JAPAN HARVEST – Page 10

Sidewalk Chapel

E‌arly every Saturday morning around 100 people gather in Yoyogi Park for worship. Most of them are not even believers yet. Many hear the good news for the first time. Regardless of the weather they […]

JEMA Women In Ministry retreats – 2017

It’s special for women in ministry to take a break from family and ministry responsibilities and gather for a time of teaching, fellowship, fun and rest. Space and freedom to share our stories, joys, pains, […]

Three kinds of missionaries

I’m thankful for the day I met “Bun” in Japan. For more than 20 years I traveled to his apartment every week to read the Bible—all of the New Testament and some of the Old. […]

Evangelism Explosion in Japan

One night, in our quiet neighborhood in Shiga prefecture, a Peruvian woman knocked on our door. “I’m looking for spiritual peace,” she said. “Can you help?” Over the next hour, I watched in amazement as […]

Two decades of family ministry in Japan

“Your broadcast saved our marriage.” “We had no idea how to be parents until we read your book.” “I never understood God’s plan for gender until we attended your seminar.” These are some of the […]

Missional cooperation between Toyota and Detroit churches

In the spring of 2011 I began my assignment at Toyota East Christ Church, a Mennonite Brethren church in Toyota City, Aichi prefecture, an area famous for its large concentration of automobile-related companies. In October […]

Building bridges to spiritual topics

Famous names from Christian history like Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, and Wycliffe are widely known in the West, even among non-believers. For some, these names even evoke strong emotional responses. In Japanese culture a different […]

Spring cleaning your computer

Each spring, my family goes through the grueling process of sorting through mountains of clothes. We pack away last season’s clothes, get out the next season’s, figure out what fits and what doesn’t, and then […]

Book Reviews – Spring 2017

Why bother with church? And other questions about why you need it and why it needs you Sam Allberry (The Good Book Company, 2016) This short, delightful book explains from the Bible what the church […]

The importance of face in Japan

The importance of showing face I remember attending my first pastors’ retreat 36 years ago in Hokkaido with JECA pastors and OMF missionaries. My Japanese was limited, the topics challenging, and I floundered. While enjoying […]

Evangelism

Creation evangelism in Japan

I was tremendously encouraged in 2014 when I saw a first-hand demonstration of what had happened after Naha Baptist Church (NBC) in Okinawa began to use creation evangelism teaching. Eleven years before, I had visited the […]

Culture

Three key cultural dynamics

Japanese people are renowned in the West for being opaque and inscrutable, and even those who have lived and worked among them for a long time still sometimes have trouble understanding their reactions. Part of […]

Member Care

We can’t do it all

Roger Bannister died earlier this year. Don’t know who Roger Bannister was? On May 6, 1954, he broke the four-minute mile, achieving a feat thought to be virtually impossible. Today, Hicham El Guerrouj, retired runner […]

Culture

Reaching out beyond church walls

Uchi and Soto In Japan, there is a difference between how you treat people who you consider your inner circle of family and friends (uchi) and those who are outside of that (soto). This is […]

Crisis

Serving at-risk migrants

The room was bright, clean, and cozy. Outside the window, flowers bloomed in pots. To me this is a little bit of heaven, and to the residents this is a safe home. This is a […]