Last Friday, I biked 2 miles to the Koto-ku (Ward) office where we live. I went there to get registered, especially needing our address officially written on the back of our I.D. cards. Without that, we couldn't get a mobile phone (which I finally got today) or a bank account.
I was assigned an employee to work with me who spoke good English and could translate our birth and marriage certificates into Japanese. Soon after she began helping me, she noticed Kai's name and said, "Malachi. Like the Prophet." I asked if she was a Christian, and she smilingly responded, "Yes." She went on to share with me, "I met Jesus four years ago." In her words, neither of her parents are Christian, but she was a truth seeker from the age of four. She later became involved in the New Age movement, until a friend in it became a Christian and invited her to church with her in Tokyo. After three Sundays in attendance, she said she was surprised to find that she was becoming a Christian. "I could not believe that I believed" is what she said. She said now she loves Jesus. She said that she wants to find a church community because she has not been to church in a year. She was really interested to find out about our church, Grace City, and our new church-planting team, Grace Harbor Church. She met us at church yesterday! She arrived before us and just so happened to sit next to our good friend and MTW teammate, Ellie Honea, who I had asked to look out for her! She said afterward how much she liked those that she met.
You can pray that "M." will become a part of our new church. She feels isolated in her life and kept telling me how much she wants to find Christian community and wants to be in community with us. We know of very few Christians in the waterfront area at all, so just the fact that we met her (and a few days after arriving at that) is evidence that our God is at work around us!
Reflections on mission to Japan's next generation
