Churches Weekly Newsletter, 17 July 2022
God, Covid and the airlines all being willing, Diana and I shall be spending time with family in Japan over the coming weeks, and also by invitation speaking at Christ Church Ayashi-chuo, Sendai (with our daughter-in-law Naoko providing translation). As you may know, Naoko and our son Gary are Christian missionaries there, and they attend this Japanese Lutheran church.
The theme of that talk owes itself to what many people here in the Dales say is their favourite piece of scripture: Psalm 121, 'I lift up my eyes to the hills, where shall my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth…..' Like us in upland England, the people of Ayashi-chuo live in the foothills of some of Japan's high places. A difference is that whilst we daily lift up our eyes to see our hillsides peppered with sheep, every day when the residents of Ayashi-chuo lift up their eyes they see a massive golden Buddha shining from a hillside shrine above them.
It is not an unusual sight there. Christianity is a tiny minority religion in Japan, whose peoples have forever sought help from the heaven and the earth themselves, from nature and its gods and from the inner enlightenment they may bring, so for them the idea of a Creator moving behind these mountains is hard to grasp, let alone a God who walked the earth and died to save it.
Where might our worldviews meet? Maybe over food: Naoko and her fellow missionary Janet are currently setting up a food truck business. "As restaurants and shops continue to suffer due to Covid restrictions, food trucks have become more and more popular in Japan as a new business model," Naoko explained. "This is a tangible way we could do ministry as a team to make connections and advertise our presence in the local area. While foreigners need to have a huge amount of money to start a business, Japanese nationals have much lower bars to do so." Taiwanese Janet has had a vision for a 'kitchen car' for a long time, and now circumstances (and Naoko's practical support) are helping this vision take shape. Can Christ be shared over Beef Noodles and Soup Dumplings under Honshu's holy hills?
