Equipping children for the harvest in Japan
CMS missionaries Adam and Helane Ramsay partner with a local church in Japan to grow disciples of Jesus, and develop children’s ministry resources. Here, Helane shares her desire to see the children and youth of Japan become the next generation of gospel workers.
“Imagine the pastor creation process as a stream.”
Japan’s pastor drought
Churches in Japan have a big problem. There aren’t enough pastors.
Many are old and want to retire. They can’t, because there are none to take their place. Many churches want to hire a pastor, but there is no one to apply for the position. Many pastors are overworked, doing fill-in preaching spots for other churches, and working part-time jobs to make ends meet.
Imagine the pastor creation process as a stream, with different people working in different positions along the way. At the top of the stream, churches are working hard to provide young people with opportunities to serve and grow in their knowledge of Jesus. Further downstream, ministries such as Samurai Projects1 and KGK are training young people, and helping them to see if they have passion and aptitude for ministry. Finally, near the river mouth of the stream, locals and missionaries at Bible colleges are preparing students for a life of ministry.
What we are trying to do is right at the very start of the stream. We are developing gospel centred resources and training for children’s ministry, so that kids can learn to live for Jesus now. Our prayer is that in twenty years, there will be more young people contemplating a life of ministry because they have been disciples from an early age.
Gospel and resource poor
In a gospel-poor context like Japan, finding sound biblical resources is a big issue. Recently, my team and I wrote a kids’ ministry lesson about Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey. I wanted to teach about Jesus the King, how he was received by the people, and how quickly he was crucified after his triumphal entry. But we kept getting hung up on the donkey, and struggled to keep Jesus at the centre of his own story!
As my colleagues searched online for more resources and commentary, everything they found was, once again, focused on the donkey. I found a commentary in my pastor’s office, hopeful that maybe this was what we needed. My pastor said, “It’s comprehensive, but a lot of it is legalistic”. Next I went to look for kids’ songs that fitted our teaching theme. There were none. If I were to search for ‘Bible crafts’ online in English, I would get millions of results. If I search for crafts based on the story in Japanese, there is less than a page.
The blessing of developing resources in a gospel-poor context is that there is a world of possibilities for creativity. We are blessed to work with dramatic, musical, faithful people who ove to come up with new songs, talks, pictures, maps, games, crafts, and more. We would love to see these resources shared through a network of gospel-centred and kids ministry-minded people. While creating new resources in Japanese is the goal, we are also currently translating existing English resources. Kidswise from Australia are excellent in reaching kids with gospel truth using all the different ways kids learn.
Last year, we translated lessons from Jonah for a Japanese summer camp. The leaders were very impressed by the quality of these lessons. Non-believers were able to pray using tools we provided, and Christian kids were able to reflect honestly on the state of their faith. Praise God for gospel resources!
Training gospel workers
All the resources in the world won’t help grow the church without workers for the harvest. We are training leaders at church to run and oversee children’s ministry, and to train other leaders. We are also mentoring leaders in other churches. One of them said recently, “I pass on all the things you teach me to the others I work with.” Praise God for multiplying ministry!
Praying for the end of the drought
As much as we see this ministry bearing fruit, we often can feel like our work can feel like a vapour or a morning mist. But we trust that God is at work. Can you imagine that in 20 years, no-one is talking about a pastor drought in Japan anymore? That Bible colleges and pulpits are full, and experienced pastors are turning towards church planting because their hands are freed up by the wealth of young pastors coming through?
Our desire is for children to be raised up and equipped as workers of the harvest, so that we may see a Japan that knows Jesus. Will you join in praying for this?
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Helane and her team want to see more gospel workers in Japan. Could you go to serve with them? Contact your CMS branch to learn more.
