Month 10 ended earlier this week and Month 11 (!!!!!!) is here! There were many months where I thought Month 11 would never come (dramatic, I know). Now that it’s here, I want to go back to those previous months. I really have no idea where the time has gone!
We have been in Japan since May 14, and wow has this been a really incredible time for my team. There is so much that happened and I wish I could relay it all on here, but I am going to have to touch on just a few things below. One thing is for certain: God really, really loves Japan and is pursuing this country HARD.
We flew into Narita on May 14 and stayed nearby at the only Air BnB we could find within our budget. Our home for the first few days was on a farm with the most precious couple. We noticed right away that this couple has a fascination with crosses, but due to the language barrier, it was hard to really be sure of where their love of crosses came from. Through motioning and very rough Japanese on our part, we were led to assume that this husband and wife are believers. Since this seemed to be a very rare thing in Japan and the husband took us to a shrine one afternoon, we weren’t super confident with our assumption.
After a few short days in Narita, we took the train into Tokyo. We had all of our stuff with us, so we very much looked out of place and took up a lot of space. Once we got to the area we were staying in, our Air BnB host picked us up and took us to the tiny apartment we would be living in for the week. Trying to make conversation, our host asked us how many times we had been shot. “EXCUSE ME WHAT” was the general exclamation that came out of our mouths, but our host seemed to be confused and further explained that since we are all from America, he assumed we had all been shot at some point. So that was an interesting conversation, to say the least.
We were connected with a church plant in Tokyo, and through them we were able to get connected with Christian professors at universities in the city. One professor asked if we could come to his class one afternoon and speak with the students. The day we went to his class, we spoke to 147 students about our trip and told testimonies of things that had happened these past 11 months. A lot of the students were visibly shook.
Having some time to speak with the students after class, we quickly realized that a lot of the university students didn’t have a religion they followed or really anything they believed in. Students were asking us many different questions about what we believe and why, seemingly hungry to understand that there may be something greater out there.
At the end of this particular class, students are required to write a little report about what they learned that day. We read through so many reports about how some of the students loved hearing our stories and had heard about Jesus before, but didn’t realize His power is still real today. Other reports expressed that they wanted to know more about Christianity, and some even wrote that they wanted to try praying. It was really, really powerful.
During our time in Tokyo, we also prayer walked through the entertainment districts that are commonly known to house strip clubs and brothels. The thing about Tokyo is that everything literally seems perfect. It’s like a utopia! I really love it, but when you dig deeper and look past the surface, you will find a lot of hidden darkness.
In this culture, we learned, it is common for most people to very much keep to themselves in order to not rock the boat or draw attention. Because of this, there are things that are wrong yet never addressed because no one wants to stir up anything. An example is that on one of the streets that is filled with topless clubs, there is a playground at the very end. A place where children play, but this doesn’t seem to be an issue because the community chooses to pretend the darkness at the end of the street does not exist.
One day we went inside the building that houses multiple clubs. The clubs were closed, but we were able to take the elevator to the sixth floor. Immediately we felt this spirit of gross oppression. Each floor was a different club and we prayed over them as we passed them. Never have I experienced so much spiritual darkness as I did when we walked that building. As the staircase spiraled down, it literally felt like we were walking into hell.
That night we walked the same streets, but this time they were crowded with people. We prayed as we went, but all of a sudden I came up to a man that I knew in my spirit I had to talk to. His name was Kenny and he was a bouncer for one of the clubs. Kenny told me about his family and how he came from Nigeria to work and provide for them. I told Kenny I was a Christian and he said he was, too. Kenny let me pray a blessing over him and thanked me with misty eyes. You see, a lot of men from Africa with Christian backgrounds come to Tokyo for one reason or another, usually for work, but they are compromised because some of their jobs include inviting guests into these establishments. That late night was filled with praying for women and with bouncers and I will never forget how it felt holding their hands and the hope that they had in their eyes as we walked away.
Please be praying for the entertainment districts in Tokyo, as well as the women and men who are working in them.
That weekend we were invited to a conference called SHINE in Yokohama. We were able to connect with groups from Switzerland, Singapore, Japan and even Florida during our time there and it was incredible getting to learn about how God is moving in all of those different places.
One night we all went out to a busy square to worship and invite people to a festival that we would be putting on in a park the next day. I was able to meet and spend time with a sixth grade girl who loves to dance. I told her how I loved to dance, too, and that it was because of the joy that Jesus put in my heart. She said she had never heard of Jesus, so I told her all about Him and prayed for her.
The next day we helped put on a festival that was being held in order to bring the community together and expose them to what intentional community looks like. Because the culture in some of these cities is seemingly very surface level, a lot of people experience deep loneliness and rarely, if at all, are exposed to true intimacy. It was seriously so much fun and there was a great turn out! Many people accepted prayer and left that day extremely encouraged.
I wish I could fit in depth all that happened in Japan in this one post, but I could not do it all any justice. I will just touch on a few more things:
My teammate Shela studied abroad in Tokyo back in high school and we were able to meet up with some of her host family while in the city! They were incredible tour guides and took us to do many fun things, like traditional Japanese dyeing. Shela was able to share her testimony with them, which was so incredibly special because they had not seen her since she had become a follower of Jesus.
For a week we stayed with a local woman who is also a believer and is a piano teacher to many in the community that she is living in. All week we were encouraging and building her up, as well as praying for her students and their parents when they came to the house for their lessons. Many women said they had never before felt the way they did when we were praying for them, so we were able to share with them about Jesus and the peace and comfort He gives. It was an incredible week.
Now we are back in Narita on the same farm we started on, wrapping up our time in Japan. Our hosts left a New Testament Japanese Bible out for us (our assumptions WERE correct!) and they even hosted a barbecue for us last night. God has truly provided for us in abundance and I really wish I could tell you every single way He carried us during this time. Truly, revival is coming to Japan.
Thank you again to all who prayerfully and financially supported us so that we could be here in Japan! This was an incredibly impactful month and I can’t wait to see all that happens in this country. Japan sure is special and God continually revealed to us why we were supposed to be here at this time.
We head to Hong Kong tomorrow and then we will be on our way to Shanghai for M-Squad Final Debrief. In two weeks I will be on a plane coming home! I really cannot wrap my mind around the fact that this is coming to an end. Please be praying for us as we prepare to enter back into the United States!
All glory be to Him.
