Japanese Church Service

Today is Sunday, and we went to the Chapel of Adoration for the 10 am service, which was in Japanese. They had those lovely sheets detailing the order of the service in English printed out specially for us, and the sermon translated on the spot, which was very helpful indeed. There were about 15 - 20 in this first service and 25 - 30 in the 11.30 am one (usually 50, but low numbers probably due to prolonged showers). After that, we observed the Sunday school, which had only 4 kids, but they were so cute!

We thank God for the privilege of enjoying fellowship with our Japanese brothers and sisters in Christ, and even more, for the privilege of witnessing a Japanese pastor leading the service, a Japanese congreration singing those lovely Japanese hymns, and Japanese Sunday school teachers teaching those little ones the word of God. Indeed, our God is the Lord of all nations, and even of Japan, where Shintoism and Buddhism prevail, and Christians are but the minority. What a beautiful sight to behold, and what a beautiful sound to hear, for every face and every voice testifies to the universal love of God for mankind, and His salvation - so full of grace and mercy - that is unlimited by geographical barriers.

And following my reflection on children after the temple visit, it simply warms my heart to see that God is doing His redemption work among this generation, so that those little ones, albeit only a handful, may grow up in disciplines of the Lord. However, a particularly worrying observation was the disproportionately low number of men in the congregation: there were far more women and children. This is most likely due to the fact that the men still have to work on Sundays, which is entirely plausible given that Japan is not a Christian nation in any sense.

Hence, the prayer requests below:

1. Thank God that He's the Lord of all nations, drawing people to Him even in the unlikely places.
2. Pray that God will guide the Christian parents in the upbringing of their children, and that the children will eventually come to a personal decision to put their faith in Jesus and their Lord and Saviour, grow up to be God-fearing men and women.
3. Pray that the disproportionate gender ratio in Japanese churches will be resolved.