Sowing...

Fresh thoughts on sowing and patiently investing in lost people. Also, we meet Norio, in whom John had a significant impact on during the past two summers. Norio attended John's 'Farwell Party' here in Tokyo, an informal gathering where the summer team and Best Club students came together to share our favorite memories of John. We handed around his football that he had used to teach the Japanese guys how to throw, and each one shared how John had impacted them. Norio gave a speech in which he shared the hope of heaven that Christians have in facing death. You can read Norio's testimony  here. 

07/25/2006

It's been 2 weeks since my last update, so this one may be a bit long for some of you.  Please forgive me in advance if the length makes it a bit hard to read.
 
Harvesting in Nagano
 
In my last update I told you that my teammate, Jeremiah, and I were going to visit a Japanese friend of ours who became a Christian last year.  One of the first things we did was buy some mushrooms for his mother at a mushroom "factory."  When we got there we took off our shoes and put on some slippers and walked into a large refrigerator and noticed hundreds of white jars lined up on shelves that almost looked like they were filled with mayonaise.  But these jars were not filled with condiments of any kind.  Coming out of the tops of these jars were actually mushrooms.  Bizarre.  It almost looked like a scene from a science fiction movie that involved some type of cloning.  On another day we saw how shiitake (be careful how you pronounce that) mushrooms were grown.  These were grown outside, but out of small holes in the side of logs.  Although both of these mushrooms taste good, it nevertheless amazes me that someone even decided to venture into eating fungi in the first place.  Whoever it was must've been really desperate or challenged by a dare.  Had to have been guys cuz women seem much too prudent to eat fungal growth.
 
Rain fell during most of our stay, but we did have some time to pick some vegetables from his family's fields.  It didn't take long, nor did it take much effort to pick enough for a day's meal.  In fact, you don't even have to be a farmer to harvest, if the produce is ready to be picked.  By now some of you may be anticipating my spiritual analogy.  Well, I was thinking about how, in many ways, harvesting is much easier than sowing.  There's also a lot more enjoyment and gratification because you immediately come home with some tangible evidence of your work.  But how many months did it take for someone to till the soil and plant the seeds and water it and fend off the birds and other pests before I got to go and, in a matter of seconds, pick something ready to eat?  I became a Christian sometime between my jr. high and high school years and for quite some time afterwards believed that evangelism and conversion were one and the same.  But the bulk of evangelism is the stuff that goes unseen, the tilling, the sowing, the watering, the protection from predators.  And these things may go on for months, years, even decades before someone is ready to be "picked."  It's not glamorous work, but essential for any harvest to happen.  For Japan I would say that the unsown fields are plentiful, but the laborers are few.  In time, we hope that the harvest, too, will be plentiful.  In that time we hope that the workers will not be few.  Let me encourage any of you who may be closer to the sowing end of evangelism and not the harvesting end to patiently wait for the harvest, but be always ready for it.  His seed will grow in time.  But you must pray and wait, and wait and pray.  And trust.  And trust some more.
 
Norio is an idealistic fellow like myself.  He told me that he was discouraged about how his company is so concerned about self preservation and not about the welfare of the poor and how he struggles to be there.  He wants so much to be able to share about his newfound life, but feels like there aren't many opportunities, especially as a new employee.  He asked for my opinion on the matter.  I told him that he had two choices.  One, he could leave his company and find some relief.  But if he did there would be no one at his company who could share about the LORD.  The other would be to stay and be His sole representative there.  I shared 1 Thess 4:11,12 which says:
 
Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
 
And from John 6:44 about the need to wait for the LORD to draw people to Himself:
 
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
 
I told him that it might require a lot of time before he gained enough respect from his coworkers to be able to share his opinion on things (sharing your own opinion is not a high cultural value in Japan).  This was his response via email the next day:
 
thanks for your visit to my hometown. i really enjoyed time with talking to you.
 
it was good to hear what you said; to work hard and get respect from others.  i could make a new motivation to work for god.
 
see you at oshima camp.
 
norio
 
That was encouraging.  Since it took him over 20 years to become a Christian himself, please pray that he would be patient and earn the respect of his coworkers and love them, even if it takes him 20 years or more.  He's planning on coming to our final retreat with the students and sharing his testimony.  It will be great for them to hear one of their own older club members share about Jesus and not about Christianity, a distinction he is so quick to make.  Please pray for that time.
 
I've decided to hold off on the other part of this update because of its length.  It's something that's gonna require a lot more thought and careful wording because of how it affected me emotionally.
 
Until then, thanks again for your attention and prayers.
 
John