Being Missional: Shining the Light in the Darkness

April 11, 2018 - Minami Soma

Back to Fukushima this year, alone with Midori. I miss coming with a team of people to encourage the forgotten people of Fukushima, but I am also enjoying this opportunity for me to sit with pastors and their church members leisurely and to listen (through Midori’s careful translation, for which I am forever grateful!) to their stories unhurriedly.

After my very first visit in 2011, this is only the second time to visit Fukushima in April as my annual visits had taken place in March in the previous years. Though most cherry blossoms have already ended in most parts of Fukushima, the colorful spring blossoms seem piercingly beautiful in contrast to the bags of topsoil piled high in the fields. 

Abandoned area

Empty field after topsoil was removed.

Recently cultivated area after topsoil was removed.

A little over 100 km distance took us over three hours to arrive in Minami Soma from Nakoso by train, bus and then train due to the high level of radiation still found around the Daiichi nuclear plant. As Midori and I were walking around the town to find a place to get some simple lunch, we discovered the town still looked pretty much like a ghost town, like a couple years ago when we stayed overnight. Not a single human-being walking on the sidewalks, and only cars pass by occasionally in the midday small town traffic.

“Yanagisawa san!” The front window rolled down from a car across the street, and the familiar face smiled at us. Mrs. Ishiguro waved at us as she slowed down the car to wait for us to get in. “No one walks in this area, so I was curious when I saw two ladies walking from a distance, and then I realized I knew the familiar faces!” She took us to a recently open store where we could buy hot lunch boxes and rushed to their house, which is also their church, Haramachi Bible Church.

“What things have been happening lately since we saw you last year?” I asked as we didn’t want to waste any time during our short visit before making the long train-bus-train journey back to Nakoso in the evening.

“We started an Ayako Miura book club that meets once a month at the public library in the town centre.” They meet at the public library to make it non-Christian friendly after a failed attempt to start it in the church. 7-11 people showed up so far each month and 20 some people showed up when they held a seminar with a literature expert as a guest speaker.

“Ayako Miura (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayako_Miura) is a famous Japanese female novelist, whose works convey a biblical worldview that is well understood by ordinary Japanese people. We want to serve our neighbours by creating a social event like this because there are very few opportunities to enjoy culture or entertainment for a quality time here,” said the newly ordained Rev. Ishiguro (Rev. Ishiguro’s wife) spoke to us with her great big smile.

 The church is also trying to have an open church occasionally by holding more seeker-friendly services. They want the church to be a non-threatening, friendly place where people can come and find friends.

Minami Soma is a rapidly aging city because most young families left after the disaster. The city was under a voluntary evacuation order soon after the disaster and many who evacuated during that time have not come back. This house-church run by a husband-wife pastoral team had two lonely years right after the disaster when the Sunday service meant only the two of them to worship. But now the church has been steadily growing in the last few years and now they are trying to meet the needs of the neighbors by holding public events.

Rev. Ishiguro in front of the public library

This is a church that knows her mission to be present and shine Christ’s light in the darkness.