Updates from the Japan Team – Meeting People (Part 1)

For those of you who don’t know, Lighthouse just sent off a short-term Missions Team to Japan! Since the beginning, Lighthouse has been focusing on Japan as one of its target countries (in terms of evangelism), and we have finally sent our first team. Daichi, Joy, Zach, Mark, Christina (and kids) will be partnering with Christ Bible Institute in Nagoya, spending time with the teams there, and teaching musical worship seminars. Team Member/Summer Intern Zach will be sending daily updates so keep checking back! 

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Meeting People – Part 1

We have had the blessing of meeting many people here in Nagoya. There is one lady I want to mention in particular.

On the first day, after the official ministry work was done, we just waited around Heart & Soul Café to have dinner with the Rayls. There was a lady that I had seen sitting on a couch in the corner of the café just reading earlier that day. While we were sitting on the couch next to her, she asked us if we were missionaries and where we came from. Her English was very broken, but she tried hard to communicate with us (until Daichi said a Japanese phrase in the middle of our conversation and she was like “You could speak Japanese this whole time?!? Then she spoke in Japanese for the majority of the time).

She told us about how she became a Christian from her desire to know what truth is her whole life. She had grown up believing that there is a god, but she didn’t know which god it was. To make a long story short, she accepted Christ when she went to a baptism service at a church and was overwhelmed by the joy and strength of the people. Through tears, she asked the pastor how she could come to have that joy and strength of conviction.

Most of our conversation, however, was about the Bible. She has been coming to Heart & Soul Café quite regularly for awhile now to study her Bible. She doesn’t attend CBI or CBS, but she attends a Bible study sometimes. She said, “I want to learn about the Bible, but the pastor takes hours to go over just a few verses. How am I supposed to learn the WHOLE Bible? Maybe if I had 500 years, I could.” But she kept saying that she wants to learn, but there’s just not time or resources for it.

Sometimes she asks the professors or students of CBI, but she says that the way that they talk about the Bible seems just academic. It’s like it’s just another field of study. A lot of what she hears goes over her head because she just can’t understand the terminology and such.

She had been reading Psalm 69, and she shared with us what it said as best she could. As she shared, she kept looking at the ceiling, thinking hard about how she phrased things and thinking hard about the implications of the text. It was awesome.

I wanted to ask her if I could help her with understanding any of the passages, but lack of common language kept me from that. I realized that I have such a wealth of knowledge of the Bible and of how to study the Bible simply because I grew up in the church and was blessed with incredible biblical teaching. But here in Nagoya, there is this lady yearning to know God more and be able to understand His Word, but she can’t because there is not the human resources to teach her and to guide her and to disciple her.

It is encouraging to see a young Christian living in a spiritual desert thirsting for spiritual sustenance. God is faithful and gracious to those who seek Him.

Prayer Requests:

  • Pray for more men and women to come to Japan willing and able to teach young Christians.
  • Pray to check your own heart and life if you are stewarding the blessing of being surrounded by such a wealth of resources well.
  • Pray that all of us, including this lady, would desire to know God through His Word more and more