Rural Japan's biggest need? People need to hear about Jesus and for relationships to be formed in order to bring people to the churches. With Shinto-Buddist temples and shrines scattered everywhere, this part of japan is in many ways unreached in regards to the Christian message. Another barrier is simply geography. A single town is not usually large enough to support a church, so anyone going to a church is likely to need to travel some distance to attend church or any outreach functions at the church. Trains don't run very often in rural areas and a car is usually required to drive to the church. This limits the number of children, poor, and wives with husbands who are not happy about involvement at church.
One thing that we're doing with the Itayanagi Chapel is tracting in the surrounding villages. Putting things in people's mailboxes is not illegal in Japan and it is a fairly common method of announcement (assuming that the organization has more available labor-time than money for stamps).
By providing flyers introducing the long-term missionaries along with a gospel tract, it's an opportunity to create awareness within the community about the church and an invitation to check it out.
Prayer points:
- Pray that God will work in people's hearts to make them responsive to the gospel
- Pray that the Ghents will be able to form relationships with people in surrounding villages so that the gospel may be proclaimed
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