What a month this has been… Silk and I were in Japan for our annual staff retreat… Then, I got to be with my colleague Pastor Yoshiya Hari for several days in America.
I was so encouraged as Pastor Yoshiya shared at my home church, Rolling Hills Covenant.
He showed picture after picture of mission teams seeking to plant churches around Japan. See the teams in these photos. I had no idea the reach of our teams. It made my heart leap for joy.
Fukushima Team
Kumamoto Team
Next Gen Kumamoto Team
Mie Team
Miyagi Team
Nara Team
Saitama Team
You’ll see Yoshiya with his core leadership team (below), and what they are doing is incredible. As you’ll see in another photo here, they set a goal (collectively across Japan) to double the Christian population and these teams are key to that expansion.
In addition, as Silk and I got to hang out with our missionary team at the retreat, we got to meet so many new missionaries. We have more new people than I can remember during my entire (nearly 16-year) tenure. Wow!
It feels like a fresh wind is blowing in Japan.
Pray for us… As we seek to double the Christian population and to plant 50,000 churches. They estimate that we lost about 1,000 churches during covid so we have 7,000 presently. That means there is a lot of work ahead for us.
But, wow, these teams are on the move and proactive.
May we double the Christian population from roughly under 1% to 2% in the coming decade! Rev. Yoshiya Hari also shares this summary:
- We hope that local leaders with a philosophy of church multiplication will be established in each area of Japan, and that a church multiplication movement will be started through which churches will be born in unreached areas.
- As churches become more missional, existing churches will be revitalized.
- In 2023, the 7th Japan Evangelism Conference was held, and A3/Japan was used to set forth a vision for Japan as a whole:
- to reach 2% of the Japanese population with the gospel...
- to produce 50,000 churches...
- and to produce a church in every town, village, and city.
- To this end, an important seven-year effort has begun for the 8th Japan Evangelism Conference.
Thanks for praying!
Joseph W. Handley, Jr., Ph.D.
@jwhandley
@jwhandley
@JosephWHandleyJr
@jwhandley
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- Photo credits: Yoshiya Hari
