October Outreach

It’s almost 4:15 in the afternoon on Wednesday, October 16. I am writing this from the balcony of the Karuizawa Union Church. SYME students and staff are here this afternoon to practice for tonight’s outreach to the local community. In the weeks since our last outreach program, students have been practicing dramas, recitations, and special music, all in English, for tonight’s presentations.

Missionaries started the Karuizawa Union Church in 1906. The all-wooden structure they built as an auditorium is still standing. It is an historic monument to the strong desire of the missionaries to establish a witness here while they were in language school, preparing to spread the Gospel throughout Japan.

I am looking out from the balcony through single-pane glass, somewhat clouded by age, onto the stage where a group of students are singing, “You are my hope.” Another set of single-pane glass windows forms the back wall of the stage. In case you were wondering, the building is not winterized. Nevertheless, its all-wooden structure gives it undeniable charm. There are four rows of pews, two of the rows squared to the front of the stage with a center aisle between them. The remaining two rows are set at an angle to the stage, one on each side, with aisles in between them and the center section. The pews themselves also are wooden, the ones in the center sections looking like what you might expect to see in a Christian campground chapel, while the side sections are a bit more fancy.

Tourists come to Karuizawa by the tens of thousands from all over the Tokyo area. A small portion of them find their way to the church, located one street away from the Ginza shopping area. A smaller portion yet decides to park their cars in the church lot while they shop. They pay about $6 a day each for this privilege, providing the church with its primary source of income.

I’m sharing all of this with you, because I want you to get a sense of why what we are doing here is so important. The church is symbolic of the current state of Christianity in Japan. It seems to have reached its zenith. Here’s how one missionary described the situation:

“If smallness of numbers attending our Sunday school this year constitutes failure, then we have failed, for it is probable that never since Karuizawa became a popular summer-resort has there been a smaller attendance than we have to record this summer. This may be explained to some degree, however, by the fact that the missionary community, from which of course the Sunday school is mainly recruited, is gradually growing smaller. It is also growing older as quite a considerable number of missionaries here having some time ago obtained their post graduate degree as grandparents, while those having young children of Sunday school age are now few indeed…we are very conscious of the fact that there are many children in Karuizawa this summer whom we have failed to reach. Some of these do not speak English, some are children of other religions, but even so we realize that there must be some who might have come had we known how to reach them. We feel that this is a question of sufficient importance to warrant our study of ways and means of reaching those children….”

This report was submitted to the church committee in the summer of 1935.  Toward the end, the report-giver indicates average weekly Sunday school attendances of 80-81 children. That’s right, 80-81 children! I wonder what he would say about the church today not having services at all, much less a Sunday school with so many young souls in attendance.

On the other hand, our students come to this place each Sunday morning (while the weather remains warm enough to do so) to hold an evangelistic worship service. And here we are tonight preparing to present an evangelistic program on “hope.” As the students continue their practice, all 19 of them just now gathering on the stage to sing the closing number, “Ten Thousand Reasons,” I am moved by the fact that they represent hope for the future of the Gospel in Japan. What a privilege to be part of their training and discipleship! May their voices sound throughout this land!

The sun comes up, it’s a new day dawning.

It’s time to sing your song again…

Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul, worship his holy name!

UPDATE! Five non-Christians attended last night's program. One of them received a flyer that one of the students passed out earlier in the afternoon! He (the guest) told us that within the last few days, he began thinking about hope and Christianity, and that he wanted to know more! Praise the Lord for this man! Pray with us for the Lord to open his heart to faith in Jesus!