Part of life is having ups and downs – and life in cross-cultural ministry is no different. Sometimes the discouraging things take you by surprise and knock the wind out of you. But occasionally, the encouraging things can take you by surprise as well. That was the case this weekend.

Theresa and I have been developing a relationship with the family of one of the men in my English class. This man has a daughter Theresa’s age and, as we had been hoping to get to know her better, we were a little disappointed when we found out she would be moving to Korea for a while. To our surprise, we got an email from her father telling us that Nao was home for a visit with her boyfriend and was wondering if we could get together. (In case you’re wondering, people in eastern countries often do things through third parties like that.)

John & Nao

Of course, we gladly accepted and met up with Nao and her boyfriend at a café for lunch. The surprise came when her boyfriend (who happens to be Korean and also spoke English), very straightforwardly informed us that he was a Christian and that Nao has been attending church and Bible study with him. It sounds like John comes from a strong Christian family and we were able to talk a little bit about his brother’s interest in going to seminary and his desire to come to work and minister in Japan someday.

After lunch, we came back to our apartment for a few minutes and were able to give Nao a bilingual Bible study book that she and John can do together and we also answered some questions about bilingual Bibles.

The next pleasant surprise came during the worship service this weekend. Recently, attendance has been down a little at the church. Although people trickle in, some weeks we start the service with just the pastor’s family and us. This week we were expecting a visit from Makoto & Megumi Ono, a couple that had attended the church previously, but as the service proceeded, the guests continued to trickle.

By the time the message was over, we had double our normal attendance with many people who had not come in a while deciding to show up all on the same week. The wife of the visiting couple is a talented pianist and so our worship time was unusually energetic. Even though the increase was happenstance as much as anything, it was nice to see the service full and get to fellowship with people who we had not seen in a while.

Pray for Nao as she continues her spiritual journey. Pray that she would become connected to the church she is attending, despite it not being in her native language. Pray for wisdom for John as he seeks to start a language school and also to use his language aptitude to serve God’s kingdom.

Pray for the continued ministry of the Lighthouse. Pray that many of the people who are occasional attendees will become an integral part of the ministry. Pray that the people of the church would also build strong relationships with the non-Christian people in their lives.

I was very excited this past week to find something I have been looking for since we arrived in Japan – gluten flour. This may seem ironic because of the growing awareness in the US of people with gluten intolerance, but I am not one of those people and gluten is an essential ingredient for making 100% whole wheat bread. Here in Japan the popularity of whole grain products is much less than it is in the US. If you don’t live in an extremely large city, the only way to have 100% whole wheat bread on a regular basis is to make it yourself. Whole-wheat flower has less gluten than its processed white counterpart and so you need to add it to the recipe if you want to activate the yeast and get the bread to rise properly.

Our gluten flour along with some fresh rolls.

One of the things you learn when living outside of your home country is that many of the things that you might ordinarily buy can be made from scratch if you are willing (or forced) to do so. Some of our Japanese friends have been surprised by the things we have cooked up or created. Japanese people would be more prone to think that the making of things should usually be left to people who are experts and if you can’t find something, you just do without. This fatalistic (i.e. things are left to fate) is very different from the America mindset that anything can be accomplished if you just keep trying. There is a well-known Japanese saying – “shikata ga nai” or “There’s nothing you can do.” – which epitomizes this mindset. While Americans view being “be a go-getter” and “never give up” as cultural ideals, the Japanese laud accepting one’s fate and doing the best with what one is given.

Like many things in life, this is a two-sided coin. Sometimes Americans rage against things that are truly out of their (or anyone’s) control. I remember reading a story about the blizzard that happened last December in the mid-Atlantic. One woman had had her flight canceled because of the snow and then realized that the metro line that would have taken her home from the airport was also shut down. She decided just to park herself in front of the (now locked) entrance to the metro line until something was done. “I’m just going to wait for Metro, however long that takes,” she is quoted as saying “This is all just ridiculous.”[1] The truth is it wasn’t ridiculous; it was just a blizzard. Things like nature phenomena, accidents, and other such inconvenient events sometimes happen. But rather than accept them as part of living in an imperfect world, we get upset and look for someone to blame – often resulting in a lawsuit. In the process, we cause ourselves untold stress and frustration.

The Japanese flip-side of this coin can be seen in Japanese churches. Japan can be a hard place to do evangelism with many people not interested in the Bible or the gospel message. Sometimes churches or people who have been Christians for a while pick up a defeatist attitude. They believe that this is just how things are and that keeping their church going is the best they can hope for. The plod along, being faithful to what God has given them, but seldom dreaming big or thinking outside the boxes that they have come to accept.

The truth lies somewhere in the middle of these two perspectives. Life has many difficult or unpleasant circumstances which must simply be accepted as part of God’s sovereign plan or part of living in a fallen world. Then there are times when God wants us to have a vision bigger than our current reality or calls us to fight against something that is different than how the world was intended to be. The best approach is asking God for (as the well know prayer says), “the wisdom to know the difference.”

Pray for wisdom for the Japanese Christians and us as we seek to grow the Kingdom of God here. Pray that we would be both accepting of hardship, but also willing to move outside of excepted norms to see the church here grow and expand. Pray that the Japanese Christians and we would know when to embrace Japanese culture and when to challenge it with Biblical values.

[1] Washington area digs out from record-setting snowfall, by Ashley Halsey III, Sandhya Somashekhar and Josh White (Dec 21, 2009) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/20/AR2009122001153.html

Because August is the month of summer break from school, it has been busy with special events for kids.  In addition to our yearly junior high English camp put on by the field (mentioned a couple of posts ago), the church here likes to do a kids’ overnight camp in the middle of the month.  A time filled with games, food, Bible lessons, crafts, and some star gazing, it is usually quite fun for the kids…and quite hectic for the adults.

Colby playing Twister with Pastor Uchida and some of the boys.

This year we had 11 elementary school kids come, most of whom were boys full of energy.  We were blessed to have a group from a church near the Tokyo area who came for the weekend to help out.  The kids were taught the Creation story and learned about how they were made uniquely by God.

Theresa and a couple of the girls after putting together the Eph. 2:10 verse.

When nighttime came around we were supposed to do our yearly star gazing with the help of a church lady’s husband and his telescope, but unfortunately it was too cloudy to see much of anything.  The kids enjoyed setting off fireworks instead.  Full of energy still when they got back from their bath at the public showers, they did not sleep much that night!

Please be in prayer for these children, as well as the junior highers from the English camp.  While a few of them have expressed interest in knowing more about God, they all need to understand and experience His love.  Please pray that they will remember what they have learned at these camps and that it will change their lives.