Month: September 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Learn to be Nice to Your Wife or Pay the Price

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

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

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

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