"What a week!"

What a week it has been! We left Central Asia on Thursday morning at 3:30 AM and have spent the last week in Japan. We have had some wonderful experiences during these days. Most of the time has been taken up with training sessions at the Sakado church. These sessions emphasized the importance of church planting and proposed a new model of church multiplication. In over 100 years of Christian missions in Japan, there is still less than 1% of the people that know the saving power of Jesus Christ. The most effective tool for rapidly expanding the church in much of the world has proven to be a model of rapid multiplication of existing congregations.

Christians are being challenged to "share their story." Every person who has experienced a personal encounter with Jesus Christ and allowed Him to transform his/her life has a story to tell. The model simply asks people to "tell their story" to anyone who might be interested. That receptive person is asked to invite a few family members or friends who might also be interested in hearing the story. Those who would like to discover a new life with Christ are incorporated into a small "house church" and encouraged to now share their own story of what Jesus has done for them.

Only the Lord knows how this past week will affect the kingdom, but the future looks bright for this congregation as it reaches out into new areas of the city to reach the many, many who need to hear of Jesus and life in him.

We also visited a church in Hadano that wonderfully manifests the oneness that comes through Christ. They have rented space for their church in a small office building for several years. They just stepped out and bought their own three-story building. The first floor will accommodate the Japanese church. The second floor will be shared by the other two congregations that have shared rent for several years - a congregation of Spanish speakers from Bolivia and a congregation of Portuguese speakers from Brazil. These three congregations have been sharing space for several years and have a unique shared ministry in Japan.

We found that there were some connections for Suzanne and me in this. The pastor of the Bolivian congregation attended school in Santa Cruz. He knows Bruce Moyer from our denomination and we have friends that have taught at that school as well. Marcel, the pastor of the Brazilian congregation, is from the coast of Brazil, just east of Sao Paulo. We visited that area two years ago with a prayer team from Colbert.

The world seems to shrink daily as we discover connections with people around the world. Two weeks ago in our new city I met a Seminary president from Moscow, Russia. We had a great meeting. He knew my friend from Green Bluff, John Southwick. The teacher of the course being taught had also worked with John in New York. It is mind boggling how we can run into people on opposite sides of the world, who know each other and who have the same mission in life - let others know about how great a salvation is available in Jesus.

We return to Central Asia tomorrow morning and renew our efforts to train leaders for that part of the world. It is exciting to know that the God who has done so much in us is also working through us to accomplish his purposes. He's not done transforming and building people. It's a great privilege to work with him in that task.