Hand in Hand Global Mission Support Blog Digest

ELCA missionaries Patrick and Jacqueline Bencke serve at Kyushu Lutheran College, a college of the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kumamoto, Japan. Jacqueline tells of two interesting traditions at the church they attend and provides a video of young people singing a sacred song. To support the Benckes, or another of the ELCA’s 225 missionaries, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

Top: Spoons are used to receive communion at Murozono Church. Bottom: A new member signs the congregation’s quilt.

Communion traditions

Many people, including fellow Japanese Lutherans, are surprised by the tradition of using a spoon to take the wine for communion at Murozono Church in Kumamoto. This is a tradition that began many years ago and continues today, although I have yet to find a person who knows how or why this custom began. At communion time, instead of intinction or drinking directly from the cup, those taking wine will take a spoon from the silver platter, take a spoonful of wine and then put the used spoon on the ceramic platter.

Traditions for new members

Another tradition at Murozono Church is that new members of the congregation, either by baptism or by switching their official membership, will write their names on a quilt designed for noting the church members’ names. This tradition was started about 25 years ago and continues today. There are only a few spots left on the quilt to sign, so plans are in place to create an “addition” to the existing quilt.

Music video

Finding sacred music with lyrics written by Japanese people, in Japanese, is a large part of my (Jacqueline) work with college students. The Christian music industry in Japan is still embryonic in contrast to the robust nature of the Christian music industry in other countries. However, accessibility to fun, uplifting sacred music, such as the following song called “Mayu,” which means “eyebrow” in Japanese, is slowly becoming more available. The basic tenet of the song is “Don’t let your eyebrow become furrowed (i.e. don’t worry). Jesus is always beside you, abiding in you.” A few of the girls from the chapel choir performed this at a recent chapel service. Watch the video here.

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Christine Eige is an ELCA teaching missionary in Japan. She teaches English as a second language in Tokyo. To support Christine, or another of the ELCA’s nearly 230 missionaries, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

Faith (Shinkou)

What does faith mean to you?  How would you explain faith?

Recently I wanted to get a glimpse of what faith means to Christians in Japan, so I started by looking at the word itself. Faith in Japanese is shinkou. The first kanji means to believe, and the second kanji means to respect or to look up to someone. In other words, faith is rooted in belief and respect for someone or something. Some people put their faith in money, but when the stock market crashes, they quickly discover how dangerous that can be. Some people put their faith in family or a spouse, but even humans with the best intentions can let us down or disappoint us. There is only one who doesn’t change or disappoint us: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

When I started thinking about the kanji for faith, I asked a few teachers in my office for help. (I wanted to make sure that I understood the meaning before I tried to explain it to someone else.) One helpful teacher was Matsumura Sensei because he is a Japanese Christian who teaches English, and he’s an all-around nice guy. He told me about being a part of the school religion club when he was a student. Reverend Fujii told him a powerful acronym to remember the meaning of faith, and decades later, Matsumura Sensei still remembers it.

FAITH

Forsake

All,

I

Take

Him.

So, where do you put your faith?  What are you doing and saying today that people will remember decades from now?

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The Rev. Eric and Christie Hanson are ELCA missionaries in Tokyo. They are serving with the Tokyo Lutheran Church and the Hongo Student Center. To support the Hansons, or another of the ELCA’s 230 missionaries, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

Tokyo Lutheran Church

Since returning from home assignment in September, we have been working to solidify the new outreach ministries that we helped to start at Tokyo Lutheran about two years ago. As many of you know, Christie and I will be ending our service in Japan and returning to the U.S. at the end of September, and so our goal is to have the workings of our ministry hammered out in such a way that the new pastor can smoothly and easily step into the position that we will vacate when he comes this fall. For the first time in many years, Tokyo Lutheran now provides intentional ministries of social outreach (specifically, outreach to the homeless) and evangelism in both English and Japanese, and for that reason we have seen a “boom” of new baptisms and membership growth in these past two years. Our church has been blessed with the fresh energy and gifts that our newly baptized members have brought into our community, and we are riding the Spirit that they bring to continue making Tokyo Lutheran a place where people of many nations and languages can find a spiritual home for worship, prayer, spiritual growth and social outreach.

Recently, Pastor Sekino (Tokyo Lutheran’s head pastor) had a chance to speak with a couple of women who used to live near the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, but who were forced to leave their homes as a result of the high levels of radiation that continue to plague the area. They said that they have been coming to Tokyo Lutheran since relocating to Tokyo and have been so thankful that they could find a church in Tokyo that could help them get through the painful experience of their sudden evacuation.  We thank God that we can provide this kind of ministry to people in need, especially after the disasters that Japan has suffered this past year, and we ask you to keep praying for us so that we can continue being living examples of the love that God has for his children, especially those who are in search for relief from sin and pain.

As always, I hope this letter finds all of you doing great work in your own respective mission fields!  By all means, invite your congregations to contact Christie or me anytime with questions or curiosities that you have regarding our work here in Tokyo.  God bless you all and once again, thank you so much for your support!

Eric and Christie Hanson

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Christine Eige is an ELCA teaching missionary in Japan. To support Christine, or another of the ELCA’s nearly 230 missionaries, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

The cast of “Little Red Riding Hood.”

April flew by in a whirl of activity, and I hardly know where the time went.  Since we have year-round school in Japan, April marked the start of a new school year.  This year my school has 347 junior high students and 1052 senior high students.  I teach kindergarten, junior high and high school classes each week, and the variety of levels definitely keeps me busy. I am still working on remembering my students’ names and the names of all the new teachers, but I know that will take time.

Once again this year, my school participated in the Missoula Children’s Theatre program, so that gave me a great opportunity to get to know some of my students outside of a classroom setting. This year’s production was a musical version of “Little Red Riding Hood.” I am proud of everyone’s hard work, but more importantly, the students had fun. I loved cheering on my students and celebrating their personal victories.

In the midst of all this busyness, God reminded me of how important it is to stay focused on him. It is so easy to get swept up in to-do-lists and all the details of life.  I admit that when I get really busy, I often fall into the trap of not taking quiet time alone with God. I try to rationalize this decision by telling myself that God will understand and that there is just too much to do during a day. What I fail to realize is that when I take the time to focus on God and soak up his truths from Scripture, suddenly I have more strength and energy to accomplish that mountain of tasks I face. I have more patience with myself and others when things don’t go as planned.  When unexpected crises arise, God’s words are already in my heart and ready to comfort me.

God constantly provides for us and sustains us through the ups and downs in life, but just like the Israelites, we need to receive our manna from heaven each day.  Instead of living off of the encouragement, hope, strength and sustenance that God gave us yesterday, Sunday or last week, we can receive a fresh helping of God’s goodness each and every day. Lamentations 3:22-23 reminds us that “because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is (God’s) faithfulness.”  So, what does God want to teach you today? Will you take the time to listen?

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The Rev. Jim and Carol Sack are ELCA missionaries in Japan. Jim is a professor at Japan Lutheran College and Carol is a director of Lyra Precaria, a bedside ministry of prayerful presence through harp and voice.

Healing harp music and prayer shawls.

Dear friends,

On March 11, 2011, a historic 9.0 quake jolted Japan, birthing the Big Wave that crashed into the elementary and junior high schools in the picturesque fishing village of Kamaishi, Japan, not to mention homes, stores, hospitals and  work places. You know the event. However, a shock like this does not disappear from lives as quickly as it does from the headlines.

One woman had a friend in this village and wanted to help the survivors, including the 129 kids in those two schools grades one through nine.

She raised money. Of course that was welcomed. But after the first line of necessities had been restored and the money spent, the woman wisely knew that the kids needed something more than money. They needed caring, hope and encouragement.

Someone thought about Pastoral Harp (prayerful presence through harp and voice) as a possibility toward this end. Carol was approached about visiting the village on Santa Lucia Day, Dec. 13. Many Swedish Lutherans know the message of “Lucia,” the “Queen of Lights,” who dons a crown of candles in the blackest moment before dawn, bringing food to the hungry, warmth in the cold, light into the darkness.

As plans were being prepared, we remembered that we had received about 60 beautiful prayer shawls shortly after March 11 from churches and individuals throughout the U.S. for people in northern Japan. But we had only 60, and we knew that we could not give to one child if we could not give to all.

A second plea went out to our sponsoring churches and prayer shawl ministries throughout the States. By Dec. 1, we had received close to 200 shawls!

On the Day of Lucia, students and teachers gathered in the cold make-shift gymnasium-school. The woman told the story of Santa Lucia and invited the kids to let their hearts take them on whatever heart-journey they needed to take. She affirmed that tears can help to wash. The harp was played in darkness illuminated by 50 candles. Not a word was spoken. And in that time, volunteers quietly, imperceptibly, approached each child, silently wrapping a shawl around him, around her, capping the offering with a firm grip on each child’s shoulders — to speak volumes without one word.

But when the lights came on, or perhaps after the kids were back home, they could find on each shawl a note in Japanese: “This shawl was knit with prayers for God’s love and grace for you. When you feel down, when you feel the need to be supported with love, please put on this shawl. And please remember then that I have knitted this shawl with prayers especially for you. I am praying that you will receive courage from this shawl of love and prayer.”

The “touch” of God’s love and grace, literally.

Jim and Carol Sack

P.S. I am so sorry to be sending this message so late. It happened that my Swedish Lutheran pastor-father passed away the very morning I left for this event. This only added to the depth of meaning of the day. Nevertheless, for various reasons it has taken me some time to return to this report.  I pray my long silence will not betray the mountain of gratitude we feel, nor especially that of the students and teachers of the schools. God bless you all! We thank God for your partnership in the Gospel of our Lord!

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Patrick Meers is teaching English as an ELCA missionary in Japan. To support Patrick, or another of the ELCA’s 230 missionaries, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

The old apartment with the “amazing” view.

 
I have recently said goodbye to my old apartment that I had lived in for the first three months of my stay here in Kumamoto. It was a nice apartment with a central location in the city near the Kumamoto castle and mall, so I will miss it a little. I am completely moved into my permanent apartment for the next two years of service here in Japan. It is a lot bigger and has a beautiful view of a small park, a giant improvement over my last apartment that had an amazing view of a towering parking garage.

But the view is not the only amazing part of this apartment. It has a lot of space and is located with all of the other missionaries that I am here with, making it a lot more convenient to get together with other English speakers. This apartment is also fairly close to the school I will be teaching at, Luther Gakuin. I will be teaching English in the junior high and high school at Luther Gakuin. Sometime after I start teaching, April 2, I will give you more information about my classes.

In March Japan had its first anniversary of the March 11, 2011, tsunami and nuclear disaster. Half of the day I was in a nearby city, Fukuoka, and the other half I spent here in Kumamoto. While I was in Fukuoka I visited a church called Tamana Lutheran. The church had a children’s service and an adult service. During the children’s service the mothers of the children performed in a choir some songs from the movie “Sister Act” singing “I Will Follow Him” and “Oh Happy Day” in English and Japanese. The children played rock, paper, scissors after the service and I was asked to join in on the fun.

When I returned to Kumamoto I walked down the long central mall in town and stumbled upon a parade of remembrance for the victims and survivors. All of the TV programs in the morning showed  images of the earthquake and talked about the anniversary. I can still vividly remember what was happening on March 11 last year and when I was in the tsunami hit area of Japan.

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Christine Eige is an ELCA teaching missionary in Japan. To support Christine, or another of the ELCA’s 230 missionaries, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

Christine Eige

On March 11, 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake devastated Japan.  The tsunami and fires consumed homes, schools, and lives. It is confirmed that 15,786 people died in this disaster, and 161 minors are still listed as missing. As we remember this tragedy and mark its one year anniversary, let us join together in prayer.

Heavenly Father,

We cry out to you on behalf of all the peopled impacted by Japan’s earthquake and tsunami. Even now, so many people are suffering and in pain as they grieve. Send your peace to surround those who have lost loved ones, homes and a sense of security. Let your hands still the tectonic plates and calm the earth’s movements. Take away the intense fear that survivors feel as they wonder when the next earthquake will strike and whether or not it will be a big one. Send your hope and comfort as people rebuild their communities and lives. Help the people of Japan to feel your love surrounding them during this time.

In your mighty name we pray, AMEN.

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Christine Eige is an ELCA teaching missionary in Japan. To support Christine, or another of the ELCA’s nearly 250 missionaries, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

This is the kanji for “Lent.”

We are entering the season of Lent and are focusing our eyes on the cross. Recently, at Bible study, I had the experience of explaining Lent to someone who is not a Christian. I said that Lent is a time to remember how Jesus died on the cross; this sacrifice made it possible for people to know God better and to be with him after they die. It is sad because Jesus had physical and emotional pain, but the story didn’t end there. On Easter we celebrate how Jesus rose again.

After this experience, I grew curious about how Japanese Christians view Lent.  Although Lent is not well-known in Japan, Lutherans here do often know about its meaning.

The word for Lent in Japanese is “jyunansetsu.” It is made up of three kanji (pictures that symbolize words or parts of words). The first kanji means “to accept,” the second means “hardship,” and the third means “a period of time.” Together, in Japanese, Lent means to accept hardship for a time.

I love that image because it reminds us that suffering and hardships are only for a time and that there is an end to the difficulties. Jesus suffered tremendously, but his glorious resurrection put an end to his pain and provided an eternal solution to suffering. So whatever challenges, pain or difficulties you are experiencing, know that the end is in view.

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3: 22-23).

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Doug Foster and Sue Wironen Foster are ELCA missionaries in Kumamoto, Japan, where they are ESL teachers.  To support them, or another of the ELCA’s nearly 250 missionaries, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

Sue Wironen Foster and Doug Foster

It does not seem possible that so much time has gone by since we moved to Japan and now we are planning the reverse move back to the United States.

The second week of January was the start of our last term as teachers at KyuGak. Doug started on his own as Sue developed this mysterious skin infection that required a few visits to the doctors and a few weeks worth of medication. Thanks to fellow missionaries Nathan and Sharonette Bowman the doctor visits were not stressful and Sue is fully recovered.

January is also the start of the Missoula Children’s Theater. This English language play is sponsored by KyuGak every year. Children from the Junior High School at KyuGak and children from various elementary schools try out for the parts. We work with the youngest children and are teaching them their lines and their songs. They are so much fun.

We are also back doing our English Bible study at Murozono Church. We have had as many as 13 students at the class but average eight students each week. What pleases us the most is that we have one gentleman who has been with us since the first day. He is not a Christian and is the most faithful attendee at the class. We hope that someone will continue with this English Bible study class. We have become a very close group and would like to see it continue.

January is also entrance exam month in Japan. We had to stay late with all of the teachers to correct the entrance exams. Students from all over the city come to take the exam to see if they qualify for entry into KyuGak.

Time is going by quickly. We have friends from school and church planning “enkais” (parties) for us to wish us goodbye. I think that is when reality will really hit. There are only eight weeks of school left and then we will be heading home.

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