last verse that he mentions Christ, and then only vaguely, making sure NOT to say that Christ is the Son of God, or that He was God (lest the Greeks, think Jesus was a son of a god like Hercules, or serperate god in Paul’s pantheon).

I think this is the approach Christians would need to take in Japan: starting with explaining who God is. And it may take a number of conversations before we could move on to, sin, what God wants for us, or what Christ has done.

About two weeks ago David and I attended Reaching Japanese for Christ conference, where we ran into a Japanese lady whom I made acquaintance with through international students’ ministry last year when I was attending UCI. She talked about communication barriers between American believers and Japanese non-believers. And I just wanted to share some of that because we thought that was very interesting. One of the things she talked about was that the words like “God”, “sin”, or “love” have different meanings in Japanese culture and statements like “God loves you” doesn’t make any sense to many Japanese without first explaining what kind of “God” you’re talking about.

 The word “god” in Japanese is “kami”, which was originally a word for Shinto gods. When Christianity was brought to Japan, they translated the word “God” to “kami”. But these two concepts actually have no similarities whatsoever, except that they are not human. There’s a saying in Japanese that there are “eight million gods” meaning that there are many gods. There are gods everywhere, in a mountain, river, boulder, tree, animals, wind and fire. Sometimes Japanese made certain humans gods after they were deceased, usually to soothe their spirits because people feared that their souls were angry and causing bad things to happen. “Kami” are feared for their supernatural powers but not necessarily revered. Another saying in Japanese goes “Untouched gods can do no harm”, which means something like “let sleeping dogs lie”. In other words, the primary reason people have anything to do with gods is to keep them quiet. Obviously, “god” in Japanese mind can have many humanly faults, and there is no personal relationships between the gods and the people.

The only true God that we’re talking about has no flaws. He is God who is perfectly holy, and has personal relationships with humans. Thus “God loves you” is a great assurance and comfort. But in Japanese context, it just sounds odd and people might think, “Which god loves me? For what? And what does it mean to me? I’d rather not be loved by that god because I don’t want anything weird in my life.” So before telling them that “God” loves them, we might want to take time to explain who God is. We thought that was very interesting and something important to remember when we are sent to Japan to do His work.

I hope everyone will have a good rest of the week! (Oh by the way, this is David and Tomo’s missionary blog that’s linked to David’s facebook. Sometimes people get confused 🙂

Prayer is something I never really have been that purposeful about. I pray a lot, but I have the attention span of a two year old. I pray for something once, and then forget all about it. I tell people I’ll pray for them, and half time I won’t remember to. Sometimes God answers prayer and I thank Him for it once but a week later I’ve forgotten all about it. A few weeks ago I realized that I could probably stand to improve in that area. So, I decided to start a prayer journal. Below are the prayers that God has answered so far, both positively and negatively. There are many more that I have written down that I’m still waiting for an answer for, but so far, this is what God has done:

“Yeses”

1. My first prayer request was for some extra money to afford to buy a journal. I had already spent my budgeted spending money, and since my full time job was set to become my part time job, and our income was expected to drop dramatically, I didn’t want to go over budget. Notlong after that I found my spare change stash that had been sitting in a box for about a year and a half, which I used to purchase my journal, and thanked God for providing.

2. Technically this one is still in progress, but one of my first requests was naturally that God would provide enough income in September for Tomo and I to get by. I didn’t have any leads on a new job, so I started a little computer repair business. So far business has been just good enough that God has provided for all our financial needs.

3. That Tomo could take Bible Classes and Calvary Chapel RSM. God opened the doors for her to do so, and she’s now attending.

4. That God would provide a working vehicle for us. My car has been on its last leg for about a year, so I’ve been worried about what would happen when it finally goes out. I thought about trying to do a cash for clunkers deal, and taking out a loan to get a new one, but it just didn’t feel right given that we were trying to get out of debt (school loans) so that we could go on the mission field. I decided to pray about it, and literally about 2 hours later God led a co-worker to call us out of the blue and offer us their old, working car for free. I hadn’t told anyone I needed a car.

5. A friend of mine was raising support to go on a one year internship with Campus Crusade in Japan, doing missions work. He’d been raising support for about 6 months, and he still had about 75% left to raise, and only 2 weeks before he was supposed to leave. Since Campus Crusade works with Students, he had to be over there before the school year started or he would be forced to wait till the following year. I’m still waiting to hear how it all went down, but he’s in Japan, fully supported, God brought in all his remaining support in two weeks.

“No’s”

1. I was praying that a friend of mine would get a job, which he did not get.

The rest are still in process, but looking back at this so far I am totally blown away at how faithful God is to answer prayer. In the grand scheme of things, most of these prayer requests are very small things. But God still listened, provided, and I praise Him for it. I am more confident than ever before that God can take care of His children, that He is taking care of us, and that He will provide for us.

  And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
1John 5:14-15

This is plain, practical fact.

We went to a Japanese supermarket in Costa Mesa yesterday and bought Japanese lunch boxes. David is very impressed at his new Japanese lunch box as it comes with a chopsticks case built in on the lid. We also found some English writing on it. It says,

“Trad Club – My mind is relaxed. An orthodox beauty.”

I got a pink, glittery little lunch box and it also has an English writing on it. Mine goes,

“Sweet Club – Function Designs”.

So I guess now David’s in the Trad Club and I’m in the Sweet Club. Not sure what the rest of it means. If you ever go to Japan, you should keep an eye out for these funny English phrases on various products. A lot of the things you’ll see will have English writings on them, and most of the time you’ll find yourself entertained. They’re just, really random, often grammatically incorrect, strings of English words. I’m really curious how they come up with these phrases.

By the way, today is national holiday in Japan. (Well, technically it was yesterday because they’re a day ahead of us.) It’s called something like “Respect for the elders day”. I usually call my grandparents and say hi, but this year I sent a postcard with a California sunset and palm trees on the back. I think it’s a cool holiday. Two days after the Elders Day is the Autumnal Equinox Day, which is also a national holiday. So the government decided to just make the day in between them a national holiday too. And since the Elders Day was Monday this year, people in Japan are enjoying a 5-day weekend right now. So, Happy Elders Day everyone! I hope you all have a nice week.

I was reading Jeremiah in my devotions the other day and came accross a very “vivid” object lesson God gave to the people of Israel and Judah. In chapter 13 God tells Jeremiah to go buy a loincloth and put it on. Jeremiah obeys God’s strange request and gets himself a new set of underwear and puts it on. God then tells him to hide it in some rocks near the Euphrates river. Again, an odd request, but Jeremiah obeys. Finally, some time later, maybe days, possibly weeks, God tells Jeremiah to go get it. Jeremiah digs it up and says:

“And behold, the loincloth was spoiled; it was good for nothing.”
Jeremiah 13:7b

No kidding. It’s been sitting by a river, probably muddy, damp and moldy by this time, a smelly, disgusting pair of underwear that no one is ever going to put on again. It’s humourous at first to hear all this talk about spoiled loincloths, but the point God makes is pretty graphic.

  “Thus says the LORD: Even so will I spoil the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing.
Jeremiah 13:9 -10

Now, my first thought on reading this passage was that God’s point was that because Judah had fallen away from God and worshipped idols, this would cause them to become worthless and disgusting to Him, like a spoiled loincloth. This is close, but things are subtley different.

  For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the LORD, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.
Jeremiah 13:11

Here’s a shocking statement. God made Israel to be like his underwear. And the point of underwear is that it clings. It stays on good and tight. Judah’s refusal to cling to God made them like a loincloth that wouldn’t stay on. God fastened them to Himself, and they abandoned Him. So because they were not serving the function they were supposed to God was about to cast them off and leave them to rot till they were not only like non-functioning underwear, they would be like spoiled, disgusting, non-functioning underwear, utterly devoid of any use or value.

This is a difficult illustration. It’s hard not to laugh at it, but at the same time it’s very vivid, and converys how disgusting and damaging sin is. Even though this was given to send a message to Judah, I think it also accurately conveys the overall state of humanity. All of us were created with the purpose to cling to God and bring Him glory. Yet we have all fallen short of that, and abandoned God. So God tossed us aside and left us in our sin for a time till we became rotten and disgusting. But then He did something unthinkable. He picked us up, washed us off, repaired us, and tied us back around His waist, so that through Christ we might actually become for Him a people, a name, a praise, and a glory.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
1 Peter 2:9-10

This last weekend Tomo and I went to a conference put on by Reaching Japanese for Christ, an organization whose primary mission is to reach out to Japanese while they are in the U.S. and sending them back to be a witness for Christ in their native country.

My favorite speaker was Pastor Nakagawa, a pastor from Tokyo who has a fairly large television ministry. In his opening talk he gave some up very up to date information and statistics about the current state of Christianity in Japan, and also hinted at some encouraging trends that may indicate that Japan may finally be able to open up to Christ. I love stats, so here are some of the ones he gave. There are 7,987 protestant churches in Japan, with an average membership of 64.3 people, and an average weekly attendance of 40.9 people. Recent surveys have found that over 20% of the Japanese say they have a favorable opinion of Christianity, while 4% actually claimed to be Christian.

Some quick math shows a fairly large discrepancy with the statistics of Christians vs. the people actually going to Church. We find that 0.4% of the Japanese population is members of churches, while on a given Sunday 0.2% actually attend a church. This is more in line with the statistics that most missionaries and pastors that I know in Japan still hold up as accurate. It’s encouraging that 4% of the population identifies themselves as Christians, but they aren’t in church… so where are they? Pastor Nakagawa also acknowledged that the actual percentage of believers is much lower than 4%.

His opening statement really caught my attention, because he stated out loud something I had long suspected. To paraphrase, he stated that he did not believe anyone knows exactly why the gospel has not penetrated very deeply into Japan. I think that is something that is very important to keep in mind, because it means that we haven’t figured out the best way to reach the Japanese with the Gospel. Protestants have been in Japan for 150 years, and Catholics even longer, yet the percentage of Christians has never really changed in that time. For whatever reason, the strategies for reaching people for Christ that work in other parts of the world don’t work in Japan.

This leads to one other thing that I really took away from this conference, and that is how radically different the Japanese culture is from our own. To most of us, Japanese people might seem a little formal, maybe a little shy or awkward sometimes, very driven and intelligent, and to a degree these stereotypes are all true, however this only scratches the surface. The world view and culture of the Japanese is so different from our own that I think it would be most helpful to assume that we were from not merely different continents, but different planets. It’s as if Japans philosophy, culture and ideals developed without any knowledge or influence from our own, and vice versa, and historically this isn’t far from he truth.

I could go on for quite a bit longer, but for the sake of time I’ll stop here, and invite any comments or discussion. I’ve said some things that I didn’t have time to contextualize, so it’s possible I might sound a little heretical. Call me on it; I’m just itching for a chance to clarify.

All in all it was a really encouraging and beneficial conference, and only increased my desire to get over there and begin ministering to the Japanese.

It’s September! I don’t know if things are going fast or slow. Sometimes it feels like it’s way too fast, sometimes way too slow.

David and I are starting some new things from September, which is very exciting. First of all, David is starting his computer repair business because his hours at Jesus Film project got cut down to half. He’s really good at fixing computers. I can’t give you any furthur descriptions about how good he is or what he can do because I have no idea, but I know he’s really good and a lot of people have called him a genius or hero or something like that after he fixed their computers. So if you ever need a hero who can fix all your (computer) problems, you should call him up. We are hoping and praying that this will work out.

And God opened the door for me to take Bible classes at a nearby Calvary Chapel from next week. SEND requires the spouse to have some Bible education too, and I found some of their requirement classes offered there. I’m going to be taking Systematic Theology, Hermaneutics, and Biblical Counseling. I’m very, very excited and thankful for this opportunity because I’ve been having a little bit of a hard time finding things to do during the day lately since I’m still waiting for my work permit (probably for another couple months). Also, I will try and get a permit and start practicing driving. I’m taking the test next Wednesday. It’s all very exciting.

For the immigration stuff, I received a letter from USCIS last week telling us to come to an interview in October. They also told me to bring a bunch of documents to prove my eligibility to apply for a green card. It’s nice to see that things are in progress, but it also makes me think; “Just how many times do they have to see my birth certificate to be sure?” This will be the fourth time. But that’s just how it works, and all is good, because God’s in control of this situation. 

I want to share this verse from my devotions. 1 Timothy 6:17 “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everthing for our enjoyment.” It reminded me that God is the provider and that He provides us with not just what we need to barely get by, but “everything for our enjoyment”. And this is certain. Uncertainness always makes me anxious and so many things seem uncertain to me right now. But then this verse reminded me that God’s provision and love is the only thing that is certain and I’d always be anxious if I kept trying to make uncertain things certain.

OK, I’m gonna make lunch now. Hope you all have a nice week!

I’ve been thinking a lot about my purpose lately. Not my purpose in life, I already know that (to Glorify God and to enjoy Him forever), but more specifically, my purpose in being where I am right now, which is to say, still in America. Keeping in mind the purpose of my life, it’s simple to say that God’s purpose in putting me here in America is to glorify and enjoy Him, however the question remains… why? Why here and why now? Well, that’s actually pretty straightforward too.

 Tomo and I are here in America (I believe by God’s design) to prepare for a lifetime of service to Him on the mission field. A number of things need to happen before we leave. Chief among these is that Tomo still needs to join SEND. She’s sent in her application already, and Lord willing she will be appointed in January. Second, we need to raise a lot more support. Third, we both have some school loans that SEND would like us to pay off prior to leaving, so we’re working hard to do that. Finally, I believe God is using this time to prepare Tomo and I spiritually for the rigors of missionary life ahead. These are all things that I have begun to pray for in earnest, and I am confident that once God has answered all these prayers we will be ready to go to Japan and participate in the work of spreading the Gospel to the ends of the earth, in order that more worshippers may add their voices to ours in praising our Great God.

Lord willing, we will be ready to leave by the end of next year. While I am certain God will be using us to minister here in America during that time, everything is heading in the direction of Japan. And as each day goes by I am more excited about getting over there. For the first time in my life I decided to start a prayer journal, so that I can remember to pray daily for Japan, for more supporters, for friends and family. I can’t wait to see and record how God answers prayers. If there’s anything I can be praying for you, just let me know, I’ve got a lot of pages to fill!

 Reading: Jeremiah and Exodus for morning devotions, Let the Nations be Glad for further edification.