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Prayers for Japan

Prayers for Japan
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While Japan doesn’t have any security risks, I will still ask that you not post or share anything in my letters on any Social Media.

Hi everyone,

Thank you again to everyone who has prayed for me, reached out, and financially supported me in getting to this point in the process, where I'm about to leave for Japan in less than a week. I fly out Oct. 9th ... though I will be returning😅, as this is only a 3 week vision trip. I am eager to make many great connections as I seek to join the teams of people serving with PI in Japan and have the "interviews" go well, along with any gospel interactions that may happen in English.

This map shows the 3 southern regions where I will be spending most of my time.
PIONEERS JAPAN
PIONEERS JAPAN

As Japan is legally open to Christianity, PI teams share some of their information online

As I have been preparing my heart for my time in Japan, prayer has been an encouragement both within my own discernment process, as well as for developing a deeper and more accurate idea of the spiritual strongholds that are over many Japanese. So I would Love to share a little bit of that and encourage you to join me in these prayers.

  1. Prayer for my heart to continue deepening for Japan's spiritual needs, as 99% of the country (Over 120 million) have little to no exposure to the gospel.
  2. Please pray as I go with an open heart and hands, that God would help me and the team leaders see how I can participate well in the work already being done and to envision/explore possibilities for new work in the future.
  3. Pray for clear discernment with God as I ask God to confirm where and who he is asking me to invest in. I have been calling these moments Gideon moments from Judges 6:36-40 where Gideon literally double and triple checks that what he believes God is telling him to do is truly from God and not anything else.

To Feel the Sorrow Under a Smile

Pioneers and OMF have a prayer booklet that has helped me join in the prayer for Japan in specific ways. I want to highlight 3 that have been on my mind recently, as well as share this link "Beneath the Surface - 30 ways to pray for Japan" as an invitation to explore more.

  • Social Conformity and Harmony
    • There is a saying in Japan "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down" and that cultural norm severely hinders the witness in Japan as Christianity is NOT Japanese, and so it must be hammered down or pressured to remain quiet to maintain social conformity and harmony.
  • Mental Health
    • Japan has so many Shut-In's they have a name and whole culture around it, hikikomori. And the corporate work culture is one of the hardest and most stressful in the world, leading to at best never seeing their kids and at worst suicide or death by overwork karoshi.

While these are the extreme variations of mental health problems this affects large swaths of Japanese

  • Aging and Struggling Churches
    • There are around 1M Christians in Japan and these communities have been struggling to survive. Two of the problems to pray for are:
      • Pastors often become the only way congregants are fed spiritually, leading to a church culture of immense burnout among the pastors and very little discipleship of new Japanese believers from the congregants.
      • Most church members and leaders are over the age of 60, with almost half of pastors still serving being over 70 years old with no replacements in sight.

Thank you all again for partnering with me in praying for Japan and myself, especially in this letter, as our prayers and petitions to God really do make a difference.

Here is easy access to the giving link, if you have the opportunity to also financially support our ministry in Japan.

Secure Giving Link

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