Tyndale Music Team In Nakasato

Not three days after our arrival in Itayinagi, our Tyndale music team was split up to take on various tasks. Half of the team loaded up into vans and traveled with a youth group back to Tokyo for a Chris Tomlin concert; the other half of the team headed to Nakasato.

This division of the team, consisting of Amanda, Sarah, Rachel, Jaclyn, and myself, met up at the home of a missionary named Angela. After brief introductions, we split up into two’s and went tracting. We passed out information for the Itayinagi/Tsugaru Evangelical Church, Kanagi Chapel, and some of our upcoming concerts in Nakasato and Kanagi. After about an hour and a half of wandering around neighbourhoods and engaging the locals as best we could, Angela picked us all up and we re-convened at her place for some well needed lunch.

Now tracting, for us and our Western minds, comes with a lot of baggage. One would not easily get away with doing it in North America without getting a serious scolding from some unhappy person who’s conscience is offended at even the mention of religion. Here, we had to unload that baggage and accept the task before us. We managed to hit many mailboxes and even interacted with a few people. Getting beyond the language barrier was difficult, but not impossible. The day gave us a taste of the attitude of the people in Japan.

This day also brought realizations and a deeper perspective on the needs for the Gospel. We had with us copies of a Manga magazine called “The Messiah”. It was the gospel presented in a form that was appealing to a younger audience. At one point, a crowd of young boys was waving at us from a window, and I motioned for them to come say hello. When they all came down, I handed them each a copy of the Manga. They took it with excitement. I heard one boy exclaim to his friend “Kiristo-kyo” while indicating the cover of the book. I had mixed feelings. We had just given these kids a unique copy of the Gospel, but I felt that there was still danger for them. Would their parents, with all their traditional cultural and religious views, allow them to engage this literature on any meaningful level, if at all? As we walked away from those kids, I felt that we were leaving them in God’s hands, hoping that what we had given them was a well planted seed that would not be choked out by weeds or taken away by the ravens.

That afternoon we put on a children’s program with Angela and Armin, a missionary from Kanagi Chapel. We held the meeting in a local Nakasato community center. The kids engaged with games, songs, and snacks, and seemed to have a very good time. They even listened attentively to Bible talks and testimonies about the work of Jesus! Weeks later, a larger portion of our team found itself again in that community center, this time putting on a concert for the adult population of Nakasato. This time, we were received with stronger criticism and scrutiny. There was slight tension in the air because of our open profession of Christianity. We all noted the reality of spiritual warfare that night. For me, it was a reminder that everything we have done here in Japan is only the beginning of a work that God only knows the end of. For now, we must pray.