tokyo trip

Well, I had a great trip to Japan with my father.

Saturday evening we arrived (after a 12 hour plane trip)and were promptly taken to dinner by the worship leader of the church where I would minister the next day, and the translator.

We ate at a restaurant, where if you didn't know you were in Japan, looked like any restaurant that we might have in the United States.

The big difference of course is that there were Japanese people - and the food was definitely of their culture with small portions (we Americans love our big portions - don't we!)

The next morning, the General Superintendent of Japan and his wife took us to breakfast. I then went to what they call the "main church" and spoke. It ended up being a powerful service.

I did something I don't normally do - I gave the same message that I gave the Sunday before here at Stone Church.

It just "fit". The subject - praise and worship. At the end of the teaching, we had a wonderful time of worship. I was a little bit surprised at how vocal (and emotional) there was worship. Surprised but pleased.

Again - the worship service wasn't much different than what you would see take place on a Sunday morning in America.

A couple of Sundays ago, I kind of set our church family up by sharing that I was going to speak in the largest church in Japan.

The immediate response is to think of the churches in Korea where they have large assemblies of 60,000, 100,000 up to 800,000 attending one church.

It is not that way in Japan. In actuality, I spoke at the third largest church in Japan, and there were around 300 people there.

What kind, gracious people the Japanese are. Very hospitable. However, underneath the veneer of graciousness is a strength and stubbornness that shows how and why they conquered the surrounding world during World War II and at other time in the history of Asia.

That evening, I asked our host pastor to take us to an "authentic Japanese meal." Interesting stuff.

We had a great time - and ended up eating Tuna Brains and fresh, friend eel. The Japanese eat everything on a tuna that can be eaten from the head all the way to the fin.

I also had the opportunity to visit the Tokyo Tower, the Imperial Palace and the oldest Buddhist temple in Tokyo, where I saw people worshipping and praying to Buddha and having their fortune's told.

It is in reality a pagan, godless society. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the Christians there - to live the Christian faith in the middle of a country steeped in a humanistic, materialistic godlessness.

I would encourage you to put this country on your prayer list.

I spoke yesterday on the theme and subject of the occult. It's been interesting to hear the responses. I didn't realize that many of our church family either had questions about the topic or were dealing with it in their family or in their own lives. Truly this emphasizes to me that it is a deception of the enemy that we not visit such topics in our churches.

It is real. Spiritual warfare is real. However, we rest in the fact that God is all powerful and we have nothing to be afraid of.

I also handed out pieces of candied sardines from Japan.

It was fun to watch the kids in our church (and the adults) come up and try one.

Great week, great ministry, great fun.