Thoughts About the Mission

Dear Friends - It's Monday morning, 5:30AM Pacific Daylight Time. The team has been home since only 3PM Saturday, yet Japan feels so far away in distance and time. As I sat in the midst of 125-150 people yesterday at the Crossway Church worship service, it struck me that only a week ago we were in the Chino Christ Church service worshipping with about 30 of our brothers and sisters in Christ. From past experiences on this mission, I know that the thoughts and feelings I have for Chino and its church members will change over time, but right now I miss them terribly.

I've just finished reading through most of the blogs from the last two weeks and realize that I left out a lot of things I had hoped to share and repeated myself again and again - repeated myself again and again. This year's mission to Chino was a success, I believe. It was a great experience for the children who attended: the members of Chino Christ Church who participated in the EEC program and who supported us during our stay; and for the members of South Bay Japanese Christian Fellowship and Crossway Church. We are confident that God will use the experiences of the past two weeks to change the lives of us all. The past two years we have had fewer adults from the Chino church volunteer at EEC - but they have been replaced by young people who attended EEC in past years and are now too old to attend. None of them are members of the Chino church - maybe they will be some day.
I believe our mission to Chino has affected not only the lives of children in the community, but also the Chino church itself. Since first serving in Chino in 2009, I have seen the addition of new members to the church and greater involvement by some members in the EEC program and other church activities. In that time, the Chino church has not only been the recipient of a mission team but has now sent out two church members to serve the mission in Sendai - a sister program to the one in Chino. When we were the dinner guests of the Hosokawas, Hosokawa-san, who is a member of a different Christian church in Chino, told us that the six other Christian churches in Chino are aware of the EEC program going on and have kept tabs of the influence it has had on the Chino church. So God willing, our partnership with the Chino church will continue and we can be a source of support and encouragement into the future. If not, the seeds have been planted for members to step forward in leadership positions, for the church to begin and develop outreach programs into the community, and for them to possibly partner with their brothers and sister in the Chino community to support one another and increase their impact there.
The mission has also had a great impact on two churches here in Southern California. Our participation in the Chino mission has helped change the mindset of many Crossway church members - that short-term missions are not jus for the "super Christians" but are open to, and in need of people with different talents and abilities, different life and spiritual experiences, and different personalities. And the Chino mission has brought us into a partnership with our sister church from the South Bay. I hope the South Bay members have been as blessed in knowing us we have been in getting to know and work alongside of them.
Our mission started in Chino but its influence is spreading outward. We sent a team to Sendai for the second time this year - serving at the same time as the Chino mission. There are other churches in Japan interested in receiving teams to present the same type of programs to them. During our time of sightseeing I offered to take a photo of a family at one of the shrines and temples that we were visiting. As I spoke with the father of this family of four, I found I out that this African-American man was an assistant pastor of a church in New York with a membership of over 7,000 people. They send out teams on short-term missions around the world and wanted to begin one in Japan. I introduced him to Kagiwada-sensei, who has started the missions to Chino and Sendai, and he gave him his email address. Great things are possible through their correspondence.
Thank you once again to everyone who supported our mission through your prayers and donations. I am confident that the money needed to support this mission is always a great investment in spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ in Japan. May God bless you and use you to reach out to your family, friends, and colleagues. Love, Don