Team members: Alastair McEwen, Jane Blakston, Roy Vicary, Adele Fisher, Ariel Santibanez
Week One:
Higashi-Suma was the first church the team visited. Mai Endo, who traveled with the Japanese team to Australia back in February, confessed her faith the first Sunday, and we were able to witness that. Mai said visiting the churches in Australia influenced her confession. We got to catch up with both Mai and her older sister Kei over a delicious yakisoba lunch afterwards. That evening, Alastair preached at the CCB (the Covenanter bookstore where we stayed) evening service. Pastor Kihei translated. To hear the same message twice in different languages, one segment after another, brought home our connection through our humanity and our ruler Jesus, regardless of our obvious differences in language and custom.
Every Monday marks a team free day. This week’s Monday we split the team and traveled to our different activities. Jane revisited her old haunts in Kobe, Roy explored the Ninja Museum off in faraway Kyoto, and Alastair stayed home. Adele and I met up with a friend for karaoke and an evening walk along Kobe Harbour. The rest of the week we traveled to various church activities, mostly in Pastor Kihei Takiura’s church (Okamoto-Keiyaku). At the Okamoto-Keiyaku outreach for kids, two new children participated, and one middle school student, who had joined a church service there some time ago, returned. The Takiuras were very excited to see that.
Week Two:
This Sunday the logistics dealt a tricky hand. The team split up to attend two different worship services, but both needed to be at Mukonoso church by 2:00. However, everything worked fine, and we all got to see the four new kids come to the Mukonoso Christmas Party! And one couple who came with their child had never been inside a church until that day. Roy and many others of the church and team got talking with them – it seems they both worked as flight attendants and spent some time in Australia (among other places), so that was wonderful timing.
That evening, we took a long bus ride through the country to the town of Kasai, famous for its vast array of idols. Pastor Kihei and his father Pastor Takiura ran an evening service at the family home of Nitou-san, an older lady of Okamoto-Keiyaku. When she was younger, she threw out all the idols of her family when she became a Christian. The townspeople don’t really have much to do with her. It’s extremely isolating to be a Christian in Japanese countryside, as the idols mean so much to the town’s communal identity and the pressure to confirm is serious. Nevertheless, Nitou-san perseveres. That evening service was a significant memory for much of the team.
This Monday the whole team wandered around Kyoto, one highlight being the spectacular Kyoto station with a staircase light show and a ramen dinner in the skybridge.
The week continued with cookie making at Migiwa’s house with her and Nitou-san, traveling to Mt. Rokko with Soushi (who also came with the earlier Japan-to-Australia team), and ice-skating with the church youth. Everyday activities like these, with all the conversations, breaking cookies, indescribable scenes of God’s creation, and slipping on the ice, was an amazing way to know more about each other and build the Bridge.
At one point Adele and I were handing out flyers in a hillside neighbourhood when we got talking with one Atsuko-san. Adele had met her two years ago on the last trip! And this time, we were able to hand her a flyer and she managed to come to a service later! Unfortunately, we weren’t at that service, but Pastor Kihei told us later.
Week Three:
Once again, the team split for different morning services, but the reunion was later in the evening, back at home/CCB for the English Psalm-sing. In Japan, English is a sought-after skill, so church activities using English often connects well with the community. This time, it was just the church. But two days later, at Okamoto-Keiyaku, we joined Pastor Kihei and his wife Amelia for afternoon tea with a dignified older man named Hiroshi-san, a pearl businessman. Amelia had invited him earlier in the week after meeting him outside the church. He was interested in practising English. He isn’t a Christian, but we had a splendid conversation and learned much about pearls (and Alastair’s adventures in Israel).
That evening, Roy left, just before the Kid’s Nativity Play at Okamoto-Keiyaku. It was sad to see him leave and sad that he missed the wonderful play! But a few days after we would follow him. Kei, Mai, Pastor Endo, and Pastor Kihei all saw us off at the bus station.
Leading up to the team’s departure, Alastair mentioned many times that evangelism in Japan moves extremely slowly. A mother bringing her child to church, decades after she herself stopped coming, is what the spread of the gospel looks like. When we arrived, Pastor Kihei reminded us that our aim is to encourage the church members and help them make their lives a ‘pleasing sacrifice’ to the Lord. We were not the mission team; they are. We only help them. So, with all of this, I was not expecting to see any sort of gospel spread or new people come, and (tried) to put my attention on connecting with people here. And that was truly amazing and edifying, getting to know our fellow brothers and sisters from a completely foreign land. But what was also amazing, a wonderful answer to our prayers, was seeing new people hear the good news for the first time. God is spreading his kingdom in Japan. Praise the Lord!
Thanks to Ariel Santibanez for putting together this article.
