Over the Easter long weekend Caley and I (along with a number of other families in our Church) had the privilege of hosting some young Japanese students while on their cultural exchange. It happened to be over Easter which made it a great time to be able to expose them to the gospel of Jesus. On Easter Sunday I was able to show a number of these students a short video in Japanese about the Easter message. They were also given a Japanese two-ways-to-live booklet.
It seems as though our Church and its members can be a link in helping these Japanese youth to see the true gospel of Jesus and have the opportunity to make friends with real Christians up close and personally. This definitely seems like an opportunity not to be missed. As you may or may not know Japan is the second biggest unreached people group in the world (www.joshuaproject.net). Nearly every Japanese person in Japan will never have the opportunity to hear and understand the gospel of Jesus or meet a true Christian. So it’s a great thing that we can be this link.
This year there will be some more Japanese students being hosted by SCPC families. So this means more Japanese people being exposed to the gospel of Jesus. With this in mind I will try to find some more Japanese Christian resources to be able to put in their hands and that of the host families too for when they come.
Let’s keep praying for these students when they visit that they may come to know Jesus and for their host families to work for this end.
Maku-san
Thanks Mark, your work with the Japanese students was fantastic. As you said it’s an opportunity not to be missed.
Hey Mark
Thanks heaps for putting the effort into finding Japanese-language resources to make the most of this brief but important opportunity. What kind of things do you reckon host families can do in their homes to help the Japanese students understand something about what we believe (especially when language is such a significant barrier)?
Hey Pete,
I will be thinking more over time about what the families can be doing.
Some things off the top of my mind are:
1. Teach them that we pray to the Christian God before meals and thank Him for food and Jesus. Use simple language and do it consistently so that they can see this is a part of the Christians life.
2. Show them that we have relationships with other Christians and that we are a Church family. Do things with other families with students etc and show the students the unity and love we have for one another.
3. Have a Japanese Bible, Japanese two ways to live, or other Japanese Christian books in the house for them to look at.
I will keep thinking of more ideas.
Thanks Mark. The program you organised was much appreciated and I’m sure helped explain to the students much of what we were doing.
Hi Peter and Eden,
Thanks for that.
The cool thing is is that a young christian man in Church asked if he could help the next time we have Japanese students.