Stories and takeaways from the 4-Day Mino Outreach:

Takeaways

• Lifestyle evangelism is key
• Live life intentionally engage with everyone around you, being full of grace love, but also direct upfront about why you are there
• Homes of Peace
• Shops and small restaurants (esp. family owned ones) can often be places of peace. When we enter them and engage in conversation with the owners or workers, we explained our desire to share the free love of Jesus to people and also our desire to pray the Lord's peace and blessing over them and their shop 
• Bless them through buying their wares and eating their food (“eat what is put before you”) 
• Ask them for recommendations to other shops/restaurants or spiritually interested people (this becomes connections to others in town) 
• This may also be an existing believer's home (like the one in the nearby city that we stayed in for the 4 days ) through whom we are able to freely work 
• in addition to proclaiming peace over their home, seek to bless them as much as possible 
• Take time to Heal 
• Through praying for physical healing 
• Through ministering to past hurts (on several occasions we helped to heal damaged that JWs had done) 
• Share the gospel in the first or second encounter, but be prepared to only greet and bless in the second or third encounter, allowing them to re-initiate the previous conversation 
• this is especially important if the JWs have been around a lot since they will push and push upon people 
• Be prepared for spiritual warfare and resistance

Stories

• Takoyaki Shop 
• One the first day, I and my gospeling partner stopped at a Takoyaki shop (for those who don’t know, “takoyaki” are a traditional Japanese food (like pancake batter made into little round balls with octopus inside and special sauce and toppings on top)). It was a family run shop and we came on a slow day so we were able to talk to the owner for several hours. He was very talkative. From early in the conversation we shared our reason for being in Mino (it is a tourist town so ours was a unique reason for being there) and I shared my testimony and a simple gospel. We asked him if he had heard this before and he said he had, from JWs (Jehovah’s Witnesses). As the conversation continued he had lots of questions about the difference between us and the JWs and through that we got to explain more of the gospel. 

• The next day at lunch time I returned to the shop with a different gospeling partner. By God’s grace we came at a slow day again and this time the owner’s father and mother were present as well as a family friend and we naturally were able to continue conversation from the day before. This time, having most of his questions about JWs versus us, we were able to share more directly about the gospel and Jesus. It was fun to see and hear their reactions to when we shared that the gospel of Jesus is free. In particular they were impressed that we offered the gospel freely. We realized that there had been a lot of damage done by JWs which, like many cults pedals the gospel for money. They were shocked to hear that many Christians will perform a funeral for free (not counting the actual burial costs). As we shared testimonies and truths, the family friend suddenly commented saying, “What a wonderful religion!”

• Before leaving we offer prayer for peace and blessing over their shop with they gratefully received. We also asked if we could pray healing for any one of them. The owner excitedly (half seriously and half in a silly mood) said, “Yea! My younger brother’s (who had joined us by then) stomach is not good. Oh! And I have some neck pain. Oh! And mom’s leg is not good. She needs prayer for her leg!” =D They gathered around us ready to receive prayer, asking us, “how does it work? And how long does it take to get better?” ,etc. We explained that the timing is up to God and that there is also such a thing as old age which is part of our broken world. Then we prayed in Jesus’ Name for the ailments. Afterward, I asked if anything had changed. The younger brother said it was too soon to tell. When we asked their mother, she stood up from her chair to check and everyone exclaimed, “Whoa! She’s better!” She found that her limp had disappeared, although it wasn’t completely better.

• I’ve since, gone back several times and while I haven’t had the same kind of deep conversations due to the shop being busier, I’m still welcomed and the mother even encouraged me to keep sharing with her son!

• Yasukazu 
• On the second day, I and my gospeling partner were walking around, asking the Lord to direct us to the right people, we both noticed a young man walking past a Pachinko (gambling) building. We both felt drawn to him so my partner actually called out to him to get his attention. When he stopped and inquired what we wanted, my partner said that it was his first time to visit Mino and that we were there looking for people with whom to share about the amazing and free love of Jesus to. He shared that he had found that not too many Japanese knew about Jesus or about what He had done for them. In this way he alluded to and shared small bits of the gospel. After conversing for a little while, we asked him if he was interested in knowing more about this Jesus, and he said he was! We asked if he had time right then and he said he had about 30 minutes. So, not finding a place to sit down, we stood off to the side and shared the gospel in more detail, using a gospel presentation called the 3 Circles. Following this we asked him if this was something he wanted (following Jesus) and he said he did! We took him to Romans 10:9 and explained how he could do just that. Follow this, we took the remaining minutes we had left to reiterate that it was not about doing or not doing as much as it was following Jesus, and explained the importance of meeting together to learn how to follow Jesus better. I got his contact info and gave him mine and tried to set up a time to meet but he was unsure of when would be good. Then we blessed him and let him go as he had to get going. But before he left he gave us a hug (very unusual for Japanese and even more so in the country) and thanked us several times for sharing with him. He also shared how he wanted to share this with his family! 

• Unfortunately, I must have written his number down wrong and haven’t been able to get ahold of him. I’m praying for God to re-connect him and that his faith would prove to be genuine.

• Spiritual Opposition 
• On the first day, one of the gospeling pairs found themselves at a small family run restaurant in which only the owner and her son were present. They were warmly welcomed and prayer gratefully received by the owner. The son even offered to make a side dish on the house for them. They were able to share quite a bit with him and towards the end he was eagerly listening and gratefully received a Bible. He also said that he wanted to know more and asked them to come back. 

• However, without feeling free to share more detail, that open door was closed to them and we were asked by the owner (privately) to please not come back and please not contact or talk to her son.

• Based on details I don’t feel free to share, we strongly sensed that the Enemy had a strong hold over that home and was systematically destroying it (in business, health, relationship, etc.)

• Our prayer is that the Gospel that the son heard would take root, and that he would read the Bible and receive Christ as his Savior. And that through his transformed life, his mother would see the truth of the gospel and that I (since I met them briefly and am the only one of our team living near Mino) would be welcomed back to share more.

• Crazy God Connections 
• On the last day, I and my Japanese partner, went back to some of the previous shops that had welcomed us and our message. There was one shop that previously he had gone to and though able to share the gospel, was not received and saw that the man was closed to the gospel. We went the the shop next to it only to find out that it was run by that man’s wife! As we talked with her, we discovered that her daughter not only lives in the same town that I had grown up in, Higashi-Kurume, (in Tokyo) and that she lives within a couple minute walk from my parents, but also that she is sending her daughter to a Christian preschool! Then it got crazier as we discovered that this woman’s daughter (the one living in Tokyo) had gone to school in the same town that my partner had grown up in! We mentioned to her that these things couldn’t be mere coincidence but that God had brought us together, and she agreed. She received prayer from us for her and her shop and having gotten a recommendation from her of a good place to eat, we went on our way. (Because of that recommendation, we were able to share my testimony and the gospel with the wife of that restaurant owner and pray over her and her shop as well!). 

• I came back a week later to this same shop and asked how here visit to see her daughter in Tokyo had gone. She shared how she had gone to her granddaughter’s preschool Christmas pageant and what it was like. From that we talked about Christmas and I asked if she knew the reason why Jesus, who was God Himself, chose to be born at Christmas. She then let me share the gospel with her. I was encouraged when, even when her husband called her from the other shop, she asked him to wait and then beckoned for me to continue! She then confessed to me that she was “soft toward Jesus” but that her husband “needed to be softened”. She said she would pick up a Bible that she had from time to time and read. Furthermore, all 3 of her daughters had been married in a church in a “Christian” style wedding and the hospice her son works at often has a pastor come to visit. God is surrounding this family with Himself!

• Coffee Shop 
• One of the gospeling pairs had stopped at a Coffee Shop and had some good conversations with the owner. They learned from her that when the JWs came around they only came to homes and never into the shops. Meaning that they only came to “sell” and never to “buy”. So it was neat that God had specifically led us to do differently and that we sought to not only bless each place through prayer but also to bless them through buying from them and introducing each other to such places as well. 

• On the last day of our time one of our partners brought me to the place to meet the owner (and of course enjoy the coffee (which was made in a syphon and was very good!)). Since prior partners had already shared some with her and she knew who we were and why were there, we felt from the Lord that we were to simply come, drink her coffee, have casual conversation and leave (leaving it up to her to initiate spiritual conversation). Since then, I’ve gone back twice (once a week) and each time she has initiated spiritual conversation or asking me questions about what I do or if I was continuing to share about Jesus in Mino in my follow-up trips there. I am thankful for how God is leading this connection as well as the others.

And more, but these were my highlights! =D