Christians at TUFS

Sorry for the delay between my previous post and this one; it's surprising how busy my week has been. To continue where I left off in my last post, we gave (quite numerous) self-introductions (自己紹介) last week in class. Firstly, the basic name-country-areaofstudy. On another occasion, a written version of around 800 characters long in the form of our first writing task. Yet another time, we gave introductions - this time of someone else in the class - and we took turns presenting what we learned about the other person in front of the class as a listening comprehension exercise. We did so many types of self- and others-introductions, that our final teacher last week (five of them take turns teaching us each week) ran out of different methods to introduce ourselves.

If this post was merely me venting about how many times I had to mention I was from Australia last week, it would be about as interesting as sitting through all our class self-introductions (that is, somewhat interesting). However, what makes this post worth writing, is one particular introduction given by another Christian in my class.

I was asked quite early on to introduce myself, and I gave the usual country-subject-family-hobby-etc.; stuff which you'd usually expect first time round. After all, everyone else in the class followed the same pattern - everyone else, except one Ukranian girl. Before she gave her self-introduction, I had no idea she was a Christian (whilst she had no idea that I was also, even after I introduced myself). Her level of Japanese at the time was a long way off from proficient, but even as she struggled to express herself in a language yet foreign to her, she was determined to let the class know that Jesus was the most important person in her life. Not surprisingly, the teacher evaded the topic altogether, choosing not to inquire further about her belief despite asking further questions on everything else she mentioned in her self-introduction. But I was certainly humbled and encouraged at the same time, from realising that it didn't even occur to me to mention my faith when introducing myself for the first time, whilst for her it was such a natural thing to openly voice the value of her faith.

Even though I've been studying Japanese for six years and been a Christian for many more, only last week did I realise that it has not occurred to me even once in that time to mention I was a Christian in a self-introduction. All I've been absorbed in was how to make my speech funny, how to make it unique, what would help people remember me, when all along I neglected to mention what was most important to me! Yes, it's true that it probably never naturally occurred to any (or at least most) of my fellow foreign language learning friends back in Australia to mention their faith either, but I wonder if we should consider that acceptable. Does it reflect our new identity in Christ (2Co 5:17)? Does it reflect the value of our faith (1Pe 1:7)? Do others see a person changed by the knowledge of Jesus Christ (2Pe 1:3)? I was so absorbed in figuring out what made me stand out that I overlooked my most basic characteristic - my identity in Christ. Thanks be to God for first answering my prayers made in Australia to bring Christians into my life. When I prayed that, I did not expect to meet another Christian in a class of 8 people, but it goes to show that God indeed looks after His people (Rom 8:28).

The answer to my prayers doesn't end there! Speaking of God exceeding our expectations, the Ukranian girl I met in my class was one out of many Christians I subsequently met. In our Monbukagakusho scholarship cohort of less than 60 people, so far I've met (aside from the Ukranian girl) two Christians from Bulgaria, two from Thailand, two from Singapore, and one (so far) from Korea. That's over 10%, in comparison to Japan's national Christian population of less than 1%! Praise God!

With the number of Christians on the campus I'll be studying at this year, we could plant our own local church. But praise again goes to God, because we don't need to - there are already two churches in our locale - Tama Church, in the photo below, named after our suburb, and Fuchu Calvary Gospel church. I've attended the former for the past two Sundays, and in that time I've learned that they teach reformed Protestant theology; in other words, the church service style and preaching are just like ALLC - only that it's conducted in Japanese. The latter, however, is an English-speaking church, which I found out about from the two Singaporean Christians who attended it on the first Sunday. I've been told by those who have attended their service that their style of service is more "contemporary", though I can't comment beyond that since I haven't been there (which is also why I haven't taken a photo). I'm more than content with regularly attending Tama Church so far though. God is good.

Having said that I've met so many Christians, the only thing I'm certain of is that they have been Christian up until this point. Upon first impression they are all amazingly eager to continue growing in their faith and staying in touch with the Christian community in Japan, for which praise goes to God, but time will tell how this culture shift will affect our Christian faith. Speaking for myself, I've been faced with many temptations already during my time here of a different nature to that which I had to deal with back in Australia which have tested my faith and love for Christ, and I can't say it's been easy. One thing I haven't been mistaken about prior to coming to Japan was that I can't take my faith in Christ for granted here. If it weren't for the prayers of all those back in Australia, and God's grace made effective in my life through all your prayers, I wouldn't last long at all. So thank you to those who have been praying for me, and special thanks to +Jas Lau for this elephant candle, to remind me to never forget, as an elephant never forgets, that there are people praying for me back home, and also to remind me that God has made me a light to shine in the darkness (Php 2:13-16). Thanks also to others who have given me small gifts of memorabilia to remember both my family of God back in Australia, as well as the God who unites and sustain us; I will showcase them over the weeks to come.