For many Japanese it may be repulsive to do an outreach at a festival for the dead but the living are dead without Christ as well and this posed a great opportunity to network within the community and extend a hand to love our neighbors. Pastor Travis being Hawaiian made some yummy Kahlua Pork and Cabbage and sold it with some yummy sausages. Then Rich Rose taught me some fun ballooning and we blessed all the kids and some adults with some balloon creations. It was a blast. The organizers praised the church for ministering to the kids and the balloons were the free treat that the whole neighborhood was talking about. We were even teaching them how to make stuff and letting them pump and twist their own stuff. The committee in charge was very pleased. The fruit of the outreach is that the body of believers was strengthened to just go and love on others, and we gained favor within the leaders eyes, also on Sunday morning one lady showed up at church attributing her coming to seeing us all at the festival. Praise God. Next weekend Mihoko and I and the kids will help out at Grace Christian Fellowship's Obon celebration outreach next Sunday the 31st. Pray for that. Jonathan Wilson is back from Ch*n* and he is declaring the praises of God's faithfulness to the weakest of those earthquake victims. Pray for their continued work in the mainland. The last picture is of Pastor Travis's daughter Erika isn't she cute in the kimono.
1 comment:
I've always believed that the key to Japanese ministry is local church involvement in all aspects of Japanese life, including non-Christian festivals such as Obon. The church we usually attend when in Japan has an aversion to such "participation with pagans" and it shows in their nearly nonexistent membership. It's great to read that your church is going the extra kilometer to reach Japanese.
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