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."

Urbana 06 - Day Four

2006 DEC 30 Last night, I finally connected with pastor Yuya Kuwahara and his wife Liz (from Misaki Church in Chiba, Japan) at the the evening session at the dome. We had a great time! This morning I had breakfast with them and some of the ISI folks (Leon, Asako, Yu Chen). Most of the folks at Urbana were fasting after breakfast until dinner. I definitely got hungry and was really looking forward to dinner. After our morning Bible study, I spent the rest of the day attending a variety of talks on Business As Ministry (BAM), including micro-finance start-ups, branding, and tentmaking. They were all really interesting and I had no idea this a relatively new movement that was started at Princeton University in 1999. I learned some interesting facts about micro-finance: 1] Half a billion people have participated in micro-finance loans; 2] 95-98 percent have repaid their loans; 3] the repayment rate is dramatically higher than the credit card industry percentages for payback.


After all the BAM sessions I went to another hotel and participated in a two hour Japanese and Korean worship event hosted by JCFN. It was really good! People were really energized to be there, especially so late in the night. I was really encouraged to see Japanese and Korean students worshiping together with such enthusiasm!

Urbana 06 - Day Three

2006 DEC 29 I slowed down a bit today with the number of activities I was participating in here. I skipped breakfast to catch up on sleep and then went to the morning Bible study at my hotel with the other 1,200 people who are in the "Open for Business" track. I've really been enjoying the Ephesians studies. After the morning session, I met up with Leon and some folks from ISI and San Lorenzo Japanese Christian Church (SanLo) to attend the mid-morning general event at the America's Center (i.e., Edward Jones) dome. We gathered for lunch afterwards and I had the chance to finally see Chase and Yu from SanLo.

After lunch, I dropped by the Urbana bookstore and bought a t-shirt. I am a sucker for conference tees. Then I walked around the exhibitor hall and met with people representing two schools in the Tokyo area. I had a great discussion with Noryuri-san from Tokyo Christian University about the need for business professionals to do Business As Ministry (BAM) in Tokyo. Our discussion was very encouraging to me personally, as I am currently feeling drawn to this ministry. Then I had a nice conversation with Kathi and Scott over at the Christian Academy in Japan booth about their school in the Tokyo suburbs, which provides an International, English-language, education for grades K-12. I was really impressed with how the school is integrating modern technology into the curriculum via Apple Macintosh desktop, laptop, and Xerve computers.

Each day, we get a small newspaper called "URBANA TODAY" with news about the conference, which is produced by journalism students. I was really encouraged by the news that there were 49 people here from Japan! This was especially interesting, since I read there were 42 from the UK and 30 from Mexico.

Check out the latest webcasts or issues of "URBANA TODAY" on the Urbana website.

Urbana 06 - Day Two

2006 DEC 28 Today was the first full day at Urbana 06. It was full of awesome presentations and sessions. I am totally EXHAUSTED from both the physical and the mental aspects of the day. I woke up at 7:00a after about six hours sleep and then ended my last session late and was back in my hotel room at 11:00p.

The morning Bible study in the Open for Business track continued with Ephesians and led into a good Q&A session with the 1,200 people in the track and more small group discussion with my new friends.

Mid morning, I walked over to the Dome (i.e., America Center) for another worship service with the other 22,000+ attendees here at Urbana. After more study of Ephesians in the general session, I met a Leon Harper and some others from ISI for lunch at Quiznos. Talk about total chaos! Imagine 22,000 people converging on a downtown area at one time for lunch. Lines at most restaurants were out the door and down the street! We had a good lunch outside in a park by the City Courthouse. It was a chilly day, but at least the sun was out.

After lunch, I walked back to the America Center and visited the Urbana bookstore and bought two new books: God is at work, Devotional Ventures.

I spent the rest of the day and evening attending Open for Business track sessions, which focused on the foundations of the concept of Business As Ministry (BAM). By the end of the day I was over saturated with information and ready to fall asleep. The highlight of the evening was hearing seven small ventures give their 5 minute pitch during a competition for a chance to win a $40,000 prize for the best business plan. Some of the ideas were so empowering! It will be interesting to see which venture wins on Saturday.

Another great highlight of the day was eating dinner with 5,000 people! More on official conference numbers tomorrow.

Urbana 06 - Day One

2006 DEC 27 Urbana 06 is in motion in St. Louis, Misouri, which is a first time for this new location. We had a good kickoff session tonight at the Edward Jones dome where the St Louis Rams play American football. There are 22,000+ people/Christians attending from 144 countries! Pretty amazing stuff!

I have a comfortable room at the Adam's Mark Hotel with a nice view of the City Courthouse and Busch stadium. The free DSL is a nice touch!

We were instructed to form small groups (based on people we meet at our hotels) and to get together daily during our time here and pray and talk about the scripture (Ephesians) we are studying as a larger group. So I met to two guys randomly in the elevator and we asked three more people we met randomly at the late night business mixer to join our group. There are also some people here from my church in SF and others from the Bay area in the "Open for Business" track that I met at the mixer.

So far a good first day. :)