異象引證 未得之民並不只在第三世界

從日本富山回港的Joyce和志基是最新加入當地宣教工場的成員，在他們短暫留港的日子，我們邀請了他們分享生命見證和事工發展。

異象引證 未得之民並不只在第三世界以往提到宣教工場，很多人會想到缺乏物質的一群:東南亞、非洲等地。說到日本，我們會想到高科技、潮流玩意和各式各樣的美食。但揭開繁華富裕的包裝紙後，我們看見的竟是一個個孤獨脆弱的心靈。

「到日本宣教的異象是在第一次短宣時領受的。地方是名古屋的ICBC教會。尚在初信階段的我，只是帶著嘗試和參與宣教的心而去，當時聽到石原良人牧師的分享，非常感動。一次隊員集會時，我在禱告中領受了圖畫：在大片的向日葵田野， 一邊的花朝向太陽而生，同時在另一邊的花正不斷枯死。在田中央有一個人在哭。神問我願不願意代表衪去愛日本—一個曾經侵略中國的國家，我便回應了神的呼召。」

志基在九年前始有宣教負擔。「我覺得香港人能回應宣教是一種福份。初時在教會中擔任實習組長、組長等職務，從中學習服事人，幾年後修讀SCM(細胞小組事奉訓練學院一年制神學課程)。在講啟示的一課，我們自由地彼此代禱，有四個不太認識的人分別向我說出啟示：去宣教、一對白鴿、足球小將和日本國旗。」收到這個特別的啓示，志基便決定到日本短宣時求神引證。「我希望自己喜歡日本人，享受服事他們。旅程的五天過去了，言語不通，完全不能服事，還以為自己收錯了神的訊息。也許又受到Beyond的歌影響， 總覺得應該去第三世界，再過一天，奇蹟出現了，一個日本女子幫我們翻譯，我非常高興，還向牧師借了車來學習駕駛。 在短宣完結前，還順利帶了一個日本人信主，我亦因此決定到這裡長宣。」

啟發生命 灌溉封閉心靈現時Joyce和志基服事的教會名為水橋聖書教會，由一位年青的牧師Joshua帶領，教會很強調接納的天國觀念，因此教會中有不同國籍的人，亦有各年齡階層，相對其他教會更有活力和創新。他們正融入多個小組：中國人、夫婦、職青等群體，更組織了專服事男士的小組。今年是首次在日本開辦事奉訓練課程，由Zoe(長宣隊隊長)主力教導，他們幫助帶領。在不時舉行的新朋友聚會，志基還會親自下廚。

問到事奉期間深刻的經歷，Joyce說在小組時曾見過一位情緒低落的姊妹，在敬拜時不斷哭泣。「但是當組員關心她的需要時，她卻始終不願剖白內心。她雖然已信主一段時間，但依然不能開放自己。」Joyce對此感奇怪，亦明白了日本人對內心感受的抑壓。「他們很需要愛和朋友，被欣賞和鼓勵。」她認識一位曾被上司否定及調職的姊妹，因受不了打擊，成為了「隱士」。

「隱士」是現在為人所熟識的「隱閉青年」一詞。在日本因無法面對經濟，人際關係問題而逃避的，不只是青年、成年人，甚至有的為人丈夫、父親。「有些父親一夜之間突然失蹤，杳無音訊，就這樣抛下自己的家庭，全無先兆。單單在我們教會中已有兩個例子，算是常見的現象。富山的拾荒者，部份是這些不想面對家人的中年漢。」

「年青一輩不懂和父母溝通，就算住在一起，也不會共聚晚餐，若有自立能力的話便會搬出。他們對婚姻和家庭失去信心，不想有下一代。所謂工作也多是兼職性質，金錢用作玩樂，花光了就再打工，沒有長遠的目標，因此將來日本會缺乏具備資歷的人材。隨著人口老化，令日本的經濟問題更加嚴重。」

但志基對此仍感樂觀。「可能是神給宣教士的禮物，年青人都願意與他們分享生命，可以很坦白地談及深入的話題，因此要影響他們的生命並不困難，只是沒有人和他們一起探索。」 二人同行 共渡困難時刻雖然日本似乎有很多為人熟悉的東西，但要學習適應新生活還是有困難的，夫婦二人一同宣教有什麼好處或難題呢？ 「初到陌生地方，語言、生活所需也要重新學習。人像是又盲又聾又跛。很多事情也需要別人照顧，因此心情有時很煩躁，令二人也有不快。但之後我們也決定用正面的態度面對，先安撫自己的情緒，冷靜分析問題所在。後來才發現是因為對新環境無安全感，反映了自我形象，渴望對方照顧自己，便向對方表達了無理的請求。現在再遇到了壞情緒，也會先叫自己先冷靜，保持鎮定，凡事以關係為先。「家人對宣教士的關顧也是非常重要，在非常時刻，Joyce就和一位在香港的姊妹保持聯繫，一起守望禱告。」

富山的天氣變化不定，溫差也大，由於現在住的屋子是一間夏天屋，冬天時非常冷。Joyce曾病得起不了床，咳得嘔吐起來，一些重要的教會活動也錯過了。他們給有興趣到日本宣教的朋友一點貼士：可先學好日語和考車牌，找一些小玩意來作一個抒發途徑，志基便捉了一隻小樹蛙當寵物，讓心情輕鬆下來，重新得力。

「二人總比一個人好。孤單時也有傾訴對象，可一起面對困難。」夫妻一同服事，是一份美好的禮物，也是給日本人最實在的見證。

「將僅有的給神，得到最大祝福的是我們。」 自歷史的因素，中國人也許沒有想過要愛日本人，或者如我們所知的，日本人一無所缺。但這個充斥了物質的社會，道德觀念在崩潰，人們內心無從可依，這也是一種貧窮。在香港，接觸福音的機會多不勝數，而日本正等著更多播種和牧養的工人，像富山這樣沒有福音的城市，在日本還有一千七百多個。

阿朗 記於07年3月1日（转载自CCMN网站）

Keep on praying for the church in Japan!

Dearly Beloved,

Calvary greetings from Mokpo in South Korea.

I missed writing for such a long time. I just realized it’s taken this long. I’m so sorry that it has been quite a while since you got my last update updated and newsletter. it’s been quite a busy and interesting time out here in the fields but one thing has always been outstanding all the way and that’s God’s faithfulness in both little and big things.

Praise Points

We saw God’s faithfulness in amazing ways in the 7weeks of our ministry in Japan. We were extensively involved in prayer mobilization for this spiritually needy country of Japan months before our arrival in may and through the whole time, we saw God at work in amazing ways via the various onboard programmes for school kids, Elderly people, pastor’s conferences, church visits, English conversation classes and the various friendship building programmes and several informal meeting and outings.

Praise the Lord for the people the came to know that Lord personally during the time we were there.

Praise the Lord for Students that were touched and affected in some ways by our lives and testimonies in the several campuses we visited.

Praise the Lord for the few Churches in Japan that were greatly encouraged and challenged to be excited about the Lord and challenged to be involved in reaching out for souls as well by our visit

I can go on and on God was all together faithful…thanks for praying with us.

Highlights

It’s really hard to single out an event to consider as the highlight because the whole time was basically awesome, even with what seem to be a lowlight we saw God at work.

Maybe I should talk about our two week A-team outreach in Osaka. That was one of the amazing times we had in Japan. It was such a great time of sharing not just the gospel but in a more practical way sharing the love of God via our lives as well. We saw lives impacted in significant ways as we build friendship with the youths in Osaka especially in students in Osaka University of Arts, Kansai Bible institute, English conversation classes and hanging out with some of them for a cup of coffee and in dinner fellowships.

Throughout our programmes we simply realized how much lonely and desperately needy Japanese people are spiritually, and how that God needs His people elsewhere to not just be deceived by the apparent “material prosperity” and neglect the crying realities that are causing over thirty thousand youths to commit suicide every year and several others too numerous than we can imaging, struggling with deep depression.

In summary God reminded us again that it’s all about Him and not about us…so just the little at our disposal-our little testimonies, time and wiliness…and the rest is trust and obey Him and for real He was faithful.

We learnt so much about how God could actually speak to the heart of people without even us doing the speaking…we had situations where we couldn’t communicate because of the language barrier but it was interesting how God reach out to these people anyway.. His love for sure is stronger that life and louder than human voice.

Prayer points.

Keep on praying for the church in Japan that believers will be bold to live for Jesus as many of then are afraid to talk about their faith to their friends and colleagues at work.

Pray that God will continue to work in the heart of the people who came to know Him via our ministry in Japan.

Pray for one of the young ladies that came to know the Lord via our ministry, whose cousin and close friend just committed suicide who also has a struggle with deep depressing always.

Thanks a lot for your partnership in the Gospel of our Lord in so many ways especially standing with us in the place of prayer. The place of prayer in mission is the heart of missions.

I’ll send the updates of our Korea visit latter thanks

God bless you and remain a blessing to your generation.

With you in His Service,

Richard