Delays are not always a bad thing

Posted on July 13, 2011 by Monika

A LETTER FROM ASIA

A United Airline representative called my phone as our team of college students sat at the airport in Chicago.

Delayed Flight - Summer DTS Outreach to Asia

Waiting for a delayed flight - image by Clopin Clopant

“Your flight will be delayed 1.5 hours because of mechanical difficulty,” she said. “But it shouldn’t create a problem for your connecting flights.”

Well, four and a half hours later we were boarding our plane — the same time our connecting flight was leaving. When delays like this happen to a team, it can be disheartening.

It wasn’t our team’s first delay together, and we have discovered that delays are not necessarily a bad thing.

Financial delays brought us together as a team, built unity, and involved others who are now praying for us. They gave people an opportunity to participate in the work God is doing in Asia. Two weeks before we left, our team still needed $10,620 to fund the outreach. In just nine days, we saw God provide $6200. Amazing! It continues to give us the faith that the remaining money will be provided for us.

Delayed flights gave us divine appointments for someone who “always knew there was more to life than what he had been experiencing.”

Delays brought us into a culture that we didn’t know. Now we can identify with those who come into our nation feeling helpless and vulnerable.

Delays reminded us Who is holding our hand and directing our steps.

Summer YWAM DTS Asia outreach Returning to Asia always brings me an internal excitement and anticipation for every day. As God’s kingdom continues to grow here, the country feels different spiritually. We continue to be full of expectation of what God will do here as each day unfolds.

Yesterday we stood on the city wall of this ancient city and prayed. While we prayed, we sensed the compassion of God’s heart. We saw His desire to make this city full of people who will carry the Good News into all the world. What a privilege it is to be part of this!

We’re only a few days in and we’ve already met new friends, prayed (interceded) for the nation, were challenged to maintain the joy we came here to display, and discovered how God has revealed Himself in another culture.

Today we leave for the mountains. We will teach and share our lives with people from both the city and villages. Pray for us that we will discern what God is doing and that we will be sensitive to minister. Our team is teaching about the Fatherheart of God, how to hear Him, how to be a friend to God, explaining God’s character, and playing games with people. We want to interact in such a way that our lives can be a reminder to these people of who God is even after we leave.

Pray for our participants. They are believing God for the finances they need to be with us. It was costly for many of them to even travel to get here for this needed teaching. Pray that they will really KNOW God as they leave from this camp, that they WILL NEVER BE THE SAME.

Thank you for praying for us and for making it possible for us to come!

Watch for our stories as we come down from the mountains in two weeks so that you can see what God has done through our lives and through your prayers.

From Japan: “I will not give up.”

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Monika

The following is a letter we received from Hiro, owner of the art Decision Cafe in Tokyo, Japan. Since last month’s earthquake, YWAM Madison has collected donations to help Hiro and our other mission contacts purchase and distribute food. He writes this update and heartfelt thank you. If you would like to donate toward a van so they can more easily distribute the food and help people in Fukushima, you can donate through PayPal or our Donations web page. Read about the work in Japan on our blog.

Arigatou from Tokyo. Thank you so much for all your love and help during this time. I usually don’t ask people for help or money but this time it really was serious and I needed a lot of help through prayer and also financially.

Since the earthquake on March 11th the Tokyo government has canceled all events and festivals and told people to do the same. They even canceled the cherry blossom carnival. Usually our art cafe makes a lot of money from these events so we have taken quite a hit.

But since March 11th, I have had new ideas and have changed my plan. I now have charity events for northern Japan at the cafe. Besides that people in Tokyo need hope and healing for their soul which can be achieved through music and the arts. I have a charity box set up in my cafe so people can give toward relief in the north.

My friend’s company also gave us a lot of food, water, and other life supplies that John and I brought to the Fukushima area. Fukushima is a very hopeless area. It’s where they had all the problems with the nuclear power plant so nobody want to go up there.

Fukushima food distribution with Decision Cafe

The only people that I know are helping up there is my friend’s church. So we partnered with them to distribute the goods.

Thank you so much again for your love in action. I don’t know what will happen with my art cafe but I leave that in God’s hands. I will not give up until God says “stop.” It’s where we can give people hope for their lives and I love that.

I will never forget all the love and support we received from the US and Canada. Thank you so much to everyone who has helped out. It will be a long road to get back to normal in Japan but we will not give up.

Thanks for everything.
Hiro

News from Japan

Posted on March 24, 2011 by Monika

Thank you to everyone who has given toward the Japan Relief fund that we put into place through YWAM Madison. We have already sent more than $1800 to our contacts in Japan, where the money has been used to purchase and distribute food and other needed items.

Serving meals in Iwaki

Our friends John and Hiro are helping with the relief efforts. They have returned from Iwaki, where they partnered with a friend’s church to distribute food and meet other needs. Iwaki is just 30 miles south of the nuclear power plant that has been in the news (Fukushima Dai Ichi).

We received the following news from John:

“While the news reporters have likely moved on to other subjects, this is the first time here in Japan that we really can’t move on. And of course we don’t want to.

“This week, Hiro, owner of the Decision Cafe, and I traveled to Iwaki. We borrowed a pastor’s van after Bible study, stopped at Second Harvest for goods, and headed north. We delivered the goods to a church up there [in Iwaki] that is sending out emergency supplies throughout their area.

“While there, we got hit by earthquake aftershocks–actually three earthquakes–over five in magnitude in a span of just 15 minutes. That experience was enough to send me back to the under five magnitude area asap. (Those who lived there shrugged it off even as I ran for cover!) I posted a picture on our homepage of some of the workers who had come from all over Japan to help.

“Please pray for these workers’ safety and protection as they continue the work in the area. We will continue to help as the opportunity presents itself.

“Here are some other ways you can pray for us:

Pray that as we are serving the people there, our compassion and sacrifice will draw many to our compassionate God
Pray for protection from radiation.
Pray for a vehicle (van) so we can travel to the people who request our help

Thank you for your support, love, and encouragement!”

– John

If you want to donate toward the relief work Japan, you can do so through YWAM Madison. 100% of your donation will go directly toward the work the Hiro and John are doing in Japan.

Help Our Friends in Japan

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Monika

After Japan’s earthquake on March 11, we called our friends and ministry partners in Tokyo, Japan and received the following report.

No Place to Go

On the day of the quake, Hiro and his wife, Mayumi, were at their café, called The Decision, in Kanda, Tokyo to prepare for that night’s show. When the nation’s transportation system was suspended, thousands of people had no place to go. People filled the café and Hiro kept it open all night. No one left—they all slept there.

Hiro and his wife served food and drinks free of charge that weekend. And they also served a message of hope and prayer. “Many who have been closed to the gospel in the past were very open,” Hiro said. As a result of their discussions with Hiro and his wife, many asked for Bibles to read for themselves.

Hiro and his wife, Mayumi

Searching for Answers

We met Hiro in Madison several years ago, when he was a young Japanese artist traveling through Canada and the US searching for answers for his very confused and troubled life.

Hiro lived with our Discipleship Training School students and watched the way they lived and loved each other – and even how they loved and welcomed him. A Japanese YWAM staff member explained the Gospel to him, and by the end of the week Hiro decided to follow God, and was baptized in a chilly Wisconsin river.

Cafe for Artists: Decision Cafe

Now, Hiro is married and living in Tokyo with his wife. He runs an art café called The Decision to promote and support artists, to be a family to the lonely, and to eventually bring them to a decision: would they return God’s extravagant love?

When we spoke on the phone, Hiro said people are still scared of the nonstop aftershocks. Many of the aftershocks are stronger than the main quake that destroyed Christchurch, NZ last month. People are panicked at what is going on, and the grocery stores have completely run out of food. They don’t trust what they’re hearing on the news and feel like there is no one to turn to.

The Decision Cafe

Going North to Help

Due to the quake, all events at The Decision Café have been suspended for at least a week. Hiro and his wife, a nurse, want to go to the hardest hit region in the north to help once the fuel shortage ends and roads open. They want to give aid and offer counseling and prayer. All they lack is the money to get there.

John LaDue, the former national YWAM chairman in Japan, works with Hiro to run a church and Bible study in The Decision café. His staff is housing a young couple and their newborn while they search for their remaining family members. The man found his sister dead and his mother missing after their home was swept away by the tsunami. The couple won’t be able to work as they scramble to care for their new baby and grieve over their severe losses.

We Want to Help
We want to help Hiro as he and his wife reach out to those who are grieving and devastated by this quake. And we want to help John as he identifies more families in desperate need of help. We have created a Japan Relief account here at YWAM Madison. Every dollar will go toward John and Hiro’s ministries, who will direct the funds where they are most needed. We will receive financial reports from them, so you can be sure it will get to the right place.

You Can Give
If you want to make a tax deductible donation, send a check designating the check to Japan Relief to:

YWAM Madison
PO Box 8503
Madison, WI 53708

You can also give via paypal at ywam@ywammadison.org or by clicking:

Donate to Japan Relief

You Can Pray
Please pray for Hiro and his wife as they pray and counsel with people, travel north to help relief efforts, and give generously to those in need. Pray that Decision Café will recover financially from the quake. Also pray for John Ladue and the young family his staff is caring for, that their hearts would be mended and they would reunite with surviving family.

Hiro’s website: http://www.artcafedecision.com/ — learn about Hiro’s Café
YWAM Japan: http://ywamjpoffice.blogspot.com/ — receive timely updates and prayer requests from the field

(top photo by yolaglloq, other photos by Brandy Ramminger)

Rejects no more

Posted on August 25, 2010 by Monika

My team and I are sharing a message of encouragement and value.

by Manuel, Bible School for the Nations leader

Today I’m surrounded by people who have lost their jobs. Who have broken dreams. Who are societal failures and yet persist to live.

Here in Japan, many people commit suicide when they lose their jobs. They have brought shame to their families and want to restore their honor through their death. These students have chosen something else.

I’m in a government sponsored English class for the unemployed, teaching English conversational skills and discussing our cultures. But most importantly, my team and I are sharing a message of encouragement and value.

Next to me, my colleague encouraged his discussion group. “You are so precious,” he told a young woman.

The woman looked away with an expression on her face that seemed torn between disbelief and hope that he was right.

“You have so much to give!” John continued. “The world needs you, needs the Japanese. Don’t play the victim, but stand up and be who you were made to be.”

I turned to my discussion group of atheists, Buddhists, and Shinto. We were talking about the three questions every person must answer satisfactorily to find peace: Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going?

“What will happen in these peoples’ lives as a result of this class?” I wondered. I wanted to hear their answers as much as they wanted to hear my own. But most of the students struggled to answer any of the questions. It was as though they had never been asked their opinion or encouraged to think for themselves.

“God made me with a good design and for a purpose,” I said. “God designed people for relationship with him and others. That is the reason we are all here! Every one of you was uniquely made and has infinite value. When we walked away from God and stopped following the purpose we were made for, we forgot our infinite value. We started treating ourselves and each other like we are not valuable.”

Bible School for the Nations does outreach in Japan

“We, Japan, have forgotten our value. There are so many pressures forcing you to live a certain way in Japan that is not in line with the value of people.”

“That is Japan’s main problem!” interrupted one of the students. “We, Japan, have forgotten our value. There are so many pressures forcing you to live a certain way in Japan that is not in line with the value of people.”

“You’re right,” I told her. “If we saw people as valuable we would not have issues like human trafficking, exploitation, and pornography.”

I scanned their faces, recognizing the spark of hope in some of their eyes. I hoped they could truly understand what I would say next.

“God also saw that we had forgotten our value. So he, himself, came to earth in Jesus Christ to give his life for ours to remind us that we were made for a love relationship with him and to show us how valuable we really are to him.”

From my studies of Japanese culture, I realized I was making some bold and shocking claims! By the end of the English session, we had encouraged the students to think about what they are passionate about as they discover what to do next with their lives. We wanted to encourage them to be themselves, to think outside the box. I’m excited to see them step away from a devastating cultural norm that would keep them from reaching their full potential.

Will you join with me as I pray that this evening will be a turning point in the lives of these precious Japanese?

My Dream for Japan

Posted on August 24, 2010 by Monika

by Manuel, Bible School for the Nations leader

YWAM Bible School for the Nations does outreach in Japan

Whenever I visit Japan, I’m impressed with what an amazing people they are!

Right now, I am sitting in a friend’s living room in Japan and reflecting on the last four months in the Bible School for the Nations. I love to watch our students’ lives transform as they learn to love deeper—both God and other people—as they study the whole Bible.

In fact, one of the biggest realizations for our students is their understanding that all people have infinite value simply because God made them with a wonderful design and purpose. If this simple truth would be embraced around the world it would end human trafficking, gendercide, and many other problems we face today.

This infinite, inherent value means that people are not the problem (as in overpopulation). Rather, people carry in them the ability to create something out of nothing and turn a whole nation’s economics around – like George Washington Carver, the man who invented peanut butter.

Whenever I visit Japan, I’m impressed with what an amazing people they are! Their loyalty to their friends goes so deep that they would take a bullet for them at any time. They operate in accordance to the Bushido code. Yet Japan has the largest child pornography industry and highest suicide rate in the world.

I strongly believe that if the Japanese committed not to a religion but to the person of Jesus Christ their nation would look very different. They would know their value, individually and as a nation. Injustices against women and children would be part of the past and an army determined to bring life and healing to people would arise.

All this is connected to what we are doing in Madison when we raise up people who love God with all their heart and love others with that same undying love. This is why I do what I do and will continue to invest my life in people knowing the Bible and the God of the Bible.

Underground Bible School pt 3

Posted on August 25, 2009 by YWAM Madison Bible Schools

by one of our missionaries in an Asian nation closed to Christianity

I want to tell you about another remarkable person in the seminar. I wouldn’t have believed this story had I not heard it myself and met the people involved.

A couple came to the seminar from a people group that has never had any sort of Bible training. In fact, eleven years ago, there were not even any Christians in this people group until some Chinese believers visited them and shared the Gospel. No one would listen to what they said.

While these missionaries were in the village, a woman became very ill and she died. For three days, the visiting Christians prayed for the woman. God heard their prayers and raised this woman from the dead! When the people saw that the woman who had been dead was now alive, many chose to commit their lives to God.

Now there are 100 believers in the people group of 10,000. These new believers had no one to teach them, though. They asked the State church for help, but were turned away. So they heard about our seminar and sent the son of the woman who had been raised from the dead. He is the first of his people to receive Bible training. He has been in our classes this whole week.

It has been an honor and a privilege to help them. His language does not have a written form, so his people have no Bible. Please pray for him and his village as we consider how we can serve them better.

And pray for more people to join us in our work here! There is so much that can be done, we just need more people to help.

What does Japan need the most?

Posted on August 25, 2009 by YWAM Madison Bible Schools

* Since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, this 2009 blog post has been getting a lot of traffic. If you are interested in donating toward relief work in Japan or learning about their current needs, please visit our latest Japan posts at http://blog.ywammadison.org/archives/971 and http://blog.ywammadison.org/archives/965. Thank you.

by Manuel, Bible School for the Nations leader, in the second part of their field assignment in Japan

I was tired when we arrived in Japan, but the excitement of being in a new country gave me a boost of energy. As we were sitting in the middle of our many bags at the train station, I remembered my iPod with its Japanese phrases application. I looked up a few simple words and tried them out on people around me.

For the next forty-five minutes, I talked with a Japanese woman sitting next to me. We exchanged stories about our families. She told me about her job and Japanese culture.

“I can’t go home for Obon this year,” she said, sadly. “Obon is a Buddhist festival. The spirits of the ancestors come home to visit our families.”

Obon was beginning soon, and I learned that it means a lot to people here in Japan. It is a time when families get together and remember their dead loved ones. They clean their homes, decorate, and make food for them for several days. At the end, they light lanterns to lead the spirits back to their graves.

“What do you think Japan needs the most?” I asked her.

She thought for a long time.

“You ask hard questions,” she said.

Finally, she answered. “Japan needs to return to the traditions that honor family and community. People in Japan now lead very isolated lives. Nobody cares about anybody. People don’t talk to each other – whether on the train or in any other public places.”

We kept talking for some time about how communities are transformed as people stop living for themselves.

I’m surprised how easy it was to get in conversations with people at the train station, and glad for the long conversation with this woman. I’m very much looking forward to the two weeks here to learn more about Japan!

Underground Bible School pt. 2

Posted on August 24, 2009 by YWAM Madison Bible Schools

by one of our missionaries in a closed Asian nation, at an “underground” Bible seminar

The seminar is going better than I imagined! These new believers – and “old” believers who have not had any opportunity to have biblical training – are so responsive to the messages.

One day, we taught about sin and its destructiveness. We gave the students time in class to ask God if there was sin in their lives that was separating them from Him.

A young man and woman disappeared into town that afternoon. When they returned, they told us where they had been.

“We’ve been living together for several years,” said the woman. “We’ve been going to church for a long time, too. But today I understood what you said about sin. Today, we went into town to the marriage office. And now we are married!”

Another of the students in our Bible and Christian life seminar is a poor pastor from a rural village. He does not have a formal education, but is very passionate.

“I’m learning that my value as a human being doesn’t come from my status in society,” he said. “It comes from being made in God’s image. I am so amazed to be here, a man with no education fellowshipping with college graduates and receiving training alongside them, side-by-side as equals!”

This wasn’t the only time we’d hear someone say this kind of thing about their sense of value.

Underground Bible School

Posted on August 24, 2009 by YWAM Madison Bible Schools

by one of our missionaries in a closed Asian nation, working with the Bible School for the Nations outreach

We spent our first three days in a remote, mountainous area at a campground. The purpose of our camp was to teach new believers who have little or no access to Bible training. And the location of the seminar was intentional–we needed to be somewhere remote, away from the prying eyes of authorities who would not hesitate to imprison these Christians for their beliefs.

My team of Bible School for the Nations students and translators were excited to start! More than thirty people crammed into a small karaoke room, waiting for the Bible classes to begin.

“Expect to get closer to God this week,” I told them. I looked around at this group of strangers. Many spoke different languages and we all came from totally different backgrounds. Some educated, wealthy, others unschooled and poor. They would all learn and grow together.

We began the week teaching about what God is like and who He says He is in the Bible. The BSN students shared how they had grown in their relationships with God as they learned the truth about Him.

I noticed that a woman in her early twenties was especially quiet during one of our break times, so I asked her what she thought of the teaching.

“I deeply met God during the message,” she said. “You spoke of His love for me and now He seems so real. I can’t help but weep.”

Other students are struck that they can know Jesus personally and that He is interested in them as individuals.

I’m looking forward to the next few days. It is amazing to see the look of understanding that comes across these peoples’ faces. They are so hungry to learn and apply what they are taught!

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