Prayer & Reflections

Day 4 : Thursday, 15 July 2010

By Chin Soo Fun

 

During the Prayer and Reflections session this morning, Pastor Chian shared his reservations about what we could do to reach out to the Japanese with the Gospel.  Based on his knowledge and observation, the Japanese seem very bound by their rigid system and are steep in their traditions.  An example of the rigid system is the expectation for office workers to work late for the sake of job security.  If Japanese embraces the Gospel, he will face the dilemma of doing the Lord’s will and confirming to societal expectation.  He related to us about a couple who has been doing ministry in Japan for 17 years yet they have not made any major headway in this country in setting up a church except some sporadic ministries.  If the Lord leads us to focus on the homeless, there is a need to look for a niche area to cater to their needs beyond what Sanyukai is doing.

 

 

One of the ideas of helping them to get on their feet again was to increase their English proficiency.  Japanese is well-known for their reluctance to speak English.  According to an English proficiency survey some six years ago based on the scores of international English proficiency tests such as TOEFL and IELTS, Japanese students ranked among the lowest among their Asian counterparts. There was a news report in the Straits Times recently which reported many Japanese companies would not hire people who have insufficient English competency.    Besides not having the environment to use the language, I attribute pride as one of the major contributing factors.  For a people who have risen so spectacularly from the ashes of WWII, the Japanese people have very good reasons to be proud.   Pride is double-edged sword; on one hand it spurs one to strive for success, on the other hand it prevents one to persevere in challenging tasks for fear of losing face.  I think the latter factor accounts for the lack of progress in their pursuit in English learning.

 

However, all is not lost in our cause.  There are signs that things are beginning to change in many quarters.  As we trust in the Lord and focus on Him to lead us, we will have His power, wisdom and anointing to touch these people whom God also dearly loves.

 

Revisiting Sanyukai

by Alan Yeo

 

Today the POR team was given a free day to move about in Tokyo. Initially, we gave the team the option of revisiting Sanyukai. However, only the pastors and Adeline made the trip to Sanyukai as they had requested for a smaller group to join them for the food distribution to the street people. When we arrived, all the “Onigiri” or “Japanese triangle-seaweed-rice” (also known as rice balls) had already been prepared by quite a number of volunteers at their quarters. They had made some 750 Onigiri with another 250 coming from another church for the distribution. We had lunch together with their staff and volunteers as they had prepared a sumptuous Japanese curry rice meal for us. After everyone had their lunch, Mr Moriya conducted a briefing and divided us into groups. We were placed together with Matt, an American volunteer at Sanyukai who was able to speak fluent Japanese and he was very kind to translate the instructions for our benefit.

 

There was already a large crowd of men waiting in line along the Sumida River where many lived in tents under the bridge. Pastor Dale, Chian, Adeline and I were given the privilege of distributing 2 “Onigiri” to each of the men in the queue and we would heartily greet them “konnichiwa” before giving them their meal. It was a humbling experience to meet these men face to face and the words just rang in my mind, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?” All these men who received the rice balls were full of gratitude and some of them just sat there and relished their meal. After all the men in the queue got their shared, we broke into two groups to visit some of those who are living in the tents. Some had big tents while others were smaller. Apparently, some were sleeping in their tents as they had had obtained work in the night and so they would sleep during the day. I peaked into a few of them and some had accumulated some mattresses, newspapers, books, pots and pans, clothes etc. As we went about visiting the tents, some of the volunteers also went about picking up the rubbish to keep the place clean.

 

We were also blessed to have met Matt who is an assistant professor doing a research on the homeless in the United States and Japan. Through him, we were able to have a better understanding of the plight of the homeless in Japan. Many of these street people were previously in the construction and building sectors that were drastically affected by the poor economy in Japan and you don’t get to see that many homeless women on the street as they are being taken care of by their families and the government whereas the men would be the ones to take to the street.

 

I wondered if I had seen the face of Christ today? Was he the elderly man who use “bad” words in conversation with Mr. Moriya but would look out for the other street people in his compound and help to bring water daily to his neighbour who was dying and lying helpless in his tent or was he one of those in the queue just waiting to receive the two rice balls from my hand?