A Different Kind of Harvest

It seems like the pandemic stopped the whole world for the last three years. In some ways the Pandemic has slowed down the rest of the world so that Fukushima could catch up! Seeing empty rice fields along the Fukushima coastline in this beautiful Autumnal weather has reminded me of one simple but powerful truth. 

Nature never stops. 

Nature always rebounds. 

Nature reflects God's glory even after being tainted by human sins such as the Fukushima daiichi plant. After all, it is his creation. 

Fukushima now looks just like any other countryside in Japan, looking through the train window. JR Tohoku line finally opened and I am able to travel all the way to Tomioka from Tokyo without having to transfer to a bus near the disaster-stricken areas. 

Villages along paddy fields show signs of life. People must have returned and are growing food. It's been a while to see this iconic beauty of Japanese countryside, here in Fukushima, again. 

But there is also a different kind of harvest. Harvesting solar energy wherever the land does not seem to be good enough to produce food. A different kind of sign of life. 

A Church of Christ is a church of reconciliation

 (This is a revised manuscript of my message during the Dedication Service at Futaba Hope Church yesterday)

 

Thank you Rev. Sumiyoshi and Miwako san for your kind invitation for me to come to Fukushima on this special occasion.

I first met Rev. Sumiyoshi and Miwako san on April 20, 2011. He told me that he was looking for “theological meaning of this disaster.” I told him that I am a Korean and I had to come to Fukushima. Then he shook my hand and said, “Let’s work together.” Today I am seeing one result of his question before God and that is this church.

For the last 11 years I witnessed that Rev. Sumiyoshi is a theologian, a very special kind of theologian. He is not a theologian within the ivory tower but a barefoot theologian. He walks, rides his motorcycle and he travels everywhere to go serve people. He brings theological meaning out of ordinary people, from ground-up, not top-down.

I believe the 21st century’s gospel story for the future will come out of Fukushima, not only for the people of Fukushima but for the rest of world today.

When the Tohoku Disaster happened on March 11, 2011 I was briefly working as a researcher and teaching missions at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada. I came to Fukushima because of my friend, Midori, one month later in April.

Today I am so grateful to see two Korean missionaries living here. But 11 years ago it was very hard to find Koreans in Fukushima. Koreans were the first ones to leave Japan among all foreigners. Why?

But a few months later Koreans gradually came back to Japan and started showing up even in Fukushima. Volunteers and missionaries started to come and work.

We Koreans have a love-hate relationship with Japanese. But I learned by working with Midori, who is translating for me today, since 1995 in Bangladesh that in order for nations to be reconciled, it must start with two people from the bottom of their hearts before God. Reconciliation begins with the heart, not with a theory in the head. I experienced the same spirit of reconciliation with Rev. Sumiyoshi and Miwako san. By coming to Fukushima since 2011, I also learned the painful history of Japanese Christianity. And that we Korean Christians own much to Japanese Christians.

In these short few minutes, I would like to talk about the last 400 years of history. If you look at the Korean modern mission movement for the last 40 years, it seems like we Koreans are here to give and serve. But if you look deeper, we are here because we first received from your ancestors. We owe much to you. Thank you.

As you know Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded the Chosun Dynasty in the late 16^th century and many Koreans were brought to Japan as war slaves. That is also when Christianity began to grow exponentially in Japan, from Kushu to Hokkaido. If you know the history, the name, Fukushima, doesn’t just mean a Land of Happiness. It is the Land of Gospel.

There were over 2000 Korean Christians in Japan before the end of the 16^th century and the first Korean church was built in Nagasaki in 1610. That is more than 100 years before the first church was built in Korea. The first Korean martyrs in Japan gave their lives for Jesus in 1613 along with Japanese Christian martyrs. That is almost 200 years before the persecution of Christians began on the Korean peninsula. 

I share this with you because I know how important it is for Rev. Sumiyoshi and Miwako san that a true church is built on the blood of martyrs. His missional theology is found upon the faith of martyrs. My point is not whether Koreans owe to Japanese or visa versa. But we all owe to faithful Christians who gave their lives for Jesus regardless of nationality or race. 

All of us are here today to witness three things. First, we witness the power of God that is bigger than any disaster or human suffering. Second, we witness the power of hope in Christ that endures any hardship for today’s post-disaster Fukushima. And we witness the power of reconciliation in the Holy Spirit. May God bless this church to witness such power to this neighbourhood, Fukushima prefecture, and all over the world.

That is the gospel message the young generation are hungry for and non-Christians are eager to hear. I will go home to Canada from here with this hope of Easter from this church. Thank you.

 

Suzuki san emceeing the program. he donated his parents' home for the church

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Ladies are always busy preparing to feed the crowd!

Rev. Sumiyoshi sharing the brief history of the church 

Korean missionaries sharing their testimony and vision for Futaba 

Midori (left) and I (right) sharing the greetings

Christ of the Dispossessed

 

Joy Banks is a pastor, linocut print artist and art therapist based in Vancouver, Canada. She spent most of her childhood in Hokkaido which deeply influenced her art style. Joy has ministered at a local church that practiced radical hospitality to the homeless, poor and marginalized. During that time she often heard dispossessed people expressing their encounter with Jesus as Noah's ark where they can find protection. Out of all her artwork, Joy personally connects this piece most with people of Fukushima.

When I first looked at the image on the screen by Joy's recommendation, I was moved by what I saw. The power of Christ's open arms embracing powerless, dispossessed people resonated in me. After three flights and trains, and nearly thirty hours of travel, the linocut print made it to Fukushima, where the Jesus of suffering people welcome dispossessed returnees in this remote town, less than 10 miles south of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant. 

I came to Fukushima for the first time since the Pandemic, after my last visit here in March 2019. During my last visit, I did my little part to rebuild this house that was to become the first local church near the crippled nuclear power plant. Rev. Sumiyoshi obeyed the call from Jesus to follow him to the nuclear power plant soon after the disaster. And the result of his obedience is this church today 11 years later. 

Futaba Hope Church offers hope to the dispossessed by the love of Jesus with his wide-open arms. 

Midori, Shihoko and I came to attend the dedication service tomorrow and we were overjoyed by the beauty and warmth of the completed renovation project of the church. Rev. Sumiyoshi and his wife were overjoyed by the gift of artwork, alongside their new colleagues from Korea who now live in the church and minister in the neighbourhood.

Artworks: Christ of the Dispossessed (left) and Rising Son (right) by Joy Banks