Once again a new year is upon us. What have we learned in the past year? What has happened in Japan? It is time to reflect upon the last year. Here is the verse of the year:
“Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.” – Isaiah 43:19 KJV
Though the context does not apply to us, the truth remains that it is God that has the powers to make rivers in the desert. After living here for ten years Japan seems very much like a spiritual desert in many ways. It is always God who brings life to the desert. It is God who will build His church supernaturally. After praying consistently this year we decided to rent a space to establish a mission in an an area that is a true spiritual desert in Japan. We did it trusting that God would do something requiring our faith to trust Him. Prior to that we had lived in our area for two years gradually making contacts and meeting with them. We believed it was time to move to the next step. When it came time to negotiate to rent the space that would become the mission we did not know what would happen, so we prayed about it extensively. Many places in Japan would not rent a space to be used for any kind of church activity, however this location would be fine with us using it for teaching purposes. So we told them of our purpose to use it as a space for teaching Bible and English using the Bible. This location can be used as a meeting place at best unless God changes the hearts of the owners to allow us to use it as a church in the future. So we would turn it into a mission, lead people to the Lord, then trust God for the next step. They accepted our proposal for use which led to the next phase: remodeling.
I had not done any kind of building related projects in many years, so I had to ask a lot of questions, talk with contractors, and watch many YouTube videos. Slowly we remodeled the property mostly by ourselves with the help of one Japanese friend that I had met in a park previously. He had the skills to “mud” the drywall in preparation for painting and wall paper. After we finished the walls, painted them, and finished wall paper we set about putting down the floor. Everything was complete for the open house in April. During this time, without asking, different Japanese people provided us with chairs, tables, a microwave, a refrigerator, a marker-board, and a couch. It was all coming together. For the grand opening we had some visitors from the USA come for the first time in years. They were very helpful during their stay. The people that we met during this opening time who started to come take English classes using the Bible have been good students to this day. They have improved their English and Bible knowledge. Two others who came to one class and left because they did not want to use the Bible have still met with us consistently. We have been able to get to know them better and share spiritual truths with them over time. Please pray for them. We have met with and invested in the lives of many Japanese people in the last year, but none of them have yet chosen to trust Christ as Savior. This seems to be the norm for Japanese people. They are very careful about spiritual matters. Once one does accept Christ we can begin to teach them more about the Bible, and Lord-willing move to form the beginnings of a church together. It takes a lot of dedicated born-again believers to form a functioning church. In this nation it takes a long time even for one to become born-again and there is no real guarantee that they will choose to openly dedicate themselves to a church. The words of life must spring up in the desert to cause growth. We have carefully sought to use the mission as a place for the words of life to be fostered in the hearts of Japanese people.
Our firm desire to plant many gospel seeds throughout Tokyo has continued as we ventured to new areas by car, train, bike, and foot to put out 52,000 Japanese gospel tracts. Though we have spent many hours investing in the Japanese people we have also not been slack in this last year investing in global evangelism at large. As it is not wise to “place all of your eggs in one basket” financially, we do not believe it is wise to do the same spiritually. This year we have continued to invest in a native Indian pastor in Eastern India. For the second year we have invested in him by helping him with educational resources online, encouraging him, giving him knowledge, and preaching for him twice a month over the internet. He travels around potentially dangerous village areas of India to share the gospel with whoever will listen. He has a church planted and is slowly growing it. We have also attended the annual international festivals that take place in Tokyo for nations such as Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and China. Each event was attended and thoroughly gospel-tracted. It is worth going to these as there are thousands of people from all around Asia who live in Tokyo. We have also continued to spend an hour a day online doing soul-winning which has led to leading 173 people to the Lord for the first time.
Looking back on the year has not all been victories. There has been real times of tiredness, stress, sickness, loneliness, frustration, and fear. All is to be expected as a pioneer in a strange land. However, when we step out in faith we start to see God cause a river to spring forth in the desert.
