Day 5

Prayer Request: For Wednesday night “Bible Stories” groups at the SonRise Café, specifically for wisdom as they begin reading through Genesis 12. Also, for the rebuilding of the worship team for Sunday services after key members had to return home.

It’s Ryan’s Birthday Today! (Back in the US…) My mom and I got Google Hangouts all figured out so that we could “video chat” with Ryan and CC back home! We were all so excited to see each other, and are all very thankful for free wifi and video chat services! After we got to hear about the cool projects Ryan has been working on, and CC got to tell us about her new shoes and socks, we had to say goodbye so that we could eat breakfast and be ready to go to today’s first meeting.

Rett and I would like to give a big shout-out to Kim’s Mom for taking great care of Ryan and CC while we are gone! And, say “thank you!” to Landon, AJ, and Leah for spending their days off hanging out with our kids.

Today we visited the SonRise Café and met with Steven, the man who leads this ministry initiative. Rett and I had smoothies, while Steven narrated a computer presentation on the different ministries that branch out from the SonRise Café. At the beginning, we talked about the current state of the Church in Japan. Current estimates state that there are around 400,000 Japanese people who attend a local church, out of the 127,000,000 Japanese people who reside in Japan. This means that when a Japanese Christian gets in a crowded train car (approximately 300 people), they are likely the only Christian in that space.

Around 86% of Japanese people have never even met a Christian, which is why outreach ministries are vital in this area of the world. The café allows TEAM staff to interact with the local population, build a relationship with the community, and invite people to learn about Christ. It also presents a great opportunity to use short-term missionaries and allows them the flexibility to initiate new kinds of outreach quickly to fit with any special talents a short-termer might have. In addition to offering food, the café outreach also hosts live Christian music, events for Christian holidays, Mommy & Me days for parents and children, and a variety of English classes. There are English classes for kids, conversation classes in the café, and they even have a “Stories from the Bible” class, where they teach English by slowly reading through the accounts of Biblical figures (i.e. David, Daniel, Noah). I have so much appreciation for that class, because I love Bible Studies that focus on the text, and the character-driven stories found in the Bible are so much like the style of writing that is popular in Japan. I can’t imagine a better outreach, even if I wouldn’t necessarily be gifted to participate in it myself. 😊

Giant Eevees

We also learned that Hidenori Kusaka, the author of the Pokemon Adventure Manga series, frequents the church at the SonRise Café! He is apparently a devout Christian and requires in his contracts that he is free on Sunday to attend a local church. He also wrote the text for Manga Messiah, a manga based on the account of Jesus, in order to share the Gospel in a form that is familiar to the Japanese culture. This was so cool to me because I often am afraid to mention my interest in video games, anime, or manga when I’m meeting people for the first time in a ministry setting (especially in Japan). I fear that the person might think that I have a fairy-tail view of the world and that I can’t be serious enough to participate in the ministry. After talking with all the missionaries here, everyone seems excited to work with whatever interests/hobbies a person comes with.

After the meeting, we went with the other couple we have been traveling with (they are from Nebraska, and have a good sense of humor to put up with us 😉) to Tokyo Hands for some writing supplies and gifts. We quickly found what we wanted, and finished up just in time to hurry back to Mitaka for our last TEAM meeting before leaving for Karuizawa. Unfortunately, our train stopped in the middle of its route, and we ended up being 10 minutes late for our meeting! Luckily the woman we were meeting with is also the host for the TEAM Center, so we found her, apologized, and continued with the meeting.

During the meeting, we went through details about our remaining itinerary discussed what kind of seats we wanted to get for the Shinkansen to Karuizawa, and went over some of the details related to future missions opportunities. I was very excited to learn that the ~30-hour online master’s degrees at Dallas Theological Seminary, and Moody Bible Institute were on their shortlist of recommended seminary programs! We are hoping to take some seminary classes in the future, and it is awesome that the same programs we were looking at, are the same programs recommended by TEAM. Other than that, all of the ministry options that we could be involved in are about as clear as the view of Mt. Fuji on a rainy day at this time, and we will likely be praying about what to do for a long time to come. 😊

It’s right there… in that direction… you would totally be able to see it on a perfectly clear day! (“Perfectly clear day” = not really a thing in Japan)

For our last night in Tokyo, Rett and I went for a long walk around a dark, but still pretty cool, Inokashira Park, and then had dinner at a local noodle shop. Apparently, we like to see Tokyo by walking through the tiny back streets, and residential areas, while trying to get somewhere important. I’m glad it doesn’t bother Rett because I like getting the little glimpses you get at everyday life when you get off the main roads. 🙂