Encouraging the Rejected

"You are so precious" John said. It was obvious that the girl to whom this sentence was directed had difficulty believing what he said yet it seemed like she wanted to with all her heart. As I was listening to him talking about how Japanese people have so much to give and how the world needed them to stand up and stop playing the victim role I was imagining what was going to happen in these peoples lives as a result of this time. Here we were in a government sponsored English class for the unemployed - a place of societal failures, rejected with broken dreams. Many people in Japan commit suicide when they lose their job because they bring shame to their family.

Just a few minutes ago we had talked about three questions every person has to ask. If you can answer these questions satisfactorily you have peace:

1. Where did I come from?

2. Why am I here?

3. Where am I going?

My group was made up of four people - some atheists, some buddhists, and some shinto. I wanted to hear what they were thinking as much as they wanted to hear what I was thinking. Most of them had an incredibly difficult time answering these questions. Japanese culture does not allow people to ask questions and does not encourage them to think for themselves.

When I shared I said that I believe that God made me with a good design and purpose. I told them I believe that God made people with the design for relationship with him and others and that this was the reason why we are here. I told them that every person was uniquely made and had infinite value. When we walked away from God and stopped following the purpose we were made for we forgot that we have infinite value and started treating each other and ourselves like we are not valuable.

At this point I was interrupted by a lady saying that this was the main issue in Japan - that people had forgotten their value. She said that there are so many pressures forcing you to live a certain way in Japan that is not in line with the value of people. I agreed with her, saying that if we saw people as valuable we would not have issues of human trafficking, exploitation, and pornography.

I kept on telling them how God saw that we had forgotten our value and so He Himself came to earth in Jesus Christ to give his life for ours to remind us that we were made for love relationship with him and to show us how valuable we really are - to him.

In the end we were able to encourage them to think about what they are passionate about and what they want to do with their lives. This is something they must have never heard before because Japanese culture does not encourage being yourself or thinking outside of the box. This is an example of how a cultural norm can keep people from fulfilling their potential and I pray that this evening has somehow been a turning point in the lives of these precious Japanese!

Changing the world by running a Bible School

After almost four month of lecture phase we have finished the lecture phase of the Bible School for the Nations. It always amazes me how our students experience deep personal transformation and learn to love deeper - whether it is their love for God or for others while they study the whole Bible.

The biggest deal for them is usually understanding that all people have infinite value simply because God made them with a wonderful design and purpose. If this simple truth would be embraced around the world it would end human trafficking, gendercide, and many other problems we face today.

Another huge revelation usually is that people are not the problem (see overpopulation) but that people carry in them the ability to create something out of nothing and turn a whole nation`s economics around - like George Washington Carver, the man who invented peanut butter.

As I am writing this I am sitting in a friend`s living room in Japan - the nation with the largest child pornography industry and highest suicide rate in the world. The Japanese are an amazing people. Their loyalty to their friends goes so deep that they would take a bullet at any time for their friends. They operate in accordance to the Bushido code which I still don`t nearly understand enough about but have committed to study. If the Japanese committed not to a religion but to the person of Jesus Christ their nation would look very different. Injustices against women and children would be part of the past and an army determined to bring life and healing to people would arise.

All this is connected to what we are doing in Madison when we raise up people that love God with all their heart and love others with the same undying love. This is why I do what I do and will continue to invest my life in people knowing the Bible and the God of the Bible.