Why Japanese?

The Largest Unreached People Group (Joshua Project, 2005)

Only 0.04% Christians!

Annual Suicide Rate: >30,000

100-300 new religion registered each year (Operation World, 2000)

The battle is fierce, Time is SHORT! Please RESPONSE, Please PRAY!!!



Sunday, January 30, 2011

Hikikomori Workshop (Feb18) in the coming RJC Conference

Follow up with the previous article "Beginning of 2011", this is an edition about RJC Conference from Feb 17 -19 that will take place in Seattle, Northshore Baptist Church in Bothell, WA. 


Considerations......
As you may have be informed that I would be leading a Hikikomori workshop in the coming RJC Conference on Feb 18. In this workshop, I was asked to address the topic of hikikomori so that people could come into assist, as quite a number of Japanese students are located in overseas.

Through these years working on this topic, I see some cases who had developed the symptoms while they were in overseas, or not long after they returned to Japan. In 2009, I had shared about the findings and conclusion from my previous master work in the conference, and with some other missionaries and local churches in Japan. Following that, not only that I began to identify similar trends that occur in the practical field, but with the expansion of my work, I have had opportunities for more fieldworks and experiment interventions through different contacts, where some of these interventions worked and some did not.

As much as I wish to share all these observations with God's workers, and get people to pray about things and seek His wisdom in how to deal with the issue, there are certain limitations, as it takes time and skills to connect scientific findings to practical outreach, and it takes time to travel and exposure in order to spread the idea. At the same time, I do treasure the time that I have in Japan, and hope to reserve more time to the work here and sharpen the edge of research. I am afraid that I may not be able to travel much to in following years. Considering how the participants would get most out of this workshop, I have been thinking and praying these days for a way of conduct that could help the participants to be able to be on their own to start praying/intervention with clear context in mind. This would be meaningful, as the participants are mainly missionaries and Christians, where I believe that their presence in the field would carry lights of Jehovah with them. The outreach to hikikomori would not only be a temporary relief of human efforts, but entering into the eternity rest within God's plan.

Plans for the Hikikomori Workshop, 2011.02.18
What I have decided to do with this workshop would be focusing on these 2 major parts:
i.) Use a few case studies to illustrate the phenomenon by exploring the possible mental states, relation to cultural and social structural background, so that the participants would catch a glimpse of the context. 
ii.) Then, I will go on in illustrating the current practices in the field, by giving examples of the intervention efforts organized by Christians and non-Christians that experienced by my cases, in terms of their efficacy and sustainability, to spur the participants to challenge and examine the existing interventions in relation with Gospel, what work and what do not work.

There is a major theme in this workshop: LOVE
1 Cor 13:13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love (NASB)

Please Pray......
For this I would love you to pray together with me, for the workshop, and the RJC Conference as a whole (Feb 17-19).
1. Pray that the Lord will prepare the hearts of the people, hikikomori will be set free, and the workers that He calls to this field will rise up and go while continue to seek His heart day and night for Godly intervention.
2. Pray that His words will fill my lips, and it would be His passion and His fire that burns in my chest. Having the RJC conference to begin on Feb 17, is the the most fabulous birthday party that I would have. What more to have such a grand party by meeting many people whom their hearts are for Japan!
3. Please pray that the Lord will give me a gift that I will receive partners that are committed in both partnership and discipleship, whom have the same passion and direction that spur by His will, through this conference!


Thank you for your prayers! Shalom!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

第二回ひきこもり勉強会開きます

 
ひきこもり勉強会 第二回
日時:平成23年1月21日(金) 19:00~21:00
場所:東京大学本郷キャンパス、医学部3号館 



あけましておめでとうございます!今週の金曜日、1月21日、第二回ひきこもり勉強会を開きます。時間のできる方はぜひ参加してください!

12月10日に一回目のひきこもり勉強会は、ロザリンを含む15人が参加しました。土屋先生から世界精神保健調査の結果をふまえて、ただ引きこもりについてのことではなく、精神障害と発達障害のこともいろいろ話してくれました。また日本とほかの国の調査結果を比べて、いろいろ教えてくださり、とてもいい勉強になりました。

それで、参加者たちは「若者の意識に関する調査(引きこもりに関する実態調査)概要版」で使ったの調査票を自分で記入しました。ロザリンが受け取った調査票8枚あります。10枚以上集まったら、結果を検討し分析します。

12月の勉強会について、参加者江上さんからのメッセージ、
「 今日はありがとう。とてもいい勉強になりました。土屋先輩にもお礼を言っておいてください・・・・・・参加者も国際色豊かだし、年齢、お仕事もさまざまでこれからの勉強会がとても楽しみです・・・・・・」

12月の勉強会では情報をたくさんもらったのですけれども、参加者たちお互いの交流があんまりできなかった。1月の勉強会では、日本精神保健調査の結果をもとにして、参加者たちが自分の経験と知ることによって、また大野先生監修したの冊子(心の健康を守るためのストレス・マネジメント)で「自分の考え方のくせ・ゆがみを知っておこう」、「行動や感情をコントロールできるようになろう」の二つの文章を使って、自由に話したいと思います。


今、次の勉強会を準備しているのですが、出席の予定を確認したいです。人数によって、次の勉強会の形が決まります。
(集会室使うとか、ゼミ室を使うとか、そのうえで、「ワールドカフェ」の形でやるとか、皆一緒に話するとか)
資料の準備をはじめ、いろいろな準備が必要ですので、事前にぜひロザリンまで連絡してください。


おいでになれない方も、ぜひ勉強会のために祈ってください!

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Beginning of 2011

The Lord had made the weather a little bit warmer for me as I arrived Tokyo on Jan 16, 10pm. I caught the last train heading to Tsukuba, took a taxi at Kashiwanoha Station, and went back to my place safely. While everything was done, it was around 2am.

The next day, I headed to school at around 10am. Met few friends. The assignment deadline had moved to next week, Jan 25. Praise God, I didn't need to rush. Thus, the decision to concentrate on making origami and preaching in Malaysia was seemingly the Lord's will.  I received a couple of emails showing their interest to pray and probably equipping themselves for a visit to Japan. These are encouraging messages. I pray that the Lord will continue to guide you and lead you into the partnership with Him in Heart4japan. Shalom.

Attended classes yesterday, glad to find everyone there. Handed over some souvenirs from  Malaysia, had a couple of chats. Began to work on Hikikomori Study Group invitation on Jan 21, which falls on the same day my mom's visit to the clinic. And I began to develop flu like symptoms last night, coughing...it get worse still with anti-histamine and cough lozenges, could be influenza... Heard that my brother Peter had high fever the night I headed back to Tokyo. Do remember us in your prayers.

There are few things going on almost simultaneously and really need your prayers!


This will probably serve as the main structure for you to pray for Heart4Japan ministry from Jan - Apr 2011. Will continue to update some reports, feedbacks and highlight from time to time, but this article will be the main. Please take note.

1. Hikikomori Study Group is going on. It uses the Department of Mental Health in Graduate school of medicine of Tokyo University as a platform to outreach, and set up study groups as round table discussions among those who are interested. It takes place once in a month started from Dec 2010.
2nd meeting is on Jan 21, 7pm - 9pm.
3rd meeting is on Feb 25, 7pm - 9pm
4th meeting is on Mar 25, 7pm - 9pm
5th meeting is on Apr 15/22, 7pm - 9pm

Please pray for smooth meetings, preparation of the hearts of people, relationship among the attendants, relationship between me and my colleagues in the department. Pray that He will lead us in the discussions, and give us wisdom on how to deal with certain approaches. Pray that the campus workers and Christian workers will support and join the discussions to find out more about the issues, and begin to strategize how to serve better in Hikikomori outeach programs.


2. RJC Conference (Feb 17-19) /Hikikomori Workshop by Roseline (Feb 18)
RJC Conference is going to be held in Northshore Baptist Church in Bothell, WA. The theme this year is to build a strong foundation. I am one of the workshop speaker, dealing mainly on hikikomori. The original proposal is talk about the phenomenon of hikikomori. However, looking at the schedule that I may not be able to do this often in coming years, I am praying if this is the time to talk about outreach, and teaching about how Christians can come together in reaching out to the hikikomori. Please pray together with me on this matter.

Also, If you notice, I had pasted two prayer requests written by Don Wright, as a spur to your attention of RJC Conference. Please kindly refer to the RJC site, to pray together with us for the conference. Pray for good networking, and the relationship of trust and honor among the missionaries.


3. IFJ Camp  2011 (Apr 1-3)  - I FOLLOW JESUS
Some of you may have heard me shared about the IFJ Camp that gathers teenagers (mostly middle school to college students) from whole Japan in 2010. The Lord woks in a marvelous way in this camp. Pray that the Lord will prepare his people, to facilitate, to help, to attend the event. The camp will be held in Kansai Bible Institute (KBI) in Ikoma, Nara. I am still praying if I would be able to attend the camp to help. Either way, I couldn't hold myself to share your love to the kids. It is amazing work that the Lord has done. I'm sure your commitments in prayers and support the missions in Japan will encourage them strongly!

Worth to mention, the principle of KBI is also one of the main speaker that will be in RJC. I will meet Ota sensei during the conference in Seattle. As I was almost half paralyzed in KBI in 2009, Ota Sensei took good care of me. KBI is surely a marking stone for my journey in Heart4Japan. Please pray for good fellowship, and good time to catch up with each other.


There are several other things too!!!


5. Seminar by Roseline (Feb 10)
I will be presenting on the seminar with regards to the PhD works that I am planning to do in next two years. Need a lot of wisdoms. To be honest with you, this is very STRESS. ;-) Do remember me in your prayers.

6. Behavioral Medicine Conference in Tokyo Japan (Mar 10 -13)
This is an event organized by our department, and I will be one of the helper. Sometimes I feel alien because my language command is still not good enough to help out more. Do pray that I will learn as much as possible and make good contacts from here.  Again, please pray for the good relationship between me and my colleagues.

7. Visitors from Malaysia/Austria

Boh Yeah/Yang (Mar 8 - 15)
Mom, Sis, Bee Ngee, Fook Keong and Bee Ngee's mom (Mar 13 - 20)

Pray that the visitors will catch the fire and vision and the blessings while they travel in Japan.
Please pray that I will have time to be with family and friends.

Pat (Apr 4 - 22)

Pat was a hikikomori till 2007 and still find himself very hikikomori inside. This is a dream vacation that he had always want to have. Pat will want to spend his time mostly in Akihabara, and to join hikikomori study group, and visit my department. Please pray for good fellowship. We had this bible study online with each other, and chats for more than three years now, but this is the first time to meet each other.  Please continue to pray for him and his salvation, and pray that Pat will experience God's love and acknowledge it in this trip.


Yokun and Ayumi
Finally Yokun is here in Tokyo for another week before he head back to Akita. We will meet up with each other on this coming Friday for the hikikomori study group. I am also expecting another lady, Ayumi, that I met on the flight. Please keep them in your prayers!!!


Love,
Roseline

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

40 Days Prayer for RJC Conference - Day 2

May each one on whose heart God has placed a burden for Japan discern how best they might advance the Gospel among the Japanese. For those who can attend the RJC Conference, may this be one step they take. Pray that the advertisements will connect with those who are interested. The general sessions, the special workshops featuring anime and mango, the outreach section which will feature a Hawaiian hula lesson and the Saturday Night Alive Celebration are being promoted.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Japan Mission Evening (Jan 13)

Nehemiah received news from his brothers from Judah, and his heart was sorrow because of the broken wall in Jerusalem. He mourned, and he fasted and he prayed. Then he move beyond grief to call on to the Father to give him success! He set off to scout the land, again he prayed. He then gathered people together, the lost, to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. ~ The book of Nehemiah.

The wall is broken not only because of the attack of the enemy. It is also about "We have acted very corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, nor the statues, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses". (Nehemiah 1:7) When God is calling his people to submit to Him, are we in obedience? Are we looking more forward to build the wall of Jerusalem thinking about His people, or we focus only building the little spot thinking that was the "given" space and neglected the importance to build the fences and gates for His Kingdom? We are suppose to be His watchmen, so that we can blow on the trumpet and warn His people when we see the sword coming upon the land. (Ezekiel 33). However, instead of building the wall to defense Jerusalem, we built fences around the watchtowers, and hid our faces from the other watch towers. We neglected the duty of watchmen, but we built our castles around the watchtowers. Instead of pledging our service to the glory of Jerusalem, it seems that the little watchman on the tower become the lord of the castle. It is time to rebuild the WALL! The WALL that the Lord of Heaven is calling us to build.

Come and join us on Jan 13. Missions comes with Visions. Come and learn more about Japan, so that you can pray at where you are!


Heart4Japan Event
Japan Mission Evening
Location: Full Gospel Assembly Kuala Lumpur, Basement 3.
Date: Jan 13, 2011 (Thursday)

Program:
3.00pm - 4.00pm Set Up
4.00pm - 5.00pm Heart4Japan Intercession
5.00pm - 6.00pm Origami Workshop
6.00pm - 7.00pm J Movie/Slide Shows
7.00pm - 7.30pm God's Fingerprints in Japan DVD
7.30pm - 8.00pm Tea Ceremony
8.00pm - 8.05pm Chairman Introduction
8.05pm - 8.35pm Unreached Japanese zgeneral Overvie
8.35pm - 8.40pm Japanese Traditional Dance
8.40pm - 9.00pm Culture and Life in Japan
9.00pm - 9.10pm Break
9.10pm - 9.30pm Reaching out to the Community
9.30pm - 9.45pm Testimony from Yoko
9.45pm - 10.00pm Prayer Time/Discuss about Sodality