Our last day in Tokyo

Saturday was our last full day in Tokyo before returning home to Indiana. We knew it would be a busy before we got started and it was. We left the hotel to travel to Tama City, where there is a church pastored by Pastor Yuasa, a Japanese national. It's the church where Yoshito Fujii attends. Yoshito stayed in our home for about 4 months in 2007.

We arrived in Tama around 12:30 pm, after traveling about 2 1/2 hours by train. Pastor Yuasa picked us up from the train station and drove us to the church, located about 15 minutes away. Several people from the church were waiting for us when we arrived. Among them were Yoshito and his mother, and Mrs. Suzuki, who hosted us for a night on our last trip. It was good to see everyone and renew our friendships. This particular church is special to us. They need some encouragement right now, because things have been a little rough for them financially. Pastor Yuasa told me that they pray each week before the offering for enough money to come in to pay their bills. He also told me that they have copied our monthly Day of Prayer. Pastor Yuasa saw on our HHBC website that we have a Day of Prayer each month. He liked the idea and implemented it there. Perhaps now when we pray, we can remember their camaraderie and add them to our list of requests.

Pastor Yuasa asked me to share something from God's Word to encourage the people who had assembled with us. I spoke from 1 Samuel 5, which is the story of Dagon, the idol of the Philistines that fell over twice when the Ark of Presence was set near it in its temple. After it fell the first time, the Philistines set it back up. The second time it fell, its head and arms were broken off, which I assume rendered it useless as an object of worship.

I used the story of Dagon as an illustration of how one day the exalted Lord Jesus will bring all of his enemies under his feet, including the idols that are so prevalent in Japan. On the day before, we had seen what is called "The Giant Buddha", which is hardly anything more than a rather tall, hollowed out, image of Buddha cast in metal. I mentioned how one day that image will fall before Jesus, just like Dagon fell before the presence of the Lord. I shared something similar about the idols that are in Aizu and in other places. They stand there proudly and boldly for now, but one day they too will lie flat on the ground, broken and helpless, before the Lord of Lords.

The people seemed encouraged with our presence and words. We left there around 3 pm to head for Shibuya, which is closer into Tokyo, to meet up with Tsutomu, my friend from grad school at Western Michigan University. Tsutomu teaches at Sophia University in Tokyo. He is a Christian, although I do not believe he gets much fellowship.

We met Tsutomu around 5 pm. Our plan to was eat dinner and then to attend Tokyo Baptist Church (TBC), which is located only a few blocks away from the Shibuya train station. The service at TBC began at 7 pm and lasted until about 8:15 pm. It was one of five worship services the church holds each week. TBC has a combined worship attendance of 12-1500. It is an international church, thus the services are in English. We met people there from the Philippines, from Hong Kong, from Japan, and from the States. It was wonderful to worship with them.

Shortly before the service began, we met Pastor Dennis Folds, who has been the pastor of TBC for about 10 years now. Pastor Dennis is doing a great job. He told us that about 45% of the church is Japanese. The area where they are located is more of an international area, and it's loaded with young people. The Shibuya train station had to be one of the busiest, if not the busiest we've seen in Japan. One of the TBC staff told Dale that she often stands on a crosswalk bridge near the station and just watches the crowds of people going back and forth, praying for the Lord to help them reach them for Christ. Our prayer too is for the Lord to richly bless TBC!

In order to get back to the hotel around 11:30 pm that night, we had to leave the Shibuya station by 9:05 pm. The departure time was critical, because after a certain hour, only local trains run and they don't go all the way to the airport. That would have meant getting off somewhere else and taking a cab, which would have been pretty expensive.

We were able to get to the station on time, and we made all the connections with no problem. I will say, however, that one thing that surprised us was how busy and crowded the trains were that late at night. Our first leg of the trip was standing room only, crushed together with what seemed like a million other people into train cars designed for about half that many. At any rate, we arrived safely after a very fulfilling, though tiring, day.

Tomorrow, I finally will be able to follow through on my plan to write about Chanden, the young English teacher we met in Pastor Nobby's church.