HOPE

Hope in Heart4Japan

As of the last check this afternoon, Heart4Japan group in Facebook had achieved 84 members around the world.

If 10% from this group of people can commit to start a Heart4Japan support group in thier own church, or within their own friends, I believe that we can then support at least five people to the field next year, or at least having workers working on a certain issue with regards to Japan.

As I was teaching and sharing about missions back home during my furlough, they were people who came to me and share with me that God had stirred them to pray for Japan. Some asked if I can bring them to Japan for a short mission trip. Some shared with me that they had been working on their Japanese neighbours and found it difficult to share values and gain trust.

I am hoping more from this of course.


Time is limited - Research, missions, classes

I'm not sure what will happen, and how God is leading us on. But my time is limited. I will be going back to Hong Kong to continue my study in public health in Oct. Soon as I go home, I will zoom into the study and research on Hikikomori. With that, I will be working with social workers and care givers of these marginal youth. I was not able to gain data in Malaysia and Singapore. The division of depression, social isolation and net addiction are yet to clear. I have only another year to go before gaining an entrance to Japan. The progress is slow, and I need patience.

However I was able to get a client in my Busan trip. As I am going to Indonesia for an outreach tomorrow, I am not sure if God will lead me to a client or a case.

Indonesia Outreach

I praise God for this open door and opportunity to serve in Indonesia. It is always good to be able to work together with the church in missions. To me, it is an honour to fight side by side with my peers.

We will be speaking in 3 churches tomorrow evening, and estimating not less than 300 people for each session. I am taking one of the session. I was praying and was still uncertain about the message that God wants to give to His people until 2 hours earlier, I finally had it ready. The theme would be very much towards "FAITH, TRUST and Get Close to GOD!" Please pray together with me that I will be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, and be ready to summit to His leading.

I will be giving a testimony on Saturday evening, estimating 600 people. In both, we will be going to speak in Bahasa. I really need boldness. Please pray that the Lord will loose our tongues and give us words of wisdom as we minister to the people.

As we come back from Indonesia, I will be caught with a few more teaching and classes. Please pray for strength.


Plans???

I have some plans in my mind, and I hope that can allow people who has a heart for Japan to participate together. I'll update it to the site when I have more peace. (I'm still praying about some of those plans)


Miss you!

Aug 6 - Bomb in Hiroshima

That fateful summer, 8:15. The roar of a B-29 breaks the morning calm. A
parachute opens in the blue sky. Then suddenly, a flash, an enormous blast －
silence － hell on Earth.
......
Within the year, 140,000 had died. Many who escaped death initially are
still suffering from leukemia, thyroid cancer, and a vast array of other
afflictions.

Peace Declaration - Tadatoshi Akiba

The meeting today with Dr. Ozawa was touching...... we had communion, we had the privilege watching the filming of God's fingerprints in Japan, 1st and 2nd part. Dr. Ozawa shared with us the ups and downs in his ministry. He shared with us how he once didn't really have a heart for Japan, and he thought that was just OK, for he is Paul preaching the good news to the nations! Yet, how he believed God had tried to tell him that , "No, you had ignored your own people! Why are you doing that?" He knew he is going to disciple the Japanese and the Chinese. We were blessed by seeing those very precious pictures of his ministries, and listen to testimonies of how people had came to the Lord in Japan. It was a really awesome gathering!

And by watching God's fingerprints in Japan, we realized that a Japanese can become a Christian and still remain a Japanese, maintaing the unique Japanese culture.

We apologized to Japan on behalf of the nations. And it made the meeting much more meaningful today, as today is the devotion of Hiroshima to the cause of peace!August 6,1945 - The nuclear weapon was dropped on the city of Hiroshima, followed on August 9 by bomb over Nagasaki.

We didn't purposely structure the meeting today because of the peace memorial of Hiroshima, but it was just the date that was available for us, and we decided it long ago, even before we can check the calendar. God is really amazing, isn't it? He had planned this, and because of today, He had caused us (Ozawa & me) to meet in Hong Kong in January just for today! This is really amazing, Awesome!

We Welcome You Here!

Excitement to meet people with heart for Japan
Another 14 hours later, I'm going to meet our friend, Joseph Ozawa. Then, on Monday, people will gather to pray for Japan. I can't help, but keep exciting about it, and start counting my fingers how many will come, who will come, and how many things that we can share about.

Nevertheless, people who started to pray for Japan, or even just at the stage of identified it will often found themselves lonely, isolated from the main- stream. Especially when one starts to share about his or her vision for Japan, there is a feeling of talking to a face of cold icy wall.

10/40 window, largest unreached
The land of the rising sun located in the frame of 10/40 window, and being the largest number of a single unreached people group on earth, Japan, has a privilege to be highlighted in world of missions!

Had Japan really been highlighted in Missions World? The answer is no.

Japan is known to be "Missionary Tomb". (we can discuss more about that later)

Many people know the facts, but not many know about how to reach out to Japan, especially for those who come from the third world countries. Fund is a huge problem.

Hardship
The hardship is not only on the relationship with the local people. It is also because of the financial part of it. Japan, being one of the highest expense country, it's tough to live in -- for foreigners -- comfortably.

What make Japan's missionary so inferior to others?

Tiredness, shame and bored.


Spiritual comparison
The land is not as fertile. The head counts do not produce a great cheering number to the giving parties. The stagnant work does not give incentives or motivations for the workers to move on.

In Africa, China, where the spiritual doors are open, a meeting will lead thousands to Christ. In Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam - we see how lives being changed because of the goodness of the Lord, and the mercies of His people. We have a lot to give. In Arab, we are in trend of bringing gospel to our Samaritan brothers, and political social persecutions allow people to maintain the alertness.

However, in Japan. None of these happens. The persecution comes from within, and many times is personal struggle with the Lord. We cannot offer them food, except for the homeless. We cannot offer them jobs, we cannot offer them medical care like what we do in the refugee camp. We planted a church, and see only 1 coming to Christ after 8 years. The membership of the church is of housewives with no-income, and many of the time, they are the only one in the family that knows about Jesus.

So many of work, so many crises in lives, that people need to deal with. So many politeness, that people cannot speak out of what they really think. So many house visitations needed to be done, if the pastor or the church workers really want to shepherd their sheep. Yet, when it comes to all these, we are often lack of strength, money and man power.

Compare to the work of the refugees, or feeding the poor, working in Japan seems to have no connection at all with this. There is not an urgency in life and dead.

Compare to the work in the third world countries, seems to be "no fun", "no name", "no fame". There are very seldom chances that you can give an account of "hundreds" or "thousands" accepted the Lord, or rededicated to the Lord. These numbers just do not exist!

But I am telling you, if you really feel that way, if you have not see the urgent needs for Japan to know Christ, you had MISS the urgency of the KINGDOM!

FACTs
If the Kingdom of God is to be establish on this earth, it is either Japan to perish or to retain! 128 million people staying in Japan. 120 million easily are Japan Japanese! Do you see the number of souls that are going to perish when Christ come?

100 people commit suicide a day in Japan. There were says that 1 million of missing youth that lost in the transition era which suffer Hikikomori. A stagnant or rather decline GDP for almost 10 years. One of the highest suicide nation, one of the highest unborn rate, one of the fastest aging race, one of the highest unmarried single nation! Japan is not doing as well as most people may thought. It is not only about the glamor sushi or onzen or sakura!

URGENCY
It is about life and dead! It is about eternal dwelling! JESUS is coming, sooner and faster than ever in history. And we don't know the TIME! You need to grasp this fact firmly before you can act! If our outreach is not about Jesus 2nd coming, we can rather choose to do charity work which is much easier and pleasurable in the view of non-believers. We need to know that the 2nd coming is true, and lives will perish if they do not know JESUS!

And now before you, there are more than 120 million souls, waiting for you to tell them about JESUS! About HOPE, about LIFE!

Japan needs you! Japan needs your prayers, your support, your love and gifts! Gifts of talents, gifts of love, gifts of time, gifts of patience to it's people!

It is either we have this nation before the Lord that very day, or we see a huge gap, dark hole at their seats.

"Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore
hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.

When I say unto the wicked,Thou shalt surely die;and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way,to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. " ~ Exekiel 3:17-18

So, do not be afraid of feel inferior when you feel that the Lord is calling you to Japan, or to pray for Japan! You are the one of the very few that had been chosen, that He opens eyes so that you can see the huge need in this field!

We welcome you here, God bless you!

Praying for the Korean Hostages

For the hostage in Afghan, there had been a lot of discussions these days. Including the "stupidity" of the Christians.

Voices like :-
"Christians are so naive that they think they can evangelize the Muslims where the culture bond existed for ages in this land."
"It is because of the evangelists that we have to have to release the criminals!"

... ...

In the Christian websites, people are crying for the Korean hostages. Begging the Lord to intervene and release these people.

... ...

In which case, the burden and stress that are on the hostages' shoulders and their families are not going to be any lesser.

Please pray that the Lord break the stronghold of Taliban. Stronghold of cult, spirit of destruction and spirit of deceptiveness!

Wake up! Do not forget this is a warfare of NATION, it is not only personal healing and deliverance. There are differences here.

The spiritual warfare this round is not merely on person, the cause was not about spreading Christianity in Afghan. At surface, it is about using them as a reason to force the government to free the captured Taliban leaders. It's a political game here. And when this happens, it involve the prince of the world.

What do they really want? What are their purposes? Be discern, do not be dragged along to the deceptiveness that they want us to see! It's not about the Lord, it's about greed and power, a matter of live and survive. It's about what they believe! ---- for us, what can change their beliefs?

The prince of world is using this as a cause to threaten, to deceive and to blasphemy! Any chances that he could have to tease God for His love and mercy and righteousness! We as soldier of Christ need to discern, do not listen to other voices than our commander.

As Joshua approached the city of Jericho, he looked up and saw a man facing him
with sword in hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you friend or foe?"
"Neither one," he replied. "I am commander of the LORD's army."

~ Joshua 5:13-15

Ask for His Kingdom, and it will be given to you!

Ask in His favor, and seek His heart! Do not loose heart ourselves.


Therefor when we intercede for the Korean brothers and sisters, is not only about the hostages' safety. But it's about "RETURNING TO JESUS".

We need to seek the comfort and mercy of the Lord not only for the hostages, but the whole Korean nation.

Are you aware of Korean being the second largest sending nation? And are you aware that the percentage of born again Christians in this nation had went to a peak surge and came down swiftly just in a few decades? Do you know that even Korean needs missionaries to tell them, to reassure them how much God loves them?

Be wise, brothers and sisters! Somehow Korea means to me much not only because of this is a sending nation, but also of her similarities with Japan. We still have a long battle to go, and North Korea is another place that we have no time to loose!