We arrived home on Thursday night, October 26. There were no problems with our flight out of Narita; however, the flight out of Chicago back to Indy was a different story. We originally were scheduled to fly out at 3:45 pm Chicago time. Thanks to a delay in retrieving our baggage from the international leg of the trip, we missed our scheduled flight back to Indy by about ten minutes. United put us on the next flight out, scheduled for a 4:55 pm departure. Unfortunately, bad weather kept us from even pulling away from the gate until around 7:45 pm. We arrived in Indy at 9:30 pm. Still, we did not pull into our driveway until close to 11:00 pm. Door to door, the entire trip took almost 20 hours.
Now that we're home we're working on adjusting to the difference in time. With the end of daylight savings time, Japan is now 14 hours ahead of the clock here in Indiana.
Our trip overall was blessed of God. We have returned home with a ton of information that will be helpful for going forward with our plans. We are grateful to all who prayed for us and supported us in so many ways. Now it's time to ask the Lord for "something greater" in Japan.
Monday, October 30, 2006
More on Sunday at Megumi Baptist
After worship on Sunday, we ate dinner with the church family. The food was delicious, including the special little offerings prepared just for us. I'm talking about octopus, which proved to be quite tasty. The people in the church didn't think I would be willing to eat octopus, so they all watched in disbelief as I picked some up with my chopsticks and ate it. Like I said, it's pretty good!
Soon Dale and the ladies left for the home of one of the church members. The ladies had planned to have a tea party after dressing Dale up in a kimono. Meanwhile, the men of the church sat with me, asking about my testimony and about our burden for Japan. As we interacted, one thing became clear. Like so many others we talked to, these men also have been beaten down by the situation in Japan. Don't get me wrong. They are good men. They love the Lord, and they certainly are being faithful in their service. But the work in so slow and so difficult that talk of something great happening for the Lord's work there is just that--only talk. I came away from this meeting with an even stronger determination to pray for the Lord to manifest his power in Japan. Japan is a difficult place for Christianity, but we cannot let it be said, or even thought, that any place in this wide world is too difficult for our Lord. The same power that brought Jesus back to life after his crucifixion is the power contained in the Gospel. And that power can do its work in Japan, as well as in any place on the earth.
This is all the more reason to pray for Japan and for the Lord to show the power of his exaltation there. In Acts 1, after Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to the apostles and to give them his power for ministry, the aspostles returned to Jerusalem and did two things: they prayed and they got themselves organized in order to be ready when the Lord's power broke out. Similarly, we need to pray and we need to get this future ministry to Japan organized so we can be ready too.
Soon Dale and the ladies left for the home of one of the church members. The ladies had planned to have a tea party after dressing Dale up in a kimono. Meanwhile, the men of the church sat with me, asking about my testimony and about our burden for Japan. As we interacted, one thing became clear. Like so many others we talked to, these men also have been beaten down by the situation in Japan. Don't get me wrong. They are good men. They love the Lord, and they certainly are being faithful in their service. But the work in so slow and so difficult that talk of something great happening for the Lord's work there is just that--only talk. I came away from this meeting with an even stronger determination to pray for the Lord to manifest his power in Japan. Japan is a difficult place for Christianity, but we cannot let it be said, or even thought, that any place in this wide world is too difficult for our Lord. The same power that brought Jesus back to life after his crucifixion is the power contained in the Gospel. And that power can do its work in Japan, as well as in any place on the earth.
This is all the more reason to pray for Japan and for the Lord to show the power of his exaltation there. In Acts 1, after Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to the apostles and to give them his power for ministry, the aspostles returned to Jerusalem and did two things: they prayed and they got themselves organized in order to be ready when the Lord's power broke out. Similarly, we need to pray and we need to get this future ministry to Japan organized so we can be ready too.
Sunday at Megumi Baptist Church
We drove with Mrs. Sato Sunday morning to Megumi Baptist Church in Tama City, where Pastor Yuasa serves. The church rents space on the second floor of a building. The room, which measured approximately 25' x 35', gets set up as Sunday school first with an adult class, a children's class, and a class for junior and senior high students. After Sunday School, the chairs are rearranged to form to sections with several rows each of about five or six chairs. There were a little more than 30 in attendance for worship.
The church is making plans to purchase land and to build its own building. One of the problems with their current situation is parking. They were amaze to discover that HHBC has nearly 180 parking spaces situated on 26 acres of land. They have only 5 or 6 spaces alloted to them in the parking area next to the building where they rent. This leads me to share the story of one of Mrs. Sato's sons, Daigo, the oldest, who faithfully attends church each Sunday. Daigo lives near the center of Tokyo, where he works in sales for an IT company. He drives 1-1/2 hours one way to church each Sunday. Along the way, he must pay approximately $15 in tolls. When he arrives, he pays about $12 for the day to park in a public parking lot about 4 blocks from the church. Daigo told me even if he arrived at the church in time to use one of the 5 or 6 spaces alloted to them, he still would park in the pay lot so older people and families with young children could use the other spots.
I told Daigo that I admired his faithfulness to the Lord. I drive 15 minutes to our church and have never paid to park for any church service ever. He drives 1-1/2 hours, pays $15 in tolls, and another $12 to park, and then no doubt tithes on top of it all.
Daigo's situation is representative of a set of even larger problems for young Japanese Christians. First, there is the problem of there being so few churches that it is somewhat inconvenient for them to attend regularly. Second, there are few churches because there are few Christians. And among the few Christians, there are fewer twenty- and thirty-somethings. There are, in fact, few in any age group from age thirty-something and down. In Daigo's case, he appears to be the only single person his age in the church. In fact, there are few Christians in any part of his social network. Daigo told me he knew of one lady in his work place, who claims to be a Christian. She is in her forties and a divorced, single-mother. All of this means that Daigo and others like him are being called on for now to live like Daniels in the Babylon of Japan. It's just one more reason to be on our knees praying for God to work among the Japanese.
The church is making plans to purchase land and to build its own building. One of the problems with their current situation is parking. They were amaze to discover that HHBC has nearly 180 parking spaces situated on 26 acres of land. They have only 5 or 6 spaces alloted to them in the parking area next to the building where they rent. This leads me to share the story of one of Mrs. Sato's sons, Daigo, the oldest, who faithfully attends church each Sunday. Daigo lives near the center of Tokyo, where he works in sales for an IT company. He drives 1-1/2 hours one way to church each Sunday. Along the way, he must pay approximately $15 in tolls. When he arrives, he pays about $12 for the day to park in a public parking lot about 4 blocks from the church. Daigo told me even if he arrived at the church in time to use one of the 5 or 6 spaces alloted to them, he still would park in the pay lot so older people and families with young children could use the other spots.
I told Daigo that I admired his faithfulness to the Lord. I drive 15 minutes to our church and have never paid to park for any church service ever. He drives 1-1/2 hours, pays $15 in tolls, and another $12 to park, and then no doubt tithes on top of it all.
Daigo's situation is representative of a set of even larger problems for young Japanese Christians. First, there is the problem of there being so few churches that it is somewhat inconvenient for them to attend regularly. Second, there are few churches because there are few Christians. And among the few Christians, there are fewer twenty- and thirty-somethings. There are, in fact, few in any age group from age thirty-something and down. In Daigo's case, he appears to be the only single person his age in the church. In fact, there are few Christians in any part of his social network. Daigo told me he knew of one lady in his work place, who claims to be a Christian. She is in her forties and a divorced, single-mother. All of this means that Daigo and others like him are being called on for now to live like Daniels in the Babylon of Japan. It's just one more reason to be on our knees praying for God to work among the Japanese.
Our Arrival in the Tama City Area
We arrived at the Kunitachi Station in the Tokyo area early in the afternoon on Saturday, October 21. We found a phone outside the station and called Pastor Yuasa, who had planned to pick us up. I first met Pastor Yuasa almost three years ago when I travelled to Japan to mediate a conflict that had developed between a missionary and the church where Pastor Yuasa serves. Pastor is a dear brother in Christ and has suffered significantly for his faithfulness to the Lord. It was a joy to see him once again and also to meet his daughter, Izumi, who had come along for the ride.
Pastor Yuasa and Izumi took us to a restaurant for a late lunch. At the restaurant, the five of us linked up with Brother Mark, a Japanese national who functions as Pastor Yuasa's right-hand man. Brother Mark, age 55 or so, was led to the Lord back in 1978 by a missionary with BMM. He has led a difficult life, having been orphaned early on. While living at an orphanage, one of the other boys, a bully, stabbed Brother Mark in the left eye, resulting in its loss. The bully was probably picking on Brother Mark because of his short stature. He is not a dwarf; nevertheless, he only stands about as tall as Elliott. Brother Mark has a delightful personality. He kept Elliott, and us, laughing for most of the time we were with him. We praise the Lord for the joy that is in his heart. We will never forget him!
After lunch, we stopped by the apartment of a blind woman, who is a member of Pastor Yuasa's church. Miss Yoshikawa has been blind from birth. She lives in a small apartment, with one of its rooms used for a massage therapy business she operates. Pastor Yuasa set up the meeting for us to minister to Miss Yoshikawa, but she is the one who did the ministering. She insisted on giving Dale a neck and back massage, and her overall joy in the Lord was such a blessing. Though she isn't always able to get out to church, Miss Yoshikawa promised to attend services on Sunday knowing we would be there.
As evening approached it was time for Pastor Yuasa to take us to the family that would be hosting us for two nights. Mr. and Mrs. Sato are about the same ages as Dale and me. They have four sons, ages 28, 25, 23, and 15. Only the 15 year-old, whose name is Shimya, continues to live at home. The others are out of school and on their own. Mr. Sato is on a foreign work assignment in Vietnam, so we were not able to meet him.
Mrs. Sato was such a gracious hostess. She and Dale bonded immediately. Mrs. Sato had prepared a traditional Japanese meal for Pastor Yuasa, Brother Mark, and us, consisting of shrimp tempura, chicken, pork, beef, mushrooms, and rice. It was delicious, and we were stuffed.
Soon it was time for Pastor Yuasa and Brother Mark to leave. After talking for a while longer with Mrs. Sato, we decided it was time for us to retire for the night as well.
Pastor Yuasa and Izumi took us to a restaurant for a late lunch. At the restaurant, the five of us linked up with Brother Mark, a Japanese national who functions as Pastor Yuasa's right-hand man. Brother Mark, age 55 or so, was led to the Lord back in 1978 by a missionary with BMM. He has led a difficult life, having been orphaned early on. While living at an orphanage, one of the other boys, a bully, stabbed Brother Mark in the left eye, resulting in its loss. The bully was probably picking on Brother Mark because of his short stature. He is not a dwarf; nevertheless, he only stands about as tall as Elliott. Brother Mark has a delightful personality. He kept Elliott, and us, laughing for most of the time we were with him. We praise the Lord for the joy that is in his heart. We will never forget him!
After lunch, we stopped by the apartment of a blind woman, who is a member of Pastor Yuasa's church. Miss Yoshikawa has been blind from birth. She lives in a small apartment, with one of its rooms used for a massage therapy business she operates. Pastor Yuasa set up the meeting for us to minister to Miss Yoshikawa, but she is the one who did the ministering. She insisted on giving Dale a neck and back massage, and her overall joy in the Lord was such a blessing. Though she isn't always able to get out to church, Miss Yoshikawa promised to attend services on Sunday knowing we would be there.
As evening approached it was time for Pastor Yuasa to take us to the family that would be hosting us for two nights. Mr. and Mrs. Sato are about the same ages as Dale and me. They have four sons, ages 28, 25, 23, and 15. Only the 15 year-old, whose name is Shimya, continues to live at home. The others are out of school and on their own. Mr. Sato is on a foreign work assignment in Vietnam, so we were not able to meet him.
Mrs. Sato was such a gracious hostess. She and Dale bonded immediately. Mrs. Sato had prepared a traditional Japanese meal for Pastor Yuasa, Brother Mark, and us, consisting of shrimp tempura, chicken, pork, beef, mushrooms, and rice. It was delicious, and we were stuffed.
Soon it was time for Pastor Yuasa and Brother Mark to leave. After talking for a while longer with Mrs. Sato, we decided it was time for us to retire for the night as well.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
One More Day
It's 8:05 am on Wednesday. We returned to the hotel near the airport last night after spending Saturday through Tuesday with Pastor Yuasa and people from Megumi Baptist Church in Tama City. We will be writing more on our time over the last few days later this evening when we come back to our room. We all are well and anxious to share a more full report with our church family.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Heading Back to Tokyo
October 21, Saturday
6:28 a.m.
I have only a few minutes to write this morning. We will be leaving the camp at 9 a.m. to head for Koriyama Station and the train back to Tokyo. We have thoroughly enjoyed staying at the camp and visiting with pastors and their families and churches in the Koriyama area. Our time here has added immeasurably to our knowledge base for designing a ministry going forward to bless the people of Japan.
Nobby and Bev talked with me yesterday about the missionaries here formulating a strategic plan for their ministries overall. I know they and the others (Enterlines, Mitas, and Yoshidas, along with Joyce Oshiro) are not sure they see the value in such planning, even though the mission administration back in the States would very much like them to do it as a part of a mission wide effort to move ahead more intentionally. Normally, I would be strongly in favor of strategic planning. The process involves a lot of vision-casting, which is one of my gifts. Nevertheless, I do not believe that a strategic plan is what is called for here at this time. What is called for here at this time more than anything else is a massive prayer movement for Japan.
There is powerful opposition to the Gospel here, with a steel door closed over the hearts of its millions of lost souls. Stanley, one of the men I shared with in detail on Sunday evening at McDonald’s after the English service told Bev later in the week about my sharing. He said that another person had been offended by someone else sharing with them on a different occasion and that she would not be returning to the church. He said, however, that he was not offended by my sharing. He just does not have any regard at all for anything that I shared. Bev Tajima explained to me that it would be better if Stanley had been offended. At least, it would indicate that some conviction is beginning to penetrate his heart. But his heart is as dead as the idol pictured in an earlier post.
Unfortunately, Stanley’s story is the story of multiplied millions here. We who know the Lord just cannot be satisfied to walk away with a shrug of the shoulders, saying, “Oh, well.” We must recognize the desperation of the situation. We must recognize that so many precious souls are lost and in the tangible grip of the devil. We must recognize the utter inappropriateness of there being a land like this with so very few who call upon the Lord to be saved. We must rise to the challenge of participating in the defeat of unbelief in Japan. There is powerful opposition to the Gospel, but it is no match for the power of our exalted Lord. If he himself could return from the dead, surely he is able to command millions of hearts here to come alive with faith in him.
My prayer for Japan is very similar to the one raised to the Lord in Acts 4:24ff. Toward the end of that prayer, the Christians prayed: “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
The healing and the miraculous signs and wonders for which we pray are all in reference to opening the hearts of people here to faith in Jesus. Pray for Japan.
6:28 a.m.
I have only a few minutes to write this morning. We will be leaving the camp at 9 a.m. to head for Koriyama Station and the train back to Tokyo. We have thoroughly enjoyed staying at the camp and visiting with pastors and their families and churches in the Koriyama area. Our time here has added immeasurably to our knowledge base for designing a ministry going forward to bless the people of Japan.
Nobby and Bev talked with me yesterday about the missionaries here formulating a strategic plan for their ministries overall. I know they and the others (Enterlines, Mitas, and Yoshidas, along with Joyce Oshiro) are not sure they see the value in such planning, even though the mission administration back in the States would very much like them to do it as a part of a mission wide effort to move ahead more intentionally. Normally, I would be strongly in favor of strategic planning. The process involves a lot of vision-casting, which is one of my gifts. Nevertheless, I do not believe that a strategic plan is what is called for here at this time. What is called for here at this time more than anything else is a massive prayer movement for Japan.
There is powerful opposition to the Gospel here, with a steel door closed over the hearts of its millions of lost souls. Stanley, one of the men I shared with in detail on Sunday evening at McDonald’s after the English service told Bev later in the week about my sharing. He said that another person had been offended by someone else sharing with them on a different occasion and that she would not be returning to the church. He said, however, that he was not offended by my sharing. He just does not have any regard at all for anything that I shared. Bev Tajima explained to me that it would be better if Stanley had been offended. At least, it would indicate that some conviction is beginning to penetrate his heart. But his heart is as dead as the idol pictured in an earlier post.
Unfortunately, Stanley’s story is the story of multiplied millions here. We who know the Lord just cannot be satisfied to walk away with a shrug of the shoulders, saying, “Oh, well.” We must recognize the desperation of the situation. We must recognize that so many precious souls are lost and in the tangible grip of the devil. We must recognize the utter inappropriateness of there being a land like this with so very few who call upon the Lord to be saved. We must rise to the challenge of participating in the defeat of unbelief in Japan. There is powerful opposition to the Gospel, but it is no match for the power of our exalted Lord. If he himself could return from the dead, surely he is able to command millions of hearts here to come alive with faith in him.
My prayer for Japan is very similar to the one raised to the Lord in Acts 4:24ff. Toward the end of that prayer, the Christians prayed: “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
The healing and the miraculous signs and wonders for which we pray are all in reference to opening the hearts of people here to faith in Jesus. Pray for Japan.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
English Classes
It's almost 2 p.m. Friday, October 20. I just returned with Nobby from a Bible study he leads in the nearby city of Miharu. Miharu is the sister city of Rice Lake, Wisconsin. Folks from Wisconsin have built a small cultural center in Mihiru and that is where the Bible study meets. The center features a lot of Wisconsin artifacts. There are a variety of things for sale, including Green Bay Packer hats and T-shirts. Miharu is about 50 minutes or so away by car. Nobby goes there each Friday for the study.
The last two days have been spent sitting in on various levels of English classes. Teaching English definitely provides an excellent opportunity to interact with Japanese people and to begin building relationships with them. It is, in fact, the primary way used by the Tajimas in Koriyama.
For each of the sessions, I have been asked to share something about Indiana and our hometown. I've also been asked to share something about our sons. While doing this last night, I decided to use a Japanese word to tell how old Elliott is. Unfortunately, I did not pronounce it correctly. Everyone roared with laughter. I will tell what I said on the Sunday when we return to church.
Language acquisition is not just difficult for Americans trying to learn Japanese. It is equally as difficult for Japanese trying to learn English. One reason why is because Japanese do not hear very well the distinction between the letters "r" and "l". The result can be just as humorous as the little blunder I made. For example, Nobby spent a few minutes talking to me the other night about "Floyd" the famous psychologist. It took a while, but I finally figured out that he meant Sigmund Freud. He was surprised to learn of the correct spelling.
Humor aside, I hava a tremendous respect for Japanese who are studying English. The difficulty with hearing a distinction between some letters means they must memorize words and train themselves to pronounce them properly. It has to be an incredible challenge and yet they persevere. Happily enough, this provides us with a wonderful point of contact for sharing our lives and the joy of forgiveness in Christ.
Tomorrow we return to Tokyo to minister in the Megumi Baptist Church. Megumi means "grace".
The last two days have been spent sitting in on various levels of English classes. Teaching English definitely provides an excellent opportunity to interact with Japanese people and to begin building relationships with them. It is, in fact, the primary way used by the Tajimas in Koriyama.
For each of the sessions, I have been asked to share something about Indiana and our hometown. I've also been asked to share something about our sons. While doing this last night, I decided to use a Japanese word to tell how old Elliott is. Unfortunately, I did not pronounce it correctly. Everyone roared with laughter. I will tell what I said on the Sunday when we return to church.
Language acquisition is not just difficult for Americans trying to learn Japanese. It is equally as difficult for Japanese trying to learn English. One reason why is because Japanese do not hear very well the distinction between the letters "r" and "l". The result can be just as humorous as the little blunder I made. For example, Nobby spent a few minutes talking to me the other night about "Floyd" the famous psychologist. It took a while, but I finally figured out that he meant Sigmund Freud. He was surprised to learn of the correct spelling.
Humor aside, I hava a tremendous respect for Japanese who are studying English. The difficulty with hearing a distinction between some letters means they must memorize words and train themselves to pronounce them properly. It has to be an incredible challenge and yet they persevere. Happily enough, this provides us with a wonderful point of contact for sharing our lives and the joy of forgiveness in Christ.
Tomorrow we return to Tokyo to minister in the Megumi Baptist Church. Megumi means "grace".
Shirakawa Baptist Church
October 19, Thursday
7:28 a.m.
I slept in until 7:15 this morning. We were out late last night, and with such long days otherwise, I was exhausted. On Tuesday, we traveled 1½ hours to see a volcano. Volcanic activity is rather plentiful in this area. We saw numerous hot springs resorts and spas along the way. The volcano which we saw is dormant, not having erupted for a long time (how long I am not sure, I’ll ask Nobby when I see him next).
The Japanese have made the area surrounding the volcano a national park. We had to pay around 1500 yen to enter, which is about $13 US. After the entrance, we drove up a narrow winding road with dozens of switchbacks and hairpin turns to a parking area near the base of the volcano’s dome. I’m not sure that “dome” is the appropriate word, since as you can see in the photo, now there is more of a deep pit at the top of the volcano. To get to the top we had to walk a couple hundred feet up a sort of stairway. Once there we could look down into the pit. If we so desired, we also could have walked all the way around the rim of the pit. We also could have climbed all the way down into the pit. We chose to do neither, because it was extremely windy at the top (my estimate: 20-30 mph steady) for one and in addition we weren’t sure we had the energy to do any more climbing. The view from the top was a strikingly awesome panorama of other lesser mountains and hills, stretching for miles in all directions and alive with the changing fall colors of the trees. God has certainly blessed Japan with an abundance of natural beauty.
Japanese people are the most beautiful of all. We spent yesterday (Wed.) with some of the most precious believers in three different cities. In the morning, we drove into Koriyama with the Takahashis to take part in a prayer meeting at Koriyama Baptist Church and to listen to Pastor Takahashi give a report on the ministry of the camp where we are staying. Pastor Takahashi and his wife not only lead a nearby church (one to which we are traveling today, Thursday), but they also serve as caretakers for the camp.
Later in the day, we drove to another city called Sukagawa to meet yet another pastor and wife, Pastor and Mrs. Shibata (Hirokazu and Masako). The Shibatas also introduced us to their 20 year-old daughter, who has the most beautiful Christian name, Toai, which means, “Eternal Love”. Hirokazu and Masako coined the name from something they read in Jeremiah 31.
From Sukagawa, we drove 45 minutes to join the Wednesday night prayer meeting of a church in Shirakawa. There were six people in attendance. The church was started long ago by a beloved missionary named Floyd Wooden. Mr. Wooden was elderly and long past retirement age when he left for the states four years ago. He died one month later on Christmas Day. Since then the church in Shirakawa has not had a pastor. The gather on Sundays and Wednesdays for worship and prayer using cassette tape recordings of sermons. Once a month, Nobby, Pastor Abe, and Pastor Takahashi take turns coming to the church to preach.
The people told us that they were very discouraged and even thinking at times of giving up. Imagine there being less than a dozen Christians in a city the size of Fishers trying to carry on the ministry of a church with no pastor and wife. Allow me to restate: they are not just a small struggling church with no pastor, they are a small struggling church with no pastor located in a city that is given over entirely to idolatry or total secularism. There are no Christian books or Christian bookstores. There is no Christian radio. There is no Christian subculture. There are hardly any Christians, period! They have barely enough resources to keep the church going, and those are running out. They not only are discouraged. They are despairing and desperate for help.
We tried our best to encourage them with compassion, prayer, and various Scriptures. By the end of our time together, it was obvious that we had ministered to them. Nobby broke down and began crying when one of the men shared how grateful to the Lord he was for our visit. When we returned to the camp, Dale and I remarked how grateful we were that our church family was willing to let us go for three weeks to be able to minister to a church family here that has been without a pastor for four years.
Pray for Shirakawa Baptist Church.
7:28 a.m.
I slept in until 7:15 this morning. We were out late last night, and with such long days otherwise, I was exhausted. On Tuesday, we traveled 1½ hours to see a volcano. Volcanic activity is rather plentiful in this area. We saw numerous hot springs resorts and spas along the way. The volcano which we saw is dormant, not having erupted for a long time (how long I am not sure, I’ll ask Nobby when I see him next).
The Japanese have made the area surrounding the volcano a national park. We had to pay around 1500 yen to enter, which is about $13 US. After the entrance, we drove up a narrow winding road with dozens of switchbacks and hairpin turns to a parking area near the base of the volcano’s dome. I’m not sure that “dome” is the appropriate word, since as you can see in the photo, now there is more of a deep pit at the top of the volcano. To get to the top we had to walk a couple hundred feet up a sort of stairway. Once there we could look down into the pit. If we so desired, we also could have walked all the way around the rim of the pit. We also could have climbed all the way down into the pit. We chose to do neither, because it was extremely windy at the top (my estimate: 20-30 mph steady) for one and in addition we weren’t sure we had the energy to do any more climbing. The view from the top was a strikingly awesome panorama of other lesser mountains and hills, stretching for miles in all directions and alive with the changing fall colors of the trees. God has certainly blessed Japan with an abundance of natural beauty.
Japanese people are the most beautiful of all. We spent yesterday (Wed.) with some of the most precious believers in three different cities. In the morning, we drove into Koriyama with the Takahashis to take part in a prayer meeting at Koriyama Baptist Church and to listen to Pastor Takahashi give a report on the ministry of the camp where we are staying. Pastor Takahashi and his wife not only lead a nearby church (one to which we are traveling today, Thursday), but they also serve as caretakers for the camp.
Later in the day, we drove to another city called Sukagawa to meet yet another pastor and wife, Pastor and Mrs. Shibata (Hirokazu and Masako). The Shibatas also introduced us to their 20 year-old daughter, who has the most beautiful Christian name, Toai, which means, “Eternal Love”. Hirokazu and Masako coined the name from something they read in Jeremiah 31.
From Sukagawa, we drove 45 minutes to join the Wednesday night prayer meeting of a church in Shirakawa. There were six people in attendance. The church was started long ago by a beloved missionary named Floyd Wooden. Mr. Wooden was elderly and long past retirement age when he left for the states four years ago. He died one month later on Christmas Day. Since then the church in Shirakawa has not had a pastor. The gather on Sundays and Wednesdays for worship and prayer using cassette tape recordings of sermons. Once a month, Nobby, Pastor Abe, and Pastor Takahashi take turns coming to the church to preach.
The people told us that they were very discouraged and even thinking at times of giving up. Imagine there being less than a dozen Christians in a city the size of Fishers trying to carry on the ministry of a church with no pastor and wife. Allow me to restate: they are not just a small struggling church with no pastor, they are a small struggling church with no pastor located in a city that is given over entirely to idolatry or total secularism. There are no Christian books or Christian bookstores. There is no Christian radio. There is no Christian subculture. There are hardly any Christians, period! They have barely enough resources to keep the church going, and those are running out. They not only are discouraged. They are despairing and desperate for help.
We tried our best to encourage them with compassion, prayer, and various Scriptures. By the end of our time together, it was obvious that we had ministered to them. Nobby broke down and began crying when one of the men shared how grateful to the Lord he was for our visit. When we returned to the camp, Dale and I remarked how grateful we were that our church family was willing to let us go for three weeks to be able to minister to a church family here that has been without a pastor for four years.
Pray for Shirakawa Baptist Church.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Hello Everyone
Hello Everyone! I just uploaded five new posts. If you want to read them in order, scroll down to begin. There are more pictures on Elliott's blog. Our access to the internet is very limited in this city. This situation will most likely continue for another few days. We miss everyone and covet your prayers. Tonight we will be in another church for the Wed. night mtg.
Mizukokuyo
October 17, Wednesday
8:00 a.m.
I just took a little break before continuing to write about yesterday’s little venture to see a nearby volcano and ancient castle.
Dale will write more about the volcano and castle in a moment, but first I would like to describe something very disturbing that we saw along the way, just outside of the city where the ancient castle stands. We drove by an idol in the form of a woman holding a small baby in her arms, large and standing at least 100 feet into the air, and overlooking the city as if she were its guardian.
The idol itself is associated with Buddhism. In recent years, the Buddhists have played more to the spiritual needs of women. It would be more appropriate to say they have played on the spiritual needs of women. The 100 foot tall idol is just one example.
Another example is an idol called mizukokuyo. Years ago in Japan, there were some 5 million abortions every year. Nobby thinks the statistics are probably higher now. Indeed, there is such a concern over the low number of pregnancies carried to term that various governments actually give money to people here when they have a baby. The Tajimas received $2000 US for the birth of one of their children.
Abortion not only has taken its toll on population growth, but also on the souls of the women involved. They live on with a tremendous burden of guilt and shame. The Buddhists play on this by offering to care for the spirit of the aborted babies with chants that they sell to these needy women. They also pressure them to buy small idols, which are replicas of mizukokuyo, charging them as much as $2000 US, by coincidence approximately the same amount as a government payment for the birth of a child.
The chants and purchase of an idol accomplish nothing other than to bring women under even greater bondage to the guilt and shame, and to the devil. By the way, the city of Koriyama, where we are staying now, has the highest incidence of pregnancy and abortion among junior high girls. As you might imagine, there are Christian women who in the past have had an abortion but who have found true forgiveness in Christ. The difference between them and the others is so remarkable that it nearly defies description. Among the women enslaved by mizukokuyo, there is debilitating gloom and depression. Among Christian women, there is the joy and blessing of eternal forgiveness.
Abes and Kogas
October 18, Wednesday
6:45 a.m.
On Monday, Nobby took me to see two pastors and their wives serving in two different cities. The first was Pastor and Mrs. (Hiroshi and Michiko) Abe, who serve at the Ishikawa, which is a little more than an hour’s drive from the camp.
The Abes were trained at the Bible school operated by missionaries and located in Tama City, which is in the outlying area of Tokyo. Previously, Mrs. Abe had been a nurse and Pastor Abe had been a medical lab technician. Now they are serving full time in their church.
The church building at Ishikawa is beautiful both on the inside and outside. Repairs were made recently on the inside to fix cracks (due to settling) that had opened in the ceiling and some of the interior walls on the second level. The meeting space for the church is all on the second floor. The Abes live on the first floor.
Nobby and I spent the morning talking with the Abes about a couple of matters related to some former missionaries. It would not be appropriate for me to go into details here, but suffice it to say that the matters remain unresolved in the minds of the Japanese Christians who were affected by what happened. For most of the morning, a lady who is a member of the church, joined us to discuss one of the matters in particular. I believe I was able to help them with godly pastoral counsel, which they received with open hearts. Nobby told me he believed that it helped tremendously and that clearly the Lord was in the timing of our visit.
I do not think that the Japanese are easily offended. If anything, they look on gaijin (foreigners) with some understanding of their ignorance of Japanese language and customs. The situations the Abes and the woman from the church discussed with me would have been serious breaches of both ethical and Christian conduct anywhere in the world. When I return home, I will need to contact at least one of the persons involved to see if the person would be willing to do what they should to facilitate forgiveness and healing.
By the way, the woman who came to the church brought with her a selection of “box” lunches. I was able to choose from salmon, beef, or Chinese noodles. I chose the salmon, which came with rice, a few vegetables, a small slice of Japanese omelet, and a item or two that tasted sweet although I have no idea what they were.
In the afternoon, Nobby and I drove on to visit Pastor and Mrs. Koga (Kazuhiko and _____ ), who serve in the Satogaok Baptist Church in Iwakishi. The Kogas are a very young couple (Kazuhiko is 31 years old), having been married for only one year and now serving in their first church. Once again, the church building is a fine facility, consisting of two stories. A small auditorium is located on the first floor. Sunday School and fellowship space, including a large kitchen, is located on the second. The Kogas live in a house next to the church.
The work in Iwakishi is slow and difficult, as is the case most everywhere in Japan. There are sometimes ten or less in attendance, even though the building could easily accommodate more than 100 adults and children. Add to this that Kogas are paid very little, so in addition to everything else they also carry the burden of some financial stress.
I was able to identify with the Koga’s situation, because it is so similar to the way Dale and I started out in ministry. I explained to the Kogas that we started our first church with just five adults and four children in a similar size (but not nearly as good as shape) facility. I encouraged them to persevere and that I would pray for them faithfully. One additional burden so many Japanese pastors and wives carry is that they have such little Christian fellowship and encouragement. This is true for all, not just for pastors and their wives. One way our group will be able to minister in the future is simply by encouraging pastors, their wives, missionaries, their wives, their families, and other Christians with their presence in country.
Our discussions with the Abes and Kogas about next summer’s ministry also produced a few good insights for going forward. For example, I asked if the Japanese pastors thought it would be a good idea for our team to stay in one place for the entire time in country or to stay only for a week or so at a time and then go on to somewhere else. The consensus is for them to stay for the entire time in one place. The idea would be for everyone to stay together in one place for a couple of days initially to become oriented and then to split into smaller groups to go to the various locations for service until coming back together at the end for a few days of debriefing.
Nobby and I returned home Monday night at around 9 p.m. It was a long day, seeing that we had left from the camp a little past 8:30 a.m. It didn’t take me very long to climb into bed and fall asleep. It had been a tiring day, but it was worth every minute.
6:45 a.m.
On Monday, Nobby took me to see two pastors and their wives serving in two different cities. The first was Pastor and Mrs. (Hiroshi and Michiko) Abe, who serve at the Ishikawa, which is a little more than an hour’s drive from the camp.
The Abes were trained at the Bible school operated by missionaries and located in Tama City, which is in the outlying area of Tokyo. Previously, Mrs. Abe had been a nurse and Pastor Abe had been a medical lab technician. Now they are serving full time in their church.
The church building at Ishikawa is beautiful both on the inside and outside. Repairs were made recently on the inside to fix cracks (due to settling) that had opened in the ceiling and some of the interior walls on the second level. The meeting space for the church is all on the second floor. The Abes live on the first floor.
Nobby and I spent the morning talking with the Abes about a couple of matters related to some former missionaries. It would not be appropriate for me to go into details here, but suffice it to say that the matters remain unresolved in the minds of the Japanese Christians who were affected by what happened. For most of the morning, a lady who is a member of the church, joined us to discuss one of the matters in particular. I believe I was able to help them with godly pastoral counsel, which they received with open hearts. Nobby told me he believed that it helped tremendously and that clearly the Lord was in the timing of our visit.
I do not think that the Japanese are easily offended. If anything, they look on gaijin (foreigners) with some understanding of their ignorance of Japanese language and customs. The situations the Abes and the woman from the church discussed with me would have been serious breaches of both ethical and Christian conduct anywhere in the world. When I return home, I will need to contact at least one of the persons involved to see if the person would be willing to do what they should to facilitate forgiveness and healing.
By the way, the woman who came to the church brought with her a selection of “box” lunches. I was able to choose from salmon, beef, or Chinese noodles. I chose the salmon, which came with rice, a few vegetables, a small slice of Japanese omelet, and a item or two that tasted sweet although I have no idea what they were.
In the afternoon, Nobby and I drove on to visit Pastor and Mrs. Koga (Kazuhiko and _____ ), who serve in the Satogaok Baptist Church in Iwakishi. The Kogas are a very young couple (Kazuhiko is 31 years old), having been married for only one year and now serving in their first church. Once again, the church building is a fine facility, consisting of two stories. A small auditorium is located on the first floor. Sunday School and fellowship space, including a large kitchen, is located on the second. The Kogas live in a house next to the church.
The work in Iwakishi is slow and difficult, as is the case most everywhere in Japan. There are sometimes ten or less in attendance, even though the building could easily accommodate more than 100 adults and children. Add to this that Kogas are paid very little, so in addition to everything else they also carry the burden of some financial stress.
I was able to identify with the Koga’s situation, because it is so similar to the way Dale and I started out in ministry. I explained to the Kogas that we started our first church with just five adults and four children in a similar size (but not nearly as good as shape) facility. I encouraged them to persevere and that I would pray for them faithfully. One additional burden so many Japanese pastors and wives carry is that they have such little Christian fellowship and encouragement. This is true for all, not just for pastors and their wives. One way our group will be able to minister in the future is simply by encouraging pastors, their wives, missionaries, their wives, their families, and other Christians with their presence in country.
Our discussions with the Abes and Kogas about next summer’s ministry also produced a few good insights for going forward. For example, I asked if the Japanese pastors thought it would be a good idea for our team to stay in one place for the entire time in country or to stay only for a week or so at a time and then go on to somewhere else. The consensus is for them to stay for the entire time in one place. The idea would be for everyone to stay together in one place for a couple of days initially to become oriented and then to split into smaller groups to go to the various locations for service until coming back together at the end for a few days of debriefing.
Nobby and I returned home Monday night at around 9 p.m. It was a long day, seeing that we had left from the camp a little past 8:30 a.m. It didn’t take me very long to climb into bed and fall asleep. It had been a tiring day, but it was worth every minute.
Volcanoes Earthquakes, and Language
October 17, Tuesday
9:15 a.m.
Nobby is coming to pick us up at 10 a.m. Today we are going to see a volcano that is still active, and afterwards, a castle. Speaking of volcanoes, they are one of four types of natural disasters occurring here. The first is typhoons, which correspond roughly to hurricanes. The second is the flooding that would be associated with the typhoons. The third is volcanoes, which, of course, are a problem quite rarely. Finally, there are earthquakes, which are not so rare. There was an earthquake here a couple of days ago, only a small one (about 2 or so on the Richter scale), but an earthquake nevertheless. I happen to subscribe to a free service on the internet that sends out emails with information on any earthquakes around the world of a magnitude greater than 3.0. I received a few notices of such near Japan prior to our coming. I have received one or two since we’ve been here. The closest was a 6.0 occurring about 1000 miles to the NE of Tokyo.
Nobby told me that earthquakes in this region are rare this time of year. Jordan, whom I mentioned earlier, observed that earthquakes are the reason why most utilities here are not buried underground. Natural gas pipelines here would be especially vulnerable. Consequently, homes and businesses make use of gas for cooking and heating from above ground tanks located outside and above ground.
Yesterday, Nobby drove me to see two nearby pastors and their churches. The first was Pastor and Mrs. Abe, who serve in a city called Ishikawa. Their church is called Ishikawa Baptist Church. The other is Pastor and Mrs. Koga, who served at Satogaoka Baptist Church in Iwakishi. Trust me, the names are confusing me.
On a side note, the Japanese often tell us to call them by American names. They understand how difficult and confusing it can be for us to keep Japanese names straight. For example, Nobby’s real name is Nobumasa. Stanley’s name is Masahiro; Bob’s is Toshihiko. While we were taking turns introducing ourselves at the English service the other night, I told everyone that my name is Randy but that they could call me Tsutomu. They laughed and laughed, because just the opposite had happened. I gave myself a Japanese name because “Randy” is so difficult for them to pronounce. They thought it was funnier than I could have imagined.
By the way, the letters “r” and “l” sound exactly the same to Japanese, as do the letters “b” and “v”. All of this can make for some humorous situations too, at least from our perspective. For example, Nobby’s wife’s name is Bev. Nobby told us that for a while he unwittingly referred to her as “Veb”, thinking, of course, that he was pronouncing the name of his beloved one correctly.
I need to sign off for now, because we will be leaving soon to go to the volcano. I hope to get this posted on the internet sometime later today. I will write more about visiting the pastors and their churches. Let me just say for now that the timing of our visit could not have been better. Not only have we learned so much that will be helpful going forward with our plans, but also the Lord is using us to encourage many who are discouraged. They need to draw upon our strength and encouragement through these difficult days of ministry here.
9:15 a.m.
Nobby is coming to pick us up at 10 a.m. Today we are going to see a volcano that is still active, and afterwards, a castle. Speaking of volcanoes, they are one of four types of natural disasters occurring here. The first is typhoons, which correspond roughly to hurricanes. The second is the flooding that would be associated with the typhoons. The third is volcanoes, which, of course, are a problem quite rarely. Finally, there are earthquakes, which are not so rare. There was an earthquake here a couple of days ago, only a small one (about 2 or so on the Richter scale), but an earthquake nevertheless. I happen to subscribe to a free service on the internet that sends out emails with information on any earthquakes around the world of a magnitude greater than 3.0. I received a few notices of such near Japan prior to our coming. I have received one or two since we’ve been here. The closest was a 6.0 occurring about 1000 miles to the NE of Tokyo.
Nobby told me that earthquakes in this region are rare this time of year. Jordan, whom I mentioned earlier, observed that earthquakes are the reason why most utilities here are not buried underground. Natural gas pipelines here would be especially vulnerable. Consequently, homes and businesses make use of gas for cooking and heating from above ground tanks located outside and above ground.
Yesterday, Nobby drove me to see two nearby pastors and their churches. The first was Pastor and Mrs. Abe, who serve in a city called Ishikawa. Their church is called Ishikawa Baptist Church. The other is Pastor and Mrs. Koga, who served at Satogaoka Baptist Church in Iwakishi. Trust me, the names are confusing me.
On a side note, the Japanese often tell us to call them by American names. They understand how difficult and confusing it can be for us to keep Japanese names straight. For example, Nobby’s real name is Nobumasa. Stanley’s name is Masahiro; Bob’s is Toshihiko. While we were taking turns introducing ourselves at the English service the other night, I told everyone that my name is Randy but that they could call me Tsutomu. They laughed and laughed, because just the opposite had happened. I gave myself a Japanese name because “Randy” is so difficult for them to pronounce. They thought it was funnier than I could have imagined.
By the way, the letters “r” and “l” sound exactly the same to Japanese, as do the letters “b” and “v”. All of this can make for some humorous situations too, at least from our perspective. For example, Nobby’s wife’s name is Bev. Nobby told us that for a while he unwittingly referred to her as “Veb”, thinking, of course, that he was pronouncing the name of his beloved one correctly.
I need to sign off for now, because we will be leaving soon to go to the volcano. I hope to get this posted on the internet sometime later today. I will write more about visiting the pastors and their churches. Let me just say for now that the timing of our visit could not have been better. Not only have we learned so much that will be helpful going forward with our plans, but also the Lord is using us to encourage many who are discouraged. They need to draw upon our strength and encouragement through these difficult days of ministry here.
Koriyama Baptist Church
October 17, Tuesday
7:20 a.m.
I took a little break to get my second cup of coffee this morning. It is the first bit of brewed coffee I have enjoyed since the hotel in Narita. And it tastes great!
On Sunday, we visited Koriyama Baptist Church, where Nobby (Nobumasa) and Bev Tajima serve. The Tajimas met at Temple University and Seminary in Chattanooga back in the seventies.
Koriyama is a city of 350,000 souls, the second largest city of its prefecture (state). The Tajimas have served here faithfully since the 1980’s. There were approximately 30 people attending worship on Sunday. I preached on Jesus as the door to God’s forgiveness and blessing in life, using the story of Jacob’s ladder in Genesis 28 as a starting point.
After worship, the church had a business meeting to decide which contractor to use for an upcoming building project. The current church building is located on a lot about 1/4 of an acre in size. The building itself is more than 30 years old and desperately needs to be replaced. The church is build a new structure on the back part of the property and then tear down the older building. It will be a tremendous boost and blessing to occupy the new facility.
During the business meeting, we ate lunch with Christine Tajima (age 23) and here finance, Shigeo (age 31), and with Jordan, a 23 year-old graduate of Wheaton College and an American. Jordan is working here in a secular company as an English teacher. He has been here for 8 months and already is able to speak and understand enough Japanese to get along. Jordan’s contract is up in a few months, after which he is hoping to renew and then attempt to get into a graduate program here in Japanese studies. We ate at a Chinese restaurant. The food was good, and the company was great!
In the evening, Dale and I sat in on an English service. The Tajimas usually focus the group on a selection from Daily Bread written both in English and Japanese. Mrs. Tajima (Bev) reads the selection in English, then she entertains questions from the group or she leads a discussion of what they have read. There are three non-Christians attending the service. Their English names of the two men are Stanley and Bob. The third person is a woman, who was not in attendance. After the meeting, we all went out to McDonalds for burgers and fries. I sat at a table with Stanley and Bob to continue sharing the Gospel with them. Romy, the pastor’s daughter I mentioned in the previous post, translated for me. Both Stanley and Bob have attended services for several years, but without making a decision. They now know the Gospel; nevertheless, it is difficult for them to take the next step of actually placing their faith in Jesus. I would ask all you read this to pray for both Stanley and Bob to come to know the Lord.
After lunch, prior to the evening English service, we went with Christine, Shigeo, and Jordan to the Koriyama Station to meet Romy, who was returning from visiting with the Enterlines near Omiya. While there, we saw a number of young people on the street and in the various stores, shops, and restaurants. Young people here (college age and down) can be difficult to reach. For one, they are extremely busy with their school work. They go to school on the average of 100 days more per year than students in the States. There also is a great deal of homework here. Secondly, young people here are very focused on material things, and they are completely taken by such things as mp3 players, video games, cell phones, and text messaging. It’s not that any of these things are new to them. The Japanese are, in fact, advanced beyond the States when it comes to all of this. The problem is that Japanese young people are losing their ability to communicate as human beings, even with one another. Nobby told me that he has observed two students sitting next to each other, each holding a cell phone in their hands, text messaging one another instead of talking.
Yet another problem with all of this is that the content of so many of the games is distinctively not Christian. In addition to violence, there also is a great deal of sexual content. Consequently, immoral behavior is commonplace among Japanese young people, to the point of involving the youngest of children. It is not unusual for 12 and 13 year-old girls to become pregnant and then to have an abortion. Nobby said that many times the mothers of these girls, when they learn of their daughter’s circumstances, more or less shrug their shoulders and say “Oh well….”
To make matters worse, there also is a huge “comic book” industry here that also features a lot of violent and sexual content. Some people have become so addicted to the games and the comic books that they not only have lost control of their lives, they also have begun acting out criminally, especially against young children. The kidnappings and murders that we often read about in the States are on the rise here as well.
Japanese Christians need our prayer and our help. They have strong desires to win these young people and others from among their countrymen to the Lord. But with so few who know the Lord at this point, they are overwhelmed. Pray for workers to help them. Pray for Japanese young people. Pray for Japan.
7:20 a.m.
I took a little break to get my second cup of coffee this morning. It is the first bit of brewed coffee I have enjoyed since the hotel in Narita. And it tastes great!
On Sunday, we visited Koriyama Baptist Church, where Nobby (Nobumasa) and Bev Tajima serve. The Tajimas met at Temple University and Seminary in Chattanooga back in the seventies.
Koriyama is a city of 350,000 souls, the second largest city of its prefecture (state). The Tajimas have served here faithfully since the 1980’s. There were approximately 30 people attending worship on Sunday. I preached on Jesus as the door to God’s forgiveness and blessing in life, using the story of Jacob’s ladder in Genesis 28 as a starting point.
After worship, the church had a business meeting to decide which contractor to use for an upcoming building project. The current church building is located on a lot about 1/4 of an acre in size. The building itself is more than 30 years old and desperately needs to be replaced. The church is build a new structure on the back part of the property and then tear down the older building. It will be a tremendous boost and blessing to occupy the new facility.
During the business meeting, we ate lunch with Christine Tajima (age 23) and here finance, Shigeo (age 31), and with Jordan, a 23 year-old graduate of Wheaton College and an American. Jordan is working here in a secular company as an English teacher. He has been here for 8 months and already is able to speak and understand enough Japanese to get along. Jordan’s contract is up in a few months, after which he is hoping to renew and then attempt to get into a graduate program here in Japanese studies. We ate at a Chinese restaurant. The food was good, and the company was great!
In the evening, Dale and I sat in on an English service. The Tajimas usually focus the group on a selection from Daily Bread written both in English and Japanese. Mrs. Tajima (Bev) reads the selection in English, then she entertains questions from the group or she leads a discussion of what they have read. There are three non-Christians attending the service. Their English names of the two men are Stanley and Bob. The third person is a woman, who was not in attendance. After the meeting, we all went out to McDonalds for burgers and fries. I sat at a table with Stanley and Bob to continue sharing the Gospel with them. Romy, the pastor’s daughter I mentioned in the previous post, translated for me. Both Stanley and Bob have attended services for several years, but without making a decision. They now know the Gospel; nevertheless, it is difficult for them to take the next step of actually placing their faith in Jesus. I would ask all you read this to pray for both Stanley and Bob to come to know the Lord.
After lunch, prior to the evening English service, we went with Christine, Shigeo, and Jordan to the Koriyama Station to meet Romy, who was returning from visiting with the Enterlines near Omiya. While there, we saw a number of young people on the street and in the various stores, shops, and restaurants. Young people here (college age and down) can be difficult to reach. For one, they are extremely busy with their school work. They go to school on the average of 100 days more per year than students in the States. There also is a great deal of homework here. Secondly, young people here are very focused on material things, and they are completely taken by such things as mp3 players, video games, cell phones, and text messaging. It’s not that any of these things are new to them. The Japanese are, in fact, advanced beyond the States when it comes to all of this. The problem is that Japanese young people are losing their ability to communicate as human beings, even with one another. Nobby told me that he has observed two students sitting next to each other, each holding a cell phone in their hands, text messaging one another instead of talking.
Yet another problem with all of this is that the content of so many of the games is distinctively not Christian. In addition to violence, there also is a great deal of sexual content. Consequently, immoral behavior is commonplace among Japanese young people, to the point of involving the youngest of children. It is not unusual for 12 and 13 year-old girls to become pregnant and then to have an abortion. Nobby said that many times the mothers of these girls, when they learn of their daughter’s circumstances, more or less shrug their shoulders and say “Oh well….”
To make matters worse, there also is a huge “comic book” industry here that also features a lot of violent and sexual content. Some people have become so addicted to the games and the comic books that they not only have lost control of their lives, they also have begun acting out criminally, especially against young children. The kidnappings and murders that we often read about in the States are on the rise here as well.
Japanese Christians need our prayer and our help. They have strong desires to win these young people and others from among their countrymen to the Lord. But with so few who know the Lord at this point, they are overwhelmed. Pray for workers to help them. Pray for Japanese young people. Pray for Japan.
At the Camp
Tuesday, October 176:35 a.m.
At the Camp
We are staying at a camp that was built by BMM missionaries a generation ago. The camp is nestled away near the top of a small mountain among a grove of sixty to seventy foot high pine trees, which in most cases have trunks that are 24 inches or less, mostly less, in diameter. The beauty here is remarkable.
Nearby, at a slightly higher level, there is a cemetery owned by the camp. It is, of course, a Christian cemetery; that is to say that only Christians are buried there. Special permission had to be received from the government in order to make such a place. Additional special permission had to be received to be able to bury the deceased. Normally people are cremated. Their ashes are stored in jars, and their “burial” site is marked by large above-ground tombstones. Some of the markers are quite large and elaborate. They can be expensive as well, costing upwards to $50-60,000 US. These are often placed on a plot of ground on the side of a mountain, which becomes a shrine and a kind of altar used for ancestor worship. Of course, none of that kind of thing goes on at the cemetery at the camp. The markers here are small rectangular pieces of granite, engraved with information about the deceased and usually also with a cross. Oddly enough, the cross symbol elicits a feeling of joy when you see, even though a person has died, since it indicates that at least in this one case there was a person out of the millions of others who did not end his or her life with the knee bowed to Buddha or with the tongue confessing some Lord other than Jesus.
The facilities here are typical for a camp, although this camp is much larger and the facilities seem to be much nicer than what we saw near Seki. We are staying in a one bedroom apartment that is part of the camp’s main building. The apartment also features a small kitchen and living room, a shower room that includes a sink and a washer in a separate area, and a toilet. What we might call “the bathroom” here is called “the toilet”. If you ask to use the bathroom, you will be shown to a separate room where you will find a bath tub and shower. The toilet is always contained in a different room. Also, the shower and bathtub are set up quite differently than ours. They are in the same room, but the bathtub is never used, and I do mean “never!”, for taking a bath with soap. It is a grave offense to get into a bathtub still needing a bath or to somehow allow soapy water to from your shower to mix with the water that usually is standing in the tub. The shower is not contained in its own little walled-in area. It is simply part of the larger shower room, complete with a drain in the floor, that also contains the bathtub. In some case, where there is no shower-head faucet, you are expected to sit on a little stool to bathe, using a small plastic bowl to scoop warm water from the bathtub to pour on yourself after you soap up. One more observation and then I’m finished with this topic. Neither bathrooms nor toilets are made for someone who is 6’ 3”.
Nevertheless, we are very comfortable here. Houses and other buildings like this one here do not have central heat or air conditioning. Last night, the outside air temp was around 5 degrees centigrade (multiply by 9, divide by 5, add 32 and you have the temp in Fahrenheit). The inside temp hovers in the teens; however, there is a small, but adequate portable heater that we are using in the mornings to bring the room up to a warmer temp. As I say, we are very comfortable, and we are grateful for the Christians in this area making the facilities available to us.
Yesterday, Elliott spent the day playing around the camp as Dale did some catching up with various tasks and spent time interacting with Romy, the 25 year-old daughter of the Takahashis, a pastor and wife who live just down the lane. I spent the day with Nobby Tajima, driving to see two different pastors and their wives, along with their churches. I will write more about that in another post.
Before closing, I want to explain something I wrote in the first paragraph of this post. I wrote that the camp had been built by missionaries of “a previous generation.” Christians and churches flooded Japan with missionaries in the years that followed WWII. Many from that generation since then either have retired or gone on to be with the Lord. In the case of BMM, there were more than 40 missionaries here twenty years ago. Now there are nine. The missionaries of yesteryear served with distinction and great vision for the future. Unfortunately, no one seems to be stepping forward to take their place, resulting in a severe strain on every aspect of the ministry here.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Sunday Afternoon in Koriyama
It's 5:10 pm Sunday afternoon. We are in Koriyama now, visiting Nobby and Bev Tajima at Koriyama Baptist Church. I preached for the morning service on Jesus as the "gate" into the heavens, the realm out of which God blesses and interacts with people, from Genesis 28 and John 1. The people seemed responsive. I wish everyone at home could have been here to witness the tears when I shared how burden we are because there will be so few Japanese in heaven unless things change drastically.Right now we are between meetings. There is an English service this evening in just a little while. Before I sign off, let me mention that we are staying at a nearby Christian camp, which was started almost thirty years ago. It is located in a remote area in the mountains and situated quite beautifully. I will write more about the camp and the church in the next post.
Unfortunately, we do not have internet access at the camp, so I will be at the mercy of the many different people we will be seeing during our stay in this area. I will try to post again as soon as I am able. In the meantime, I just uploaded a couple of new posts below in addition to this one.
Religion in Hiroshima and Other Places
The people in Hiroshima, like people in all of Japan, seem to have so much by way of material goods. The photo to the left is the view out the window of the hotel where we stayed. It is only two or three blocks away from the peace dome and ground zero.The prosperity here now takes us back to the matter of how to present the Gospel to them. I have already written how difficult it can be to present the Gospel in terms of it meeting people’s needs if those people do not sense they have any needs. One Japanese Christian even told us that most Japanese realize there is a God, but they think it is better to not be religious at all. By “better”, the Japanese mean that they are able to get more out of what life has to offer with respect to material things. Many Japanese, especially the young people, are clearly focused on material things. In effect, unfortunately, they are trading their ability to show appreciative love for the Lord Jesus for the ability to possess material things.
Imagine for a moment that someone told you that you could have everything you ever wanted, but it would cost you the ability to appreciate the beauty of a sunset over the ocean. You could see the sunset, but you would never again have any appreciation for it whatsoever. Allow me to use a second example since we soon will be passing by Mount Fuji, one of Japan’s most well-known and most majestic landmarks. Imagine someone told you that you could have everything, but never again would you be able to appreciate the beauty of a natural landmark like Mount Fuji. Again, you could see it, but you would be utterly unresponsive, utterly unable to respond, to its breathtaking majesty.
Most of us would see the inequity of such a deal. In other words, if we knew that we would have to trade away the ability to appreciate the beauty of a sunset or the breathtaking majesty of Mount Fuji in order to possess some material thing, we would say, to coin a phrase, “No deal! It’s not worth it!”
The ability to appreciate the beauty of a sunset is not the only “deal or no deal” proposition out there. A similar choice presents itself in regard to someone’s ability to appreciate the beauty and majesty of Jesus as Lord of All. Imagine someone saying that he or she were willing to exchange their ability to appreciate Jesus as the Lord of All for possession of a house, a car, nice clothes, some electronic gadget or any other material thing. It would be utter foolishness, a bargain that someone would make only if they had no idea of the comparative values involved. This is what the Apostle Paul had in mind when he wrote that he counted all things as loss (literally, “dung”) compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ as Lord. In other words, if he were to compare the value of possessing material things to the value of his participation in appreciative love for the Lord Jesus, he would definitely choose knowing Christ as Lord. Nothing material would ever be worth trading away his ability to appreciate the Lordship of Jesus.
More On Hiroshima
October 14, 2006
2:47 p.m.
Hikari 416
We changed trains at Shin-Osaka. We are on our way now to Tokyo Station, where we will change again before going on to Koriyama.
Now for a little more on Hiroshima. Over the course of the last 51 years, Hiroshima has returned to the busy population center it once was and then some. After arriving at the Hiroshima Station, we took a street car to our hotel. We checked in, went to our room, and put our stuff away before heading off to see the peace dome. By the time we finished seeing the dome and walking through the nearby museum, it was dark. We walked the few blocks back to the hotel via a wide street closed to vehicular traffic and passing through a shopping district.
We eventually came to a busy intersection that we needed to cross. After looking around for a minute or so, we realized that we would have to go down stairs to a level below the street. What we found down there surprised and amazed us. There was a mall on that level arranged in the shape of a giant cross with rows of stores extending out from a central hub for blocks in all four directions. There were a variety of clothing and other types of stores. If we hadn’t known better, we would have guessed we were at Castleton or Keystone Mall. The amount of stores definitely exceeded the amount you could find in either of those places.
There were restaurants on that level too. We ate dinner at one called “Auntie’s Pasta”. Italian food is big here, and it’s big with the Gilmores too. We enjoyed a delicious meal before heading back to the hotel and off to sleep. By the way, we’ve been going to bed each night around 9 pm or so, which is unusually early for our family. But we are finding ourselves to be exhausted each day by that time and thus ready for a good night’s rest. Not to complain, but in addition to being a little tired, my back has been hurting due to a combination of extremely hard pillows and mattresses (see an earlier post from Dale) and lugging some heavy luggage on and off the trains. I only mention my back to ask for a bit of prayer as we continue.
One more little bit of humor in closing. The street car we took from Hiroshima Station to our hotel actually consisted of about three subway-type cars linked together. We climbed on, lugging our luggage up with us, as quickly as we could (the car remain only briefly at each stop) and found a seat near the middle of the cars. We quickly observed that people were to enter the street car through the side doors like we had done, but that they were to exit the front door near the conductor. Well, by the time our stop rolled around, the cars had filled with people. In fact, it was standing room only. Now we faced the daunting task of pulling our luggage past thirty or forty feet of other passengers standing in the narrow aisle to go out through the front door. Someone might say, “Just go out the side door. It’s no big deal!” The problem was, you don’t pay the fare (380 yen) until you get out. In other words, if we had left through the side door, it would have looked like we had tried to “steal” the ride to the hotel. As crowded as the stops were, it also would mean forcing a number of people to step aside as they were attempting to enter the car. All we could imagine was a street car full of Japanese rolling their eyes and saying, “Those crazy Americans!” Oh well, one of the car’s conductors squeezed past people by us on his way to the front. We asked him what we should do, hoping he would understand. He indicated we should go to the front to pay like everyone else. So we gestured toward our luggage. He gave a wide smile and granted us permission to use the side door. We gave him the 380 yen; and, like Moses parting the Red Sea, we parted a sea of people waiting to get on the streetcar as we exited and then made our way on to the hotel.
2:47 p.m.
Hikari 416
We changed trains at Shin-Osaka. We are on our way now to Tokyo Station, where we will change again before going on to Koriyama.
Now for a little more on Hiroshima. Over the course of the last 51 years, Hiroshima has returned to the busy population center it once was and then some. After arriving at the Hiroshima Station, we took a street car to our hotel. We checked in, went to our room, and put our stuff away before heading off to see the peace dome. By the time we finished seeing the dome and walking through the nearby museum, it was dark. We walked the few blocks back to the hotel via a wide street closed to vehicular traffic and passing through a shopping district.
We eventually came to a busy intersection that we needed to cross. After looking around for a minute or so, we realized that we would have to go down stairs to a level below the street. What we found down there surprised and amazed us. There was a mall on that level arranged in the shape of a giant cross with rows of stores extending out from a central hub for blocks in all four directions. There were a variety of clothing and other types of stores. If we hadn’t known better, we would have guessed we were at Castleton or Keystone Mall. The amount of stores definitely exceeded the amount you could find in either of those places.
There were restaurants on that level too. We ate dinner at one called “Auntie’s Pasta”. Italian food is big here, and it’s big with the Gilmores too. We enjoyed a delicious meal before heading back to the hotel and off to sleep. By the way, we’ve been going to bed each night around 9 pm or so, which is unusually early for our family. But we are finding ourselves to be exhausted each day by that time and thus ready for a good night’s rest. Not to complain, but in addition to being a little tired, my back has been hurting due to a combination of extremely hard pillows and mattresses (see an earlier post from Dale) and lugging some heavy luggage on and off the trains. I only mention my back to ask for a bit of prayer as we continue.
One more little bit of humor in closing. The street car we took from Hiroshima Station to our hotel actually consisted of about three subway-type cars linked together. We climbed on, lugging our luggage up with us, as quickly as we could (the car remain only briefly at each stop) and found a seat near the middle of the cars. We quickly observed that people were to enter the street car through the side doors like we had done, but that they were to exit the front door near the conductor. Well, by the time our stop rolled around, the cars had filled with people. In fact, it was standing room only. Now we faced the daunting task of pulling our luggage past thirty or forty feet of other passengers standing in the narrow aisle to go out through the front door. Someone might say, “Just go out the side door. It’s no big deal!” The problem was, you don’t pay the fare (380 yen) until you get out. In other words, if we had left through the side door, it would have looked like we had tried to “steal” the ride to the hotel. As crowded as the stops were, it also would mean forcing a number of people to step aside as they were attempting to enter the car. All we could imagine was a street car full of Japanese rolling their eyes and saying, “Those crazy Americans!” Oh well, one of the car’s conductors squeezed past people by us on his way to the front. We asked him what we should do, hoping he would understand. He indicated we should go to the front to pay like everyone else. So we gestured toward our luggage. He gave a wide smile and granted us permission to use the side door. We gave him the 380 yen; and, like Moses parting the Red Sea, we parted a sea of people waiting to get on the streetcar as we exited and then made our way on to the hotel.
Our Visit to Hiroshima
October 1411:26 a.m.
Hikari 462 Bound for Shin-Osaka
We just left Hiroshima a few minutes ago. We are headed now to Koriyama where Nobby and Bev Tajima live and minister. We are scheduled to arrive in Koriyama at 6:55 pm. I will be preaching tomorrow at the Tajima’s church.
The side trip to Hiroshima was definitely worth it. We stayed in a hotel near what is called the “peace dome”. It is the remains of a domed cultural center that survived in part the dropping of the atomic bomb on August 6, 1945 at 8:15 a.m. The exact time is marked by a watch on display in a nearby museum. The watch froze at the exact moment the bomb was detonated.
The watch was about the only thing that froze in that moment. Virtually everything else was incinerated by the blast and the subsequent release of a tremendous amount of heat and energy—an amount equivalent to something like 20,000 tons of TNT. Interestingly enough, the word scientists chose many years ago to be the common designation for TNT is the Greek word dynamis, or dynamite as we know it. In other words, the word dynamite is much older, by a few thousand years, than the explosive compound it has come to signify. The same word appears many times in the Bible and is translated by our word power. For example, in Romans 1:16, the Apostle Paul wrote: “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation, to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” As powerful as the bomb was that dropped on Hiroshima, the power of Christ is far greater. The dynamite associated with the exaltation of Jesus as Lord is what raised Jesus from the dead (see Philippians 3:10). Furthermore, the dynamite of the atomic bomb brought horrific death and destruction. The dynamite of Jesus in his exaltation brings life and peace. Hiroshima today stands in great need of this latter type of dynamite.
The horrific death and destruction in Hiroshima that resulted from the dropping of the atomic bomb is difficult to describe or quantify. Almost everything within a 1-2K radius around the peace dome was completely (and I do mean “completely) incinerated. The “before” and “after” depictions are stunning. After the bomb, everything was reduced to dust—not rubble, but dust. More than 140,000 souls perished instantly. Another 60,000 died in the aftermath. The suffering and loss are overwhelming as you read tales of parents finding nothing but a few shreds of clothing from their missing children and visa versa. One pair of sandals are on display in the museum, recognized in the aftermath of the bombing by a bereaved mother by the straps she had made with her own hands as all that was left of her young daughter’s remains.
There were thirteen Christian churches in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing. All of them were either partially or completely destroyed.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Friday Afternoon in Hiroshima
It's 3:49 pm on Friday, October 13. We just arrived at our hotel in Hiroshima. We are here overnight before traveling on to Koriyama in the north where we will stay with BMM missionaries. Just a minute or two ago I added three new posts we wrote on the train on the way here. The first and last are from me. The middle one is from Dale.
Appreciative Love and Presenting the Gospel to the Japanese
10-13-0610:47 a.m. Tsubame Relay 4
We changed trains again a few minutes ago, so now we have also changed bloggers. Dale is taking a break, and it is back to me.
The train we are on now is definitely the nicest of all we have ridden so far. The seats are large, and they even serve a beverage along the way. On other trains, customers can purchase a coke, bottled water, or juice from a beverage cart. The carts also feature a variety of light snack items. The prices are comparable to what you might see at any of the stations or local convenience stores. This leg lasts for about an hour and a half.
Yesterday late afternoon, Tom Carr and I talked at length about the difficulty of reaching Japanese people for the Lord. Tom remarked that unlike the circumstances of so many other places in the world where missionaries serve the advanced standard of living here means that people perceive that they have very few, if any, needs. They certainly don’t perceive their need for Christ. Consequently, it is a definite challenge to the way in which we usually present the Gospel.
In the States, the Gospel is presented most often in terms of what Christ “can do for you.” If you need forgiveness, Christ will give you forgiveness. If you need meaning in life, Christ will provide you with meaning. If you need help with your marriage or with other relationships, Jesus will help with that too. Whatever your need may be, trusting in Christ can help. Years ago, someone popularized this kind of thinking with the slogan, “Christ is the Answer!” It wasn’t unusual to see the slogan on posters, bumper stickers, and billboards. It was the previous generation’s version of the WWJD or Live Strong bracelets.
This approach to presenting the Gospel is not wrong. But what do you do when someone, or an entire group of people, does not sense any need for Christ at all? The notion of “Christ died for you” hardly connects or makes sense.
Our church family has often heard me speak of C.S. Lewis’ explanation of the various types of love, an understanding of which very much applies in the context of reaching Japanese for Christ. Lewis suggests three types of love: (1) need love; (2) gift love; and (3) appreciative love. Need love is the love that you might have for someone or something because they meet a need in your life. Gift love is the kind of sentiment you have for someone or something that motivates you to give of yourself to the person or thing that is loved. Finally, Appreciative love is love that is directed to someone or something because of something about them (or it) that really has nothing to do at all with the person who is doing the loving. A good illustration of appreciative love is the response we might have to a beautiful sunset. The beauty of a sunset really has nothing to do with the person who is looking on in admiration. It would still be beautiful even if that person were not there to admire it. Nevertheless, it would be a shame if the beauty of a sunset went unnoticed or if a person stood there looking on and failed to appreciate the beauty that he or she were seeing.
C.S. Lewis observed that gift love is a lot like God’s love for us; thus, John 3:16 says: “God so love the world that he gave his one and only Son….” And need love is a lot like our love for God. We love him, because of all he does and has done for us. Unfortunately, the greatest problem with need love is that it tends to diminish or go away altogether once the need that is driving it has been met. Of course, it also tends not to exist at all if there is no need to get it started in the first place.
That brings us back to Japan and presenting the Gospel to people who sense that they have very few, if any, needs—especially any spiritual needs, and even more especially any need for Christ. So what do we do? In my opinion, we should present the Gospel in terms of appreciative love. In other words, we should present the Gospel, not just in terms of what Jesus “can do for you”; but rather, in terms of all that is true of Jesus as the exalted Lord of Lords and how he deserves for people to place faith in him. He deserves for people to bend their knees and confess with their mouth that he is Lord. He not only deserves it, he commands it.
We can communicate that it is an even greater shame for Jesus’ beauty and position to go unnoticed than it is for a beautiful sunset to go unnoticed. Just as all people everywhere have been made to admire the beauty of sunsets, so they also have been made to respond in faith to the remarkable majesty of the Lord of All. I can’t help but coming back to the thought that perhaps Japanese people might understand this better than most because of their experience with emperor worship. The only difference is that Jesus is not just another emperor in a long line of emperors going back a few thousand years. And he is not just the emperor of Japanese only. He is the Emperor of Emperors, from now and forevermore. And not just of Americans, not just of Japanese, but of every person. I love what Acts 10:34-36, 42b-43 says: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right. You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all…he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Dale Again
10-13-06
9:52 a.m. Tsubame 4
Good morning! I trust you are all well back at home. We heard that snow was expected there in Indy and that the trees were turning colors. So far we have not seen any fall colors. Actually where we just left, the Carr’s city, the climate is quite different from Tokyo. It’s more like the climate in Georgia. October is still rather warm during the daytime and cools off nicely in the mornings and evenings. Instead of fall colors we saw palm trees! I just might miss my fall colors all together this year!
What a joy it was spending time with the Carr family. By Japanese standards, their home was quite large, though still quite small by our standards. We all squeezed in just fine and we were very comfortable. When we arrived the children all met us in their pajamas with smiling eager faces awaiting the unknown guests they had spent the day getting ready for. Elliott immediately connected with all of them and Mitchell graciously gave up his bottom bunk for Elliott to sleep in. Tom and Paula so kindly gave us their room and I believe it was the best rest I’ve had since we’ve arrived. We actually had American pillows. The hotel pillows were quite hard and they stuff one side with rice husks I believe. We’re learning the Japanese culture for bathing and taking off shoes quite well. There are some definite no-no’s in both situations and we’re hoping not to be too offensive. The missionaries constantly struggle with wondering if they have offended anyone because there are so many cultural differences and it takes a great deal of insight to learn what is acceptable. It’s quite overwhelming at times.
9:52 a.m. Tsubame 4
Good morning! I trust you are all well back at home. We heard that snow was expected there in Indy and that the trees were turning colors. So far we have not seen any fall colors. Actually where we just left, the Carr’s city, the climate is quite different from Tokyo. It’s more like the climate in Georgia. October is still rather warm during the daytime and cools off nicely in the mornings and evenings. Instead of fall colors we saw palm trees! I just might miss my fall colors all together this year!
What a joy it was spending time with the Carr family. By Japanese standards, their home was quite large, though still quite small by our standards. We all squeezed in just fine and we were very comfortable. When we arrived the children all met us in their pajamas with smiling eager faces awaiting the unknown guests they had spent the day getting ready for. Elliott immediately connected with all of them and Mitchell graciously gave up his bottom bunk for Elliott to sleep in. Tom and Paula so kindly gave us their room and I believe it was the best rest I’ve had since we’ve arrived. We actually had American pillows. The hotel pillows were quite hard and they stuff one side with rice husks I believe. We’re learning the Japanese culture for bathing and taking off shoes quite well. There are some definite no-no’s in both situations and we’re hoping not to be too offensive. The missionaries constantly struggle with wondering if they have offended anyone because there are so many cultural differences and it takes a great deal of insight to learn what is acceptable. It’s quite overwhelming at times.
Leaving Kyushu -- Our Visit with the Carrs
10-13-06
8:26 a.m.
We just boarded the train from Miyakonojo to Hiroshima with a few stops in between. Miyakonojo is a city about the size of Fishers; however, there is much more of a “downtown” area complete with more than few multiple-storied buildings. The pace of life here is much, much slower than in Tokyo. We understand this is true for most of Kyushu, which is the island where Miyakonojo is located. The name of the big island, where Tokyo is located, is called Honshu. By the way, Miyakonojo is situated in a valley with some beautiful mountains to its west.
We stayed overnight for two nights with Tom and Paula Carr and their four children, who range in age from 11 to 5. Andrew is the oldest. Next is Lindy, a girl, age 9; then, Mitchell, age 7. Finally, Tevia, also a girl, is the youngest. We thoroughly enjoyed fellowshipping with the Carrs, who serve with ABWE. Elliott especially enjoyed hanging out with Andrew. Elliott went to school with Andrew and then on to watch his swimming lessons later in the afternoon.
Last evening for dinner, the Carrs took us to a sushi bar. We were seated in a booth arranged along with others around a sort of island where a chef prepared a wide variety of individual servings of sushi on small plates. The chef set the plates on a moving track that snaked its way around the restaurant past all of the booths. Customers select which sushi they want to consume and remove them from the track. The prices of the various types are determined by which type of plate the chef sets them on. There were five or six types of plates in all with prices ranging from 100 yen to 550 yen. When customers are finished, a waitress comes by, “adds” up the plates, and calculates your bill. With the Carrs, there were nine of us altogether. Our total bill was under $40.
There are a few others who are serving with the Carrs in Miyakonojo. Yesterday morning, while Dale spent time with Paula, I met for breakfast with Tom and another missionary, Chris Sadowitz. I first met both the Carrs and the Sadowitz’ back in the early ‘90s when I served on the ABWE advisory board prior to our coming to Hamilton Hills. Tom and Chris provided some good insight and helpful suggestions for the project we are considering.
Several years ago an anonymous donor gave a large sum of money to the missionaries here to be used for purchasing property and constructing/renovating buildings useful for ministry. One of the ministries Chris and Tom would like to get going is a coffee shop, to which they could invite Japanese for coffee and light refreshments and where they could interact about spiritual things or come for more informal English lessons. Chris and Tom took me to the property and showed me the coffee shop, which has already been set up. The only thing missing is a couple or individual who would be willing to take it on as their ministry.
The coffee shop is also a perfect setting also for what we are intending to do. One concern that Tom has is what he referred to as “reproducibility”. What he meant by that term is his intention of making sure that whatever ministry is begun is something that Japanese nationals can carry on in the future. This doesn’t mean that he and Chris are closed to the idea of an English-teaching/relationship-building ministry utilizing college students. To the contrary, they are very excited about what we are proposing. It simply means that we and they also need to pray for more workers to serve vocationally and for more Japanese to take on ministries that they can do. For example, a Japanese person can run the coffee shop. They would not use it for English lessons, but they could use it as a meeting place where relationships are built for evangelism, and for Christian fellowship, Bible study, and interaction about spiritual things.
In the afternoon, Dale and I, along with the Carrs, met with two young Japanese ladies who are involved in their ministries. Izumi, age 29, has spent some time in the States as a student with Word of Life. The other lady, Chika, is married to a Russian man, who was born and raised in an area of Korea very near Russia. In fact, Chika speaks Japanese and English. Her husband speaks Korean, Russian, and some English. He is learning Japanese, but in the meantime, as a couple, they have a few challenges when it comes to communicating with each other.
Both ladies told us that from their perspective they thought what we are proposing would be great. We asked them to share whatever insights or advice they might have. They told us that English instruction would be especially attractive to high school students if we could promote it as helping them to advance in their education. They suggested that we focus on helping students with phonics, grammar, and correct pronunciation. This was very helpful advice and gave us several ideas for the content of lessons we might prepare for going forward.
Based on what we learned here, it seems that there are at least two tracks for what we could have students do here with English instruction. First, there is a need simply for practicing conversational English. By the way, yesterday morning at the coffee shop, Dale and I sat in on such a lesson with a Japanese woman named Kyiyoko. Second, there is a need, as Izumi and Chika shared, for helping people, especially students, with phonics, grammar, and correct pronunciation. Naturally all of this is for the purpose of building relationships in order to share more the Gospel more effectively.
8:26 a.m.
We just boarded the train from Miyakonojo to Hiroshima with a few stops in between. Miyakonojo is a city about the size of Fishers; however, there is much more of a “downtown” area complete with more than few multiple-storied buildings. The pace of life here is much, much slower than in Tokyo. We understand this is true for most of Kyushu, which is the island where Miyakonojo is located. The name of the big island, where Tokyo is located, is called Honshu. By the way, Miyakonojo is situated in a valley with some beautiful mountains to its west.
We stayed overnight for two nights with Tom and Paula Carr and their four children, who range in age from 11 to 5. Andrew is the oldest. Next is Lindy, a girl, age 9; then, Mitchell, age 7. Finally, Tevia, also a girl, is the youngest. We thoroughly enjoyed fellowshipping with the Carrs, who serve with ABWE. Elliott especially enjoyed hanging out with Andrew. Elliott went to school with Andrew and then on to watch his swimming lessons later in the afternoon.
Last evening for dinner, the Carrs took us to a sushi bar. We were seated in a booth arranged along with others around a sort of island where a chef prepared a wide variety of individual servings of sushi on small plates. The chef set the plates on a moving track that snaked its way around the restaurant past all of the booths. Customers select which sushi they want to consume and remove them from the track. The prices of the various types are determined by which type of plate the chef sets them on. There were five or six types of plates in all with prices ranging from 100 yen to 550 yen. When customers are finished, a waitress comes by, “adds” up the plates, and calculates your bill. With the Carrs, there were nine of us altogether. Our total bill was under $40.There are a few others who are serving with the Carrs in Miyakonojo. Yesterday morning, while Dale spent time with Paula, I met for breakfast with Tom and another missionary, Chris Sadowitz. I first met both the Carrs and the Sadowitz’ back in the early ‘90s when I served on the ABWE advisory board prior to our coming to Hamilton Hills. Tom and Chris provided some good insight and helpful suggestions for the project we are considering.
Several years ago an anonymous donor gave a large sum of money to the missionaries here to be used for purchasing property and constructing/renovating buildings useful for ministry. One of the ministries Chris and Tom would like to get going is a coffee shop, to which they could invite Japanese for coffee and light refreshments and where they could interact about spiritual things or come for more informal English lessons. Chris and Tom took me to the property and showed me the coffee shop, which has already been set up. The only thing missing is a couple or individual who would be willing to take it on as their ministry.
The coffee shop is also a perfect setting also for what we are intending to do. One concern that Tom has is what he referred to as “reproducibility”. What he meant by that term is his intention of making sure that whatever ministry is begun is something that Japanese nationals can carry on in the future. This doesn’t mean that he and Chris are closed to the idea of an English-teaching/relationship-building ministry utilizing college students. To the contrary, they are very excited about what we are proposing. It simply means that we and they also need to pray for more workers to serve vocationally and for more Japanese to take on ministries that they can do. For example, a Japanese person can run the coffee shop. They would not use it for English lessons, but they could use it as a meeting place where relationships are built for evangelism, and for Christian fellowship, Bible study, and interaction about spiritual things.
In the afternoon, Dale and I, along with the Carrs, met with two young Japanese ladies who are involved in their ministries. Izumi, age 29, has spent some time in the States as a student with Word of Life. The other lady, Chika, is married to a Russian man, who was born and raised in an area of Korea very near Russia. In fact, Chika speaks Japanese and English. Her husband speaks Korean, Russian, and some English. He is learning Japanese, but in the meantime, as a couple, they have a few challenges when it comes to communicating with each other.
Both ladies told us that from their perspective they thought what we are proposing would be great. We asked them to share whatever insights or advice they might have. They told us that English instruction would be especially attractive to high school students if we could promote it as helping them to advance in their education. They suggested that we focus on helping students with phonics, grammar, and correct pronunciation. This was very helpful advice and gave us several ideas for the content of lessons we might prepare for going forward.
Based on what we learned here, it seems that there are at least two tracks for what we could have students do here with English instruction. First, there is a need simply for practicing conversational English. By the way, yesterday morning at the coffee shop, Dale and I sat in on such a lesson with a Japanese woman named Kyiyoko. Second, there is a need, as Izumi and Chika shared, for helping people, especially students, with phonics, grammar, and correct pronunciation. Naturally all of this is for the purpose of building relationships in order to share more the Gospel more effectively.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Update From Miyakonojo
Good afternoon! It's approximately 2:40 pm on Thursday. We are visiting ABWE missionaries today in a city named Miyakonojo. It has been a very productive time. I will write more about this later this evening. In the meantime, I just uploaded three new posts from our trip yesterday. They appear below...
Another Post From Dale
Written Wednesday, October 111:30 pm
Hello again from Japan!
At this moment we are flying down the tracks at a speed of 200mph. At times it can get rather dizzying. We just flew past Hiroshima! We’re so glad we’ll have some time to stop there on the way back to take it all in. We’ve traveled many, many miles but I don’t think I’ve seen too much land undeveloped in some way. Home after home, building after building, garden after garden and so many, many people. As I look out the train window at the moment all I see are a sea of roof tops and apartment buildings. Even this far away from Tokyo. It’s interesting to see the architect change, too, as we get out into the country more. The homes are taking on a more oriental look.
It was a joy to be with the Melton’s. I told Debbie as she was preparing dinner that we’re not used to being on the receiving end of hospitality and we appreciated them opening their home and hearts to us. Elliott had a great time with their son Andrew who took Elliott right in and played some games with him. Yesterday I woke up with a headache and by dinner time I was feeling pretty bad with some nausea as well. I had to excuse myself to lie down all the while praying that I wasn’t coming down with something especially with the big trip ahead the next day. The Lord answered my prayers again and I woke up feeling so much better. I have to continually trust God for us to stay well. It seems I have a prayer on my lips most of the time as we are trying to find a ticket office or the right track to depart from. It all takes a lot of mental energy and I have been so thankful for Randy’s ability to get us around. Elliott was in tears today after Randy had been gone for about a half hour to re-do our tickets. Finally he appeared on the other side of the tracks with a big grin realizing where he had left us waiting. Needless to say Elliott was quite happy to see his Dad back safe and sound. It’s going to be quite different when we get home and not be with each other every waking minute! That’s one of the blessings of mission trips with kids, there’s a lot of bonding going on!I guess I better go for now. Again thank you all for praying for us and thanks to those who’ve written to us. It’s been a joy to read your messages. We are praying for you all as well and miss you, too.
Much love,
Dale
More Train Stories
Yesterday (Tuesday, October 10), as we were getting new tickets at Tokyo Station (because of the delay due to the suicide), something happened that brought a little chuckle to us. Tokyo Station is comparable to one of our largest and busiest airports. It is the hub of hubs when it comes to rail service here. So, it’s busy and there are lots of people going every which way. It’s a little nerve racking, to say the least. Anyway, we found the ticket office, picked a line, and waited our turn. Just in front of us, an older English-speaking Anglo couple stepped up to the counter and inquired about the train for which they were holding tickets. Evidently, they could not figure out which platform to use. Unfortunately, the ticket agents do not speak English very clearly. The woman of this couple looked at Dale at one point and just rolled her eyes as if to say this is impossible, knowing that Dale would understand. I tried to help the couple figure out where to go and so off they went. Dale and I started laughing after we realized our little moment with this couple would have made a perfect installment of a television commercial if the couple, after I gave them some direction, had asked, “Oh, do you speak Japanese?” To which I could have responded in truth, “No, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night!”
As I posted earlier, we started our train travel with this wonderful little schedule put together for us by the Japan Rail agent back at Narita airport. Well, we haven’t used any of it so far. As it turns out, what the original itinerary actually did for us was to help us understand how to reach the schedule book. That has allowed us to make adjustments here and there that will get us to our destination a hour or two earlier. Every little bit helps considering we are on trains for almost 12 hours today.
As I posted earlier, we started our train travel with this wonderful little schedule put together for us by the Japan Rail agent back at Narita airport. Well, we haven’t used any of it so far. As it turns out, what the original itinerary actually did for us was to help us understand how to reach the schedule book. That has allowed us to make adjustments here and there that will get us to our destination a hour or two earlier. Every little bit helps considering we are on trains for almost 12 hours today.
Our Visit With the Meltons
Written Wednesday, 10-11-06
12:40 pm
We stayed last night with Phil and Deb Melton. The Meltons live and work in Seki, which is in Gifu Prefecture. Phil grew up in Japan. He is a second generation missionary serving with Evangelical Baptist Mission (EBM), having grown up in an area about 30 minutes from Seki, which is where his parents are still serving. Deb grew up in Waynesboro, PA. Within a few minutes of our arrival, we all realized that we had met one another almost 20 years ago at a camp ministry in which we participated together. The pastor and wife of Deb’s home church are long time friends of ours. In fact, the pastor’s wife is the sister of Dale’s home pastor from Towanda, PA.
The Meltons have a total of six children. The oldest two (both girls) are in the States. The oldest will be finishing college soon and then getting married in early January. The third-born, also a girl, will be finishing high school this fall and then heading off to college for the winter term. Next is Nathan, who is almost 16, Natalie, a 15 year-old girl, and then Andrew, who is 14. Natalie and Andrew are Japanese nationals, whom the Meltons adopted when they were toddlers. Elliott and Andrew spent a lot of time playing together.
Seki is located in the western part of Honshu island, about one-third of the way from Tokyo to the western most edge. It is more of a country setting and the terrain is mountainous. The Meltons operate a camp ministry about 20 minutes or so from where they live. While Deb prepared dinner, Phil took Dale and I to see the camp. It is roughly a one acre site situated in an even more remote area. Nevertheless, there are still plenty of houses around. There is even a lighted baseball field nearby. Evidently there also are monkeys living nearby. We didn’t see any while we were there; but, then again, we’re weren’t really looking for them. Deb told us, nevertheless, the monkeys knew we were there and that we could bet that they were watching us!
The camp features several buildings, including a boy’s dorm (capable of sleeping 60), girl’s dorm (also capable of sleeping 60), a future large playhouse for children, a building they call the hub that contains the kitchen, dining area/indoor meeting room/indoor recreation room, and a chapel under roof with walls in front and back, but open on the sides. At the front of the chapel, there also are two rooms—one is a guest room, the other is used for storage. Most of the buildings have been built by Phil and his brother with the help now and then of a work team from the States. In the middle of the camp property, there is a large concrete pad about ¾ the size of a basketball court, which is also used for various activities (including basketball and soccer).
Phil told us that about 40% of the children who attend camp are already Christians. He said the camp ministry is where they see most of the decisions that are made to receive Christ.
Phil also shared how important it is to build trust with Japanese people in order to facilitate witnessing to them. This insight fits well with something Melody Yoshida shared as a possible approach to the outreach we have in mind. Melody suggested that each of the students we send be assigned to one or two Japanese for the entire length of the time in country. The students could be available for practicing conversational English with the person(s) assigned to them. In this fashion, they could build a relationship with Japanese people in hopes of being able to carry on a witness to them even after the students return home.
We enjoyed our time with the Meltons, though it was very, very brief. We had to get back on the train in Seki at 8:08 a.m. to begin the leg of the journey we are on now.
12:40 pm
We stayed last night with Phil and Deb Melton. The Meltons live and work in Seki, which is in Gifu Prefecture. Phil grew up in Japan. He is a second generation missionary serving with Evangelical Baptist Mission (EBM), having grown up in an area about 30 minutes from Seki, which is where his parents are still serving. Deb grew up in Waynesboro, PA. Within a few minutes of our arrival, we all realized that we had met one another almost 20 years ago at a camp ministry in which we participated together. The pastor and wife of Deb’s home church are long time friends of ours. In fact, the pastor’s wife is the sister of Dale’s home pastor from Towanda, PA.
The Meltons have a total of six children. The oldest two (both girls) are in the States. The oldest will be finishing college soon and then getting married in early January. The third-born, also a girl, will be finishing high school this fall and then heading off to college for the winter term. Next is Nathan, who is almost 16, Natalie, a 15 year-old girl, and then Andrew, who is 14. Natalie and Andrew are Japanese nationals, whom the Meltons adopted when they were toddlers. Elliott and Andrew spent a lot of time playing together.
Seki is located in the western part of Honshu island, about one-third of the way from Tokyo to the western most edge. It is more of a country setting and the terrain is mountainous. The Meltons operate a camp ministry about 20 minutes or so from where they live. While Deb prepared dinner, Phil took Dale and I to see the camp. It is roughly a one acre site situated in an even more remote area. Nevertheless, there are still plenty of houses around. There is even a lighted baseball field nearby. Evidently there also are monkeys living nearby. We didn’t see any while we were there; but, then again, we’re weren’t really looking for them. Deb told us, nevertheless, the monkeys knew we were there and that we could bet that they were watching us!
The camp features several buildings, including a boy’s dorm (capable of sleeping 60), girl’s dorm (also capable of sleeping 60), a future large playhouse for children, a building they call the hub that contains the kitchen, dining area/indoor meeting room/indoor recreation room, and a chapel under roof with walls in front and back, but open on the sides. At the front of the chapel, there also are two rooms—one is a guest room, the other is used for storage. Most of the buildings have been built by Phil and his brother with the help now and then of a work team from the States. In the middle of the camp property, there is a large concrete pad about ¾ the size of a basketball court, which is also used for various activities (including basketball and soccer).Phil told us that about 40% of the children who attend camp are already Christians. He said the camp ministry is where they see most of the decisions that are made to receive Christ.
Phil also shared how important it is to build trust with Japanese people in order to facilitate witnessing to them. This insight fits well with something Melody Yoshida shared as a possible approach to the outreach we have in mind. Melody suggested that each of the students we send be assigned to one or two Japanese for the entire length of the time in country. The students could be available for practicing conversational English with the person(s) assigned to them. In this fashion, they could build a relationship with Japanese people in hopes of being able to carry on a witness to them even after the students return home.
We enjoyed our time with the Meltons, though it was very, very brief. We had to get back on the train in Seki at 8:08 a.m. to begin the leg of the journey we are on now.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Rough Start
Tuesday - We began our train trip this morning at 9:15 am from Terminal 1 at Narita Airport. We are on a limited express train to Tokyo, where we will change to shinkansen. Everything has gone smoothly so far; however, the train just stopped at Yotsukaido outside of Chiba for quite a while, which puts us off schedule. Evidently, there was a train ahead of us that had an accident. Someone jumped in front of it to commit suicide. Thus the delay. We have been told that suicides in this manner are quite common in Japan. One person even suggested that we not arrange to sit in the first car of any train for fear that we (Elliott especially) might see someone jump in front of it to kill themselves.
This is Wed. morning at 7 am. I have only a few minutes to write. Our schedule got all messed up, but we were able to figure things out and get to our destination. We had a very informative time with the Meltons last night. They are missionaries with EBM in Seki, Gifu Prefecture.
This will be our longest day of travel. I will write more as soon as I am able.
This is Wed. morning at 7 am. I have only a few minutes to write. Our schedule got all messed up, but we were able to figure things out and get to our destination. We had a very informative time with the Meltons last night. They are missionaries with EBM in Seki, Gifu Prefecture.
This will be our longest day of travel. I will write more as soon as I am able.
Monday, October 09, 2006
A Post from Dale
Kon-nichi wa to all our dear church family and friends!
Randy is now “dryer sitting” and I’m back in the room with a few minutes to say “hi” before I begin packing for the next almost two weeks of traveling to other parts of Japan.
We need to condense everything into one suitcase for the first leg of the trip and the rest we will send on to the camp, where hopefully we will meet up with it on Sat.
It is much warmer here than I had expected, and the trees so far are still green. Did you know that Japan and New England are the two most beautiful places to view the fall colors? Most likely we will see the changes as the month goes on.
Let me share with you a few thoughts before I get to packing. First, I want to give God glory and praise for all the answers to prayer so far. Everything has been going so well. It’s been such a joy to be here. I feel so humbled and blessed in just how God made all this possible for us to come. Everyday He shows us new blessings that He is at work here in Japan. Yesterday we spent the day with the church family at Chiba Newtown. At first I felt like I would never be able to connect with the people there. There was the language barrier, and we only had Sun. morning with them. But at the end of our time together (S.S., morning service, and potluck meal) I felt so bonded with them. It’s amazing how many of them could speak English and for those who could not, I asked Melody to translate. I was able to have a conversation with each family and that along with Melody sharing about some of their backgrounds was a great blessing. Most of the people in the church are there because of English classes the Yoshidas taught to their children. Some of them are still not believers, even after many years of contact. When we arrived back to our hotel, Melody called and we talked for another hour and a half about the work and the burden she has for the church family. It’s been a blessing as well to get to know her better.
It was also a blessing to become acquainted with the Enterlines, who are filling in for the Mitas. We were with the Enterlines on Fri. and had several great hours with them, enjoying a wonderful Japanese meal called “Chanko”. We will be back with the Enterlines towards the end of our trip to actually stay a night there in their town. I loved hearing their testimonies. It never ceases to amaze me what God can do with anyone who steps out and says “Here am I, Lord, send me”.
The missionaries are so encouraged that we care about them and the needy field of Japan. It really hit me yesterday just how much prayer is needed for Japan. I truly feel it’s something we all can do to help; and, having been here, now I can see first hand the great need for our prayers from the states.
I’ve also been hit with how little fellowship the believers have with other believers. It’s so drastically different from what we are accustomed to. We can have spiritual encouragement 24/7 if we wanted to. It is so not the case here. When I ride the many trains we’ve ridden so far, I look for a face that might have a smile or joy behind it but the only ones I’ve seen were when we walked into church and encountered believers. Christ in us brings light to the whole world and it shows. A lamp cannot be hidden even in the darkest of places. Praise God for the precious gift of His Light to us!!!! I’m eternally grateful to Him. Well, the clothes are dry now and I’m off to packing…..until next time. Thanks so much for all the prayers! We all feel so covered by them! A sweet smelling fragrance to our Lord!
Love,
Dale
Randy is now “dryer sitting” and I’m back in the room with a few minutes to say “hi” before I begin packing for the next almost two weeks of traveling to other parts of Japan.
We need to condense everything into one suitcase for the first leg of the trip and the rest we will send on to the camp, where hopefully we will meet up with it on Sat.
It is much warmer here than I had expected, and the trees so far are still green. Did you know that Japan and New England are the two most beautiful places to view the fall colors? Most likely we will see the changes as the month goes on.
Let me share with you a few thoughts before I get to packing. First, I want to give God glory and praise for all the answers to prayer so far. Everything has been going so well. It’s been such a joy to be here. I feel so humbled and blessed in just how God made all this possible for us to come. Everyday He shows us new blessings that He is at work here in Japan. Yesterday we spent the day with the church family at Chiba Newtown. At first I felt like I would never be able to connect with the people there. There was the language barrier, and we only had Sun. morning with them. But at the end of our time together (S.S., morning service, and potluck meal) I felt so bonded with them. It’s amazing how many of them could speak English and for those who could not, I asked Melody to translate. I was able to have a conversation with each family and that along with Melody sharing about some of their backgrounds was a great blessing. Most of the people in the church are there because of English classes the Yoshidas taught to their children. Some of them are still not believers, even after many years of contact. When we arrived back to our hotel, Melody called and we talked for another hour and a half about the work and the burden she has for the church family. It’s been a blessing as well to get to know her better.
It was also a blessing to become acquainted with the Enterlines, who are filling in for the Mitas. We were with the Enterlines on Fri. and had several great hours with them, enjoying a wonderful Japanese meal called “Chanko”. We will be back with the Enterlines towards the end of our trip to actually stay a night there in their town. I loved hearing their testimonies. It never ceases to amaze me what God can do with anyone who steps out and says “Here am I, Lord, send me”.
The missionaries are so encouraged that we care about them and the needy field of Japan. It really hit me yesterday just how much prayer is needed for Japan. I truly feel it’s something we all can do to help; and, having been here, now I can see first hand the great need for our prayers from the states.
I’ve also been hit with how little fellowship the believers have with other believers. It’s so drastically different from what we are accustomed to. We can have spiritual encouragement 24/7 if we wanted to. It is so not the case here. When I ride the many trains we’ve ridden so far, I look for a face that might have a smile or joy behind it but the only ones I’ve seen were when we walked into church and encountered believers. Christ in us brings light to the whole world and it shows. A lamp cannot be hidden even in the darkest of places. Praise God for the precious gift of His Light to us!!!! I’m eternally grateful to Him. Well, the clothes are dry now and I’m off to packing…..until next time. Thanks so much for all the prayers! We all feel so covered by them! A sweet smelling fragrance to our Lord!
Love,
Dale
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Meeting with Tsutomu
It’s almost 1 PM Monday afternoon. Today is mostly a day of preparation for the travel we will be doing the rest of the week. I am sitting in a lounge on the second floor of the hotel waiting for the washer/dryer to stop. There really aren’t very many Laundromats near by, so the hotel concierge staff were kind enough to let us use the machines located in a part of the hotel where flight crews sometimes stay. By the way, I wrote “washer/dryer” not “washer and dryer”, because there is a machine here that serves both functions. In other words, you put your clothes in the tub just like you would any washing machine, but instead of taking them out to put them into another machine for drying, the same machine switches to drying once the wash cycle is completed. Talk about a space-saving appliance!
This morning Dale and Elliott and I met our friend, Tsutomu (Tom) Kanayama for a late breakfast. Tom is a professor at Sophia University in Tokyo, which is a Jesuit-run institution. I first met Tom when we were in graduate school together at Western Michigan University in 1991. Tom received his Masters from WMU and went on to complete a PhD from Ohio University. His expertise is in telecommunications. We have stayed in touch through the years, being able to visit one another on occasion as a result of either his travel schedule or mine.
Tom has been an invaluable friend and help both times we have been in Tokyo. I asked him early on to please tell us if he saw us committing any cultural blunders. He has been very helpful in that way as well.
Today I shared with Tom the proposal for starting an English as a Foreign Language evangelism outreach. He told us he thought it was a good idea, and he gave us a few helpful suggestions. Most of all, he expressed deep gratitude for our interest in his countrymen. As a Christian, Tom has very little opportunity for fellowship and Bible study, so he personally appreciates the prospect of more of his countrymen becoming believers in the Lord.
We would like to request special prayer for tomorrow through Saturday. We will be traveling more than 3000 kilometers by train on these days. The trip on Wednesday in particular will involve changing trains 8 times. Fortunately, as I posted a couple days ago, our itinerary is all laid out. I took the time early this afternoon to look everything up in a time table booklet and to mark the pages and columns with the information we might need should something go awry.
We are planning to visit with EBM missionaries tomorrow and then with ABWE (and possibly Word of Life) missionaries on Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, we stop on our way back in Hiroshima overnight before traveling on to the north of Tokyo on Saturday. The plan is for is to be with Nobby and Bev Tajima on Sunday and through most of the following week. We will be staying at a camp that is operated by their church and a few others. We are excited about seeing everything and about meeting new people to consult with them as well.
By the way, you can guess who is doing the best with learning various words and phrases...and it's not Dale or me! Elliott taught himself to count to 20 in Japanese while we were getting the train schedule set up. I've had to ask him for help a couple of times (Japan really is a humbling place). All of learned something yesterday that is quite useful. The expression for "thank you" is domo arigato gozaimas. We had heard before we came that there is a difference in the language between men and women. In other words, men and women can have different vocabularies and different rules for usage. For example, Melody Yoshida told us that when saying thank you, a woman is never to shorten the phrase domo arigato gozaimas. It is considered gruff to abbreviate and simply say domo or arigato. Men can get away with that, but not women. Well, Dale and I had both noticed that people were at times simply saying arigato or domo. So we did it too, but now one of us has stopped and is using the more complete phrase to say thanks.
We may not be able to connect to the internet for a few days. At the latest, we should be back online on Friday.
This morning Dale and Elliott and I met our friend, Tsutomu (Tom) Kanayama for a late breakfast. Tom is a professor at Sophia University in Tokyo, which is a Jesuit-run institution. I first met Tom when we were in graduate school together at Western Michigan University in 1991. Tom received his Masters from WMU and went on to complete a PhD from Ohio University. His expertise is in telecommunications. We have stayed in touch through the years, being able to visit one another on occasion as a result of either his travel schedule or mine.
Tom has been an invaluable friend and help both times we have been in Tokyo. I asked him early on to please tell us if he saw us committing any cultural blunders. He has been very helpful in that way as well.
Today I shared with Tom the proposal for starting an English as a Foreign Language evangelism outreach. He told us he thought it was a good idea, and he gave us a few helpful suggestions. Most of all, he expressed deep gratitude for our interest in his countrymen. As a Christian, Tom has very little opportunity for fellowship and Bible study, so he personally appreciates the prospect of more of his countrymen becoming believers in the Lord.
We would like to request special prayer for tomorrow through Saturday. We will be traveling more than 3000 kilometers by train on these days. The trip on Wednesday in particular will involve changing trains 8 times. Fortunately, as I posted a couple days ago, our itinerary is all laid out. I took the time early this afternoon to look everything up in a time table booklet and to mark the pages and columns with the information we might need should something go awry.
We are planning to visit with EBM missionaries tomorrow and then with ABWE (and possibly Word of Life) missionaries on Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, we stop on our way back in Hiroshima overnight before traveling on to the north of Tokyo on Saturday. The plan is for is to be with Nobby and Bev Tajima on Sunday and through most of the following week. We will be staying at a camp that is operated by their church and a few others. We are excited about seeing everything and about meeting new people to consult with them as well.
By the way, you can guess who is doing the best with learning various words and phrases...and it's not Dale or me! Elliott taught himself to count to 20 in Japanese while we were getting the train schedule set up. I've had to ask him for help a couple of times (Japan really is a humbling place). All of learned something yesterday that is quite useful. The expression for "thank you" is domo arigato gozaimas. We had heard before we came that there is a difference in the language between men and women. In other words, men and women can have different vocabularies and different rules for usage. For example, Melody Yoshida told us that when saying thank you, a woman is never to shorten the phrase domo arigato gozaimas. It is considered gruff to abbreviate and simply say domo or arigato. Men can get away with that, but not women. Well, Dale and I had both noticed that people were at times simply saying arigato or domo. So we did it too, but now one of us has stopped and is using the more complete phrase to say thanks.
We may not be able to connect to the internet for a few days. At the latest, we should be back online on Friday.
Fellowship Baptist Church, Chiba New Town
Today we traveled one hour by bus to visit Fellowship Baptist Church in Chiba New Town. That's the church where David and Melody Yoshida minister. The Yoshidas have visited Hamilton Hills twice in recent months. Back in June, David shared a testimony about their work at Chiba New Town and their financial needs associated with their desire to improve their church property in preparation for erecting a modular building. We responded to the need with a gift of $5k from HHBC missionary project funds.
To the left is a photo of the group in attendance today. Melody Yoshida is standing behind me to the right as you look at the picture. David was not there today; he is still in the States seeking to raise more support. Obviously the group is not very large, but they are very friendly and there are certainly some very committed Christians among them. The man all the way in the back to the left as you look did the translating for my sermon. His name is Keiichi Ueda. Keiichi became a Christian at age 21; he is 44 presently. He and his family spent several years in Connecticut, so his knows English well and did a good job with the translation. Keiichi's two sons, age 12 and 16, also pictured toward the back, were the only two students in Sunday School. I wish you could have seen their faces when I told them how many students are in our SS and youth meetings each week. They can only pray for that kind of Christian fellowship.
We spent the balance of the day visiting with Melody and talking over future plans for the English as a Foreign Language evangelism outreach. Melody gave some outstanding input. I'll write more about this tomorrow. Presently, I am little tired, so I will sign off soon. However, before going, I want to share this little testimony to the Lord's care for us. We were to phone Melody once we arrived at the bus station this morning. Unfortunately I left her number at the hotel. I found a phone book and asked a clerk at a nearby AM/PM convenience store if she would look up the name Yoshida for me. (I could not read the script in the phone book; so, once again, I needed help). The clerk couldn't figure out which phone book to use, so she asked the other clerk. The other clerk looked me and asked, "Melody Yoshida?" Surprisingly enough, she knew Melody and even had her home phone number in her cell phone. Consequently, I made the call and Melody came right away to pick us up.
To the left is a photo of the group in attendance today. Melody Yoshida is standing behind me to the right as you look at the picture. David was not there today; he is still in the States seeking to raise more support. Obviously the group is not very large, but they are very friendly and there are certainly some very committed Christians among them. The man all the way in the back to the left as you look did the translating for my sermon. His name is Keiichi Ueda. Keiichi became a Christian at age 21; he is 44 presently. He and his family spent several years in Connecticut, so his knows English well and did a good job with the translation. Keiichi's two sons, age 12 and 16, also pictured toward the back, were the only two students in Sunday School. I wish you could have seen their faces when I told them how many students are in our SS and youth meetings each week. They can only pray for that kind of Christian fellowship.We spent the balance of the day visiting with Melody and talking over future plans for the English as a Foreign Language evangelism outreach. Melody gave some outstanding input. I'll write more about this tomorrow. Presently, I am little tired, so I will sign off soon. However, before going, I want to share this little testimony to the Lord's care for us. We were to phone Melody once we arrived at the bus station this morning. Unfortunately I left her number at the hotel. I found a phone book and asked a clerk at a nearby AM/PM convenience store if she would look up the name Yoshida for me. (I could not read the script in the phone book; so, once again, I needed help). The clerk couldn't figure out which phone book to use, so she asked the other clerk. The other clerk looked me and asked, "Melody Yoshida?" Surprisingly enough, she knew Melody and even had her home phone number in her cell phone. Consequently, I made the call and Melody came right away to pick us up.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Trains and Temples
It's Saturday night about 8:30 PM. We spent a good bit of time today making arrangements for our travel next week to see EBM and ABWE missionaries. We bought Japan Rail passes before we left home from a travel agency in Chicago. The agency sent us vouchers, which we had to exchange for the passes here in Japan. As I wrote previously, travel costs are high here, so using a rail pass provides a more economical way to get around.After we exchanged the vouchers for passes, the agent here helped us with all of the reservations we need for next week. We had four itineraries to piece together over 5 days, and it definitely gets complicated. So we were grateful for the help with making the reservations. Now the challenge will be to actually find the right trains and make all the connections at the right times. Please pray for us. It can be confusing.
We're still a little tired from the jet lag, and we seem to be filling up our days with plenty to do. But everything so far has been worth the joy of knowing that we are helping the missionaries and the overall effort to reach Japanese for Christ. The Enterlines told us yesterday that Japan seems to get so little attention from pastors and churches in the States, at least nothing like China and other places in Asia. Relatively few short-term mission trips are made by pastors and churches to Japan. Worse yet, the pool of missionaries actively serving in Japan has been steadily shrinking over the last 10 years--not just in relation to BMM, but also in relation to other boards as well. I believe that one of the most important things we can do to turn this around is for our church to lead in praying more faithfully for the Lord to work here in a powerful way to raise up more workers, to break people free from their supersitions and worship of idols, and to open the hearts of many to faith in the Lord Jesus. There are many examples in history of God hearing and answering the prayers of Christains to bring about the salvation of nations of people. Why not add Japan to that list!
Prayer is definitely needed. We did take some time today to stop off on the bus route long enough to see the local Bhuddist temple. The temple is more of a compound containing numerous shrines, pagodas, and other buildings. It breaks our hearts to see so many people going there to pray to a dead idol or to breathe in incense in the hope of receiving some benefit or to take part in some ritual or sacrifice. We saw all of this and more today. Perhaps the saddest of all was seeing parents of small children involving them in these various activities. Elliott remarked that it was so sad, it made him cry. I'm grateful for his tender heart. But to be honest, I'm not sure that he comprehends how steeped this culture is in such idolatry, supersitition, and paganism. Rick Enterline said that there are some Muslim nations that have greater percentages of Christians in them than Japan. How sad indeed. I'm not sure I comprehend the magnitude of it all either.
Friday, October 06, 2006
More on yesterday's train trip
On one of the trains we rode to meet with the Enterlines, my assigned seat was next to a young, 26 year-old, Japanese man named Fisyu (probably misspelled). I struck up a conversation with him, eventually asking if he had ever heard of Jesus Christ. Fisyu replied with a smile, "Yes, Jesus Christ superstar!" I remember seeing the play when I was a junior in high school. It is not an accurate representation.
Fisyu spoke a little English, so I continued by explaining who Jesus is as best I could. I gestered with my left hand held up in front of me that "here is the Emperor" and then with my right hand at the same level, "and here is George Bush." Then I held my right hand up higher over my left and said, "And here is Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all."
Fisyu responded by holding up his left hand in similar fashion as me, saying, "Bhudda", and then his right hand at the very same level, saying, "Jesus Christ". In other words, Fisyu was indicating that he believed Bhudda and Jesus were equals.
I wish I had been able to communicate more clearly who Jesus is. He and Bhudda definitely are not on the same level. I told Fisyu that Jesus created him, that he gave him life, that he has life within himself. I explained that Bhudda is dead, but Jesus is alive, having risen from the dead. Fisyu just smiled.
My conversation with Fisyu illustrates the great need in this country where there are countless millions with so little knowledge of who Jesus is and the claims he has on their hearts. It also illustrates the importance of sharing the Gospel here in the same fashion in which it was shared in the Book of Acts. To wax theological for the moment, the Gospel message includes much more than just the assertion that Jesus died. In our country, we often focus exclusively on the death of Jesus as we present the Gospel. There are several problems with this. Among them is the tendency to focus the attention of the person we're talking with only on who Jesus was in the past, rather than on who he is here and now.
In the Book of Acts, and in the rest of the NT as well, the focus is on who Jesus is here and now. He is the exalted Lord of all, seated at the right hand of the Father, both waiting for his enemies to become his footstool and actively involved in bringing about their ultimate defeat. This means that when we tell people about Jesus, we should not only tell them about his death, but also about his resurrection, his ascension, and exaltation. They need to understand that the Jesus on whom they are believing is someone they are encountering in the present. They are not, in other words, being asked simply to believe or give assent to some historical figure of long ago; but rather, to the one who is Lord of All here and now.
By the way, this is not what is commonly called "lordship salvation." Lordship salvation is the idea that someone must "make Jesus their Lord" before they can truly be saved. Usually that means giving Jesus the control over your moral decisions. It is just a faulty understanding of all that is invloved in the realities of Jesus' exaltation. And it comes close to a works-oriented salvation.
What I'm talking about is more in line with the proposition offered in Romans 10:9: "If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Here the idea is to embrace Jesus by faith, not on the basis only of his death, but on the basis of who he is now ( a crucified, but resurrected, ascended, and exalted Lord of all and the one before whom every person will stand some day for judgment).
This is the way the Gospel is presented in Acts 2 and 17. The interesting thing to me is how suited this way of presenting the Gospel is to Japan. People here understand the concept of "Lord of all". They are very familiar with what an emperor is, so the proposition of there being someone who claims to be the Emperor of Emperors here and now (and forever) clarifies the decision that lies before them. With this said, it still requires divine power for their hearts to be opened to the Lord. It requires the same kind of power that was required to raise Jesus from the dead and that is associated so clearly with his current position at the Father's right hand. Fortunately, this kind of power is still available. Jesus himself promised in Acts 1:8 that he would share his power with us in order to make us effective witnesses unto him, unto who he is here and now.
This is a long post. I will close for now, with more coming later today on our meeting with the Enterlines.
Fisyu spoke a little English, so I continued by explaining who Jesus is as best I could. I gestered with my left hand held up in front of me that "here is the Emperor" and then with my right hand at the same level, "and here is George Bush." Then I held my right hand up higher over my left and said, "And here is Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all."
Fisyu responded by holding up his left hand in similar fashion as me, saying, "Bhudda", and then his right hand at the very same level, saying, "Jesus Christ". In other words, Fisyu was indicating that he believed Bhudda and Jesus were equals.
I wish I had been able to communicate more clearly who Jesus is. He and Bhudda definitely are not on the same level. I told Fisyu that Jesus created him, that he gave him life, that he has life within himself. I explained that Bhudda is dead, but Jesus is alive, having risen from the dead. Fisyu just smiled.
My conversation with Fisyu illustrates the great need in this country where there are countless millions with so little knowledge of who Jesus is and the claims he has on their hearts. It also illustrates the importance of sharing the Gospel here in the same fashion in which it was shared in the Book of Acts. To wax theological for the moment, the Gospel message includes much more than just the assertion that Jesus died. In our country, we often focus exclusively on the death of Jesus as we present the Gospel. There are several problems with this. Among them is the tendency to focus the attention of the person we're talking with only on who Jesus was in the past, rather than on who he is here and now.
In the Book of Acts, and in the rest of the NT as well, the focus is on who Jesus is here and now. He is the exalted Lord of all, seated at the right hand of the Father, both waiting for his enemies to become his footstool and actively involved in bringing about their ultimate defeat. This means that when we tell people about Jesus, we should not only tell them about his death, but also about his resurrection, his ascension, and exaltation. They need to understand that the Jesus on whom they are believing is someone they are encountering in the present. They are not, in other words, being asked simply to believe or give assent to some historical figure of long ago; but rather, to the one who is Lord of All here and now.
By the way, this is not what is commonly called "lordship salvation." Lordship salvation is the idea that someone must "make Jesus their Lord" before they can truly be saved. Usually that means giving Jesus the control over your moral decisions. It is just a faulty understanding of all that is invloved in the realities of Jesus' exaltation. And it comes close to a works-oriented salvation.
What I'm talking about is more in line with the proposition offered in Romans 10:9: "If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Here the idea is to embrace Jesus by faith, not on the basis only of his death, but on the basis of who he is now ( a crucified, but resurrected, ascended, and exalted Lord of all and the one before whom every person will stand some day for judgment).
This is the way the Gospel is presented in Acts 2 and 17. The interesting thing to me is how suited this way of presenting the Gospel is to Japan. People here understand the concept of "Lord of all". They are very familiar with what an emperor is, so the proposition of there being someone who claims to be the Emperor of Emperors here and now (and forever) clarifies the decision that lies before them. With this said, it still requires divine power for their hearts to be opened to the Lord. It requires the same kind of power that was required to raise Jesus from the dead and that is associated so clearly with his current position at the Father's right hand. Fortunately, this kind of power is still available. Jesus himself promised in Acts 1:8 that he would share his power with us in order to make us effective witnesses unto him, unto who he is here and now.
This is a long post. I will close for now, with more coming later today on our meeting with the Enterlines.
An Afternoon in Omiya
It's shortly before 9 PM. We returned a little bit ago from a daytrip to Omiya (pronouced Oh-me-ya), where we met with Rick and Becky Enterline, along with a Japanese woman, Mana, who is part of their church.To get to Omiya, we could go either by bus or by train. We decided to go by train because of the difference in cost. Omiya is approximately 31 kilometers (20 miles) from Tokyo station, the city's central train depot. Where we are staying is approximately the same distance, maybe a bit farther, from the Tokyo station. Now then, traveling to Omiya by bus from where we are costs 2750 yen (approx. $23.40) per adult and takes 90 minutes. Traveling by train can cost anywhere from 500 to 1300 yen less and takes about the same amount of time. After just two stops on the train, an announcement was made that everyone would have to deboard and return to the station. It was raining very hard this morning (actually, it has been raining hard all day) and something mechanical went wrong with the train. Fortunately, Dale had befriended a young lady, a Christian, from S. Korea, who spoke very good English and who guided us to where we needed to go. We were very grateful for her help.
Transportation is one of the problems a foreigner faces in Japan. You simply must be humble enough to ask for help. There are plenty of signs with plenty of information, but mostly in Japanese with only a little English thrown in here and there. In addition, as you may be able to tell by the example of Omiya, public transportation is not cheap. Nor is travelling by car for that matter. On the interstates within the Tokyo area, there are tolls of 750 yen (approx. $6.30) every few kilometers.
Our meeting with the Enterlines and Mana went very well. I will share more about this tomorrow when I am not so tired. I am definitely wiped out; nevertheless, I will share for now that Rick and Becky are very excited about the possibilities of this undertaking. With tears in his eyes, Rick asked me to tell our church family "thank you" for sending us and for taking such an interest in the country where God has called them to serve.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
It's Thursday afternoon, almost 4 PM local time. Today has been a day of getting ourselves adjusted to the time change and organized for what comes next. We went to a nearby mall this morning to pick up a few things needed from the grocery store. Jusco, the mall's anchor store, is comparable to a Meijer's or Super Wal-Mart. While there, we also were able to pick up a LAN card for my computer. The LAN connector on the back of my computer must have a crack in it. It works fine when the computer first starts, but fails after it heats up. The new card was made in China and was not as expensive as I thought it might be, just under $24. It was a bit tricky to install, since the instructions were in Japanese. I tried using the installation CD (also in Japanese), but to no avail. Finally, Windows just took over and installed it all by itself.
We have been hearing from numerous others that Japanese youth (college students and younger) are the most open to the Gospel. One reason why perhaps is their love for all things Western--music, movies, clothing, and other artifacts of culture. On the way to the mall, we passed a "wedding chapel" located on the grounds of one of the nearby hotels. The building itself looks like it might be a small country church, complete with a three or four foot hight cross attached where you would expect to see a steeple. Many Japanese are so taken with Western culture that they simply must have a "Christian" wedding. Mind you they do not know anything about what's behind a truly Christian wedding; they just see it as a way of associating themselves with Western culture.
The openness of young people here is one reason why we are planning to initiate an English as a Foreign Language evangelism ministry utitlizing college students and recent college graduates. Using college students and recent grads will help us to connect with Japanese youth, while teaching English will offer the youth another way of associating with Western culture. On our last trip, we met a young man from Florida named Alex who had moved to Japan for one year to teach English in a commerically run school. Just before Alex left from home, someone shared the Gospel with him and he became a Christian. Alex told us that once he got here he decided to use his work to evangelize.
Hearing Alex's story is what turned on the light bulb for us. We've known of people teaching English in other hard-to-access countries with great success. It's being done, in fact, on quite a large scale--just not in Japan, not on a large scale anyway.
Japanese young people are open to the Gospel, at least much more so than older people. On our last visit, a young teenage girl named Azu prayed to receive the Lord as her Savior at the conclusion of my sermon. Azu had been invited by the pastor's daughter, who also had been sharing her own testimony with Azu and inviting her to church. The day Azu made her decision was just her second time in church. That's pretty amazing in a country where it can literally take several years for an older adult to make the decision. Please pray for Azu, that she might continue growing in her faith, and for the millions of others like her, that our church family might play a role in reaching them for Christ.
Many people have told me how difficult it is to win Japanese to the Lord. As true as it is, I believe there is a certain part of the Gospel message that Japanese might be especially suited to receive. I'll share more on this tomorrow.
We have been hearing from numerous others that Japanese youth (college students and younger) are the most open to the Gospel. One reason why perhaps is their love for all things Western--music, movies, clothing, and other artifacts of culture. On the way to the mall, we passed a "wedding chapel" located on the grounds of one of the nearby hotels. The building itself looks like it might be a small country church, complete with a three or four foot hight cross attached where you would expect to see a steeple. Many Japanese are so taken with Western culture that they simply must have a "Christian" wedding. Mind you they do not know anything about what's behind a truly Christian wedding; they just see it as a way of associating themselves with Western culture.
The openness of young people here is one reason why we are planning to initiate an English as a Foreign Language evangelism ministry utitlizing college students and recent college graduates. Using college students and recent grads will help us to connect with Japanese youth, while teaching English will offer the youth another way of associating with Western culture. On our last trip, we met a young man from Florida named Alex who had moved to Japan for one year to teach English in a commerically run school. Just before Alex left from home, someone shared the Gospel with him and he became a Christian. Alex told us that once he got here he decided to use his work to evangelize.
Hearing Alex's story is what turned on the light bulb for us. We've known of people teaching English in other hard-to-access countries with great success. It's being done, in fact, on quite a large scale--just not in Japan, not on a large scale anyway.
Japanese young people are open to the Gospel, at least much more so than older people. On our last visit, a young teenage girl named Azu prayed to receive the Lord as her Savior at the conclusion of my sermon. Azu had been invited by the pastor's daughter, who also had been sharing her own testimony with Azu and inviting her to church. The day Azu made her decision was just her second time in church. That's pretty amazing in a country where it can literally take several years for an older adult to make the decision. Please pray for Azu, that she might continue growing in her faith, and for the millions of others like her, that our church family might play a role in reaching them for Christ.
Many people have told me how difficult it is to win Japanese to the Lord. As true as it is, I believe there is a certain part of the Gospel message that Japanese might be especially suited to receive. I'll share more on this tomorrow.
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