We have been in Japan for two and a half weeks already! The culture here is very different compared to the USA and Mexico. There is a lot of respect for others with a goal of not being a burden. People stay to themselves and are very quiet on the trains. Our team is learning how to lower our voices everywhere we go. The garbage is so organized and it very difficult. Everything needs to be separated and a lot of items need to be washed and dried before going in garbage. There are very, very few public garbage cans so we have to carry our trash home a lot. Even though the people keep to themselves, we have received SO much kindness from the Japanese. They greet us with smiles, are always willing to help and use gestures to explain things, and they are happy to see us attempting to use Japanese. The young girls giggle so much when we say something in Japanese!
We have settled into our home. They actually got the key to the house we are staying at less than a week before we arrived! There was no hot water for the first few days and showers were colder than a bath in the Nooksack River. My head wanted to fall off because the water was so cold- but that’s outreach! Now we have hot water. The house is cold and the boys room is freezing, but everyone has good attitudes and we have space heaters to keep us warm! Some meals are made in the house and we have a rotation on who makes the meals. We have one, maybe two meals out. My favorite meal is from 7/11. Sushi triangle seaweed things. Our mornings usually start with some quiet/Jesus time and then breakfast and team time. Our afternoons and evenings are busy with ministry. We walk and ride the train everywhere. Our house is a nine minute walk up a hill from the train stop.
Ministry has been a lot different than what we are used to. In Mexico, street ministry looked like meeting the physical needs of people, speaking to them in Spanish, listening to how they are and offering prayer and encouragement. Most of the people have some idea or knowledge about God. That is not the case here in Japan. I cannot speak Japanese and we usually do not have translators with us. Physical needs are met here, so it would not be that effective to pass out sandwiches. The trickiest part for me is that so many of these people have no clue who Jesus is or what Christianity is. We are starting at ground zero. We really are “trailblazers.” We are creating a path to Jesus for these people. We are cutting down the first branch on the trail by speaking his name. We share the gospel in simple, elementary terms because it is new to them and it is shared in English.
We went to the University six nights in the last two weeks to connect with students at ECC, an English club. The goal is to practice English through conversation. Because we are such a large group of foreigners, the students are curious why we are here and even more curious about why we chose Oita, Japan. This has been how our team brings up Jesus in the natural conversation.
Hug ministry- we did this in Mexico and we loved it. People were so appreciative of the hugs. We “sold” hugs as a fundraiser with the intention of bringing the hugs to Japan. When we got here, our hosts were hesitant about the idea because Japanese people are not into physical touch. One afternoon, we went to a piano to sing. Someone was already using the piano so we listened to them and cheered for them at the end of each song. William, our leader, drew a picture of a cat on a piano to give them as a gift with a message on it. That piano player shared that they believed Jesus sent us to them that day! Even though we did not do what we thought we were supposed to do, God had another plan. After a long time of listening to the piano player, I mentioned that I wanted to try hug ministry. If it goes horribly wrong, we would have only wasted 45 minutes. Some teammates were hesitant but I still wanted to try. So we tried AND IT WAS AMAZING. We have a sign saying “free hugs” in Japanese and we hold out our arms. We do not hug anyone who does not want a hug. Sometimes, we have to start walking towards them when we can see the desire in thier face, but they have to hold thier arms for us to follow through with the hug. Yes, many people avoided us, but so many people ran to us for a hug. There were giggles and smiles and joy. The most surprising to me was that groups of young middle and high schoolers were the most excited to hug. When our hosts heard about the success of hugs, they were surprised and delighted. I was reminded of what our last speaker of lecture phase shared- “If you want to see things you have never seen before, you have to do what has never been done before.” If we want to see hugs in Japan, we have to give hugs in Japan. Since then, we have done a lot of hug ministry. A cheap Santa suit was bought and the boys take turns being Santa. We give lots of free hugs and pictures with Santa. Some people from the English club have joined the hugging. They said it was the first time they’ve ever hugged another Japanese person who they did not know., and they loved it! One day, a boy who was doing tik tok lives came for a hug, then he joined us with the free hugs another night. He came on his own to come hug strangers with us! He’s spreading the love of Jesus, even if he doesn’t fully know that. People have dropped their bikes and bags to run up and hug us. When I ran to hug a teenage girl, she jumped into my arms with her feet bent in the air- it was so cute an unexpected! I loved it. Sometimes, we see people we have hugged around the city and it’s a lot of fun to hug them again.
I spent an afternoon at an after school English program for young kids and it was really sweet to play with kids because I have not played with kids since September. That is not normal for me. It was sad to learn that some Japanese kids do not know how to play because their is so much expectation for learning, growth, good behavior, and meeting standards. That confirmed the fact that they grow up learning to not bother anyone. We can feel the spirit of loneliness here and desire to bring joy wherever we go. The free hugs are changing that spirit. Yes, we are not out in a village preaching the gospel every day or feeding the hungry, and that’s okay. God sent us here. We are bringing the kingdom of heaven to earth in a different way. Every time we love someone, they are having an encounter with God because God is love. What a privilege.
Some teammates do photo ministry while we do free hugs, worship or art. We have a printer so they can take the picture, print it, pray, and write a message on the back. I joined for the first time the other day and I loved it. People are so excited to have a picture and it’s so sweet to see their peace signs and smiles (they love the peace sign). My favorite part is praying about what to write and then giving them the picture. They are always so thankful. They never see the writing and that makes me excited because they will have another moment of joy later when they notice the words. When they translate it, they will see the name of Jesus and a new trail is “blazed.” We went to the food vendors to take their pictures.
We knew they’d be there for a while. One vendor was Christian! He didn’t even know we were Christian, and out of nowhere shared that he was. He could see us bringing the kingdom of heaven to earth.
We have had good fellowship, house church, and worship with the YWAM team here. We are the first team they are hosting. They have been so generous to us! I enjoy meeting with them because they have young kids to play with.
I went to a small house church. Besides the hosts, there were three of us from our team, and one Japanese university student. Through a conversation at the English club, he heard about prayer and was invited to the house church. This was his first experience with Jesus and Christian fellowship. I was amazed at his curiosity, attention, and desire to know more. You could tell his soul was hungry for Jesus. He would repeat words and nod his head the whole time. God was drawing this student in and I pray that he continues to be curious and go to house church. One person at a time. One conversation in English club at a time. That’s one way the Kingdom of God is growing here in Japan.
Christmas Sunday was spent at a church in Beppu. There was a service, meal, dance performance, spoken word, drama and more. There were so many nations represented here at this church and it was a great time. I am missing my family this week with Christmas but we are making the most of it as a team. If you see my mom, hug her for me! For Christmas, we did secret Santa. Our leaders and host made us a beautiful meal. We wrote letters to our secret Santa with some gift ideas last week. I opened my gift and cried. I was expecting crackers and I was given Misa’s nice headphones. For the last month or so, I have been joking (and seriously) telling him that I am asking God to tell him to give me his headphones if we have another “give day.” I forgot that I also wrote that on my letter to Santa!! And my Santa was Misa. I felt so, so loved because I know how much he loves and uses those headphones. I wasn’t able to look at him without crying after that. After gifts, Reece leaves and comes back with two big bags of gifts. He bought gifts for everyone!!! So sweet. So unexpected. So much like a Christmas movie. Then, our leaders come out with presents. We got presents that our families mailed to the base before we left. And I got my yearly Sees Candy and so much love from my family. It was such a good Christmas moment and I felt overwhelmed with love and joy.
These are just a few of the highlights from the last few weeks. I miss lecture phase but I am happy to be here learning and growing with my team. We are getting more comfortable with each other especially because all 12 of us share one bathroom. We head to Tokyo after the New Year!
Want to pray? Okay, thanks!
-pray for opportunities to share the gospel boldly and for the Japanese to understand what we are saying!
-pray for health for our team because we are getting colds!
-pray for open hearts in Tokyo because we hear it can be tricky to ministry there!
-pray for opportunities to pray for people- for healing, for faith, for miracles!