Japan Day 13 - Departure and Summary

On our final day, we had just the morning and the afternoon with our leaders. The day started early at 9 AM. David Lam and I slept past our alarms as we barely checked out of our hotel room before 10 AM. As it was the last day in Japan, and true to how the trip has somewhat been for the last two weeks, this last day was fairly chaotic. We spent some time doing last-minute souvenir shopping and by God’s grace, we made it to the airport early, were able to make our connection, and arrived back home at IAD safely. The team was surprised as we were welcomed back with lots of familiar faces! And just like that, our short trip to Japan has concluded.

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Through God’s grace, a team of 12 was able to travel overseas and arrive safely back home despite the missionary graveyard that exists in Japan. I want to start by saying from the bottom of our hearts, thank you KCPC for allowing us to go on a trip to Japan to witness and see the mission field and visit our beloved missionaries’, Christina, David, and Rachel. The team is young, and although there were many risks in sending such a young team to the mission field overseas, thank you for allowing us to work with you all to make this vision trip a reality. Before the team has even left for Japan, we have been showered with so many prayers, hopes, and have received so much support despite being so undeserving of all of these. This trip would not have happened if it weren’t for our supporters, our families, the church congregation, the KCPC STM leadership, our pastors, our missionaries who are already in Japan, and most important of all, the good news that is the Gospel truth.

Our two-week trip has felt extremely long, almost as if we have resided in Japan for two whole months. The society in Japan is homogenous and strong, which can be immediately felt when residing in a high-context culture as a foreigner. As soon as we arrived, the team met and served two ministries each day. We have met so many faithful servants in churches and ministries with only a handful of members, it was evident that there was a huge need for more believers to reside and live in Japan. Our hearts ached, for the Japanese natives and the missionaries and their families. Throughout the trip, the team witnessed the struggles these small ministries face and heard the same prayer request over and over.

“We need more people.”

As the second-largest unreached country, nearly 125 million Japanese individuals will most likely live and die without ever hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The churches in Japan are in need of more laborers because only 0.3% of the population in Japan are evangelical Christians. There is also great darkness in Japan as 1 in 5,000 people commit suicide yearly, which amounts to 70 people committing suicide daily in Japan. With other factors such as Hikikomori (being withdrawn from society) and Karoshi (death by overwork), the churches in Japan are hopeful and desperate to share the Gospel news with the Japanese people.

It is extremely difficult to write a summary for this trip. We will be releasing a short documentary of our experiences soon! But in the meantime, please ask members of our team for more details about our testimony and how the trip has helped us discern our specific calling to love God and love one another. Praise God, as the harvest in Japan is plentiful, yet the laborers are so few. The team’s hope in the future is to return to Japan to help the churches over there, and we hope to bring as many people as we can with us.

If you would like to know how you can serve in Japan, or for more specific details on the trip and the ministries we have worked with, please don’t hesitate to contact us and fill out a prayer form here. We will continue to provide updates on our website and feature videos highlighting our trip and the ministries in Japan. Thank you for spending time reading this and please pray for the country of Japan.

Brendon