Merii Kurisumasu!

ENGAGED: Noriko and Richard

Meet my new life (ministry) partner...Noriko Akiba.

I officially proposed to Noriko on Saturday, June 30, on the Golden Gate Bridge. I thought the bridge would be a nice spot since it represents the gateway to the West from Asia and is a symbol of connecting two different places or things. The Golden Gate Bridge has always been on the top of my mind when I thought of San Francisco. Noriko was completely surprised that I proposed to her on the bridge. This was evident by her mild shock and tears, which was followed by a very happy celebration with a few friends who came with us. I hope you enjoy the photos. :)

Grace and peace to you,

Richard and Noriko

South Africa Report Back - Part 2

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
I want to tell you about some personal things that happened to me on the South African venture. The second day I was in South Africa was May 6, and the US consultants met the South African consultants in a conference room at Feathers Lodge, which is where the USA team stayed for two weeks. Towards the end of this meeting I asked a question to everyone gathered about South Africa. I can't remember what I asked, but afterwards a man named Louis came up to me and said he thought God had spoken some words to me that he needed to share with me. Louis said...

"I felt that the Holy Spirit was saying that while you are here in Cape Town, He will put the buidling blocks together and He will add to your understanding the revelation to solve and tackle some of the work challenges that you had at work. In fact, before you leave this place, He will let you get on the plane with the basics of the answers (I thought that I saw 3 problems/challenges). The Lord will do this for you as you invest in the life of your client."

I had no idea what he was talking about, but I did have three big projects at work that were a bit of a headache. Within the first 30 minutes of my first day back at work on May 29, my manager told me I was being reassigned to a new project and the three projects I had before would be passed onto another team!

The last day of venture when the clients gave their presentations (May 18), I was talking to Louis about a new potential job opportunity at Pay Pay for a mobile designer (similar to Hannes's South African company, which offers mobile banking solutions via mobile phones). Here are some things Louis said that I've taken to heart...

"Pray unlimited prayers"
"Pray for God to open up my career ceiling"
"Pray for me not to worry about finances (money)"
"Pray for wisdom in what you pray for and then adjust your prayers"
"Pray big prayers"

On May 19, Louis wrote these words in my notebook while we had a rēp team meeting (venture debriefing)...

"In order to grow into a greater understanding of what the calling and ministry in Japan could hold for the two of you (Richard and Noriko), visit http://www.plumblineministries.com/home to understand more about the "Redemtive Gifts" of cities, nations, and countries -- then, when you know what God has called that nation to be, then you will understand your assignment."

On Sunday, May 20 I had the opportunity to visit a small church in the African township of Atlantis with my co-consultant Johan. This was truly one of the highlights of the trip for me. This group of people was so on fire for the Lord that it really pushed my views of what a church could and should be. They were so gracious and loving to me and after I shared with the congregation about the purpose of my trip they asked if they could pray for me. Of course I said "Yes." A group of people gathered around me and laid hands on me. I bowed my head and closed my eyes and could hear people praying in English, some sort of African language, and in tongues! The a few minutes into the prayer I felt a hand on my stomach. It was sort of moving up and down a bit and I sensed this feeling of energy or movement separate from the hand moving. It's really hard to describe what I felt, since it was so new, almost like a flow of energy. Then after everyone stopped praying and they moved back to the chairs and the service ended a women came up to me and said...

"I felt your burden when I was praying for you and laid my hand on your stomach. You are free from it now."

Then she said she had some words from God for me...

"You fill the gap. You are in the middle."

This didn't make sense to me at the time. I asked Johan to explain this to me. He said he believes it means that God will use me to fill the gap between people and Him. I had been praying since I was in Africa for God to reveal to me my purpose in His plan for restoring the world. I've always enjoyed bringing people together and next working. I think I get this from my dad. :) Anyways, this made perfect sense to me, since I often see myself as a connector of people. Perhaps this means I have the gift of evangelism. Lord knows I've brought many people over to the Macintosh from the darkside (Windoz)... ;) In all seriousness, I am praying about having more clarity about this revelation and to find ways to build on top of this potential gift.

I also want to mention that my mom suffered from pneumonia the whole time I was in South Africa, and her sickness began right before I left the USA and she was healed as I returned. We prayed daily for her recovery during the venture, as we did for many other concerns. It's not uncommon for people on ventures to get really sick during the venture or someone in there circle of family or friends to suffer. One of the consultants on the India trip this spring developed Bells Palsy during the trip! Thankfully he recovered within a month, which was another miracle!

Speaking of thanks, I want to thank the staff of Feathers Lodge for being so gracious to us. If you're ever in the Cape Town area, I would highly recommend this Christian owned and run establishment. They are truly a first class operation!

This was one of my favorite quotes from the venture:
"God really does care about the little things!"

This trip was truly LIFE CHANGING for me, on a completely new level. I really felt God speaking to me during my trip to Japan last September, and I felt like God really showed me a whole new set of things on this trip to South Africa. WOW! I can't wait until my next (ad)venture! I will be posting more on this in the months to come. :) Stay tuned...

South Africa Report Back - Part 1

REPURPOSING HANNES
I want to thank you everyone for their prayers, encouragement, and financial support, which really helped me move forward with this journey to South Africa. During the trip, I sent out updates regularly and posted many things that happened to the rēp blog we maintained for our venture. With this post, I'll focus on the highlights of the venture.

For the folks who didn't get the background on rēp (formerly called "equip"), I'll give a quick overview into what rēp is all about. rēp is a non-profit organization that was founded by Brett and Lyn Johnson, who are originally from the Cape Town area of South Africa and now call the San Francisco Bay area their home. Part of what rēp does is to train Christian business consultants in a framework that is commonly called "Marketplace Ministry." The rēp framework uses the Bible as the foundation for thinking about how God views the domain of business and how He wants to use businesses for further renewal of society and His kingdom on earth. Every rēp consultant has completed over 100 hours of training to prepare for a venture (missions trip). This spring, consultants from the USA, India, and South Africa traveled to four cities (Chennai, India; Jakarta, Indonesia; Gauteng and Cape Town, South Africa) to work with Christian business people to help them repurpose their businesses and often their lives to serve God more effectively within their local community, countries, and spheres of influence. A big part of what the rēp framework does is help people integrate their faith with their work life, which is truly a transformational process! During a venture, a traveling consultant and a local consultant team up to work with a local client in the host country for ten business days. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, we would all met as a large group in a conference center at a church to learn about the 10 "Ps" (i.e., Purpose, Product, Positioning, Presence, Partnering, People, Process, Place, Planning, Profits) and how God views these concept within the context of business. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we would spend time with our clients in their place of business observing them in their daily work life and praying for them.

It was so amazing to watch God operate in the lives of the clients and consultants during the venture. God regularly performed small to large miracles daily on this trip, as well as, answered so many prayers. Typically, the ventures are about repurposing a company to serve God better and have a larger impact within the world. My experience with my client was a bit different. My client (Hannes) was personally repurposed during the venture, which was such an awesome testimony to the power of change in a person's life God can bring about. Johan, who was my South African counterpart, was such an instrumental part of making this this happen too. Most days I felt like I was learning as much as Hannes about how God works through Johan's deep knowledge of scripture and how God works. It was an honor to go through this journey with these two Christian brothers! Now on to the story...

The first day of the venture (May 07), Hannes was on the verge of being very sick and his doctor told him over the weekend that he needs to rest and not work (potentially needs to be on oxygen!). If he wasn't careful, he could catch pneumonia and end up in the hospital. He almost did not come to the first day of the rēp consulting. We prayed for Hannes to heal that day and he visited the doctor later that afternoon. He also told us he didn't know why he signed up for the consulting, but he knew he was suppose to be there. Prior to the venture, he would often pray to God when he needed help with a problem in his life. While driving down the highway a few weeks before the venture Hannes was praying as he drove. He was in a tough spot with the company, so he prayed for God to send some help to address his problem. Within a few minutes Jodene (a friend and rēp consultant) called him to inquire if he would be interested in joining the May consultations in the Cape Town area. He didn't know why he said "Yes", but he knew that he needed to do this and he signed up to be a client without hesitation.

May 08 (TUE) - Hannes was almost cured from his sickness and the rest of the week he was fine. Johan and I met Hannes at his office and we began to learn that Hannes's company was running into financial trouble, partially because one client had not paid a huge invoice. He mentioned that this wasn't the first time they had faced this sort of issue and the company has always survived these financial challenges. Hannes related how he has always been able to figure out how to solve theses issues in the past, just relying on his own business skills. He laid out the many financial options that he saw now and the crossroads that he felt he was at this time with different investment paths. Johan started to share with Hannes that he doesn't have to carry this burden on his own. Johan started to talk about how Hannes could yield his heart to God, and let God guide him in these business decisions though prayer. Hannes's mind and will are starting to slowly be repurposed to serve God at this point.

May 09 (WED) - Hannes tells us he feels like he has been in the desert for the last 7 years. Johan talks about Deuteronomy 6 and the reason for the desert phases in our walk with God. We started to talk about "Purpose" and how Hannes is well positioned for God to use him to further the Kingdom in Africa. We talked about ownership of his company verses stewardship of the company. In reality, it is God's company and Hannes is the steward, much like everything we think we own is actually God's. He cares about how we use the resources He provides to us. This is big stuff for Hannes and things start to change now in both Hannes and the company's situation! Potential takeover offers for his company are starting to surface at this point.

May 10 (THU) - Back at Hannes's office, Johan explained further about how God speaks to us. Johan was such an awesome teacher! He really has a gift for taking complex concepts and making them so easy to understand. Hannes is ready to pray about surrendering his heart to God fully. He asks us to come to his home after work to pray for him to yield to the Lord. We went to his home that evening and prayed for him for about an hour, and afterwards left Hannes to pray on this own. Hannes YIELDED to God this afternoon! When we were all praying, Hannes and I both saw clouds. I had this vision of Hannes rising with angels into the clouds. Johan felt that Hannes had made a shift, but perhaps there were more layers of yielding that needed to happen.

May 11 (FRI) - Hannes came to training the next day very tense and said he didn't feel that he could sit there all day. I asked him if he wanted to pray. He said that he wanted to pray later in the day. We started the training off that morning by sing the song "Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord" with the whole consulting group and this song really hit Hannes hard. The music was from a worship DVD and a video was projected up onto the screen that we use for the daily training. The song contained many scenes of flying through the clouds. Right after the song was over, Hannes's phone rang and it was a coworker calling to say the bank had pulled the funding to keep their company running and the debtor had still not paid. Hannes said he needed prayer now, so we went to see the intercessors and to pray over Hannes. Natchi (a prayer warrior from India) read scripture about the borrowed axe that floated. This seemed to imply that the Lord will keep Hannes's company afloat during these challenging times. Hannes said he didn't know what is happening to him, but it is good. At this point, it seemed that he had yielded fully, but he said his mind was still fighting his heart. In the evening, Hannes heard from his business partner about a very good offer to acquire their company. Things we looking up on all fronts!

The second week of the consultation was full of ups and downs and Hannes's met with the board of directors for his company and they reviewed several offers to acquire or invest significantly in his company. It was like roller coaster, but even through all this you could see a new calmness in Hannes. He had a new understanding of God being the chairman of his company and a new kingdom-centered vision for beginning to repurpose his company. The last day of the venture was a Friday, May 18. All the clients gave a presentation about their new visions for repurposing their companies to serve God and the strategies they would employ to carry out these visions. Hannes got up and gave the most powerful testimony of the day. His was a story of personal repurposing. You could tell it was really from his heart! Everyone in the room had tears in their eyes as Hannes shared his story. I saw big, rugby-player, sized men with tears streaming down their faces. It was so awesome to see this transformation in Hannes and hear this powerful testimony!

A day with the CEO of Fundamo

Tuesday - May 08 / Day Two / Visiting Our Clients
Today, all the consultants visited with their clients. Most went to their client's offices one by one after breakfast at the lodge and our group prayer meeting. My client is the CEO of Fundamo, which is a company that provides mobile banking solutions. They are working to provide mobile banking services to people in emerging economies. There are many barriers for people in developing economies to gain access to basic banking services. Many people in these economies don't live close to a bank and may not have developed a lifestyle of saving and budgeting, so they might not even understand basic financial concepts that would lead them to a traditional bank. They often live in a cash-based society where most people pay with cash or check. Imagine a young man who lives in a remote village of Africa, which often is one or two days drive from a major city or town. He wants to help provide for his extended family, so he moves to a city to find work. After he has earned money he needs to send it to his family. How can he do this? Taking it to them might involve a significant time commitment that he can't afford to do. Often he will pay someone to take the money to his family. It's not uncommon for the person who transports the money to charge him 30 percent of the total amount sent or to keep 100 percent of the money! So the transaction cost and risk is very high. Believe it or not, in many of these remote villages have cell phone coverage or are very close to a mobile network. Using a mobile phone, people can use Fundamo to transfer money to other people and get a transaction record of their payments and bank activity. Mobile banking has the potential to give a huge portion of the worlds "unbanked" population access to basic banking services, which in turn can help them keep more money in their pockets or bank accounts. The concept of microfinance is starting to gain traction around the world as a way to lend small amounts of money to micro enterprises. Mobile banking enables entrepreneurs who tap into microfinance to receive and make payments to fulfill their loan. It gives them access to banking services, because often their local area doesn't have a traditional bank. So far it's been really interesting learning more about Fundamo and how it can change people's lives. I really admire our client's vision for the company and what they are doing. We have been praying and considering ways that the company or our client could be repurposed (if needed) to serve God's larger plans for people in developing economies. Stay tuned...

Kiva is a great way to get involved with microfinance and help entrepreneurs who own and run micro enterprises to gain access to much needed capital.

The Kick Off & Waka Waka

Monday - May 07 / Day one with our new clients
After setting up all the tables and equipment on Sunday night in the meeting space of the Stellenberg Church, we had many last minute details to coordinate on Monday morning as we kicked off our two-week consulting venture here in the Cape Town area. Overall, everything ran very smoothly, as our new clients joined us for an inspirational talk by Graham Powers. Brett followed up with a brief overview about the organizational transition from "equip" to "rēp" and some details about the LEMON Leadership sessions he led Friday with the Power Group. During the day Brett, Jodene, Tom, Doug, and Lynn laid out the rēp (marketplace ministry) framework we will explore with our clients in the next two weeks and we covered the Purpose "p". We had a wonderful lunch with many South African specialties provided by the Feathers Lodge. The food and service provided by the Feathers Lodge staff has been great! As the first day's session came to an end, the consultants coordinated plans with their clients for Tuesday. Most consultants will travel to see their client's operations or companies first hand during the day. We will be back at the church on Wednesday for the next training session. The consultants spent an hour at the end of today's session debriefing and sharing about initial impressions about their first day with their new clients, which was followed by a time of prayer.

Back at the Feathers Lodge, we had a nice dinner, which was followed by a testimony by an amazing, South African couple (Dave and Amanda). They explained how through prayer and meditation they had received explicit instructions from God about a process for turning polluted water into clean water. They started experimenting with this process in a few local small bodies of water. After initial success, they were encouraged to take the clean-water process to very large bodies of water in South Africa. What they described sounded like a miracle! They have the process for taking organic material from plants and using it to cleanse very polluted bodies of water. There is a huge demand for their god-given process, which has caught the eye of many government and scientific officials. Dave and Amanda are praying and carefully considering how to proceed forward with this amazing gift, which could easily be exploited in the wrong hands. After their detailed explanation of the journey to provide a solution to clean up the world's water supplies, Dave and Amanda proceeded to captivate us from 7:00p to past 11:00p! They gave so many amazing testimonies about how God had worked so powerfully in their lives. I personally can not remember a time when two people help my attention for 4+ hours like this couple did with their captivating, sermon-like style of conversation. And to top it all off, we learned a new term or phrase that is unique to South Africa. When people in South Africa say "Waka Waka", it's the same as in the USA when we use "Blah blah" in a sentence, like "Then Brett said blah blah..." We laughed so much about this and can't wait to introduce this term into the American slang vocabulary. All and all, it was a great first day of the venture!


What God is saying to us…

Overwhelmed
- God wants us to be overwhelmed with His presence
- We need to be humble
- We need to realize our position in contrast to God Almighty
- We need to remember that he has the answers we don’t and we need to get out of the way to let Him work

Chosen
- God loves you and has chosen you
- We are not slaves but sons and daughters
- We have the inheritance already and we just need to ask for what we need
- Romans 8:30 paraphrased: “God has called you aloud by name, made innocent and then empowered”

Obedience
- Sunday's sermon at church and Dave and Amanda echoed this theme

Day two in Cape Town

From South Africa

I slept like a rock Saturday night and woke up to another warm day (highs in the upper 70s°F/50s°C) here in Cape Town. Especially warm considering it is winter! After a delicious, home-cooked breakfast at our lodge, I drove one of our group cars to a local church called El Shaddai. Yikes! People drive on the left side of the road here, just like Japan! I really had to pay attention to what lane I needed to be in, especially when turning. Ok, back to Church, which was really inspiring. The first part of the service was full of singing for about 40 minutes and followed by a great sermon. The pastor mentioned to the congregation that a bunch of people were visiting from America and asked us to raise our hands. After church, we had a some yummy, thin-crust pizza back at the lodge. We held our first meeting with all the rep consultants to get to know our new work partners and prepare and pray for the next two weeks of client meetings. During the last few minutes of the meeting with all the consultants, one of the Cape Town consultants mentioned that he was sitting in the meeting and thinking about something I had said during the meeting. While he was thinking about that he sensed that God spoke to him about me. He said that he wanted to share with me the words that God spoke to him:

Richard...I felt that the Holy Spirit was saying that while you are here in Cape Town, He will put the building blocks together and He will add to your understanding the revelation to solve and tackle some of the challenges that you have at work. In fact, before you leave this place, He will let you get on the plane with the basics of the answers (I thought I saw 3 problems / challenges). The Lord will do this for you as you invest in the life of your client.

I have to admit, I haven't thought much about work since last Thursday and I am curious to learn how this could be related to some challenges in my work life that have

Later that evening, we had quick dinner at the church where we will hold our consulting meetings for the next two weeks. I was responsible for setting up the tables and seating, along with supplying power to all the tables. After all the set up was complete we had a time of prayer about the venture and for healing. Some members of our team are suffering from physical aliments.

All in all, it was a great second day in South Africa. I also posted our venture group's first blog entry over on the rep website.

Great first day in South Africa

On Saturday morning May 5, I arrived safely at our lodge in South Africa. This was about 32+ hours after I left my apartment in San Francisco on May 3, so needless to say, I felt a bit disoriented. The flight between SFO and Heathrow was about 9 hours, then we had a 7 hour layover in the UK. Then we flew down to Cape Town on our second flight of the trip, which lasted about 12 hours. After checking into my room at the Feathers Lodge in Durbanville (just outside Cape Town) and a quick shower, a group headed over to the local mall. I bought a pay-as-you-go SIM card for my GSM phone and we had (middle eastern) lunch at the mall's food court. Later in the day, we went to a rugby game in a really nice part of town. One of REP's clients treated us to box seats in the middle of the stadium! WOW! I've never even really watched rugby on TV longer than 5-10 minutes before today. It was really fun to be at a game and have such nice seats. We had the pleasure of watching the (Durban) Sharks (currently the top rugby team) play and beat the Cape Town, vodacom Stormers. It was a great first day in South Africa.

Prayers for Cape Town, South Africa trip

On Thursday, April 19, we had our official commissioning for the Cape Town venture. During that time, people were praying for me and my team. Below are some of the things people prayed for me and said about me. It was really an amazing experience to hear all these wonderful and encouraging words and prayers. I want you to know that you are an encouragement to me as well, and I wanted to share this with you.

========
Richard...
========
= Sense of "Wow" for going to South Africa when your heart longs for impact in Japan
= Special understanding and clarity
= Wisdom and integrity
= True "Man of God," great example
= Grace and patience
= Leader, initiating, obeying, humility
= Overwhelming joy, excitement
= Sailing, filled with wind of Holy Spirit, traversing back and forth
- Ears open to catch maximum wind
- Take off!
- Friendships, relationships,
- Healing from past disappointments and frustrations
= Faithful, "good and faithful servant"
- God is honored because you are more concerned with faithfulness than grandeur and acclaim
= Compassion for lost
= God is calling you out to more leadership
= Surprises and wonder

Before I leave for Cape Town (May 3-23), I want to thank you all so much for your prayers, emails, and generous financial support! We will be posting about our Cape Town trip over on our group's blog.

2007 Partnership for Asia Conference

I had a great time this past weekend (Saturday, April 28) at the OMF 2007 Partnership for Asia Conference in Redwood City at the Peninsula Covenant Church. To kick things off Saturday morning, Dr Choi gave a good overview of the modern missions movement. John Warton's overview of the different types of marketplace ministry was really interesting to me, since that's my interest now. He is the CEO of the Business Professionals Network, which seeks ways to encourage and support others in the task of "missions through business." During the lunch break, I had the chance to reconnect with Steve and Kathi Weemes, a missions minded couple I met at Urbana 06. They are currently living in California and preparing to move back to Tokyo to continue with their missions work. Steve serves with OMF and Kathi teaches at the Christian Academy in Japan. Dr. Larry Dinkins led a great workshop on "Dealing with Personal Issues Before Crossing Cultures". If you're planning to do any short-term or long-term missions work reading some of his writings on healing is really useful. This was my first OMF sponsored conference. I believe I learned a lot and I can say I'll definitely consider attending other OMF events in the future. I posted a few photos online.

Northern California RJC Conference - 8 SEPT

It's official, Saturday, September 8, is the First Northern California RJC Conference. The event will be held at San Lorenzo Japanese Christian Church in San Leandro, CA. God is raising up RJC Conferences around North America. This will be the very first RJC conference in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area, where many Japanese reside. We're really excited to have Rev. Nakano is the plenary speaker for this conference. His speaking engagements take him all over the world, wherever there are Japanese or those ministering to Japanese. Online registration will is available on the RJC website.

Noriko gets baptized!

My friend Noriko was baptized in Tokyo, Japan on February 18, 2007. Praise God for working so HUGE in her heart! :)

Noriko's Baptism 2/22/07 10:18 AM

What is God's definition of work?

I ran across this great quote in the book called "God is at Work", which is one of the books I am reading for my EQUIP training now.

...work is the expenditure of energy (whether manual or mental or both) in the service of others, which brings fulfillment to the worker, benefit to the community, and glory to God. - John Stott

Praying for a path to Japan

Since about halfway through my last two week trip to Japan in September 2006, I have been sensing that God has work for me to do by serving him in Japan. At first, I thought it was in the rural beach community of Ichinomiya Beach (Chiba), where I first had this feeling. This is home of some new and dear Christian friends, as well as, Christian Surfers Japan. As I continued to pray about this idea during the fall, I started to consider some potential options in Chiba, which was my first choice of an area to consider serving.

I also started to explore the concept of "Business As Ministry" (BAM), and began to think more about my spiritual gifts, heart/passions, abilities, personality, and experience (SHAPE). The more I considered my SHAPE, the more I started to think that God might want to use me in Tokyo in a BAM capacity. In November, I revisited EQUIP, which teaches a BAM framework and then deploys it in context of a consulting venture with small to medium companies. More than a handful of friends and former work colleagues have taken the EQUIP path, something I've thought about for years now. I guess it wasn't the right season for me before to consider EQUIP seriously. However now in the context of seeking the Lord's plan for my life and occupation/calling, especially in relation to my desire to serve him in Japan, it really makes sense for me to take the EQUIP training. This training has been opening my mind to how often business and ministry are viewed by Christians as separate things, which don't need integration. The EQUIP training is reorienting my thinking about the purpose of being in business and it seems like great preparation to working in an intense business culture like Tokyo.

In December, after attending the "Open for Business" track at Urbana 06 and talking to a variety of people at the conference who are doing ministry (many in Japan), I felt further confirmation that there is a GREAT need for people to serve within the city of Tokyo in the context of the business environment. The work culture of Tokyo has a reputation of being very intense with long hours. There are two evening rush hours on the Tokyo train system, roughly about 6:00p and 11:00p. It's very common for men to commute into the city from the suburbs, going to work very early and returning home very late. Some men keep an apartment in Tokyo to avoid the long commute, but this separates them from their families during the week. Often they really only see their families on the weekends, and then the dads are so tired they want to sleep most of the weekend to rest. In Tokyo, there's also a bustling singles or young professionals culture that thrives after work. It's not uncommon for people to go out with coworkers and friends most nights after work until the wee hours when the bars close. Sometimes they go to an Internet cafe to catch a few hours sleep if they miss their last train and can't get home before the next work day.

Two themes kept coming to mind, as I have talked to people who work in or are familiar with the Tokyo work culture. First, people often still follow the post-WWII work model of working long hours, which was necessary after the war to rebuild the country. But the country is rebuilt and most Japanese don't really have any physical needs like the rest of Asia or the developing world. Perhaps it's time to back the throttle off now folks! You've built the country, now learn to relax a little and recharge in healthy ways. I really sense there isn't much life work balance in Tokyo, especially when I compare it to San Francisco's and Silicon Valley's "work hard / play hard" culture. I have become so accustom to the work culture of the technology sector, where flex hours and working at home or at the office are all fluid variables. A culture that values getting things done over "face time" in the office. It's still common in Tokyo for staff to be in the office until their manager leaves for the evening.

Second, the suicide rate in Japan has skyrocket over the years, which has started to include young children. 2005 marked the eighth consecutive year that suicides in Japan topped 30,000 people, as well as the eighth consecutive year that the suicide rate exceeded 24 per 100,000. Two recent trends which have received extensive coverage in the media are suicides by youths attributed to schoolyard bullying, and "netto shinju" or group suicides arranged on Internet websites.

Japanese tradition and society have wonderful qualities, but on a whole people seem to sense there must be more to life than working so hard at school or work. People are looking for a true purpose. Often people ask me, "Why are you so interested in ministry in Japan?" Lately, I've been thinking a lot about how Japan is a culture that doesn't really have any material poverty, but their spiritual poverty is great! This fact really greaves my heart, and as I walked around the exhibit booths in Urbana 06 and saw all the opportunities to go to places with such great needs: Africa, China, South East Asia, to name a few. I thought most people seem to be overlooking Japan, which is the one place I really feel called to make an impact for the Lord's kingdom. I think most people don't think about Japan and the true spiritual poverty that exists there.

I have been encouraged by my new friend Bob (who I met at Urbana 06) to pray about what sort of mission God would use me for in Japan. Even to pray about how many Japanese could come to know Christ within a given time frame. Recently, I was praying early in the morning about this and I thought "Perhaps God would create the same number of Christians that are now in South Korea in Japan too within the next 8 years." That number seems really big to me in such a short time period, but God doesn't do things small, so let's aim high! :) After I finished praying, I checked my email and I had one from Bob. Here's the sentence that really woke me up that morning. "Richard...I believe the bare minimum would be to ask for at least what He has accomplished in South Korea, except that in this current acceleration of peoples being harvested into the Kingdom, a much shorter time period, possibly as little as 8 years, using II Timothy 2:2 Faithful Men ... and the ability He will give you and your teams to quickly find and disciple them as disciplers of disciplers of disciplers ..." When I read this only minutes after I had a similar thought in prayer, I was really awake!

As I consider this huge idea and the potential of moving to Tokyo in 2007, I will continue to dive into the Word, my Equip training, and boldly seek the Lord's plans for service in Japan. Please pray that I will have clarity on this. Domo arigato gozaimasu!

The pleasure and pain of starting Equip

My Equip training started yesterday (Sat 01/13), and something odd happened to me too. I woke up Saturday morning with some pain in abdomen (stomach & back) area. It wasn't too strong, but painful. I ate breakfast at home in San Franicsco and went to my Equip training at 9:15a down in the peninsula. Once at the training, I didn't feel like eating anything else. Most of the people there were talking and eating fruit, bagels, muffins, and having coffee, tea or juice. The pain in my abdomen started to increase, but then went away completely. About 1:00p, I ate lunch and felt fine. Then at 3:00p I had some hot tea and a couple cookies. As soon as I ate the first bite of the cookie my abdomen area started to feel bad again, then it faded. This seemed odd to me, since I had a moderate size lunch without feeling any pain. We had a time of sharing from 4:00p to 6:30p. During this time I felt normal.

Then it was my turn to go up in front of the group for my seven minutes of testimony. I shared about my background and the history of my relationship with Christ. Once I started talking about Japan, I became very emotional. I was trying so hard not to cry. As I looked out into the 40 + people in the room, I could see some other people were starting to cry now. That really got me choked up. I could barely talk and was really getting embarrassed, but it felt good to share what is on my heart about Japan with my new Equip family. Lynn Johnson (co-founder of Equip) randomly asked a man named Paul to come up and pray for me with her. They both laid their hands on me and prayed for a while. After they prayed for me, a women from South Africa (family friend of the Johnson's) spoke out. She said that she had two words for me that she believes God gave her to her to tell me. She said, "Wild Warrior...Richard, you are a WILD WARRIOR for God in Japan." Another person came forward, her name is Kim (another co-founder of Equip) and said after hearing me talk, this scripture came to her mind.

2 Timothy 1:7
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

Then she said, "He will sustain you. You are an overcomer." I felt very encouraged by the support I was receiving and more convicted to seek God's plan for Japan and how I can serve him there. When Lynn chose Paul to come up and pray for me, she said she didn't realize that Paul daughter has a heart for Japan too. It's amazing how God weaves the tapestry of our lives together. It was a pretty amazing experience, and I really needed some tissues after that.

Within the hour my abdomen pains came back with a vengeance. I skipped dinner and went into the media room and laid down on a couch. After an hour of trying to ignore the increasing pain, I decided to leave the Johnson's home and drive back to San Francisco. The pain grew more intense and climbed to a level that made me think about going to the hospital. While laying in bed that night, I tried to endure the pain by praying and thinking of other things. At some point close to 3 or 4 AM I fell asleep for a couple hours. Many times during the night I thought that I might be under some sort of spiritual attack. I am not a doctor, but the circumstances surrounding the pain and how it came and went several times, seemed so random to me. As I write this, it's 2:30p on the following Sunday and I can eat soup and toast now, my first food in about 24 hours. WOW! What a way to start the Equip training. I have a feeling this is going to be a wild ride. :)

Update: One of my friends in Japan became sick with stomach pains too at the same time I was beginning to feel the intense pain on Saturday PM. I told her earlier in the day that I was going to the Equip training and she had prayed for me, but she didn't know I was feeling so poorly at the time of the evening pains.

Power For Living

Prayer Requested for Media Campaign in Japan Barring sudden media restrictions, most Japanese Christians will be just as surprised as anyone to see a nationwide media campaign offering a free gospel book during the month of January. The following is an urgent prayer request JEMA received recently regarding this project.

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Greetings in the name of our Lord! As we begin 2007, I have an urgent prayer request. A huge nationwide evangelism campaign will start on January 6 and last for one month. I have never seen an evangelism campaign of this scope ever held by churches in Japan. Please pray!

The project is as follows...

Name: Power for Living

Plan: Distribute a free gospel book called "Power For Living" that Christian celebrities will endorse through various media. People will be able to order the book by telephone, through the internet, by mail, etc.

Advertising venues: Television commercials, newpaper inserts, magazines, train stations, billboards, etc.

Christians in the commercials: Trey Hillman (manager of Nippon Ham Fighters), Sayuri Kume (former Saki Kubota), Verbal (m-flo rapper), Janet Lynn (figure skater).

Urbana 06 - Final Thoughts

The fifth and final day of Urbana 06 ended the conference and 2006 with a bang. There were a variety of sessions during the day and the evening grand finale ran from 7:30p to 12:15a. It was fun to ring in the new year with 22,000 people all praising God. It was a really energizing experience!

As I reflect on my first Urbana, a few things come to mind. I was amazed at how courteous and thoughtful most people I met at the conference seemed to be and how deliberate and serious people were in their faith. This was really encouraging to me and quite contagious! The exhibitor / booth area at the America's Center contained hundreds of missions agencies and Christian (mostly seminaries) schools. It was amazing to see how many different groups are focused on spreading the Gospel. The big focus seemed to be Africa and AIDS this year. Bono delivered a very thoughtful speech to the conference and really encouraged the attendees to make a difference in the world and to take action now. The issues of extreme poverty and AIDS in Africa are our generations mega issues, and he challenged us to address these issues now and make a global change. I also felt really encouraged by all the great music, theatrical performances and sermons. I thought Rick and Kay Warren's talks on the "Challenge to Hear God's Call" was perfect for this conference too and it really spoke to me during this phase of my life.

All and all, I feel really encouraged as I consider a transition in 2007 to Japan with my company (Motorola), which will give me the chance to explore BAM in Tokyo. Please pray that I'll see God's plan for me in Japan as I consider the fact that less than half of one percent of the Japanese population have placed their faith in Jesus Christ.

Matthew 9:37-38
37Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."