News

 

I know, it’s been way too long since I’ve made a blog post. But all that is about to change, because a lot has changed already. For instance, I’m married now. This is a wonderful thing, and even though I’ve only been married for about three weeks, I’m loving every second of it. Tomo has already become a great source of encouragement and motivation, and we’ve been talking a lot about how we’re going to get to Japan, and what our plans are going to look like. But I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself. Let me fill you in a little on the details first.

On May 30th, 2009, Tomo and I were finally married, after spnding an excruciatin ten months of our engagemtn on different continents. The wedding took place in Tokyo, Japan, in the same church that I first went to help on a short term missions trip back in 2003. I had no idea at that time that I would even return to Japan, much less come back again and again and eventually return to marry Tomo in the very same church I had been privilidged to serve on so many occasions. It was an incredible experience.

 This has some major implications for me as a future missionary to Japan. SEND requires that in the case of a married couple, both husband and wife join SEND as missionaries, and Tomo is in the process of doing so right now. We will both be going back to Japan as a missionary couple, working and serving together to plant churches in Japan. I am very, very happy with this arrangement. Transitioning to a new culture can be a daunting experience, and I am grateful that God is not sending me to Japan alone. Furthermore Tomo, being Japanese, will be an enormous help in learning the culture and language, and I feel that together we will be far more effective than either of us could have been alone. She is also very excited that God has provided a way for her to dedicate all of her time towards serving and building up the church in Japan and reaching her people. One consequence of this arrangement is that we will now need to raise approximately double the support that I would have had to raise on my own. This means that currently we are at about 15% of the total needed for us to go to Japan. Even though there is more to be raised, I am more motivated than ever to complete the support raising process, as Tomo and I are both very anxious to return to Japan and take part in the work that God is doing there even now. We have set a new goal of being fully supported and heading to Japan by the end of next year, 2010. Tomo will be attending SEND’s candidate orientation program in December, and will officially be appointed at that time as a SEND missionary. It seems that God is also opening the door for us to be able to dedicate 20 hours a week towards support raising as part of a new ten month program SEND is using to get their missionaries up to full support. We hope to get about 50% of our support raised before then, and raise the second half while on that program.

That about cathces ou up to speed on where we’re at and where God is taking us. One thing we’ve decided we need to be doing more often is keeping all of you updated, so we’ll be updating this blog faithfully every Monday night. So check back to hear from either Tomo or I what God has been doing in our lives, and what progress we’ve made in getting to Japan!

This post could be a lot of things. It could be an apology for not posting a blog update for so long. It could be a scriptural study on the importance of prayer, or a meditation on how vital prayer is to missions. But I don’t feel like writing any of those things at the moment. Instead I just want to share what a blessing it is to have so many of you praying for me, and to share two short, small, but incredibly encouraging examples of how God answers prayer.

 I just sent out a prayer update last night. I try to send these out to my supporters and prayer partners on a monthly basis, but this one was long over due. I’d been feeling a little lost in regards to exactly what I was supposed to be doing when it came to support raising, and it was about then I figured I could use some prayer, and remembered I was two months late in sending out an update. This morning I found two emails in my inbox, mixed in with the spam, forwards and day to day work stuff. One was from one of my supporters who, without me asking, just out of the blue said he wanted to double his support for me. The second was from a person who isn’t even on my prayer list, and so didn’t get the email I sent out last night. She said her and her husband had been praying yesterday, and decided they wanted to send some financial support to me for when I do eventually move to Japan.

So often I try so hard to do the things I think I’m supposed to be doing. I know God wants me to go to Japan, so I try to talk to people, and I send out newsletters, and hold meetings, but in the end, it’s all God’s work. Sometimes He uses my efforts, and sometimes He simply answers prayer. Those two little examples are not isolated incidents, things like that happen every time I send out a prayer update. It’s an interesting observation that more seems to happen after sending a quick email asking fifty people to pray, than after I spend hours writing, folding, stuffing, stamping, addressing and mailing a newsletter out to 150 people asking them to consider giving.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the low percentage of Christians in Japan. The latest figure that I’m aware of is from a 2006 survey by the Gallup organization, which found that 6% of the Japanese population claimed to be Christian. However it is also generally agreed that less than 1% of Japanese people attend a Christian church on a regular basis, and so most Pastors and missionaries that I know still believe the long standing statistic of 0.2% is the most accurate. 

 The question I have is: why? Missionaries have been active in Japan since the end of World War II. That’s about 60 years. Despite that fact, it seems that the percentage of Christians in Japan has not increased in those 60 years, and this is not from lack of effort. I’ve been over to Japan on 5 short term trips, all of which had the goal of at least in part increasing the number of Christians in Japan. More importantly all of those trips were to assist ministries that were going on all the time in Japan, so while I spent a few weeks out of the year there, work was being done by these organizations year round.

 Virtually every person I have talked with about Japan has informed me that it is one of the most difficult mission fields there is, that it is a very slow process requiring years of work. Most missionaries involved in planting churches currently plant one or two churches over the course of perhaps a 30 year career in missions in Japan. So why is that? I don’t know. I’m not sure anyone knows besides God.
One obstacle to Christianity is Japanese culture. Here is a chain of islands that has been populated since the Stone age, and yet over the course of its long history has had virtually no exposure to God. Some believe that missionaries arrived in Japan in the second century AD, however the first confirmed Christian presence in Japan was not until the later half of the 16th century. It’s possible that during that time around 1.5% of the population converted to Catholicism, but this was short lived. A few decades later Christianity was outlawed, and almost totally expelled from Japan. It would not be practiced openly again till the end of the 19th century.

 I mention all this because I come from a culture with nearly 2000 years of some form of Christian influence. If you trace western civilization from Rome, we find Rome being heavily influenced by Christianity, and later passing that on to Europe, and from Europe to the New World, and here I am. My culture is largely compatible with Christianity because it’s been embracing it for nearly two thousand years. Not so with Japan. Becoming a Christian in Japan means braking from many cultural beliefs; certain national holidays can no longer be celebrated, attitudes towards family have to be changed, customs concerning death and life have to be abandoned and even some traditional communal dances must be abstained from. So many parts of a normal Japanese lifestyle must be modified or abandoned in order to honor Christ.

I don’t believe that Japanese Culture is wholly incompatible with Christianity. But I do believe that many parts of it are, and thus it is one major stumbling block to the spread of the Gospel. If this is the case, then Japanese culture needs to find a godly outlet of expression. New songs need to be written which praise God. New dances must be created. God does not want to force a Western Culture upon the whole world, He wants every culture to express itself in its own unique way, to the purpose of praising and honoring Him. I’m really excited to have a Japanese sister-in-law who desire’s to compose original Japanese worship songs. I think this is precisely the kind of thing that needs to happen. And I hope that this next generation of Japanese Christians will be able to creatively redeem their culture in a way that honors God and resonates with the Japanese heart. I don’t know if that will “fix” the problem, but I think it will help. Be praying for them.

First off I’d like to thank you all for your support and prayers as I’ve been in the process of raising support to go to Japan full time as a missionary. It has been a very rewarding challenge, and I anticipate that the challenges and the rewards will continue until I make it Japan for good, Lord willing in 2010.

As I’ve mentioned before God developed in me a heart for the Japanese over the course of numerous short term trips. Each of these trips has been very encouraging, not merely for me, but for the teams I’ve been, and I believe the Japanese we have been able to minister to and touch, both those in the church and outside the church. For the last four years God has opened the door for me to go to Japan with the Jesus Film Project for a Christmas distribution project. In 2004, I was able to introduce the director of Jesus Film’s Short Term department to the church I had worked with previously, and paving the way for an annual partnership each December ever since. Also by God’s grace I’ve been able to return with every single team and assist in any way God enables me to. Once again, the Jesus Film will be sending a team to Tokyo, and once again, if the Lord wills, I’ll return. I anticipate that this will be my last short term missions trip to Japan before moving there to be involved in full time missions.

The Christmas season affords Christians an open door to reach the Japanese with the message of the Gospel. It is a Christian holiday, adopted by a culturally secular, religiously pagan people; the majority of which have little to no idea what it is all about. It is also a lonely time for many young Japanese, because in Japan it is often celebrated as something of a romantic holiday, to be spent with a person’s girlfriend or boyfriend, and those without anyone feel the sting of loneliness even more than usual.  It is (perhaps only) in this situation where a string of smiling American faces, wearing funny Santa hats, and passing out free Christmas music becomes an effective ministry strategy. The sheer volume of CDs that we distribute each year is staggering. Last year we distributed over 15 thousand CDs, each one containing not only Christmas music, but also clips of the Jesus Film, testimonies of Christian celebrities, and an invitation to attend a Christmas service at church.

Each year we always hear stories of people who received the CD, and came to the church service, and heard about Jesus Christ for the first time. Last year our team had the joy of meeting a young man who had been faithfully attending church since receiving a CD the year before, and was excited about getting baptized shortly. And for the other thousands who received CDs, it was I believe part of a larger work by God to begin introducing Himself to millions who have never heard of Him before.

I am excited to go back and be involved in this project one last time, just as I am excited to go to Japan full time to reach these same people. Please be praying for the trip, and for God to provide the needed support to go. Also, the team is comprised of primarily men, and the team leader has expressed that he would like to get some more women to go, so if any of you lady’s out there is up for a trip to Japan this December,  check out the trip on the Jesus Film Mission Trips website!

If any of you would like to support me for just this one trip, you can do so through Paypal by clicking the button below! Thank you all so much!

I just stumbled across an interesting article from the Washington Post:

Learn to be Nice to Your Wife or Pay the Price

For quite some time now divorce has been tragically high among retired people in Japan. The reason is largely due to corporate culture, in which men work long hours in the city, and then spend time drinking with collegues until late at night. This is the accepted norm for the “Salary men” in  Japan, to leave work earlier or to skip out hanging out with ones collegues could jeopordize advancement opportunities. So often a man will leave for work early in the morning and not arrive home until after 10:00pm at night, every night.

The consequence is that after decades of marriage during which time husband and wife essentially never see each other, when it comes time to retire it is as if they are living with a complete stranger. Quite frequently such a marriage will end in divorce. A new law taking effect this year has for the moment worsened this situation. Wives are now entitled to half of their husbands pensions should they get divorced. Since the law took effect divroce has gone up 6%. A potential positive side effect of this is that husbands will now work harder to preserve their marriages as they also seek to preserve their cash flow.

However, the root cause of this, as I see it, is idolatry. These men are trapped by a culture that encourages them to dedicate their lives, heart and soul, to a company. The company becomes the central focus of life. Their social circle consists of co-workers and supervisors; they live to advance and be promoted and at the end they are left with nothing but shattered marriage and their pensions. The company tosses them aside, and recruits new, young lives to dominate, luring them with the empty promises of success and fullfillment. These men are worshipping the wrong thing. They need to hear about Christ.

Christ alone can heal their marriages, and restore a right balance to their living. Christ alone can give them peace and satisfaction; not in financial security or pride in their own accomplishments, but in knowing Him, and hoping in His promises and blessings, which are so much better than merely hoping that their wives won’t divorce them and that they won’t lose half or their pension.

Support has been coming in a little slow the last few months, so I’m looking for new people to contact and talk to, in order to see if they would interested in joining my team, partnering together to reach the Japanese. This is where you can be of help. If you could do one of these two things, that would help me immensely, and even more important, you’d be taking part in missions – God’s plan to reach the world for Christ. So here’s the two ways you can help:

1. Send me the name, address and phone number of who I should contact at your church to see if they would be willing to support me or allow me to come speak sometime.

2. If you are involved with a small group or Bible study, arrange to have me come talk for a little bit about Japan, and the needs over there, at one of your meetings.

#1 is easy. #2 is a little more difficult, especially for those of you who haven’t met me in person. To that end I’d love to get the chance to meet with any of you in person prior to coming to talk at your Bible study, just drop me a line. And for those of you who are out of the area, and would still like to help in this regard, let me know, it may take some planning, but if I can line up a few other opportunities to meet people in your area I could make a special trip out of it.

This is something I can’t do on my own. God will have to do it for me, and I fully believe that His favorite method of supplying is through His people. I see this as an exciting opportunity to partner with you and your church to impact people thousands of miles away with the Gospel of Christ, and that this is precisely what God wants to happen.

Also, please pray for me. Pray that God would give me the perseverance and diligence to keep pressing on, and pray that He would provide many more people willing to partner with me to spread the gospel throughout Japan. And that’s really what this is all about. Finally, please be praying for the churches I will be contacting in the near future, that God will both provide for them to the extent that they will be able to participate in sending missionaries to other countries, and that God will move in the hearts of their leadership and members to send me to Japan.

Hi everyone, this is Tomo in Tokyo!

Here’s some cultural stuff!

Last weekend, the Shinto shrine in my neighborhood had a summer festival or Omatsuri.

I woke up to the sound of Ohayashi (Omatsuri music with little drums, flutes, and some bells) on Friday and I could hear the Ohayashi all through the weekend.

This festival marks the end of summer, and people give thanks to the gods for safety over the summer and pray for a rich harvest in the fall to come, or they used to. Now people don’t even think about harvest, maybe just a few hardcore people.

Every Shinto shrine has its own tradition of this end-of-summer festival and some get pretty spectacular. Like Gion-matsuri in Kyoto or Nebuta-matsuri in Aomori. You could check them out if you’re interested. 

The shrine in my town throws just an ordinary Omatsuri,

with carrying around of Omikoshi (shrine replica) (below),

(These men are not wearing short skirts, just in case you were wondering. These are jackets. Technically they’re wearing a jacket and an underwear called fundoshi, and no pants. Fundoshi is similar to what Sumo wrestlers wear, with their butts showing and all. These guys are totally allowed to walk around with their butts exposed in public during the festival. It’s ok, it’s cultural.)

and many vendors that sell food and toys and stuff.

 

My Christian parents used to not let me go to these festivals when I was a child and I remember really wanting to go. So now that I’m allowed to, I love going to these festivals. It’s like trying to catch up on all the fun I missed out on. 

My parents had good reasons to do that though. It’s not only a Shinto event, but it’s also an important source of income for the yakuza‘s, the Japanese mafia or gangs. So whatever you buy at the festival, it basically helps the shrine and the mafia. 

I guess it’s one of the examples of Japanese Christians’ cultural dilemma.

That’s all for now. 

Jaane 🙂

One of the things God has been showing me lately is  how necessary a strong spiritual foundation is to serving Him in any capacity. It’s like I keep trying to isolate church, and prayer and Bible reading, and work, and support raising each into their own individual environments.I have a tendency to try to live as if one thing doesn’t have an impact on another, as if I can skip prayer and devotion and still be able to raise support, or be useful in the church. But I’m begining to see is that if I sleep in and miss my devotions, or if I slack off at work, or if I tune out dad’s message at church on Sunday, or ignore my responsibilities in support raising, or put together a half hearted message for youth group on Thursday nights, or skate by in any one area of my life, everything else suffers as well.

It’s all or nothing. Either I am living for Christ, in the word, serving Him boldly, faithfully and diligently, or I’m just barely getting by. I’m either soaring or crashing. And though it’s a struggle to get into the right mindset, and to get into actively striving to follow Christ, once I do, that’s when I start to see God work, and that joy and excitement can keep me where God wants me to be. This sort of all came together for me the other day when I was reading through John, and came to the part where Christ said:

 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

As I read this, I was considering the problem of raising support, as I have found myself doing more and more lately. I like to plan out strategies, make plans, and try to follow through. I like to work it out on my own, and pray, hoping that God will bless my efforts. The solution however wasn’t in my plans. The solution was to abide in Chirst, and let His word abide in me, then He promised to do whatever I asked. And I have been, and still am asking that He bring in the support I need to serve Him in Japan. I alwas figured it wasn’t an unreasonable request, I want to go serve God overseas, but I can’t till I raise the support. But that’s a secondary issue. The real issue is that I can’ t be a missionary and serve God if I’m not abiding in Christ. I could win the lottery and move to Japan, but I wouldn’t be any sort of a missionary if I wasn’t abiding in Christ. If I wasn’t trusting Him, and striving to follow His example, and studying His words, and living them out, I wouldn’t be of any use on the mission field. 

So maybe, just maybe, the reason I’m still here, and not there, is so that I can learn to abide in Christ. So that I can learn to abide in Christ by doing my devotions every single morning of every single day. So that I can learn to abide in Christ as I strive to work hard and diligently at the Jesus Film Project, 8:30AM to 5:00PM  Monday through Friday. So that I can learn to abide in Christ in while preparing and teaching lessons, and disciping high school students on Thursday nights, and abide in Christ by fellowshipping with people at Church on Sundays, so that I can learn to abide in Christ every second of every day in every activity, so that when I get to Japan, and face the toughest challenges and most demanding hardships I have ever faced, I will do so not trusting in myself, or relying on my own skills or abilities, but that I will do so abiding in my Savior, who has already conquered the world, and has made me more than a conqueror with Him. Praise God that He doesn’t send me off to Japan without preparing me.

For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.
Psalms 84:11

This is Tomo and I have some missions updates from Tokyo!

Last weekend, I worked at a Jr. & Sr. High English camp at a Christian retreat center in West Tokyo called Okutama Bible Chalet (OBC).  OBC was built in 1960 by SEND International and has been used as a Christian retreat center ever since. Every summer, OBC hosts many camp programs. This year, there were some 13 camps, most of which were for children.  I’ve been going to OBC every summer to work as a counselor and this was my fourth year. There were 27 kids, most of them Jr. High kids (13 to 15 years old) and a couple Sr. High kids (16 to 18). There were 8 boys and 19 girls. 

We had many fun programs such as English classes,

chapel time,

 

skit night,

and games.

We also had rafting, one of OBC’s most popular activities,

cooking class,

campfire,

smores,

pool, craft, and so on.  This year’s Jr. & Sr. High English Camp was a rather challenging one, because we had one girl on a wheelchair, and her twin sister who also had some kind of disability. Then on the day before the camp started, the camp staff were told that one boy from Taiwan was coming. When all the campers arrived at OBC, we learned that the boy only understood Mandarin Chinese. However, as it turned out, God sent as counselors a pastor’s wife who used to be a nurse who was able to help the girl on the wheelchair, and a girl from Hong Kong who spoke both English and Mandarin, who was able to help the boy from Taiwan. It was pretty amazing to see how God provided for the needs of the campers, even ones that us staff didn’t really expected.  

What was really exciting was that there were many non-Christian kids as well as some Christian kids. On the questionnaire that the campers filled out on the last day, 8 kids checked on “I want to accept Jesus as my savior”. One boy was very open about it and said so during cabin time, and one of the counselors was able to pray with him and tell him a little bit about what it meant to be a Christian. Non-Christian kids in Japan know very little about Christianity or Christians, and a lot of follow-up is needed for them to know more about it and gradually find a church they can regularly attend.

Please pray that those kids who came to OBC this summer will continue to be interested in the Gospel, and will be able to come back next summer.

Jaane 🙂