Well, it is that time again! How
quickly the time flies! This April 2019 will mark our two year
anniversary here! Looking back on the year it is apparent that we
have gone through a lot of changes as we adopt to a new lifestyle in
Japan. The theme for 2018 seems to follow closely with the following
passage:
“...For
unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to
whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.” -
Luke 12:48 KJV
The
overall theme of the passage concerns a parable of Jesus talking of
how various workers spent their time in service of their master. Living here as a missionary full time now for close to two years
has made me understand the gravity the teachings of this parable. In
light of the pressures to learn a complex language, the burden of
seeing a great mass of lost souls, and the great resources invested
into my family to do this work, I can with integrity say that our
family has put forth an 'honest work for an honest wage' from our
master. A year of work fruitful for the Lord has been far more
enjoyable than other years of my life spent on my own foolish
pursuits! The following information is for the purpose of
understanding the situation here in Japan, so you can pray for it
better!
Concerning
the gospel tract ministry, in this last year, according to my
records, a very conservative estimate of over 70,000 Japanese gospel
tracts have been put out around the Tokyo area. Mostly we have been
concentrating on apartment complexes as this is where most Japanese
people live. Although it is legal to do this, it can seem like a
risky venture at times. I have experienced some great protections
from God to get into apartment complexes as well as having the exact
number of tracts needed to completely cover an apartment complex
without prior knowledge of an area on multiple occasions. I have also
experienced a lot of hostility and even being yelled at a few times!
'Tracting' can be accomplished by taking about 30 to 45 minutes each
day to put out about 250 to 500 tracts on my way to language school
early each morning. Many thanks and support need to go to Chick Tracts and Fellowship Tract League for
shipping these tracts free
of charge. If you want
to support a ministry that actually gets good gospel tracts to
missionaries around the world for free, please support them! By
teaming up with our Japanese friend, we have completed translating
two of the Chick tracts relevant to Japan into Japanese. We really
can't know what the full results of the tract distribution are, as it
is by faith, but my statistics of website views indicate that about
1% to 5% of the tracts put out on any given week will yield a website
view. This has also been a year that I have also purposefully focused
on reaching English speakers, Vietnamese, Koreans, and Chinese
through the use of gospel tracts and websites. Please pray for all
these people to become born-again believers
and connected to good Bible-believing churches and believers! 70,000
is nothing compared to the 38 million that live here in Tokyo. Please
pray for more workers for the harvest!
Last
January 2018 I was in the middle of a winter session of language
school and have been continuing to consistently study ever since. I
have gone from having a hard time understanding what was being said
to me at all to being able to understand about 30% as well as a great
majority of basic communication. Learning a language full-time has
taken its toll on us as a family as I am often away studying.
However, it is better to put the time in now early on with young
children than to struggle later. I have easily put in over 1000 hours
of language study this year in addition to the 500 hours from last
year. I am in the intermediate level of understanding as of the
writing of this blog post. According to some statistics it takes
roughly 2200 classroom hours to learn
Japanese! Please pray for me as well as my family during this time!
Part
of a missionary life is being a host to many people. Over the last
year we have had many people come visit us from the USA and
elsewhere. However, most of our personal ministry also involves
having Japanese people over to our house for meals, bible study, and
fellowship in general. This includes our teachers, neighbors,
classmates, and those we've met through church ministries. Even
though the Japanese culture does not allow for an 'open-house policy'
we have maintained our American sentiments by allowing our house to
be open to visitors. We have also met with people in public places to
discuss spiritual matters in the hope of leading to a Bible study.
Much of my wife's ministry has been in meeting with people in public
or having them over to the house. Generally we try to focus most of
our energy and prayers intently on three main people each to keep
matters simple. After reading Master Plan of Evangelism a
few years ago we thought it wise to follow Jesus' model in spending
most time with three closest disciples. In reality it is easier to
focus energy on less people.
Over
the last year we have been able to get to know people at the church
very well. It has been nice to build relationships and gain insight
into how a Japanese church operates. As I learn how to speak more it
will be good to have this relationship when it comes time to do a new
church. Some of the men have become eager to help me learn Japanese
as well as knowing about how to help with a new church. The last time
this church did a church plant was in 1990, and that church became
self-supporting in 2004. My wife has been involved in helping to
teach Sunday school as well as doing art projects for the church when
needed. We also were asked to be the speakers for the Sunday School
mission conference this last year and my wife will be in charge of
directing it this year. In relation to the church we have traveled to
a few other areas to encourage, as well as to speak and teach in a
summer camp. We hope to be able to travel more to see this country in
the future when necessary and to put out gospel tracts along the way!
I
have spent a lot of time talking about 'doing tasks', but I also want
to share about 'being'. We have been concentrating on doing daily
devotionals whether that be reading/praying together daily or
listening to devotionals done by others. This has also been a year of
learning about God a lot as I have been able to read a lot on my 45
minute train trips in and out of Tokyo for school as well as watch
sermons on the off time. The longer we are here we realize that there
is a lot to receive in this humbling process of learning a new
culture. We have been able to spend some time together as a family,
which has been nice. Please pray for us to be strong as a family as
we are finishing up year two. On average missionaries quit japan
after about two years!
This
year has been a good one and we thank first and foremost the Lord Jesus Christ followed by our supporters who have generously allowed us to be here
to represent the Lord. We look forward to the next year as
well as a new baby to be due in late June! We want to publicly thank
everyone for their prayers, support, and encouragement! God Bless!
