This is a photo of the EverBank Stadium, home of the Jacksonville Jaguars. This stadium seats about 64,428 people. Imagine for a moment you’re going to a football game and you make a plan to meet your friend there at a hot dog stand. But once you arrive you realize that you hadn’t specified which hot dog stand so you assume, they might be at the hotdog stand on the other side of the stadium. You’ve assumed correctly but your friend assumes the same thing. After unknowingly passing each other you both arrive at opposite ends of the stadium. Realizing the flaw in your plan in a stadium with numerous hot dog stands you give your friend a call and make plans to meet at a more unique location. After a great game you take a selfie together and part ways. The next day an old friend sees your picture on social media and comments “Hey, I was at that game! My seat was probably 10 rows behind you.”
Without a clear plan it’s a challenge to find one face in a sea of 64,428 people. It’s even more of a challenge to find one face in a sea of faces when you don’t know you should be looking for them. There is one missionary for every 64,244 people in Japan. This stadium scenario which holds just a couple hundred more is the reality for the Japanese who are searching for answers. I remember as a child one Sunday when a missionary visited our church and shared a video about the 10/40 window. The 10/40 window is a mission’s campaign that was started in the 90’s. This campaign highlights the needs of those who reside from 10 degrees south to 40 degrees north of the equator. This section of the world has 87% of the poorest of the world’s poor. It contains 45 out of the 50 worst countries for persecution. It is also where the majority of the world’s terrorists come from. Sex trafficking and abuse of woman and children is incredibly high in this region as well. However, the most staggering statistic is that 95% of the 4 billion people living in this 10/40 region have never heard the gospel. This video I saw as a child has stuck with me for over 20 years. Little did I know that Japan was part of that 10/40 window and that God would choose us to serve there. Japan is located on the very edge of the 10/40 window. However, it is in the top 3rd of the world’s best economies, top three for lowest crime rates in the world, and is also one of the cleanest countries in the world. A country that welcomes Christians on missionary visas and kids who can ride the train safely to school by themselves is not a country that screams 10/40 to me. I wonder if the producers of the 10/40 promo video were thinking the same thing. Maybe in deciding what footage to include, self sufficient Japan failed to make the cut. Japan is a beautiful country with beautiful hard-working people; they’re inventive and creative and they do everything with excellence. They are also generally very kind and respectful towards one another. In many ways I think the Japanese embody characteristics of God as people made in his image, better than some believers do. However, nothing is ever quite what it seems. Japan has the highest suicide rate of all industrialized nations. According to The Japan Times an average of 20,000 people commit suicide annually. Suicide is the leading cause of death for 15–39-year-olds and it’s on the rise. This past year, more people died of suicide than of Covid in Japan. The suicide rate is so alarming that Japan has appointed a Minister of Loneliness to tackle the problem. Japan is a high-pressure society that values performance and conformity. I often say that the Japanese are more likely be a danger to themselves than they would ever be to the people around them. The most common method of suicide in Japan is by train and then they choose the lines that are the least busy to inconvenience the least amount of people. Japan seems to have everything all the other countries in the 10/40 window do not, but a closer look reveals that Japan has the same heart condition just with different symptoms. According to the Japan Mission website, 11% of Japanese people wish they had never been born while 85% don’t know why the even exist. Hopelessness is a spectrum disorder that manifests in different ways, and Japanese culture doesn’t fit the text book description. Maybe this is why they aren’t on the forefront of our minds when we think of countries in need. Pierce and I didn’t choose Japan because we like the food (though that certainly helps) or because of the long history the Johnson family has with Japan. As God called us to Japan, He made us increasingly aware of the spiritual needs of the Japanese people. We are anxious to be two more missionaries available and ready to reach out to those who are searching for hope and a purpose. But with the door to Japan being closed for now and fundraising still in progress God has another job for us as we share our mission and vision: to raise awareness of the Japanese and their spiritual needs. 95% of the Japanese have never heard the gospel, how can they call on someone they’ve never heard of? Please pray for those who would be called by God to go to Japan to share the Gospel with them. Pray for us as we continue to share the needs of the Japanese and as we raise support so we can minister to the Japanese people.
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