Hand in Hand Global Mission Support Blog Digest

Patrick and Jacqueline Bencke serve at Kyushu Lutheran College, a college of the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kumamoto, Japan. Patrick teaches English and Jacqueline works in the music program. In their recent newsletter, they offer some thoughts on respect for the elderly. To support the Benckes or another of the ELCA’s nearly 250 missionaries, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

Mr. Taniguchi, senior, gave a testimony at a recent outreach concert where Patrick and I performed. As a youth he experienced the typical raw anger toward Americans during World War II, but after receiving Christ and the gift of baptism, he has become a rock of faith in the Kumamoto community.

September is the month when Japan observes Respect for the Aged Day. Elderly people are respected for their wisdom and experience, and this holiday (yes, it’s a national holiday, so there’s no mail service) is usually celebrated on a small scale within the family, with kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids coming together to honor the more mature members of their families. Often, the traditional Japanese foods are served for meals instead of relying on the more recent additions of fast foods and more highly processed foods.

At our church’s observance this year all the members of the congregation who are 75  or older were recognized and given a small gift at the end of the service. Interestingly, I was shocked to learn that some of the women who were honored were 75 or older – not just because they have a good hair-coloring jobs but because they are so healthy and active!

One thing I appreciate about Japan is how every day is sort of Respect for the Aged Day. This is evidenced by the polite language used to address older people and how so often students or young adults will give up their seats on the bus for folks who are a little older. It is heartening to see this, despite the ever changing society that seems to be drifting from its traditional values. Wouldn’t it be lovely to have such a holiday in the U.S.?

Patrick and Jacqueline Bencke

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

Christine Eige

Recently someone, from the church I attend in Kumamoto, asked me to write a self-introduction for the church newsletter.  After I got over the shock of needing to write such a long paper in Japanese, I got to work.  A special thanks goes out to Fukuoka Sensei for helping me do all of the editing.  I am still learning Japanese, so forgive the very simplified vocabulary and sentence structures.  Now, after much effort and editing, I am proud to present you with a bilingual experience.  Enjoy!

(Here are the just the opening sentences of Christine’s self-introduction with the English translation.)

神水教会　Ｎｅｗｓｌｅｔｔｅｒ

みなさん、こんにちは。　クリスティ―ン・アイグ　と　申します(もう)。　私(わたし)は　Ｊ３

として　アメリカ　の　アイオワ　州(しゅう)　から　来ました(　き)。　私(わたし)の　家族(かぞく)は　五人(ごにん)　です。　私(わたし)の　両親(りょうしん)は　小学校(しょうがっこう)　の　教師(きょうし)　です。　　私(わたし)の　父(ちち)は　年(ねん)に　小学校(しょうがっこう)　を　退職(たいしょく)しました。現在(げんざい)、学校(がっこう)関係(かんけい)の仕事(しごと)をしています。　また、　父(ちち)は　教会(きょうかい)の　会長(かいちょう)も　しています。　私(わたし)の　母(はは)も　毎週(まいしゅう)　教会(きょうかい)で　オルガン　を　ひいています。　そして、兄(あに)　が　二人(ふたり)　います。　二人(ふたり)とも　結婚(けっこん)しています。　一番上(いちばんうえ)　の　兄(あに)には　娘(むすめ)　と　息子(むすこ)　が　一人(ひとり)　ずついます。　ニ番目(にばんめ)の兄(あに)には　息子(むすこ)　が　二人(ふたり)います。　私(わたし)は　家族(かぞく)　と

ともに　すごす　時間(じかん)　が　なに　よりも　大好き(だいす)です。

Hello, I’m Christine Eige.  I work as a J3.  I’m from the state of Iowa in America.  There are five people in my family.  My parents are elementary teachers.  My father retired, but he still works part time for the school district.  My father is also the church president.  My mom plays the organ at church each week.  I have two older brothers.  They are both married.  My oldest brother has a daughter and a son.  My other brother has two sons.  I love spending time with my family.

To read Chrstine’s entire introduction in Japanese, go to “Musings of a Dawn Trader.”

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John Hoyle is as an instructor of English as a foreign language in Japan. To support John or another of the ELCA’s nearly 250 missionaries, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

John and Haruko Hoyle

My first semester as an English conversation instructor at Hongo Student Center has flown by, lending credence to the old adage about the correlation between the rapid passage of time and enjoyment! Indeed, with the warm welcome I received from the center’s staff and students, it would have been impossible to feel anything other than a sense of pleasure. As the Psalmist writes: How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! Psalm 133:1

Hongo Student Center excels in making the newcomer feel welcome.  In the few short months I have been there, I have not only been blessed to be on the receiving end of their warm and caring outreach to the stranger in their midst but also have been privileged to be a part of the center’s mission of  outreach and fellowship.

The Hongo Student Center Fellowship Retreat took place in June in Nagano Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo.  Nagano Prefecture is known for the beauty of its mountains, called “the Japanese Alps,” and was host to the 1998 Winter Olympics. Students, teachers and staff enjoyed walks in the woods, a visit to a nearby hot springs and a cook-out. There was also time for reflection, Bible study and worship. I came away from the weekend with my spiritual, emotional and physical batteries recharged!

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

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Dana Dutcher is an ELCA missionary stationed in Tokyo. She teaches conversational English and works with several ministries of two congregations, Koishikawa Lutheran Church and Hongo Lutheran Church. To support Dana, or another of the ELCA’s nearly 250 missionaries, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

Dana Dutcher compares getting to know people in Japan to cracking coconuts.

One biggest hindrances to developing the Christian church in Japan is the sense of “community.”

Japanese people tend to be like coconuts, hard on the outside, layer upon layer of hard exterior, taking forever to crack into. And I have cracked a coconut before — trust me, it’s hard. But once you finally get through all the exterior hardness there is a soft fruit and milk on the inside where a friendship can form.

Americans on the other hand tend to be like peaches. Soft and easy to penetrate on the outside, but once you get into the core, we get harder to crack. Americans easily open up their group and accept you in, instant friends. I have met people on airplanes and heard their life stories before takeoff. But Japanese people on the other hand , it takes years to really get to know someone. They are guarded and careful with what they share. This characteristic can make it difficult when trying to integrate people into new groups, as in bringing people into the church.

Many of you reading this have been Christians your whole life. We’ve been surrounded by Christianity our whole life, so for us being a Christian is easy. I didn’t lose anything by being a Christian. My family didn’t disown me; my friends didn’t leave me. I didn’t bring shame upon my ancestors. But for a Japanese person who converts, these are some of the issues that they face. Turning your back on hundreds of years of tradition to become a Christian isn’t easy. Leaving the community of your old friends and family to join a new community of Christians is not something that happens over night here. It can take years, even decades, before someone feels their ties are strong enough to a new group to commit themselves. This is where the challenges for the church in Japan arise.

You can read more from Dana at her blog, The Land of the Rising Son.

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John Hoyle, an ELCA missionary in Japan, is an instructor of English as a foreign language at Luther Junior and Senior High School (Luther Gakuin) in Kumamoto and assists with a Lutheran congregation in Kumamoto.

John and Haruko Hoyle

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank you for your many messages of concern and support following the Great East Japan Earthquake. Unlike many hundreds of thousands of families, Haruko and I were completely untouched by the disaster. Your continuing prayers for strength for those affected, as well as your generous support through ELCA Disaster Response has been heartening.

I have new missionary duties at the Hongo Student Center. I lead eight adult classes of English conversation and five children’s classes at the Center. Students in my adult classes range from high school students to senior citizens. I have beginner, pre-intermediate, intermediate and advanced classes. The children’s classes are divided by age group: 3-, 4- and 5-year olds. Besides teaching English, I also lead a weekly beginner Bible class at the Center. The students’ questions really keep me on my toes! At Hongo Lutheran Church, I am in charge of an English Bible-study class on Sunday mornings and preside at the evening English service. It all makes for a very enjoyable and fulfilling week. I am deeply thankful that I have been able to continue my missionary service with my life partner, Haruko, by my side!

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

John Hoyle

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Kyoko Yokoyama receiving the well wishes from colleagues with Lyra Precaria. Everything up to her home (see outside her window) is debris, damage, and destruction from the tsunami.

On April 8, [ELCA missionaries] Carol and James Sack, Yasuko-sensei and Ai-san made a trip to our house in Wakabayashi Ku in Sendai City. On their way here, they waited for the highway to open up just after a strong midnight aftershock. What surprised me was that it happened the highway was opened up again only as far as the interchange that is close to my home. It was as if God had opened the way so that they could come to us.

When Ai, Yasuko, Carol and Jim stepped out of the car, I felt that Jesus had come into the midst of our disorientation. I was so happy, as though a light had burst into our darkness. I could feel secure in my sadness. My heart that had been strained in tension for so long felt deeply wrapped in peace.

We walked into the house with the song “Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God.” Tears welled up in my eyes. And then, as I received some of relief materials donated by the Lyra Precaria group together with their written messages, I knew I was being told:  “God is with you. Be at peace.”

Things are still indeed severe, but being supported like this, I feel strength coming from everyone. I know that through such support, God is expressing God’s Love to us. Just as it says in Psalm 23, even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, the Lord is with us. Our cup overflows. I felt, in my heart, that it is truly literally like that. I am so thankful that members of Lyra Precaria were so willing to copy the learning materials that I lost to the waters of the tsunami.

Up until now, I have been one to be on the giving end of things. Now, the tables are completely turned, and, finding myself only able to receive, I am learning to lean on God. I am so thankful to God for having led me into studies with Lyra Precaria. My friendship with each in the group is a precious treasure in my life. I thank and praise God. Hearing Ai’s wonderful voice and seeing her smile gave me courage. Hearing Yasuko sing, I realized, “I’ll be OK.” The cake Carol brought seeped into my heart, and Jim’s jokes were so fun: we found ourselves laughing out loud.

I thank everyone. My husband also is grateful. When we prayed, he said “Amen.” My husband did! This is God’s blessing.

I passed on some of the treats around to children in our neighborhood and they were so happy. Their hearts are wounded too. This was God’s present to them. And we also shared the relief materials brought with our neighbors. God blessed even our neighborhood.

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Following this day, Kyoko Yokoyama reported on how Campus Crusade volunteers from Tokyo helped clean much of the mud from her house and those in her neighborhood.  She spoke of how God’s love is overflowing not just in her own cup, but all around the neighborhood.  One joy was to share with others the song “Light and Darkness” (See “Prayer Around the Cross” from Augsburg Fortress). “It was at that moment [when singing this together with neighbors] that I realize that in life there are moments of light and darkness; that it is about a cycle of orientation, disorientation, and new orientation; that there is always the hope light in the midst of darkness; and that there is the time when God lifts us up.”

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Aleaha Megumi Hanson

Eric and Christie Anspach-Hanson are ELCA missionaries in Japan. They were evacuated to another location in Japan to ensure a safe delivery of their baby when radiation leaked from the nuclear reactor damaged in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. In Tokyo they help lead the English congregation at Tokyo Lutheran Church, teach English and Bible classes at the Hongo Student Center and work with TNG (The Next Generation), a Japanese youth ministry team. They are the proud parents of a baby girl.

Hi everyone,

Christie and I wanted to send out an email to everybody announcing the birth of our baby girl!  She was born at 10:08 on April 8 over here in Kumamoto, Japan.  Her name is Aleaha Megumi (means “grace” in Japanese) Hanson, and she`s the cutest baby in the world (we actually checked all of the other babies just to make sure).  I wish we could thank all of you in personal emails for the prayers, well-wishes and general good vibes you`ve been sending our way for the past few months, so please excuse the mass email nature of this mass email!

God bless you all!!

Eric and Christie

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The following is a printed sermon offered in the April issue of “The Lutheran,” monthly newspaper of the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church
By The Rev. Sumiyuki Watanabe
President, JELC

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“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8)

Long ago, towering over a town, was the tower of the church with its large bells. It was said if there was a good gift on Christmas Eve, God would cause beautiful bell sounds to be heard there. But no one had heard such sounds in a long time.

In a distant village lived the brothers Pedro and Antonio. Their grandfather told them the story of this church’s bells and this inspired them to want to attend worship there.

Christmas Eve arrived that year. Pedro and Antonio really wanted to go to church, and secretly left to go. It was a cold and snowy day. The brothers took the little bit of money they had saved and held hands as they struggled on their way to church. As darkness fell, the two saw a woman collapsed on the whitened road. She was already cold, and the brothers struggled to wake her. Their efforts paid off as the woman regained consciousness. But Pedro, realizing they couldn’t leave the women there, told Antonio: “You go ahead to church.” He took a silver coin out of his pocket, what he had brought as an offering for church, and gave it to Antonio. He told his brother to take this and quietly leave it at the altar. The younger brother hurried off to town as Pedro watched him go off, shedding tears and saddened he couldn’t go to church with the anticipation he had had.

The Christmas Eve service was wonderful. Antonio looked around the church in awe. The pastor’s sermon came to an end, and the people lined up before the altar to bring their offerings. One rich man placed a precious jewel in the offering. Another put in lots of money. The king himself offered his own crown. Then they all bent their ears to listen. But the only sound was that of the wind; there was no sound of bells. “The bells didn’t ring this year,” they all murmured. At that moment, the sound of the bells suddenly resounded. All the people looked toward the altar. There stood Antonio, who had offered that one silver coin, looking up as he listened to the ringing bells. (From Raymond M. Alden, “Why the Chimes Rang)

This past March 11, a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Japan’s coast, the so-called Tohoku-Kanto Great Earthquake. We offer our heartfelt prayers for those who lost loved ones, that God’s mercy and peace may fill them. For those who survived and for those living in the disaster area, we pray for their health and that God may embrace them with comfort; and that they can return to some normalcy in their lives.

This disaster was unprecedented in magnitude. We have seen images in the media every moment along the way. As we watch, we feel helpless in the face of the power of nature, and recall the many paths we have trod in human history.

With this sudden disaster, we are left wondering what we, as humans, can do. We wince at our helplessness. But we face the words: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Behind these words is the understanding that while there is a limit to what is human, we proclaim there is no end with God.

In the story from Why the Chimes Ring, the brothers quietly offered their small offering at the altar. This happened even as the one brother couldn’t be there because he was helping that woman who had collapsed in the middle of a snow storm. God certainly looked upon each of these brothers with great pleasure. And because of this, the church bells resounded with renewed beauty.

There are those who have lost loving parents, children, siblings, relatives, friends; those who lost homes and endure the cold of the nights; those who have little hope for the future, lamenting and crying out in despair. All the more reason to remember “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever,” the one brings us courage and strength and hope for tomorrow. And for each survivor, for all of us who are starting to engage in relief activities, the bells of God’s salvation ring, just as they did for Pedro and Antonio. Let us walk with courage and hope with God in this difficult road ahead. Surrounding us stand the Christians of the world, and each individual Lutheran member everywhere. Their prayers are with us as we give thanks to God, and walk forward in our efforts to bring relief to all those who have survived this disaster.

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ELCA missionaries in Japan, the Rev. Jim and Carol Sack, reflect on their ministry after the tsunami and in the midst of the radiation crisis. 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.

Jim and Carol Sack

Carol and I continue to be amazed and dismayed at the images we see of the damage following the earthquake. Please pray for those who are now living in refugee shelters that may be many miles away from their homes that no longer exist. If you can imagine that in just a 10-second span everything you owned was ripped out of your hands and disappeared, that is what the majority of these people experienced on March 11. They have nothing. All of their possessions have been removed from their grip.

At the same time we have seen a great deal of compassion and genuine love expressed by many Japanese as they take in refugees and send supplies up to those who have been so greatly influenced by this disaster. Everyone in this country has been touched by this triple disaster: earthquake, tsunami and radiation. It is gratifying to see such tenderness by people who are reaching out to their fellow Japanese who have suffered so by this event.

One thing that we were very surprised by was the number of comments from Japanese when they see us remaining in Tokyo. Recently, we attended the annual meeting of the East District of the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church. We were told by a number of people how much they appreciated seeing us there. Comments like, “Seeing you remain with us gives us strength” and “You didn’t leave us, thank you!” Totally unexpected, these words gave us a sense of how important just “being there” can be at a time of stress and panic.

I was reminded of the “body of Christ” through these encounters with grateful people. To have so many people thank us for our presence (actually the presence of Christ through us) we have been encouraged to be better witnesses of Christ in Japan.

Peace to my brothers and sisters in Christ,
Jim (and Carol) Sack

To support the work of ELCA missionaries, go to www.elca.org/4missionaries. To begin or renew a covenant sponsorship of a missionary, visit www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship, email globalmissionsupport@elca.org or call 800-638-3522, ext. 2657.

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