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.