A Broken Record

Beautiful Japan--anywhere but the trains

After this morning’s commute, I just have to write about the Tokyo trains (again, I know). They and dogs that are treated like children—or even better than—are my two major pet peeves about life in Japan’s capital city. Nevertheless, at the risk of sounding like a broken record . . . .

The train from Jiyugaoka to Shibuya was definitely the most packed one I’ve ever ridden, and I’ve endured some amazingly crowded trains up to now, when I honestly wasn’t sure I could get on. But I was at the front of the line this morning, and there was no way I could have changed my mind about riding because of the surge that came from behind me.

When my glasses cleared from the steam engendered by all the people breathing in such a small space inside that first car, I discovered I’d been pushed right up to the back of a man in a gray pinstriped suit. I was so close to him that there couldn’t possibly have been anything or anyone between us. Only there was. I don’t know how she survived suffocation.

My umbrella was hanging on my arm. (Adding insult to injury, it rained all day today.) I couldn’t see it, but I knew it was there because I could feel it, like a ball and chain, anchoring me to the floor. Every time the train lurched, the wooden crook dug deeper into my flesh, like an iron vice determined to break through my arm. Finally, at the only station where there was any significant movement of people either in or out of the train, I was able to pull it up and hold it above my head like a lightening rod. My arm survived, but is sore to the touch this evening.

Then there was my backpack. I always wear it on my front when I get on a crowded train in order to preserve a small sheath of privacy for myself. Although the train was moving and I was swaying with it, my feet were locked into a permanent encasing between what seemed like hundreds of other feet, so I had no way to right myself. I felt like the Yogi Bear punching bag my brother had when we were young—those life size inflatable figures that are weighted at the bottom so that they move back and forth as they are pummeled, but always from the same place on the floor. Which is to say, I found myself swaying several people to the right or left, depending upon the train’s movement, but my feet never moved a quarter of an inch. Somehow, my backpack got left three people away from me on one of the lurches. Nevertheless, it was still strapped to my arms. Figure that one out!

Good thing I was using this morning’s commute to memorize Psalm 73:26: “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Indeed, I was experiencing what the psalmist was talking about, although he never rode a train in Tokyo (or anywhere else, for that matter).

I haven’t solved the problem of overcrowded trains since I can’t avoid them as long as I live in Japan. Nor has my question been answered—which is, how is it that a train can always take on more passengers, no matter how packed it already is? But I feel better having written this blog today. And, I must say, the Toyoko Line employees were kind enough to apologize profusely for arriving 12 minutes late into Shibuya Station. The only problem was that, as the doors slowly inched open, it was too crowded to get off!

P.S. I learned later that a fire had been discovered near the electric relay station of the Chuo Line. That entire system was shut down for seven hours, funneling everyone to other train lines in a ripple effect. It helps knowing the reason riding my morning train had been nearly as dangerous a proposition as jumping off a cliff and hoping for the best. But what about next time?

From the Heights

Bernie congratulates graduates on March 4.

Rejoicing in the Lord
“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights” (Habakkuk 3:17-19).

These verses are among our favorites in the Bible, but they are especially meaningful to right now as we write to you from the heights. Let us share the reasons we are rejoicing.

2008 international testimonies book
“Yet I Will Rejoice” is the title of the 13th international testimonies book that Cheryl has compiled and edited. Currently in the production stage, it will be published by Warner Press in June. Needless to say, this year’s title comes from the Habakkuk passage above. Of all the writing Cheryl does, these annual testimony books are her favorite. Not only do they encourage her in gathering and editing the stories (and occasionally writing her own), but it is a thrill to know that their publication uplifts so many other people, too. It is our prayer that the Lord will use this book to its intended purpose and that the Church of God will be energized to greater faithfulness in its international mission as a result of this book. (Naturally, we hope you purchase copies for yourself and others who need the encouragement this book will bring to them.)

Tamagawa Seigakuin
Verse 19 above is the inspiration for the current Tamagawa Seigakuin school theme: Walk the High Places. As such, the entire three verses are the text of Bernie’s entrance ceremony message on April 4, when nearly 170 new seventh graders will begin their Tama Sei experience. Not only will the girls hear this message of Christian hope and encouragement, but so also will many of their family members. (Typically, 700-1,000 people attend this ceremony, considered to be one of the most important in a girl’s Tama Sei career.) Think about this awesome opportunity for Christian witness! It is even more astounding when one remembers that the average Christian church in Japan only has about 30 people. What an amazing opportunity God has given Tama Sei. Please continue to pray for the school. Pray also for Bernie in his main responsibility of helping to keep the school focused uppermost on its Christian mission.

Not only are we in a high place as we think about the incoming new class of students at Tama Sei, but we are also rejoicing in thinking about the girls who just graduated from high school on March 4. This was an especially significant milestone day in the 58-year history of the school: the 10,000th girl was graduated (and nearly 200 more after her). We cannot help but be excited when we think of all the seeds that have been planted over the years. We continue to trust God that he will indeed bring a magnificent harvest.

Spring staff meeting
Thank you for your prayers for our annual missionary staff meeting, March 25-27. Despite the fact that Rod and Donna Stafford were unable to join us at the last minute due to a family crisis, we enjoyed a lot of laughter, shared tears, prayed together and for one another, and were indeed refreshed by the opportunity to get out of the big cities, where most of us live, and into the snow-covered mountains about three hours by car from Tokyo. Some of our staff are facing quite difficult experiences (or are in the midst of them), so please pray for all of us: Zonia Mitchell (serving in Saga); Millie Michael (Kobe-Osaka); Mike and Makiko Boyle, Alina Croall, Mike Wagner, and Cheryl and Bernie Barton (all in the Tokyo area). Please also remember Jason and Abby Kuiper, new teachers at Tama Sei from April, in their adjustment to life and ministry in Japan.

Please also remember Rachelle Bargerstock and Abby Spear, two SAM staff who have just left Japan after four years and one year, respectively. Pray for their transition back to the United States—more daunting than most people who’ve never experienced it can believe—as well as for them to understand the doors God is now opening for them.

Other prayer concerns
Two other prayer concerns are weighing heavily on us (and are the reason we will not have a May newsletter). Please pray for us as we travel to India to serve as speakers for the annual convention of the Church of God in South India (April 26-May 6). Pray that God will guide our preparations and use us to his glory at the convention. Also pray for Cheryl and her father, Donald Johnson, as they continue working on the Church of God missions history book project. The main deadline is May 31, but the race is on to see whether or not they can actually meet it. (The book will be published in 2009 as part of the 100th anniversary celebration of the organized Church of God international missions effort.) Certainly we are depending upon your prayers that we will be able to have praise reports on both of these matters in the June letter.

Easter Morning Thoughts

Following Jesus' command

to wash one another's feet

“[Jesus] poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with a towel that was wrapped around him . . . ‘I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you’” (John 13:5, 15).

I grew up remembering the events just preceding Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion through participating in communion and feet washing in the church on Maundy Thursday, the Thursday before Easter. As a child, I was both fascinated and embarrassed as I watched the older women unhook their nylon stockings in preparation. (These were days before panty stockings and before women thought they could wear slacks to church.) I’m sure the women appreciated that men always washed feet in a different room.

After having my feet washed by somebody’s grandmother, I sometimes squirmed to avoid suffocation as I was gathered into her big bosom in an embrace after this most intimate ceremony in the Christian church. And yet I couldn’t have imagined not participating, for this was every much a part of our Easter celebrations as an Easter sunrise service, a new dress, Easter egg hunts, chocolate bunnies, and egg-shaped, malted milk candies.

While yet in my childhood, although after my Easter basket days, I learned the word apartheid. As I grew, so did my understanding of this awful system of racial discrimination in South Africa. Apartheid, an Afrikaans word meaning segregation, was the legal state of affairs in South Africa from 1948-94. Although a world away from me, it was not unlike segregation in my own United States, which actually was sanctioned much longer than apartheid in South Africa.

Both of these—feet washing and apartheid—came together for me last Thursday as our small group celebrated Maundy Thursday together. We are an interesting mix of ages (between those in their 20s and Bernie and me, group elders, in our 50s), ethnicities (Chinese, Korean, Caucasian, and African), and nationalities (six, the largest number of which call the African continent home). White South Africa and black Kenya came together that night. I wondered if there would be any awkwardness as black hands washed white feet and white hands, in turn, washed black ones. I shouldn’t have wondered. Where was my faith in the unity Christ brought through his example of love and his death on the cross? After all, we’re told, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).

Indeed, I was moved to remember—to observe—that there is also no white, no black, no color separation of any kind in the body of Christ, the family of God. Or rather, there shouldn’t be any such division. When there is, we shame the cross of Christ. One day, Christians will be held accountable, and perhaps more so than others who only follow social norms. Aren’t we supposed to be following the risen Christ?

I'd Rather Walk

People, people everywhere--especially in Shibuya Station

If it were possible, I’d never ride a train. I’d shop at neighborhood stores and do all my business within walking distance. It would be so much easier, not to mention cheaper. I’d also be saving energy, exercising, and not worrying about the latest surge in oil prices all at the same time.

But it isn’t possible, certainly not here in Tokyo. Even though I go to the grocery store, post office, video rental store, dry cleaners, and the bank all on foot, and Bernie walks to school, we still have to use the train at least a couple of times a week. When I do, I usually feel like I’ve been on the battlefield. So far, the personal casualties have been minimal, for which I’m thankful.

Last Sunday, for example, Bernie and I pushed our way onto eight different trains in the process of going and coming from church in one of Tokyo’s suburbs. As we were being bumped, jostled, and smashed while riding the wave of people onto the last train home, Bernie commented, “There are too many people in the world.” (How I even heard him is as miraculous as the fact that we both emerged unscathed.) To which I responded, “Yeah, and they’re all in Tokyo.”

An overstatement, to be sure. Nevertheless, anyone who rides Tokyo’s trains during rush hour will understand my sentiment. If you’re not able to come for a ride and need some facts to help you comprehend what we experience on Tokyo’s trains, perhaps a recent newspaper article will help. According to the United Nations, the greater Tokyo area—with its current population of 35.7 million people—is the world’s most populated urban area, and predictions are that this megalopolis will continue in the number one slot through 2025.

Quoting the U.N.’s “2007 Revisions of World Urbanization Prospects,” The Daily Yoimuri reported that 42 percent of the urban population of Japan lives in Tokyo, giving it the distinction of being a primary city—a city in which more than 40 percent of a nation’s population lives. Now I understand why riding the trains routinely makes me think about dieting. After all, with so much of Japan riding at the same time, there’s just not enough room for all of us, especially me. No wonder I’d rather walk.

By the way, in case you’re interested, after Tokyo, the next most populated urban areas are New York-Newark, Mexico City, Mumbai (formerly Bombay), and Sao Paulo. There are “only” 19 million people living in each of these megacities. The newspaper article also reported that by the end of this year, 2008, the number of urban dwellers in the world will match that of rural inhabitants for the first time ever in human history.

I guess the good news for me, at least, is to know that Tokyo is to be toppled in its number one population standing by 2026, when Mumbai is likely to become the world’s most populated urban area. Hmmm. I’ll be 71 years old then. By that time, I’m sure Tokyo’s population challenges will not be uppermost in my mind.

Back to the Future

A little more history:
Six months before we first came to Japan in 1976

The hope-filled promise
“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:10-11, NIV).

The Church of God in Japan celebrates its 100th birthday in August 2008. A century ago, a Japanese Presbyterian minister, A. U. Yajima, was traveling in California when he found a copy of the Gospel Trumpet on a train seat. His heart was touched as he read, leading him to contact the paper’s publishers, the Church of God. Eventually he felt called to start the Church of God in Japan. Arriving in Tokyo in 1908, he began visiting homes, conducting evangelistic meetings, and printing a paper called Pure Gospel. Soon needing help, Yajima wrote to America and asked for missionaries to come, and in 1909, J. D. Hatch and W.G. and Josie Alexander responded. In the intervening years since, more than 100 career and special assignment missionaries have assisted the Church of God in Japan, some in church work, but most through education. (We’ve done both.)

So what does all of this have to do with God’s hope-filled promise in Isaiah? Much! While we can’t speak from experience about the Church of God in Japan prior to 1976, we are well acquainted with what’s been happening since then. To be honest, the church isn’t much different today than it was in 1976 in terms of membership and numbers of pastors and congregations. (If anything, membership has declined as the church has aged along with the general population.) How we wish it were different! Only two things keep us going: the hope-filled promise from God of a harvest and his call upon our lives.

Does Japan need the gospel?
This was the question Grace Alexander addressed in the February 2, 1922 issue of the Gospel Trumpet. Raised in Japan until her parents completed their missionary work in 1920, Grace could write eloquently on the subject. Excerpts of her appeal for prayer and funds to support the mission in Japan follow:

“An old man living in the country wants to show the missionary his god—a seashell with the painting of some form inside. The heavy-hearted missionary trudges on toward the distant village where hundreds of souls are in great darkness. He wonders how to get the light to them as he walks along, passing [pagan] images, small shrines, and people he longs to help. Perhaps he will meet a young man and in answer to what the missionary tells him concerning the gospel says, ‘If you have known Christ for so long and he does so much for you, why didn’t you come to help us long ago?’

“Japan is looked to as a civilized nation, and indeed she is moving forward. Christianity has gained great headway. As late as 1872, all prominent crossroads of the empire still bore the old edict-boards proclaiming death to everyone who accepted the Christian faith, while now there are many Christians serving God unmolested; but still idolatry abounds on every hand, and we must give the gospel. We must grasp opportunity by the forelock.

“It is easy to show the reasonableness of Christianity, but to instill the true Christian spirit into hearts is not an easy task. It requires a long time to build up a true Christian church. Unless a great many precious lives be spent, unless many a sincere prayer ascends to God’s throne, and unless you give of your means for this great and difficult work, we cannot expect many great results. Japan is included in ‘all the world.’ She does need the gospel, and it is our duty to take it to her.”

Still in need today
Eighty-six years have passed since Alexander issued her appeal for earnest prayer and sacrificial giving for the sake of missions outreach in Japan. We feel she was pleading for us before even our parents were born. While this nation is today a strong world leader, Japan still needs the gospel. And missionaries still need your faithful prayers. May we count on you? The Lord has called us, but he has not called us alone. We could not be here without your prayers and finances, especially those of our 30 Living Link supporting congregations, two supporting couples, and one supporting state association.

This year the Church of God in Japan is looking back to the future. Please pray for fresh vision and unhindered enthusiasm for all God wants to accomplish in the next 100 years. Pray also for our missionary staff of ten people, each of whom longs for the Holy Spirit to move in Japan and in our churches to bring revival like we have never seen before. Especially pray for renewal for each one of us during our spring staff retreat, March 25-27, and for Rod Stafford, pastor in Fairfax, Virginia, as he leads us.