This was the title of my first Japanese message (based on Luke 8:4-15) that I preached recently at my home church here in Japan. I didn't preach just once but TWICE in one morning. I was glad to see that my first Japanese teacher came.In preparing for the message, I thought about Japan's historical resistance to the gospel in view of Jesus' parable of different responses to the Word. Despite the fact that the first missionaries came in 1549, still only less than 1% of the Japanese population is Christian. There have been pockets of revival, but still the gospel has yet to produce 100-fold fruit due to past physical persecution, societal pressure, and modern materialism that tries to choke out spiritual desire. However, there is strong conviction that God will visit Japan with an unprecedented move of His grace and truth.
The same weekend that I preached, our ministry team held our annual campus ministry training seminar. It was quite encouraging to see the college students taking leadership—over 80 people participated over the 2-day event. By reaching the young people who are most open to the gospel in Japan, the seed of the gospel is spreading and growing. In my 3 years here, 1 university church and 11 new campus ministries have been started, and they have been started by students and churches. In 2003, I began to believe God for 10 new campus ministries and 2 university churches (one is in the making), and He has answered that prayer!
