by Sabrina Yee

Regarding being back in the US on home assignment, there have been several instances where I was told about a Japanese Folktale called "Urashima Taro." A fisherman goes to a city in the sea for a short visit, but when he returns to his hometown above the sea, it is unrecognizable and he learns that it has been over 100 years since he had left. 

At one of our last staff meetings, the pastor at Katsuta Church told me, "You are like Urashima Taro, going back home to a place that seems very different." 

Honestly, I've been pretty nervous about reverse-culture shock. A lot has changed in the U.S. in the last four years. Having moved so much within Japan and constantly adjusting to a new environment, I wonder if I've perpetually felt culture shock throughout this term.  Then returning to California, add COVID-19, racial unrest, election season, natural disasters, etc., it's the perfect storm of mental-emotional exhaustion. 

I read a helpful article about why COVID-19 feels like culture shock. Here's an excerpt:

When someone moves to a completely new culture, many of the ‘autopilots’ your brain uses for thousands of small decisions every day become ineffective. In a similar way, your current environment has likely changed sufficiently enough that many of your own ‘autopilots’ are no longer working. When this happens, the next remaining option for your brain is to use a second decision-making process that requires far more effort and energy (glucose) to operate. Your body can only supply glucose to your brain at a certain rate – a rate far below what would be required to use this kind of thinking continually. Thus, additional thinking about routine matters has likely left you with a chronically depleted level of glucose in your brain. All to say: You are experiencing “culture shock”. 

 - Peter Olson in "COVID-19 and Culture Shock Feel The Same Way in Your Brain - And Here's Why"

I know everyone is experiencing their own unique challenges with what is currently going on in the world. But when I read this, I was strangely encouraged to know that now everyone knows what it feels like to experience culture shock! We’re all exhausted at different levels and in our own way, but we're all in the same boat! Now, let's all take a nap and supply more glucose to the brain. Ice cream, anyone? 

by Dan Christian

Who have you prayed for today?

The biblical command to pray for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ (James 5:16) is at once a call to the impossible and a call to something so simple that any Christian can do it. It is a call to the impossible, in that God alone can rescue a person from their suffering or sin, and He alone can bring lasting change in their heart and life—you and I as mere Christians cannot produce that kind of transformation. Yet the call to pray for one another is a call to a kind of comfort and care that any Christian can provide—no advanced degree or specialized training is required.  

Praying with and for a fellow struggler is one of the most typical, everyday forms of care that Christians provide for one another. But in contrast to the kind of care that is typically given in the office of a professional therapist, praying with a sister or brother in Christ actually stands out as quite unique. How so? Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a 20th century pastor-theologian (whose father was a psychiatrist) writes this:

The most experienced psychologist or observer of human nature knows infinitely less of the human heart than the simplest Christian who lives beneath the Cross of Jesus. The greatest psychological insight, ability and experience cannot grasp this one thing: what sin is. Worldly wisdom knows what distress and weakness and failure are, but it does not know the godlessness of man. And so it does not know that man is destroyed only by his sin and can be healed only by forgiveness. Only the Christian knows this. In the presence of a psychiatrist I can only be a sick man; in the presence of a Christian brother I can dare to be a sinner. The psychiatrist must first search my heart and yet he never plumbs its ultimate depth. The Christian brother knows when I come to him: here is a sinner like myself, a godless man who wants to confess and yearns for God’s forgiveness. The psychiatrist views me as if there were no God. The brother views me as I am before the judging and merciful God in the Cross of Jesus Christ.  [Bonhoeffer, Life Together and Prayerbook of the Bible, p. 115.]

Because God alone can change a human heart—including your own—you must pray. In Christ, we have been granted access to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16), and we come with confidence that our prayers are not only heard but acted on, by the One whose Spirit has power to abundantly do beyond all we can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). God calls you to a work that is humanly impossible, but He unites you to Christ, whose power to bring change knows no limit.

Because praying together is something that any Christian can do—including you—you must pray. We have a unique ministry to bring to one another, a ministry that the psychotherapeutic profession will not provide. If Christ is in you, and you are in Christ, you have a vital ministry to offer, the ministry of praying for and with others. 

Who will you pray with today? 

by Kenny Wada

At the end of July, Pastor Ron closed our Monday morning Zoom prayer meeting by having Colossians 4:2-4 read aloud:

“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.  At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.”

After the prayer meeting ended and I exited Zoom, I couldn’t stop thinking about the Apostle Paul’s words.  

Paul was in prison.  He was stuck in one place and he couldn’t leave.  He wasn’t free to go where he wanted to go and see whomever he wanted to see.  He couldn’t walk to the city’s synagogue and teach about the Messiah, nor gather with fellow believers for prayer and mutual encouragement.  

He wasn’t totally isolated, but his freedom to be with people and his “in-person” time with others was either cut off completely or was dramatically reduced.

As I sat there thinking about Paul, I sensed that the Lord was speaking to me.  I felt like he was saying, “Kenny, quit focusing on all that you have lost during this COVID-19 lockdown.  Yes, ministry is not the same but look at Paul.  What do you see?”  

As I slowly read over Paul’s words again, I thought: “Well, this is what I see.”  

I see a believer who is enduring in prayer because he knows God is working and can never be bound or imprisoned by circumstances or the will of man.  

I see a believer waiting and watchful because the issue is not IF God will answer, but WHEN he will see God’s answer.  

I see a believer who is grateful (like the Psalmist in Ps 116:1-2) as he waits because he had NOT FORGOTTEN all the times God has heard him and answered his prayers!  

I see a believer that is anticipating an opportunity when God will open a door for him to do what he was called to do.  

And last of all, I see a Christ-follower who is outward focused - focused on God and others.  Not sulking in what he can’t do anymore, but looking for the new things God will be doing in and through others and himself.  

That’s what I see.  

Then I sensed him telling me: “Okay, do the same.”

Okay Lord, I’ll do the same.

by Darryl Wong

During 2020, I was originally planning two trips to Japan for work as Missions Coordinator with JEMS.  However, just as I was getting ready to fly in March for a missionary retreat, the COVID-19 pandemic started spreading.  Both Japan and the US closed borders to foreigners, and travelers were mandated to quarantine for two weeks.

After the missionary retreat was cancelled, I had also planned a short-term mission project in June.  My wife, Helena, and my son, Leo, were supposed to go with me to serve with a church from Austin, Texas, in ministering to people from the Tohoku region, northeast of Tokyo. However, this trip was also cancelled due to COVID-19.

Needless to say, having two trips cancelled was disappointing.  However, there is a saying, when God closes a door, another one opens.

Because we could not go to Japan, my boss Roy Toma, the JEMS Japan Mission Director, learned about Zoom video conferencing.  Although we were not able to get the missionaries physically together for spiritual encouragement and learning, we found a virtual way to get them together.  About once a month, we have a meeting with the missionaries to pray and see how they are doing.

In addition to not being able to travel outside the US, the JEMS office in downtown Los Angeles was forced to close, because considered a non-essential business.  I was suddenly thrust into working from home.  Although it took some time, I was able to set up my home laptop and gain access to files from the JEMS headquarters to continue to connect with and provide administrative support for the JEMS missionaries.

Lastly, the opportunity to share the Gospel in Japan did not stop due to COVID-19.  All of the long-term missionaries continue to live in Japan.  They are doing live-stream messages or putting their worship services on YouTube.  In fact, some churches are allowed to get together with physical distancing.  Please pray for the missionaries as they continue sharing Christ in Japan!  

by Ian Nagata

“Should we say our names [into the mic]? So he knows who’s speaking when he listens later?”

“Um, ok. Hi Ian, this is Leo…”

So began an evening of sharing. It was the final night of the 2012 worship team retreat, just a month before I’d leave for Japan. One by one, each member shared an affirmation, encouragement, or ridiculous memory. And to make sure I wouldn’t forget, they even recorded it.

Only so much fits in two check-in suitcases. But I had plenty of space for an hour of audio on my smartphone (thanks to my iPhone 4). So across the ocean we came.

The first few years, those tracks would pop up on shuffle mode at the oddest times: jogging in the morning, biking to language school, on an evening stroll to 7-Eleven. I’d be memorizing kanji characters at a Starbucks, when all of a sudden – a joke from Peter Lau. A witty word from Chris Hong. A thank you from Diane Lieu.

And there was nothing I needed more. 

When we think of missionary support, we tend to think finances and prayer. But if I could name a third leg to the “support tripod” that's held me up these eight years, it’d be affirmation. 

Here’s why. Two check-in suitcases really don’t fit much. You can’t fit your family, friends, church, job, even wife. (Ok, I didn’t have a wife.) And without the steady stream of affirmation all these bring, we sometimes forget who we are. 

“Why am I here? Did I really sign up for this? What is my identity? How has God prepared me for this?” In the “why’s” of our wilderness, we need voices that speak truth over us. And the voices we’ve known longer, speak louder. 

So thank you Evergreen SGV for reminding me who I am. Thank you for “speaking the truth in love” that I wouldn’t be “tossed to and fro by the waves” of missionary madness. (Ephesians 4:14-15) Thank you for every email, snail mail, FaceTime, text and LINE.

I haven’t forgotten who I am, and I definitely haven’t forgotten you.