On March 11, 2011, on the North Coast of Japan a tsunami struck. What is happening two years later?

 

 

 Sendai is the closest airport. That's where we flew in. This map shows where the tsunami hit and the nuclear reactors were damaged.

 The coast line is beautiful. Surfers wait for the perfect wave. But on that day, March 11, 2011, they had no warning.

 

People went to the Shinto shrine that morning to offer an offering to their ancestors and wish for happiness.

 But on March 11, 2011, a 9.0 undersea quake sent waves barreling over this region. About 18,000 died, and 340,000 people displaced.  Missionaries and Japanese believers responded. The building you see was lifted and carried here. It has been left as a reminder of the disaster.

 The waves destroyed everything on their path. Even worse, the back flow took people out into the ocean, never to be seen again.

This is the first floor of a hospital on a hill. Linda is standing by the tsunami water line. The only people who survived on the first floor were those who ran up the stairwell. People outside in the parking lot watching the wave were washed away with the cars.

 

Where was God? This statue of Buddha survived but couldn't do a thing to help the people. But God heard the cries.

 People came from all over Japan and all over the world. They were mostly Christians. A team that was working further south moved in to area to share Christ's love in tangible ways. They worked together displaying the unity of the Body of Christ.

 

Many people do not want to move back to the region because of the painful memories, and in fact, don’t want to live near water. So as an incentive, the government will pay salaries to Japanese people who want to start businesses. The women on our team are working with Japanese on a project to collect shards of broken porcelain and make them into beautiful custom jewelry. It’s called the Nozomi (Hope) Project. Isn’t this a beautiful picture of what God is doing in the lives of people? Yuko became a Christian and was baptized after learning about Jesus. Her mother and pregnant sister got swept away in the tsunami, and her husband left her with 3 small children. She will be part of the jewelry making business which will provide her with some income.

We went to help the multicultural team we went to help ( members from U.S., Germany and Japan)  have been doing relief transition the starting a new church with those who are interested.

 

The multicultural team we went to help ( members from U.S., Germany and Japan)  have been doing relief and sharing God’s love with tsunami survivors through this Friendship Center. Japanese volunteers help out (pictured above). Rather than give handouts, they give Bingo prizes. Everyone receives a prize, even children.

 

Even the little girl got a prize!

 

 This building is a cooperative project between Samaritan's purse and other mission groups including ours.

 We found people quiet in public places, even the airport. But at the Friendship Center, they were loud, like Americans!... well almost.

 

 The team invited us to go on a strategic retreat with them for several days to discuss, “Where do we go from here to start this house church?” We met all day from 9-5, stopping only for lunch. We talked about strategy, evangelism, discipleship, and best practices for church planting. We looked at their spiritual gifts, some weak areas, and what they still needed to make their team complete, like additional Japanese workers. We will continue to coach them as they move ahead.

 

 We joined the team for worship in a house church. It is bilingual Japanese and English. Four churches have been started in Ishinomaki. But there are none up the coast in Oganawa. Not yet!

 We lived together in a house and prepared food. We shared our lives and their dreams, not just ideas.

Our friends want to start a house church in a nearby fishing town called Onagawa that has no church. They have been offered two plots of land: One, the city gave them to start a Welcome Center; another was offered by a businessman to start a second “Nozomi project” work place.

 

After dinner, we asked the team “What are your dreams?” As Linda listened to them, she had tears streaming down her face. They are men and women of faith. They all think that this time in history, can change Japan. Andy, the team leader, said, “The big waves of the tsunami, will bring about a new wave for the Gospel penetration.”

 

 

These American Japanese came to help out. They show with their lives and service "Our God has not forgotten you." Let us tell you about him. People don't forget the people of N. Japan.

American leaders listen to majority world church planters

 What a refreshing gathering. Some of the church planting leaders of the foremost Evangelical denominations, along with a smattering of United Methodists, Lutherans and one Episcopal leader gathered for the Church Planting Leadership Forum in Nashville Tennessee Nov 14-15. I was invited by George Klipennes my counterpart for the USA in the Evangelical Free Church (EFCA).

We had a half of a day together as an EFCA group talking about church planting, partnerships between USA churches and our international ministry, and ministry among African Americans. I hope greater collaboration will come out of those meetings. We had some good time connecting and getting acquainted. Bob Rowley invited me or someone else from ReachGlobal to join them in Texas for their district conference, and I will be try to be at some of the other conferences where pastors gather once a year to talk about partnerships. So at least there is a direction to head in.

It was significant that for the following day and a half American leaders learned from experienced church planters from Atlanta (African American church planter), Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Germany, the Philippines, and China. Many of these have experienced exponential growth. The man from China was used by God to start the fastest growing recorded church planing movement in the Pearl River Delta in Communist China. He developed T4T, or Training for Trainers. That we sat and learned from practitioners in former "mission fields" is significant in itself. So what were some of the take-aways?

One thing left me feeling a little uneasy. We have learned that as Western missionaries go to other cultures they must adapt their methodologies or find new ones that fit the people group they are trying to reach. In other words "Principles are transferable but methods have not been." It seemed like the same should apply to learning from the two-thirds majority world. We should not apply CPM methodology lock-stock and barrel. However I did not sense that the distinction between principle and method was clearly made. I loved the T4T which has proven effective in many collectivistic   cultures. Why should we be surprised when it is less successful in our individualistic West.Someone said it is working almost exclusively with immigrant groups. Dr. Ed Stetzer, our host at Lifeway Center summarized common elements of ministries that are experiencing multiplication:

1) They prioritize the great commission. Making disciples needs to be the focal point. The best form is obedience-based discipleship. That is teaching and training people to practice the Word and holding each other accountable. This is different than knowledge-based discipleship or even mentoring to be better Christians. One speaker said that biblically making disciples includes both evangelism and maturing believers. They are like Siamese twins that should never be separated. When they are they are undermined (he said killed). Evangelism without maturing produces baby, unfruitful believers at best. Maturing believers without evangelism produces ingrown, overweight Christians.

2) They involve all believers. We need to mobilize lay people in the work of church planting. Church planting movements occur when every member of the church starts sharing his or her faith and making disciples. Disciples reproduce and soon communities of disciples multiply. Church planting flows out of this kind of grassroots disciple making. We heard detailed case studies from the Philippines, China and from Atlanta. The methods were different but the pricniple was the same: If you want to see healthy churches multiplied make disciples in ways they can replicate.

3) They consider the local church to be an active community of disciples. They value some kind of simple church that can reproduce, is locally sustainable, and is clear about it's mission. These may be house churches, missional communities, or life groups that come together for worship. But they must be real communities where disciples grow, serve and work to reach those around them with the gospel.

4) They count the right things. One multi-venue movement that grew exponentially realized that they got into trouble when they started counting participants rather than discipleship groups and disciple making leaders. They started looking at big numbers rather than the thing that drove their movement- the making and gathering of disciples. When they changed the focus their discipleship groups started multiplying again and they knew they were back on track. A popular saying goes "A  church should be known by its sending capacity, not its seating capacity."

5) Last but not least, they realize that they are incapable of  fulfilling the Great Commission. That mandate is beyond them. Only God can produce new life and transformation. Only Christ can build his church and he involves us when we make disciples in his strength. They need to depend on him for the direction and the work itself. He produces the fruit and we are the instruments. Sometimes these things become cliches but for the church planters in Sri Lanka, they were a daily reality. In Indonesia, there was often some kind of healing or manifestation of God's presence and power. The church planter stepped into the openings that God created.

"Vision is born in the heart of the person who wrestles with the tension between what is and what could be" (Andy Stanley). David Garrison reminded us that leaders of church planting movements are motivated by a heart for the lost and believe God will transform whole cities and regions. They are not trying to start a church but to bring masses to Christ. Church planting movements have a different starting point. He is studying CPMs among Muslim people groups. What a joy to hear that although throughout history he could only identify six CPMs in Muslim majority lands, in the last twenty years there have been 55 identifiable CPMs in Muslim lands. He defines that as over 1000 baptisms or 100 churches started within 10 years. If it can be done there, it can be done anywhere.

 

Our Compassionate God Psalm 146 and 147

I just returned from India where there are supposedly 30,000 gods (no exageration) every class, whether the lowly Dalit or the the holy Brahmin, have they gods and sacred animals. Behind these so called-gods often spirits are worshipped and appeased. Spirits are real. But those spirits have several defficiencies.

 

 They lack the power to changes the lives of those who offer them sacrifices and they seek to use and conquer people rather than help them. They have no love and compassion. They were created as God's messengers to help but they rebelled and seek to destroy the honor and glory of God (since they can't touch Him) by attacking and bringing down his created order and his prize creation human beings. (The following pctures show Kali and Shiva being cast into the Ganges to appease and appeal only to be washed up, powerless and broken, in the end.)

 (funeral pires) The oldest son sworn duty to take his father's body here so  that his skull can be cracked open and his spirit released from bondage to its new place in the circle of karma.

 

(below) Ritual bathing and idols washed up on the Ganges shoreline.

The love of God stand in stark contrast. He, on the other hand is able and cares deeply for these people. Many of them sincerely seek the truth. Millions are finding healing, forgiveness and deliverance in Jesus' name.

 Shaving the head when a boy is 5 is another ritual act to fulfill ones duty to the gods.

Each one has a role in the India cast system. The Dalit are called to accept their role as those who clean and do physical labor to serve all others. Many of them have found dignity in their places as sons and daughters of God. 

  The pictures show the hurting of India. Most were taken in a shanty town near the Logos training center in Ahmedabad and along the Ganges in Varnasi.)

 This single mom raises her children in the tent behind her.

This is what many of these Dalit call home.

 The poor have their own local temple to offer fruit to the goat god. Others who are best placed in society worship the cow or the elephant gods. Below you will see a picture of the goat on the altar and coconuts as offerings.

 The children were so happy for the attention.

 Who will share the love of Jesus with me?

Beggar with monkey

As I return and read over Psalm 146 and 147 I am touched by our compassionate God who not only cares for his elect and redeemed children but longs for sincere down-trodden, broken-hearted, God-thirty souls -not just the materially poor but also those who recognize their spiritual poverty and call on Him. The verses below speak of who he is (yellow) and how he expresses his compassionate and merciful love to the poor in heart who call him, even to animals who call out!!! (Pictures below of animals in Ahmadebad that God created, sustains and cares for and finally his children who know Him and enjoy Him forever).

Psalm 146
¹ Praise the LORD. Praise the LORD, my soul.
² I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
³ Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save.
⁴ When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.
⁵ Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD their God.
⁶ He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them— he remains faithful forever.
⁷ He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets prisoners free,
⁸ the LORD gives sight to the blind, the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down, the LORD loves the righteous. ⁹ The LORD watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
¹⁰ The LORD reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the LORD.

Psalm 147
¹ Praise the LORD. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him!
² The LORD builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the exiles of Israel.
³ He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
⁴ He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.
⁵ Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit. ⁶ The LORD sustains the humble but casts the wicked to the ground.
⁷ Sing to the LORD with grateful praise; make music to our God on the harp.
⁸ He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills.
⁹ He provides food for the cattle and for the young ravens when they call.

¹⁰ His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of the warrior;
¹¹ the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love...

¹⁹ He has revealed his word to Jacob, his laws and decrees to Israel.
²⁰ He has done this for no other nation; they do not know his laws. Praise the LORD.  

I was told by someone who know that the number of conversion to Jesus is such that they can't publish it, because the Hindu extremists would be up in arms. Many have told me personally that they came to Christ when someone was healed or delivered in answer to prayer in Jesus' name. Prayer is not magic. But humble believing opens the door for the All-Powerful creator to enter the lives of his most desperate creatures and pour out his love and mercy.

 Logas Wholistic Ministries Training Center has the Dalit training center on one side and an upper middle class neighborhood on the other.

 

 

  ^{Praise God for His love and power and please pray for India. If you want to know how you can help please write to gene.wilson@efca.org.}