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By Andy Lam
They say that you don’t know what you really have until you’ve lost it. In my case,
it wasn’t the loss of something that made me draw such a realization, but a combination
of being separated from my home church in America, as well as seeing first-hand the
condition of the church in Japan that revealed to me how God has truly blessed not just
be, but those of us in the church of America.
The team at Glow as well as our loved ones, prayer partners and churches have prayed a lot, for the trip that was to come. In my personal case, my church and my closest friends persisted in prayer for me and with me weeks prior, both by telling me and showing me affirmations. More so now than ever, people are suffering from loneliness or being unable to say that they have someone close they can confide in – and yet, because of Christ, I am greatly blessed with people who are continuously encouraging me, supporting me, surrounding me with wise counsel, can give lend me an ear without a hint of judgment, but also leaders and peers alike who will provide correction with love if I turn into a direction that may be against my God’s will. Yet, I believe also that when God fills our cup, the role of His
followers is to go out and to pour out into the cups of others who also desire to have
their thirst quenched.
"When God fills our cup, the role of His followers is to go out and to pour out into the cups of others who also desire to have their thirst quenched."
Visiting Japan was simultaneously very encouraging, yet troubling. Being a
Christian in the Japanese culture is something I would say is very much like walking
against the grain. Now, following Christ as a whole is an endeavor I would describe as
walking against headwinds, but in Japan, I had a sense that even more so than other
developed countries with a freedom to both religion and speech, that the headwinds for
the Japanese Christian were unlike any other I had heard of. A number of different
factors play into such a dynamic. Less than 1% of Japan is actually Christian.
Japanese society is very uniform and slow to embrace anything different than the current status quo. They are very much a society that embraces a façade. Their culture is
simultaneously very religious yet areligious.
"Their culture is simultaneously very religious yet areligious."
When you look into how strongly reinforced a lot of these factors are and how they interact with one another, you find that they form something akin to social and cultural norms that act to constrain the members of its society on an individualistic level. It felt as if, the closer one got to the heart of Tokyo, the motto “stay in your own lane” becomes more and more apparent. With these all coming into play as well as other unnamed ones, you can imagine that the majority of Japanese churches feel they are outnumbered, outgunned, find trouble with outreach, struggle to stay encouraged, have their work completely cut out for them, and in general feel suffocated by society at large. Not to mention, it is a developed society where
people may not feel the immediate need to call out to any god. It is easy for people to
simply go back into the little hole that is their own lives and stay comfortable there. What
can I say? It lives up to the epithet of the “Missionary Graveyard”.
It lives up to the epithet of the “Missionary Graveyard”.
And yet, in the face of a society that will hammer down the nail that sticks out,
stands the 1% in spite of everything. I can tell you all of these things about the culture,
but seeing it all play into multiple conversations with the missionaries, church planters,
tentmakers, and especially the Japanese believers themselves has shown me how
heavy their respective crosses are and how narrow the paths they walk on are. I spoke
to a young man a level of intentionality, the way men ought to in the church, and at the
end of the conversation he told me “no person has ever spoken to me like this”. I spoke
to another who referenced how in his family divorced destroyed everything and there is
not a single person in his immediate family he has ever had a heart-to-heart conversation with.
There was another, who nearly lost everything at the cost of taking his own life, and at the very last second he opened his bible, saw the words “Follow me” from Jesus, and then and there decided to do just that. There is even a ministry I met where they did outreach and support to runaway girls in the Shinjuku, who often sold themselves for money because they had no one else to turn to. When God made humanity, He created us to be relational as He is and every single believer I met there who was serious about getting the Gospel out in Japan has drawn the very same conclusion – that relationships will be the greatest means of reaching the 2nd largest unreached people group in the world.
I haven’t been able to stop praying for the Japanese church since leaving and no
amount of words can truly capture the depth of the need of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
within this country. The work is more than plentiful for the saints out there and the need
is significantly more than any person or group of people can bear, yet it is not simply
their burden to bear. Our Lord see’s the spiritual suffocation and how the crows will eat
the seeds of the Gospel that land on the pavement, but He also see’s champions who
have yet to win their crown.
Our Lord see’s the spiritual suffocation and how the crows will eat the seeds of the Gospel that land on the pavement, but He also see’s champions who have yet to win their crown.
He knows that they fight the good fight and run the good race, (2 Timothy 4:7-8) gritting their teeth until the very end so that they will hear their Lord say “Well done, good and faithful servant”, (Matthew 25:23) while heaven roars in applause for their arrival and their completion of the race. However, until that day comes, they will fight against the burden of sin and their own flesh, asking if a great and powerful God could use them.
Brothers and sisters, because of what my Lord has shown me, I ask kindly if you could
pray for these saints who fight in a world and feel unseen and unheard? The Grace of our God is sufficient, but in a battle on the front lines where do our fellow warriors draw their strength from?
Please pray for not only those who are currently fighting, but those who have yet to fully pick up their crosses, and those who have yet to even hear the name of Jesus.
Just as everyone at Glow was supported so greatly through prayer, could you support us and those ministries in Japan by asking our God to use His people to glorify His name even further within the lost nation of Japan? He is capable and He is worthy.
About Andy Lam:
Andy Lam currently serves as the Prayer Coordinator for Glow International. He is an IT professional with a heart for Christ! He lives in the metro Atlanta area and loves to serve in his local church!
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