Hope for Japan

In 1640, Saint Vincent de Paul, a French Catholic priest, made a prediction of the future of the church. He stated, “Jesus said his church would last until the end of time, but he never mentioned the word Europe. The church of the future will be the church of Africa, of South America, of China and Japan.”

Philip Jenkins, author of “The Next Christendom,” commented how this “prophecy” is now verifiable, as the significant growth of the church is found in Latin American, Africa, and Asia. Last year, more people were baptized in the Philippines that Italy, Spain, and France combined.

The sad qualifying statement made was that this prediction has come true with the exception of Japan, which has struggled. Such a statement is accurate, but can lead to two responses. One is despair and defeat that God is at work in many other places, but not here. Or, it can be the approach we choose to take, in that history is not finished. The story is not complete. We have yet to know or see what God might have in store for Japan, as well as the rest of the world in our generation and those that come after us.

Our prayer is that we might see this predication ring true!

Recently, Miho has taught me another Japanese song she learned as a child by her parents. It goes, “Okome hitotsubu hachi jyu hachi ya.” Rough translation, “It takes 88 steps to grow a piece of rice.” In this brief song, parents are reinforcing a great lesson that kids will remember. Miho’s parents used it to reinforce the idea that it took such a process of some poor farmer to make this rice, so don’t waste it. Not even one piece of rice! This would make from an easy dish washing as the plate would end up completely empty.

While this song in itself has nothing to do with the Christian life, it got me thinking. How long does it take for us to grow as Christians? I recently have read through the book of Deuteronomy and am amazed at how long God was at work in their lives and it is hard to see them really growing, after 40 years in the desert. It took many years to raise Moses to become the leader he was meant to be. Just how the piece of rice didn’t pop up out of the field in a day, our own spiritual lives are nurtured over time, seasons, and experiences to fully blossom.

I am sure it will take more than 88 steps to fully reach maturity in our faith. Yet, this is what God has called each of us to strive towards. Just as a little child learns not to toss away a tiny piece of rice, how much more valuable are our lives. Such a silly little song has reminded me once again of our need to grow and not waste the life God has given us.

Yesterday, I (Grant) came across an incredible video from my missionary friend, Peter Mead. It features a man and woman harmoniously playing guitar together; but on the same guitar! You can watch the brief clip, 2:36, here.

For someone who could never dare have similar skills musically, their performance resonated with me for several reasons. I found that they were both fully engaged and skilled in what they were doing. It would have fallen apart if one didn’t know their part or lagged in performance. It also showed how beautiful music (or life, or ministry) can be when in harmony.

This struck me as a great image (and sound) for our future life in Japan. We seek to enter this land as a team that will work in harmony to glorify God with our lives. We need to be on the same page playing the same music (vision). Like this couple who had no clear “star,” we passionately want to serve without focus on who is in the spotlight or the star.  Finally, these two musicians are gifted at what they do. God has equally gifted us uniquely and calls us to use them without complaining or comparison to what others have.

I recently have been admiring how God has gifted and wired us. Much of my recent research has focused on Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence theory, which looks at the various ways people express knowledge and learn. Reflecting on ourselves, I see how different Miho is from me, but also how valuable this uniqueness is for our life and ministry. I will offer a few examples. In the Spatial Knowledge category, you would not want me to decorate and arrange your living room, while you also would not want to rely on Miho for navigating you on a road trip. Her ability to imagine both the space and how things will look and fit together made our simple apartments lovely. In the Interpersonal Knowledge category, her perception and discernment of people and motives has benefited me since we first met. She keenly observed tension between some of our team members, of which I was clueless. Over the years, her discernment has proven correct, which is crucial in our role as counselors. Lastly, one aspect of linguistic knowledge is the ability to learn languages. As somewhat expected, Miho is quickly learning in her French class here, while also doing well in an Advanced Hebrew class that is studying the book of Job. While most people know this is not my particular strength, I am patiently progressing in learning Japanese 🙂

After a whole week of orientation, classes have begun this week.  Although Grant is doing a research-based program, he still has to take a class and audit a couple more classes this semester. On Tuesday he already preached in his homiletics class before the Scottish classmates who are on their ordination track for the Scottish Presbyterian Chruch. This is actually quite unique because most of the divinity school students we met are from outside of Scotland. Many of them are indeed from America. While we were wondering where the Scots were, here we found them hiding!

Miho also attended the first class of Advanced Hebrew class which she may be able to audit throughout the semester. She is making herself busy working on her Job translation. The divinity school as a whole is not too small, with the student body of about 200 people, including the undergrad. But the size of the postgrad is fairly small. Each class is basically a seminar; there are only six or seven students. Thus, auditing means full participation in class. You are only not held accountable for tests and papers. After the whole summer of traveling and support raising, getting back into this rhythm of life is not the easiest thing to do. Fortunately, God has been provoding Miho some translation projects, which will cover some of the expenses that Grant’s scholarship will not cover.

Though we are back into our study mode, we haven’t forgotten to have fun and explore Edinburgh. Today was a  day called Edinburgh Open Door on which some of the buildings that are normally closed to public become accessbile. John Knox, the key Scottish Reformer who founded Presbyterianism, lived his twilight months in a house now called John Knox House. It’s a museum but the admission was free today, so we went to check it out, only to run into other divinity school students. We do not agree with all of the things he has done or said, but we do respect him as someone actually did bring about change in this country. We feel very privileged to be in this land that offers so much of rich history.

We are already in full swing with school, as orientation started on Monday. I feel like I’m in a totally new environment, being at a world-class university. I found out that over 50,000 students applied for less than 5,000 spots. I feel very honored to be here and around so many international students. We met a Japanese student who is doing biblical studies that attended Moody after me and also knows some of our mutual friends, including Gary Carlson, a fellow ECC missionary in Japan. Small world! I also met a guy from Wichita, Kansas that knows mutual friends (the Busenitz family). One other student worked at Ozark Christian College and knows my friend Matt Spiel. We have also been in touch with a French girl who just moved here that I knew from a church in Paris. Sure there will be more connections to come.

Tomorrow will be my chance to interact with my supervisor and discuss my research ideas and get feedback and direction. That evening will be a ceilidh (pronounced Kay-lee), which is the Scottish dance. Since I don’t have a kilt, not sure what I will wear 🙂 We’ll be sure to give more details and photos of the event later.

I am also fortunate for the location of the Divinity school. It is basically right next to the castle. Edinburgh has been voted as one of the best cities in the UK, and we now know why. It is charming, historic, vibrant, and not overwhelmingly large for a capitol. My school is also just a few blocks away from the cafe where JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book; it’s called the Elephant Walk. Hopefully the city will inspire us to write a bestseller one day; but I won’t count on that since a book on preaching, youth ministry, or missions is highly unlikely to make it on the NY Times list 🙂

We just arrived yesterday in Edinburgh, Scotland. While still jetlagged, we have begun to get settled into our new place. You can see our new place, which is a quaint little place on the 2nd floor of this house. The other photo is of a hotel that used to be a church, but totally revamped and modernized. Sad that a church closed, but incredible architecture. Finally, we hit the grocery store and saw some goodies we shall try very soon. These are haggis and black pudding (or blood sausage). Everybody has been super polite and helpful so far. It feels weird to be in a foreign country but able to talk and understand people (well, except those with super strong accents!). Very rainy and we already broke out the leather coat and umbrella. Feels like Winter, but only start of September.

We will post more photos and tell more stories soon enough.

This past weekend has been both bittersweet and exciting. On Friday at youth group, we had to say goodbye to a family that is moving to North Carolina. Yesterday, we completed our moving sale by handing over the keys to our Honda Civic. This was the final item to get rid of before we move in just over a week to Scotland. With the money from the sale, we plan on paying down our student loans a bit.

Shortly after selling our car, we headed down to New York City to speak at Queenswest Church. We had a great time speaking at the first church Highrock planted about six years ago. Rather than drive down at the crack of dawn, we were able to leave early and visit some old friends from seminary. We were overwhelmed by their wonderful hospitality.

One highlight of the weekend was finding out that we have now crossed the 50% mark of our support raising! Given the reality of the economy, the high cost of living in Japan, and the relatively short-time we have been raising support, we clearly see God’s hand in all of this and His amazing provision.

Over the last four years, we have accoumulated quite a lot of stuff. Many books we bought for classes as well as for future reference, as we encountered wonderful deals at the Christian Book Distributer’s sale.  Many kitchen gadgets we collected from various kitchen stores, like a bread crumber (if you don’t know what it is, it is a small metal object that looks like the non-edge part of a knife and a waiter in a nice restaurant uses it to scoop up the bread crumbs on your table before they bring out desserts). Many letters and cards we recieved for various occasions. To so many things we are attached to, we had to say good-bye at least for the next 9 months, as Grant’s family came all the way out to Boston from Des Moines to pick up our stuff to store it in their house. The most beautiful thing about it is that we didn’t even have to ask for help. They voluntarily took a vacation from work and paid for the hitch, gas, hotel, and trailer out of their own pocket to do this huge favor for us. Thier commitment goes even further. The day before they left for Des Moines, we were going to load up the trailer together. But suddenly a dinner plan with one of our supporters came up. While we were eating a delicious dinner, they loaded all of our boxes! When we returned to our fully loaded trailer, we felt aweful about it, but at the same time overwhelmed with their love. We are truly thankful to God for blessing us with such an amazing family!

The reality began sinking in that we are about to leave. We’ve recently purchased our tickest to Edinburgh, Scotland. Just last night, we got an email from one the parents from the youth group about plans for a farewell party at the end of August. This is less than a month away! It really began to strike us that we have to say good-bye to these teens and families. I (Miho) teared up with the thought of not being able to see these teens every week and not being able to interact with their parents on a regular basis.

Last week I was able to talk with my grandma. I wanted to thank her for supporting us as missionaries, even though she is on a fixed income and is sacrificing a lot for us. She told me that my grandpa who has passed away would want her to help us. She said, “Grandpa Eddie loved missionaries.”

I found out that years ago they would save up money for a new refrigerator, but would then give that savings to missionaries that came to visit our church. It was little things like this that nobody saw that typified my grandparents and their faith and generosity. Hearing stories like this reminded me of the legacy that I come from. Their generosity and faith was passed down to my father, which has also impacted me. My hope is to grow to be more faithful and generous like them.

Looking at my great-grandma, grandparents, and parents faith, I thought about the passage in 2 Timothy where Paul encouraged Timothy in the faith he learned from his mother and grandma, Eunice and Lois. I feel privileged to have had the honor of growing up with such a family that passed down the faith to me. While I am the first missionary in our family, I have been impacted by the legacy of my family who have followed Christ over many decades.