the power of togetherness

...less than 1% of Japan's population of 127 million is considered christian....that's staggeringly low, esp in light of the fact that the gospel was communicated in japan as early as the 1500s with the catholic saint francis...bottom line: japan is a huge harvest field...

...by God's grace and providence, we arrived here just in time to attend a major evangelical conference called the church planting institute conferece (or cpi)...at this year's cpi conference (from tues 11/8 to fri 11/11) in hakone, japan (map below), over 500 japanese pastors and non-japanese missionaries gather to worship, learn, fellowship, and pray for japan...through this conference, we experienced the power of christian togetherness...



...here's what the plenary sessions looked like... lots of discussion time...




...and worshiping God with one voice...

...and learning through two voices: japanese translated to english and vice versa...

...actually, the learning and growing started before the conference began...regardless of the country you're in, aren't roadtrips great team-building experiences?...as planned, going to the cpi conference was a great way for some members of the kansai team to bond ministry friendships (left to right: owen, eric, sue, nozomi, claire, kari, and annie)...

...owen is eric and sue's son...isn't he adorable?...he was so good in the car...

...eric, you the man! thanks for driving countless hours so patiently and peacefully!...

...caravaning with us was the fuji family...by stopping at several rest stops along our 8+ hr drive, we were able to get to know the fuji family...aren't they so bright and beautiful?...fuji-sensei is the church planting pastor at our mother church (new community church)...therefore fuji-sensei is our overseeing pastor...his wife kazumi has such a kind spirit and gentle heart...

...in addition to the fujis above, we also caught a distant glimpse of another fuji...



...the look in owen's eyes says it all about the mountain's beauty (whoa dad (eric), you climbed mt fuji last yr?!?)...

...looking back wth joy and gratitude, God met us (and our asian access family) in a wonderful way at cpi...God used the conference to broaden our horizons for the harvest field in japan in several important and fundamental ways (below the view from our dining area)...

...first horizon: God showed us the great need for the gospel in japan...

...second horizon: despite this need and the challenging nature of missionary work in japan, God showed us that the gospel is powerful and life-transforming and that God's promise to let the nations be glad (psalm 67) extends to japan...

...third horizon: God has not called us to serve Him alone in japan...we are not alone!...we are laboring with many godly servants who yearn for the gospel light to shine bright in places of darkness...there is great power in christian togetherness...rejoice in christ and join us in thanking God for the many unsung heroes of faith who are laboring tirelessly for the gospel...

...like dr. rabi (above) from nagaland, india...severely persecuted for his faith as a young boy, he grew up in the jungle without any house to call home...but he persevered and trusted God and through fervent prayer, God brought great revival to nagaland...in his current role as a seminary professor and missionary, dr. rabi is equipping servants from nagaland (now over 90% christian!) to go out as missionaries to other provinces of india and the rest of the world...

...like pastor mori whom God is using to lead the japanese church to greater heights...i'll never forget this moment as i took this pic: with tears in his eyes, he prayerfully confessed the wartime sins of japan against her neighbors in asia...

...it's a small world...sharing the same home church (inland presby church), here is pastor daniel and esther, with their great kids, elizabeth, jonathan and david...what a joy it was to see and talk with them about what God is doing in and thru them in chiba (near tokyo)...

...claire being welcomed by tomoko (above), a fellow asian access church planter (also in chiba)...

...meeting owen (above), a missionary from australia who has been in japan for a few years...he lives a couple subway stops from us... and get this, he was an attorney and his wife was a teacher back home...God can be crazy like that...

...speaking of asian access, several missionaries from the agency attended the conference and it was great reconnecting w/ them (or in claire's case, getting to meet them)...

...the highlight for us came on wednesday evening of the conference, where we experienced the power of togetherness as the asian access participants gathered to commission and pray for the two newest families to join the mission: us and the muhlings...

...as we headed back to osaka-kobe, the kansai team was more equipped, more inspired, and more together in our common purpose to communicate the gospel of jesus christ in the osaka-kobe-sanda triangle...

...please pray for us that God would use us mightily for his glory in japan...