Japan Archives - Page 2 of 2 - TEAM Christian Missions Blog

When Slow Business Brings People to God

For a missional coffee shop in Tokyo, slow business is a good thing. Photos by TEAM

Mar 15 2017

If SonRise Café were more concerned with making a profit, Taijo might not know Jesus today. That’s why the coffee shop’s director, TEAM missionary Steven Taylor, doesn’t even try to keep up with his fast-paced Tokyo competitors. “We’re more like a ministry pretending to be a business. … If we were as busy as Starbucks, we would never be able to get to know our customers and have time to build relationships,” Steven says. Step inside, and you’ll find delicious paninis, chiffon cakes and coffee drinks. But most days, those treats will be accompanied by English classes, a musical performance…

Nestled amidst Japanese maples and quiet creeks, the Karuizawa Retreat Center has been an enduring refuge for missionaries all over Asia. Photos courtesy of KRC

Jun 21 2016

When you arrive at the Karuizawa Retreat Center, it’s hard to believe you were in the largest city in the world just an hour ago. Trading the hustle and bustle of Tokyo for a gorgeous and quiet resort town feels odd at first, but as you take a deep breath of mountain pine and stare at the beautiful mountains, it’s easy to feel at home, even if it’s your first time visiting. Karuizawa is a small resort town known around Asia as a top destination for rest and refreshment. While it’s now known for hosting vacation homes of influential people…

Being a missionary isn't always an adventure. Sometimes it's just ordinary. TEAM worker Tori Jansson shares her candid thoughts on what it's like to be a missionary in the normal but beautiful everyday. Photo courtesy of Tori Jansson

Jun 13 2016

As a worker in Tokyo, I’m often asked, “What is a day in the life of a missionary?” Well, which day are we talking about, exactly? How about my first day training at SonRise Cafe? Or, our first month grocery shopping – trying to read Japanese labels to distinguish between sugar and salt, laundry detergent and bleach? What about Christmas time with a different outreach every week, sharing the Gospel at every turn? Or, the first time I was able to ask a train station worker for help in Japanese? That week we got to share our testimonies with 200 freshman high…

We don’t go through language learning to get to the “real ministry." Learning Japanese is ministry. Photo by TEAM

May 10 2016

There was a time God used a travel-size bottle of shampoo to connect me to language learning. In May 2015, my husband and I went on a vision trip to Japan. We were toward the beginning of our support raising process to be long-term missionaries there. During our stay in Tokyo, I ran out of shampoo, so I stopped at a local store by the train station to purchase some more. I found a small bottle and saw that the price tag in yen appeared to be roughly $1 USD. Not a bad price for travel shampoo I thought. Happily, I took my…

A short-term mission trip to Japan gave one couple vision for longer-term missionary service with a few plot twists along the way. Photo by TEAM

Jan 19 2016

It certainly wasn’t the first short-term trip I had taken. My husband and I knew before we were married that we wanted to be missionaries in Japan, as we had traveled there with our church and other organizations. Short-term ministry was nothing new to us, but on March 11, 2011, as we saw the tsunami hit Japan in one of the worst disasters the country ever experienced, we knew we had to go back and help. In our mind, we wanted to just go and aid the country we loved in their hour of need. What we didn’t know is that…

The Pagaragans work in Japan.

Jul 30 2015

Meet Team Kibou: Jeff, Kelly, Taylor, Bailey, Kendyl, Reagan, and Colson Pagaragan. Originally from Hawaii, they are a fun, bubbly family serving with TEAM in Japan. The Pagaragan’s vision is to “bring hope for the future to the unreached in Japan by spreading the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ everywhere.” In Japanese, “kibou” means hope or a belief grounded on substantial evidence. The Pagaragans are a perfect example of the hope of the gospel and grounded belief that comes from trusting Christ. Jeff and Kelly are in language training and will be working with the Tokyo Metro Ministry Initiative…

Along with other volunteers, Alecia planted wheat seeds into the soil after cleaning up the debris left behind by the tsunami floodwaters. Photo by Alecia Tallent.

Sep 16 2014

We asked Alecia Tallent, TEAM’s Global Ministries Administrative Assistant, to share about her experience on a short-term missions trip to Japan. Alecia and her husband went with TEAM Serve to provide relief work after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disasters. Even though it had been more than seven months since the disaster, debris still littered the coastline, and thousands of people still lived in temporary housing. TEAM had partnered with CRASH Japan, a relief organization, and we lived at one of the CRASH bases in Tono that was being run by TEAM missionaries Jim and Eileen Nielsen. The Nielsens…

Business builds community at TEAM's SonRise Café in Tokyo, Japan. Photo by Robert Johnson / TEAM

Mar 27 2014

We asked Doug Witzig, one of TEAM’s business-as-mission experts, to share his thoughts on current trends and challenges in the BAM movement. This column appears in the spring 2014 issue of Horizons magazine. By Doug Witzig “To do business in this country, you have to be like a wolf! But you are a missionary, a pastor, so you act like a sheep!” My friend and business partner was right to warn me before we launched a factory project using business-as-mission (BAM) strategies. I was a shepherd by training, concerned about the souls of the people I meet and wanting their…

A nativity scene in Japan beckons busy passersby to be still. Photo by Robert Johnson / TEAM

Dec 24 2013

Things are pretty quiet at the TEAM offices this week. As they should be. In a few days, the new year will arrive with a flurry and we will rush to meet it. There will be plenty of time for all that, later. For now, it’s time to be still. Today is the final moment of Advent, and we join with Christians around the world as they inhale and wait for the clock to strike midnight, so we can all shout: Joy to the world! Merry Christmas, from the staff and missionaries of TEAM.

Men pray at a shrine in Japan. For Japanese Christians, choosing not to pray to the dead at a funeral can be a defining moment. Photo by Robert Johnson / TEAM

Oct 10 2013

In Japan, the moment of truth for a Christian often comes during a funeral. At Buddhist funerals — which constitute around 90 percent of them in Japan — the custom is for mourners to pay their respects by bowing before the deceased and offering up a prayer to the dead, often along with some incense. When it comes to Christianity in Japan, that practice poses a big problem. Most Japanese Christians stop praying to the dead and other spirits when they start following Jesus. According to Stella Cox, a longtime TEAM missionary in Japan, funerals are often big social events…

Tag - Japan

When Slow Business Brings People to God

A Blessing for Missionaries Becomes a Ministry

A Day in the Life of a Missionary

Why I’m Learning One of the Hardest Languages in the World

A Short-Term Mission Trip to Japan Changed My Life

Photo Journal: Japan

Planting the Seeds of Love

Not Just Business

Be Still

Christianity in Japan: Take A Bow? Believers Say No Thanks