Sex Industry - Dream? Hope?

When you walk around Shibuya Station, you will find guys that hang around at the main entrances or exits, stuffing tissues or magazines to the passerby. If you are a young lady, traveling alone, not looking too bad, you probably get one of these.

I received one while I was walking in Shibuya that day. Turning the pages while sitting in the train, I found this magazine that I received was about employment. The advertisements' highlights were on wordings like "limited working hours", "high pay", "flexible working hours", "experienced or non-experienced are welcome"......

What caught my attention was the advertisement in the manga form as above pic, The title was

"ARE YOU NOT LOST NOW?"

A Promise to「Realize your DREAM」!

Don't you wanna start a Easy but High Pay job?

Then, it leads to four square boxes manga, featuring the first(from left to right): The first day, a girl crying in a broken poor look dress. "the phone was barred, no money to pay the rent of the apartment... it's really embarrassed, I don't even have 150 yen in my pocket, I was so lost, and I took courage, and decided to work at this shop."

Then, the second box: The 6th month, "thinking about the what happened half year back, now I can see my dream is close. Now, I am staying in this mansion that cost 13,000 yen a month, and I have a saving of 3,000,000. "

Then, the third box: 1 year later, "I have finally reached 10,000,000 yen savings!! I am 'graduated' from this shop. I am going to my dream land Australia. Thank you, all my fellow friends in this shop, thank you for taking care of me, and being nice to me!

The 4th, probably is not a box, but a girl with "stars" all over her body, shimmering and glimmering with a face full of hope and dream.

Averagely, most of the advertisements promised the same pay. In Shibuya, even girls with school uniforms will receive a magazine as such. Of course, some respond to it, some do not. Such open recruitment may or may not recruit them, but it becomes a form of public education if you need money, come to me; it's okay to work in the sex industry, the workers are happy about it; there is nothing to be shy.......

Yet, the ads are TEMPTING especially in a difficult economic down turn. Having a "side-job" with such high pay, it's no doubt an incentive. It comes back to the moral and social value that an individual holds. My missionary friend Ramone cries for the girls in the red light district in Osaka, he sees girls trading with their bodies as "SLAVES".

I'm not sure if the girls are aware what they are stepping into, the sex industries is perhaps not as easy going as they seemed to promise. However among all these ads, this particular one caught my attention because it had used an innocent medium, MANGA, to illustrate a not so innocent career, and it had used a beautiful word , "DREAM". ひどいよ！In the red-light district, things are blurred, and most of the time being justified with material gains, personal lost, and the complex diverse backgrounds and reasons... for some, this is about gaining "self-worth" and "personal identity".

The concept of "self-worth" and "personal identity" perhaps is very different with mine and yours, but then the essential of "self-worth" and "personal identity", where the basic grounded in creation is never lost. Workers in this field will need to find means to bridge the gap. We have NO TIME to lost.

What is DREAM? What is HOPE? Perhaps these are not only connected to what one desires to do, but a tribute to what was lost in life. What happen in the past cannot be fixed, but our emotions and the inner child could be comfort by either using psychological means (provide a temporary relieve if not long term), or by receiving supernatural inner healing (completely healed). I quote this out of my experience in Christ, where to me, embracing Christ is not about having something to write on the column of Religion when you fill up forms, but accepting Him as Lord and Savior, and looking up to Him for healing of the past, and source of strength for tomorrow.

I am not trying to force my concept on you or any one. Yet, when there is a different measure in terms, we need to communicate, and understand the social courses that developed the concepts. I told you mine, and I am going to tell them mine, just as you would do it to me because of love when you see I am doing something that is totally opposite your values. The reason that you do that is probably not to condemn, but because you love me and you are worried. And the same, I am going to do this out of LOVE, finding the meanings of DREAM and HOPE, and the means to reach them.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

~Mat 11:28-30~

REASONS

Missionaries are in Japan for different reasons:

Some, they have signed up with missions organizations, and there is an opening in Japan.

Some, they think the people and the culture is distinct and amazing.

Some, they felt awkwardly sorry for Japan because Japan is lack of attention in the spotlight of missions sending.

Some, they understood there is a need to have Jesus in urban cities .

Some, they felt that they could possibly contribute their gifts into the untapped area in Japan.

Some, they think this is a good place to live in.

Glen told me when he first set his heart on Japan was when he encountered a Japanese Christian girl that was also his teammate while he went for a mission trip in South East Asia. The Japanese girl seemed to have made a mess in boy-girl relationship and was depressed. The girl committed suicide after she returned from the mission trip. So he came to Japan hoping to build up the youths, to disciple them, and to equip them to win and disciple others.

How about me? I first set my heart on Japan because I felt His sorrow for Japan, a Father's

heart, that touched me deeply that I took the initiative to respond. Now there are many miserable people in Japan, whether in the mainstream culture where people are moving tiredly/aimlessly along the social norms, or self-absorbed of subculture (harajuku, otaku, hikikomori, goths etc.), I see a "lost identity". People who are aware of the emptiness in their lives began to fill their lives with cultic believes, some see small revival in shrines and temples, all of these are most probably efforts to find meaning in life. My heart cries out for them as I see souls lost in transition.

How about you? What is your mission? What is the reason that you go/planning to go to Japan?