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Tohoku Area

We are in Tohoku area! Tohoku is one of the seven major areas in Japan. It’s the northmost area on mainland. Tohoku area is twice the size of the Kanto district (which includes Tokyo) but the population is less than 1/3 of Kanto. Except for larger cities, local industries cannot fully support the economy, and people in their prime of life leave home to work elsewhere. Fukushima is the only prefecture whose church-per-population ratio is better than the national average.

<Tohoku Area>

  • Population: 9,750,366
  • City with no church: 1
  • Towns/villages with no church: 245
  • Churches per person: 1:18,090

 

Feb 27: Pray for the people of the Tohoku region that they come to know the Living God. Pray for the 539 Protestant churches in the six prefectures. The number of churches has increased by 27 in the last en years. Praise the Lod for this advance and pray for more! Each year, Gideon ministries distribute thousands of Bibles throughout the area. Pray that many will be attracted to Jesus through His Word.

Feb 28: Seven of the unchurched towns have populations over 20,000. Pray that a special strategy will be developed to reach the remote mountain villages. Pray for the missionaries in this region. With a declining number of missionaries, declining population, and slow response to the gospel, the ministry can be discouraging.

*All information and prayer requests taken from “Operation Japan -Prayer Guide- Third Edition” -Japan Evangelical Missionary Association, 2005. To purchase a copy of “Operation Japan” book or the Interactive CD version, go to: http://www.jema.org/joomla15/index.php?option=com_banners&task=click&bid=10.

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A Twofold Return

This past Saturday was my Grandma’s funeral. I stayed up late the night before working on a slideshow of her life. 80 years in ten minutes. It was fascinating sorting through so many pictures of my Grandma that I’d never seen before, shuffling through her life from growing up in Okinawa, suddenly seeing my grandpa enter the pictures looking younger than I ever imagined he had been. Soon enough there were little girls, my aunts and my mom, all growing up, and my grandma, getting older year by year. It wasn’t long before my dad and my uncles strutted into the pictures and there Grandma was again, proudly watching her daughters get married. Then I finally came along, a dumb looking fat little infant, and things slowly started to look familiar. Grandma was older now, as old as I remembered her when I was old enough to remember anything. The final years raced by, and then I was down to my last picture, taken at my wedding reception in Huntington Beach 6 months ago. Grandma had wanted to come back to Japan to watch Tomo and I get married, but she had gotten sick the night before I left and had to stay in the hospital for a few days instead. I had been so excited at the thought of getting to be in Japan with Grandma.

She was really the reason I visited Japan for the first time. The first time I went to Japan, I went on a six week missions trip to teach English at a church in Tokyo. I didn’t go for any of the right reasons.  I didn’t go to minister to other people, or to share my faith, or help the church in Japan. I went because my Grandma was Japanese, and through her I had always had a curiosity and a positive impression Japanese culture. I went because hanging out in Japan with my brother, and visiting the country that was somehow a part of us, because of Grandma, sounded like the coolest summer trip I could think of. There was no way I was going to miss that.

When I got there, I struggled and I learned. I stepped further outside my comfort zone than I ever had. God used me to share my faith, and minister to other people. He gave me a love for the people of Japan, and a heart for the church there. I met my wife, and changed my career goals. But none of that was the motivation for going in the first place. God used Grandma and the heritage I inherited from her to push me into that life changing experience.

At the memorial service I heard a story I had heard a number of times before. My Grandma, when she was young, before World War II, had been befriended by some American missionaries from Texas. They shared the gospel with her, and she placed her faith in Christ. Maybe that had a little to do with my desire to go back to Japan as a missionary as well. God took her to the US to live. Her faith grew, but she never moved back to Japan. She had kids, and they never moved back to Japan. But my brother and I, God’s sending back. I suppose that’s a good investment. Japan lost one of its few believers 60 years ago but because of that, it’s getting two missionaries in return.

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The Youth

Here are prayer requests for the youth in Japan. Pray for the churches to find effective ways to reach for the youth and for their cooperation with youth-targeting ministries to be smooth and effective!

Feb 23: Hi-b.a. (High School Born-Againers) began in Japan in 1951 and focuses on evangelism and discipleship among Japanese high school students. Kirisutosha Gakusei Kai (KGK, similar to InterVarsity) was begun by Japanese Christian students in 1947, and is active on about 250 college campuses, ministering through Bible studies, prayer meetings, summer camps, etc.

Feb 24: Japan Campus Crusade for Christ (JCCC). There are 88 missionaries and 47 Japanese staff active in Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Sendai, Fukuoka and Okinawa. They target major universities and also have a ministry for young working adults, and a developing Family Life ministry. Summer teams from other Asian countries and the US distribute evangelistic material in cooperation with local churches to reach unchurched areas of Japan.

Feb 25: Navigators is a discipleship-centered group with 39 Japanese and 26 foreign staff working in ten different cities throughout Japan. The ministry includes working with students, business people and families. Summer programs bring in university students from other countries to assist in campus evangelism.

Feb 26: Youth with a Mission (YWAM) , an international missionary organization, is active in the Tokyo and Osaka areas with various programs including youth ministry, discipleship training, and church-planting. YWAM had 82 career and short-term missionaries in Japan in 2005.

*All information and prayer requests taken from “Operation Japan -Prayer Guide- Third Edition” -Japan Evangelical Missionary Association, 2005. To purchase a copy of “Operation Japan” book or the Interactive CD version, go to: http://www.jema.org/joomla15/index.php?option=com_banners&task=click&bid=10.

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Hokkaido

Hey everyone, here are 6 more days worth of prayer requests on Hokkaido, which is the northernmost island of the 4 main islands of Japan.

<Hokkaido>

  • Population: 5,650,573
  • Cities w/o church: 2
  • Towns & villages w/o church: 113
  • Churches/person: 1:14,233

Feb 17: Pray for the churches without pastor, and for those facing hardships because of the severe winters, the population decline and economic difficulties.

Feb 18: Pray that the gospel may spread to the remote areas through the TV broadcasts of Life Line, and the radio ministry of Light of the World.

Feb 19: Pray for the several camping ministries that they be effectively used by God.

Feb 20: There are five Protestant schools with close to 25,000 students, and over 6,000 children in 61 kindergartens and 10 day-care centers. Pray that the gospel will be clearly felt in these schools. Ask God’s blessing on the Hokkaido Bible Institute and CFNJ Bible School.

Feb 21: Several larger Christian hospitals, along with social ministries seek to represent Jesus. Pray that each staff member will sense God’s presence today.

Feb 22: Pray that churches will be started in the many needy areas. There are two cities with no churches and 113 towns and villages with no churches. In the city of Noboribetsu, there is only one church for the population of over 54,000.

*All information and prayer requests taken from “Operation Japan -Prayer Guide- Third Edition” -Japan Evangelical Missionary Association, 2005. To purchase a copy of “Operation Japan” book or the Interactive CD version, go to: http://www.jema.org/joomla15/index.php?option=com_banners&task=click&bid=10.

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Operation Japan

David and I have a prayer guide for Japan called “Operation Japan” and it has a lot of information on Japan and prayer item for each day. It starts with basic info and prayer items for Japan as a whole, and then goes prefecture by prefecture each week from north to south. It starts on Jan. 1st and covers the entire country in a year! It’s very informative and helps to know more about Japan and pray very specifically. So I thought I’d share them on the blog on a semi-weekly basis. It’s already a week and a half into February, but it’s never too late to start praying! So here goes the first ones! (I changed the dates for the prayer items to start from Feb. 11th instead of Jan. 1st so we can start right now.)

  <Japan>

  •   Population: 126,824,166
  •   Size: 372,244km
  •   Density: 340 people/km
  •   Cities with no churches: 10
  •   Towns/villages with no churches: 1,633
  •   Churches/person: 1:16,293

 

<Prayer items>

Feb. 11: Pray for salvation for Japan. May the 126 million Japanese people in 47 million households come to the Savior! Pray that in some way each home will have some contact with the gospel this year.

Feb. 12: Pray for Japanese living abroad (over 911,000 in 2003). Pray for the Japanese churches in different parts of the world. Pray that those who have found faith abroad or have become interested in the gospel, may be able to be integrated into church in Japan.

Feb. 13: Pray for the approximately 1.9 million foreign people living in Japan. Fom Korea there are 625,000, from China 424,000, from Brazil 268,000. There are approximately 2,000 Protestant missionaries serving in Japan. Ask the Lord for a speacial blessing for each of them as they work there. May they be effective servants of Chirst.

Feb. 14: Pray for the Japanes Christians, that each may grow and be obedient to the Lord. Church membership is only 0.44% of the population. Pray for the non-Christian family members. Most Christians are the only ones in their families who believe.

Feb. 15: The Bible teaches us to “pray for the king”. Let us pray for the salvation of the emperor and his imperial family. Pray that this year they may rad the Bible, and be attracted to the King. Pray for the salvation of this country’s “leaders in high positions”, for Cabinet and Diet members, local councilmen, and other government employees. Pray that the few Christian politicians and government workers might represent Jesus well.

Feb 16: Pray for the effective ministry of the several hundred Japanese missionaries who are now laboring around the world for Christ. Ask the Lord to raise up more people to go. As these missionaries return to Japan for deputation and rest, may their example of dedication stir up each local church to hae a burden to reach their own communities.

*All information and prayer requests taken from “Operation Japan -Prayer Guide- Third Edition” -Japan Evangelical Missionary Association, 2005. To purchase a copy of “Operation Japan” book or the Interactive CD version, go to:

http://www.jema.org/joomla15/index.php?option=com_banners&task=click&bid=10.

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New website! (…almost.)

Those of you who have visited this URL before might have noticed… 

..that David’s been working on the new look on our website! It’s still under construction and more contents will be added, but we’ve got the top page and blog so far. We are planning to add a download tab where you can go and download our newsletters, etc., and there will be our testimonies and more information on Japan too! We are hoping that this easier-to-manage website will be helpful in letting interested people know about our ministry and keeping them updated. So keep coming back to see what’s been added!

<Prayer update>

In my last post, I asked for prayer for David’s grandma. She passed away last Saturday after a week in the hospital. We are very sad but we are also happy for her for we know that she went to be with the Lord. Thank you all for your prayers.

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Back in California

It’s good to be home! Thank you so much for praying for us. We are back in California after two weeks of SEND’s Candidate Orientation Program in Michigan. We’ve been back since Saturday and been enjoying the nice, mild, southern California weather. I’m quick to get used to nice things I have (like this weather) and forget to thank God for it, so going to Michigan was a good reminder of that. (This is Tomo writing by the way)

David is working full-time this week and getting many computer-fixing jobs too. He left his phone when we went to Michigan so we thought he might be losing business. When we got back, however, we found out that he didn’t get a single phone call for computer job while he was gone. But once we got back, he already has 4 or 5 jobs lined up! God knows our schedule so well, doesn’t He? Since David started working part-time in September, it’s been really amazing to experience how God provides just enough amount of jobs for us.

I’ve been working on several things for our support-raising since I got back such as updating contacts and getting newsletters ready. I also made an appointment with DMV to take a test for a permit, which I am very excited about. Last time I went to the DMV office for the test, first I was mistaken for a 16-year-old, then I was handed a Spanish booklet on driving rules, and then was rejected to take the test because of my immigration status. This time, I’m definitely prepared to clear the third obstacle. Hopefully I will look old enough and Asian enough too. I’ve never driven because Tokyo has a great public transportation system, so getting a driver’s license is going to be another exciting adventure for me (Probably a nerve-wrecking one on David’s part). Another item on our agenda is for me to get a part-time job so it’ll be easier for both of us to spend more time on support discovery. I am hoping to work at a child-care facility. Anyways, that was a little update on what we’ve been up to since we got back from freezing Michigan.

And here is an important prayer request: David’s grandma has been very ill since we got back. She’s in the hospital right now. Please pray for God’s sovereign hand on her and the whole family.

Thanks again for your prayers! Hope your week is going well.