A New Friend In Japan

It's Saturday after Thanksgiving. I'm sitting at my in-laws in Pinckneyville, IL and in just a few hours we'll be having our second "Thanksgiving Dinner" of the holiday. I hear them down the hall in the kitchen chopping celery right now.

I got online to make some arrangements with our movers and found a wonderful e-mail from Jamie in Tokyo, Japan. His friend, in Augusta, has a link to this blog on his own blog and Jamie has been reading my posts here on The Odyssey.

He shared how he is preparing himself to be a tentmaker missionary in Tokyo and that the posts here on The Odyssey have been a blessing to him. He's coming home to Augusta for Christmas and wants to spend some time together. I'm really looking forward to meeting him!

Here are a couple of excerpts from his e-mail:

"I`ve been very encouraged by your posts. I`m currently living in Tokyo, Japan right now, with the aim of being a tentmaker missionary..."

"I don`t know if you`d have any time to talk about the ways God is changing your perspective on church and the body of Christ, but I`d be interested in discussing it."

"You`d think church would be radical over here, considering the miniscule number of them and the desperate need for real fellowship and communion in a place like this, but it`s pretty much the same `ole same `ole over here too."

"It`s been a breath of fresh air to hear your views and find them ringing true in my life and the lives of a few believers over here."

I've asked him to introduce himself here through a comment, so that every time I read comments and see him, I'll remember to pray for him and his Kingdom work in Tokyo. I want to invite everyone who reads this blog to watch for his introduction, read it, and then pray for him regularly. He's in a very difficult mission field where I think only about 1% of the population is Christian. But...what a great place for a missionary to be!

Bless you Jamie in all that God has in store for you in Japan. Dream big brother!