July 7th

Two events are commemorated today in Japan.

One I heard of repeatedly on the radio is Tanabata, a Japanese star festival. You can read the history on wikipedia. Grocery stores, kindergartens, train stations, etc. displayed bamboo trees with people's hand-written wishes written on colored papers hanging from the branches. I heard on the radio of one girl whose wish she wrote on Tanabata was to be a bank teller. Ten years later her dream came true. Later she married a co-worker, their children are now teenagers, and the grandmother always reminds the children of that story on Tanabata.

The other event commemorated today in Japan was not reported in the news broadcasts I heard. The celebration of the 150th Anniversary of Protestant Missions in Japan started today with an evening at which Ralph Winter was to share the platform with seven others. Seating was limited to 900. Festivities continue tomorrow and the next day in Yokohama with seating for 5,000. You can watch a video of Japan missions history here (in Japanese).

The prayers and desires of the Protestant missionaries who came to Japan 150 years ago (and those who have come in the intervening 150 years) have yet to be fulfilled. On an average Sunday 0.22% of the population attends a Christian worship service of any type.

But their prayers and ours are much more powerful than words written on colored papers and hanging on bamboo branches once a year. Our prayers are to the God who hears, to the One who has filled His word with assurances that the nations will worship Him, and who has promised that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

We live by faith and not by sight, pressing on, laboring not in vain, and praying, working and longing for the day when this nation will worship Him!