Where We Lived

Crystal at Nara Park, one of our favourite places to go on our free time

Japan is such a fascinating country, we thought you might like to find out a bit more about life where we were living and where we will be going back to again in March.

The area we lived in is part of Kansai, which includes the prefectures (a bit like districts) of Nara, Kyoto (the old capital of Japan), Osaka (the 2nd largest city in Japan) and Kobe. We lived in  city called Ikoma, which is about a 30 minute train ride (how we often refer to distance in Japan - a more accurate reflection of how long it takes to get from A to B) from central Osaka.

Most of the Japan Mission missionaries are in Japan as part of Japan Mission's English teaching evangelism programme. Teachers mostly come from the USA, Canada, the UK, Australia, South Africa and India.

Nara Palace 'gate' - about 25 minute drive from where we lived in Ikoma

The UNESCO designation stone for Nara Palace site

While we were in Japan, we both had Japanese drivers' licences, but since it's been more than 5 years since we left, those have expired, and we needed to get drivers' permits from Canada which we got today :) One more thing checked off the list.

 

 

Life in Japan

One of the students at the Kindergarten where Crystal taught English in Southern Osaka

Called  to Japan

Aaron answered the call to Japan while reading a bulletin produced by Japan Mission in 1996. He was at home in N. Ireland, looking after his brother's place while he and his wife were away on holiday. 'I remember reading in the bulletin about the mission's need for a person to work in the office as the JM secretary had died suddenly earlier that year. Towards the end of the bulletin, the words, 'we believe the Lord has already chosen a person to replace our secretary' were written and I thought to myself, 'that's me'. That's where the adventure began!

After much prayer, many e-mails, an interview in London and a visit to the Japanese Embassy in Dublin, with the support of my home church, Finaghy Baptist, I left for Japan in October 1997.

The first few years were spent studying the language one day a week and then teaching English conversation classes and working at the building site for the school where Crystal would teach when we returned to Japan in 2004 after a year in N. Ireland.

The Meeting

Aaron & Crystal met at the birthday party of a Canadian friend who was living in Ikoma. At that time, Crystal was working as a kindergarten teacher at a private international kindergarten in Southern Osaka, where she taught English conversation to several hundred students between the age of 3 and 5 each week.

At that time, Crystal was attending a church called 'The Lighthouse', and the pastor there was a young man from N. Ireland who had come to Japan to work with Japan Mission and then felt called into pastoral ministry after a few years teaching English conversation.

Life in Japan

As we mentioned in the beginnings post, we have lived in Japan for almost a quarter of our lives, and it's easy to see how the country and it's customs and people have a special place in our hearts.

There are many 'foreign' nationals living in Japan, with almost 2 million living there.1  We often found that there seemed to be three groups of foreigners living in Japan. Those who were there for work, those who were there to escape from the west, and those who were there to reach the Japanese with the Gospel.

Japan has been known among western missionaries as the 'missionary graveyard', a term applied to indicate how tough it can be to live and minister there with relatively no spiritual fruit.

However, as many missionary biographies have attested, we are not called to be primarily 'successful', whatever that may look like, but rather, Jesus asks us to be faithful.

Kyoto Imperial Palace

As well as our students, we had several friendships in Japan with those who as yet don't know the Lord. We're hoping to be able to re-establish those connections when we go to Japan this time.

One contact, was a man I (Aaron) met while in the grocery store. I had just been in Japan a short time and saw Tom (the name he had adopted while working in Los Angeles several years earlier) with a tennis bag (I also love playing tennis). I asked Tom where he played and he invited me to play the next Saturday at his company tennis court.

For the next 5 years or so, I played tennis each Saturday I was free and got to know several of his colleagues and was able to share the Gospel with many of them.

Pray for Tom, and his wife, Emiko, as we seek to meet up with them again this time. After we adopted Caia, Tom & Emiko visited our apartment several times and we had the opportunity to visit them in their home too. Having Caia opened many doors of opportunity that otherwise would have remained closed for us.

Yorokobi no Izumi (Fountain of Joy)

Japan Mission office staff preparing the Yorokobi no Izumi for distribution to churches around Japan (yes, that's Caia on the lap of Mr Fukunaga, who worked for many years in the office managing the finances).

While working at Japan Mission, I enjoyed passing out Japanese evangelistic literature, especially when my language proficiency was limited. It was a great way for me to give people something in their language which I knew God could use to speak to their hearts, even though I couldn't have much of a conversation with them myself. Each month I would distribute around 200 of these leaflets among my students, at train stations while waiting for a ride home, or around the neibourhood where we lived in Ikoma. It was wonderful to think of these neighbours and contacts being able to receive the Word of life who perhaps had never been to a church or heard the Gospel message before.

Japan Mission still produces these evangelistic leaflets each month and we hope to be able to distribute a number of them while we travel around the Kansai area on our trip in March/April this year.

The daughter of one of our neighbours from Japan (Caia and Crystal on the left)

The fields are white ...

As well as being a blessing to the many missionaries and other Christian friends we plan to visit in Japan, we are also praying about the other opportunities God will provide us to be a witness for Jesus. We pray that we'll be able to re-establish contact with neighbours we got to know who have children Caia's age. Caia is looking forward to meeting her 'friends' from Japan again too.

We find that while it is true that Japan is quite reistant to the Gospel, Japanese are often curious about the west and are happy to discuss the Bible and other aspects of our 'culture' openly. We pray that the Lord will help us see and taken these opportunities as they arise.

About Japan Mission

Japan Mission was founded by Neil & Peggy Verwey in 1957.

Neil was from the Kalihari desert in South Africa, while Peggy was from London, England. Coming from two very different backgrounds, yet united by one common cause, the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Japanese.

Neil & Peggy met while at Bible School in Kobe, Japan and felt strongly the call to minister to the Japanese who had been stricken with tuberculosis in the years following Word War II.

The motto of the Japan Mission is taken from Jeremiah 33:3, "Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." 

Although founded to reach those suffering with tuberculosis, Japan Mission has sought to adapt to the changing needs within Japan, while at the same time remaining faithful to the Gospel message of salvation by faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross.

One of the verses that Neil quotes to illustrate this desire to adapt to the changes around and reach the Japanese, while remaining true to the Gospel, is found in John 21:6 (ESV), where Jesus tells His disciples to, 'Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish.' The various methods Japan Mission has used over the years to reach Japanese with the Gospel have included, hospital evangelism, newspaper evangelism, radio evangelism, literature evangelism, audio/visual outreach, outreach to seniors homes, International School outreach, preaching & teaching as well as English evangelism.

Being adaptable and yet faithful to the truth is a foundational aspect of the work of Japan Mission and has enabled the work to continue for more than half a century. Founded by Neil & Peggy Verwey, then carried on by David & Sue Verwey (Neil & Peggy's son and daughter-in-law) and currently David & Sue have been joined by Alex & Eri Verwey as the third generation of Verwey's who have been 'Called to Serve' in the great land of Japan.

You can read much more about Japan Mission, it's current vision and some of the amazing stories telling of how God has worked in the past through His servants there, on the web-site at: www.japanmission.org. Japan Mission have been blessed with a network of keen volunteers in various countries oversees, who pray for the work and keep churches and individual supporters up-to-date with what's going on in Japan and the needs of the mission and staff in Japan.

In fact, the Japan Mission bi-monthly bulletin was how I (Aaron) found out about the work of Japan Mission, and of the need they had back in 1996 of a person to come and help in their office in Japan. After hearing about the need, and seeking the Lord's guidance, Aaron ended up leaving his home country of N. Ireland and travelling to Japan in October 1997. He ended up staying there until 2003, during which time he met and married Crystal Folk from Canada.  


If you'd like to read more about Neil & Peggy's call to Japan, click here.

Beginning of Plans

Sunrise from the apartment we lived in, Ikoma, Nara, Japan

Crystal & I have been thinking and praying about returning to Japan, at least for a visit, probably since we left in 2010! There's no doubt that living in a country, especially one as unique as Japan, has left it's mark. Having lived there a combined total of more than 22 years, that influence is still felt on almost a daily basis. From words, phrases and idioms, to the way we view ourselves and those around us. It's hard to believe, but almost every time we are invited to someone's home for a meal, before we eat I want to say, 'itadakimasu' which means (I gratefully receive - in Japanese) and afterwards I have to stop myself from saying, 'gochisosamadeshita' (that was honourably delicious).

As we chatted about going, we began to think of ways that we could involve our home church of Emmanuel Baptist in Vernon, BC, because we knew that realistically, although part of the reason for the return is to catch up with old friends and also re-introduce Caia to Japan (her native land), we trust and pray that a good part of our trip will also involve ministry to believers and unsaved alike. 

We really appreciate the support of Emmanuel's board and missions committee in designating this trip a 'missions trip'. That way, as well as highlighting the country and the spiritual needs there for prayer, people, if they wish, will also be able to contribute financially.

With Caia about to turn 7 (February 19, 2016) we both felt that this year would be a good time to take a trip back to Japan.

We booked the flights early in January from Vancouver to Osaka via Taipei, and got a pretty good deal. We're also so thankful to our friends at Japan Mission (www.japanmission.org) for making accommodation available for us while we are there, and plan to use the Japan Mission HQ as a base.

We're also having conversations with several folks about what our time in Japan will look like. While we want to have time to catch up with old friends and former co-workers who are still there, we would also like to have opportunities to minister and serve in whatever capacity the Lord sees fit to use us.

Once our itinerary becomes a bit clearer, we'll post more details.

For now, we depart Vancouver on Thursday, March 24 on an EVA flight to Osaka, at 01:50, arriving in Osaka at 15:55 local time on Good Friday (March 25). Once the clocks go forward again on March 13, Japan Standard Time (JST) will be PST +16 hours or GMT + 8 hours (from March 27, when clocks go foward in the UK & Ireland). We return to Canada again, God willing, on Friday, April 15, arrving in Vancouver at 19:30.

On our first Sunday in Japan, we will be visiting our 'old' church in Ikoma, the city where we lived since returning to Japan in 2004.

Aaron will be teaching an English conversation class that meets just before the church service.

It's a small class with only 3 or 4 Japanese attending each week, but they are mostly open to the Gospel.

Please pray that this class would be a blessing to those who attend and also to the teacher as they will get a break from teaching on Easter Sunday.

My (Aaron) first several years in Japan were spent teaching English conversation, so it will be nice to have another opportunity to teach an English class again.

An English Camp that Japan Mission held at the Fureai Center in Ikoma, where we lived

Crystal will spend some of the time we are in Japan, helping at her old school, KIU Academy, in Kyoto.

The new school year in Japan starts on April 6, and Crystal will help from this date until the following Friday, April 15th. at the grade 1 class there with her former co-worker, Naomi, who is still teaching at the school. Please pray for Crystal and Caia as they spend time at the school, that they will be able to connect well at the school and that they might be a blessing to the students and other teachers while they are there.

Below is a photo of the class she taught while we lived there between 2004 and 2010. When Aaron first went to Japan in 1997, he spent one day a week helping with the school building construction (building in the background) along with other volunteers.