Empowering National Leaders to Plant Authentic National Churches
| Thanks for visiting our blog, the place to read news, thoughts, and stories about us, our ministry to the Japanese, and life in Japan. If you want to read the blog posts using an RSS feed (these are often part of email programs and customizable homepages) check out the explanation on the Registration and RSS Feed Page.That page also gives more information on registering for the site, which will allow you to comment on the blog posts. |
Many people wonder what people involved in ministry overseas do when they come back on home assignment. This being our first round of home ministry, we wondered the same thing. Having been back in the US for almost 5 months now, we have a much better idea. They…
It has been a busy time for us, but a good time as we have been able to meet many people and share with them our ministry. In an effort to bring some of Japan to the people, we have been hosting a number of Japanese dinners at some of the churches we’ve presented at. This involves going to our local Asian grocery store, planning and preparing the meal with a team from the church, and encouraging those who might be a bit trepidatious about foreign foods to throw caution to the wind and dig in.
While we try to make only the most eatable meals we know of, it is true that the combination of items in a dish are rather different than how we usually eat here in America. Among other things, we have a sushi rice dish (no raw meat) that has a vinegar/sugar sauce mixed in, savory pancakes that have cabbage, carrot, and ground meat in them, and a traditional soup that contains miso paste and tofu.
Generally everyone has been very good about trying things, although there has been a bit of a mixed response. We have found that those who go into it thinking, “hey, this is new and I might like it!”, often end up actually enjoying the food. Others who think, “I’m not so sure about all this crazy stuff”, often come out thinking, “hmm, let’s let Japanese food stay in Japan.” I guess it all depends on your perspective.
Colby explains the various dishes at a church dinner.
Regardless of the response, we have enjoyed giving people the chance to try new things and experience a little bit of Japanese food. If anything, it makes for a memorable time for the church. Who knows, maybe through our efforts, someone will catch a love of the Japanese culture and a burden for the people. We are praying for that.
As we continue to present in various churches, please pray that God would raise up people to partner with our ministry through prayer and giving. Pray that God would burden people’s hearts for Japan.
(to download this document as a PDF for saving or printing, click here)
|
If using a GPS, the most reliable entry is map coordinates
40.158316, -76.056945 / +40° 9’ 30.15”, -76° 3’ 24.95”
Last week, Theresa and I were interviewed by my parents’ local Christian radio station, WGRC-FM.
Pray for Theresa and I as we continue to share about our ministry and connect with potential partners. Pray that we would be able to reach our target support in time for our return to Japan.
Walking out of the airport, I thought to myself, “Wow, this is so weird, not stopping at the baggage claim.” It was the first time I had flown domestically in almost 18 years and (as I’m sure many of you know) checked baggage no longer comes free. This wasn’t a big deal for us as we were only going to Chicago for a few days. We were meeting with a team from CRM, one of the organizations we were thinking about transitioning to as we looked at ministering in Northern Japan. Thanks to a gift from one of our partners, we had gotten a reservation at an Embassy Suites. When we walked in, I remember remarking to myself that our hotel suite was bigger than some single people’s apartments in Japan; but this was America and everything is bigger here.
Us and the CRM assessment team after trying real Chicago deep-dish pizza.
On Friday, we headed to a church building near the airport where we had arranged to meet for our assessment. The objective for the day was to share in detail our background and goals with the CRM staff and have them share with us what they would recommend if we were to join the organization. From there, we would determine whether us joining CRM was something we and the staff felt was a positive move.
We spent all day and most of the afternoon talking about us, the organization, and what it meant to do ministry in Japan. Unlike a typical job interview, this was a really positive and helpful experience. The regional director who would be our supervisor had asked three other staff members with Japan experience to join the assessment team. All told, we had a combined 80 years of experience in Japan.
After our discussion, the team met to confer. They felt strongly that we would be a good fit for CRM philosophically, but in the end decided that bringing us on when CRM had no other personnel in Japan would be unfair to us and an unwise for the organization. CRM is committed to a high amount of personal interaction and staff development and both of those would be difficult since the Japan team we had been anticipating had not come together.
For us this proved to be a bittersweet decision as we felt a real affinity with CRM’s mission and values, but at the same time realized that our desire to develop a team of people to minister with us and our model of doing cross-cultural ministry in a more lightweight and flexible way might be better served with a different organization.
After we concluded for the day, we all went out together for Chicago-style pizza at (the supposedly famous) Gino’s. It was very good and we enjoyed the chance to get to know the CRM staff a little better before we parted ways. Even though we weren’t able to join CRM, it was nice to know that some of the people on our assessment team often do leadership coaching and training in conjunction with some of the other organizations we have also been considering.
While much of our decision making process related to what we will do when we return to Japan has been behind our schedule, we know that it is exactly on God’s schedule. Pray that we would have wisdom as we talk with other organizations and patience as we wait for God to bring things together in his time.
A while ago, I posted that I had plans to go out for coffee with a lady named Junko who I had met at the Japanese gathering I attended. We met that next Monday morning for coffee and were able to chat about a number of things, including God and Christianity. She told me that her niece, Maiyu, is in Tokyo and starting this April will be going to college to major in English Literature. She was told that she should learn more about Christianity since various parts of English literature are influenced by the Bible. So I was able to explain a little bit to Junko about how the God of the Bible loves each person, including her and her niece, and desires to have a relationship with them. She seemed to think that Christianity and the Bible were just a list of rules people should live by, and so I told her how actually, Christianity is all about having a relationship with God and loving God and other people. Later on, I emailed her some resources in Japanese that described more about what Christianity is, as well as information on an easy-to-understand Japanese Bible.
Please pray for Junko and her niece Maiyu that they would buy and read over the resources I sent them information on. Please pray that God would soften their hearts toward Him and draw them unto Himself.
