We are thanking God that in spite of its quickness, He has worked through us to reshape the church culture in Tokyo and to make visible contributions to the community of believers in the city.

Before I share some of the things that we have accomplished or planned, I want to share some praises.

First of all, Amy applied to get a spousal visa in order to stay in Japan longer than three months, which is the period allotted to visitors with tourist visa status. We have known many missionaries who have raised full support yet could not serve in their country of calling due to not being able to attain a visa. Amy and I went to the Immigration Bureau of Japan on Tuesday, and we were told that we would receive a response within the next three months indicating whether she can attain this status or not. However, two days later, we received a letter from them with her new visa. We were thrilled to see God work in a way that was unheard of, and we’re encouraged to see God pave the way for us to stay in the country and continue the work of the Gospel.

We are also grateful that through the ministry God has given us, He is motivating different people to move to the center city area of Tokyo so that they can work with us closely to spread the word of the Gospel and establish growing Christian communities around the city. One of these people is Nohara Tomizawa, who attended WOLBI when I used to teach there. She lives in Gunma Prefecture, but she is moving to Tokyo this month so that she can assist our ministry and meet the spiritual needs of our community. Please pray for her as she looks for a new part-time job and a place to live since we cannot afford to pay her with our financial situation. We also have few more members and friends who are contemplating moving closer to our church so that they can help us build community. Some of them commute two hours each way to attend our church weekly. They are truly committed to the values and vision of our ministry, and we would like to see them find a job closer to us.

We are also thankful to God for providing Adam Yoder and Paul Mackey as interns for us during this summer. They are both currently studying at WOLBI and interested in working with us in the future in one capacity or another. It would be a blessing to be reconnected to them and to serve together for the spiritual growth of God’s kingdom in Japan. If you are interested in supporting them, please let us know.

Now, let me share some of the things that we have been doing over the last month and a half.

So far, we have:

1. Started publishing daily mobile devotionals in Japanese for people in the city. Currently we have over 50 subscribers, and we are planning on promoting it more publicly in the near future. The purpose of this project is to introduce a foundational biblical worldview from the Scriptures, so that the subscribers can reflect on God’s reality and live according to that reality by faith. We are receiving a lot of positive feedback from various Japanese-speaking people around the world, so we are excited about how it is being used by God. Our goal is to keep editing it so that by 2012 we can publish it in a printed edition.

2. Reorganized the entire ministry structure and leadership of our church. We did this to make the organization more structured but also to create a better environment to train the next generation of leaders and mentors. Now, as we are moving forward with our new structure, people are held more accountable to others. This structure also allows me to delegate more responsibilities to other trustworthy men and women. Starting next month, we will be training all the leaders with our values and vision so that people can understand how their ministry to going to influence the body of Christ in order to bring greater glory to God.

3. Moved our church to start a new nursery and a kids program in order to attract new families. Our church is very unique in a sense that we don’t have a lot of older people. Most of the people are in the 20s-30s without kids. So, naturally, the church never invested money or people to start programs for children. Since Amy and I have started to work with our current community, we knew from the beginning that we need to change this so that we can become a place where families can come and grow in God’s grace. We are currently recruiting new workers who would be willing to be in charge of these programs, and I am trying to introduce a new budget plan to meet the needs of the children.

4. Started working on our church Web site. We still don’t have all the money to complete the entire project, but we cannot wait too long, so we decided to divide the project into several phases and at least work on the main page. My brother, Shin Kato, who used to work for Yahoo in Japan, is setting aside his regular job for two months in order to help us with this major project (check the previous post for details). He and his wife just had a baby last year so his willingness to rely on God’s provision through people’s support was a huge spiritual decision for them. If you can financially contribute to assist our project, please get in touch with us. I know it will bless my brother and his wife (and their baby), and bring more seekers and believers to our community. Having a fund-raising event for our ministry might also be a great way to revitalize missions in your church or your family.

5. Amy started to attend a short-term Japanese class three times a week. She has made many friends so far and even ended up becoming a paid English tutor to one of the fellow students, who is from is Pakistan.

6. We are starting a new Bible study for seekers next month. We need to be more intelligent in how we explain the truth with love to those who commonly reject the idea of a personal and moral God. So by all means, we are going to engage with a person’s intellectual questions (what we might call rational apologetics). But we equally recognize the need for relational apologetics. We need to show people that it’s good to live under God’s reign who is personal and moral (Deuteronomy 4:5-8). As Blaise Pascal put it, we need to make people want to believe our message before we can persuade them that our message is true.

7. Accomplished many other obligatory behind-the-scene type things that were time consuming but too tedious to mention here.

It is truly astonishing how much work is required to run a growing church community by ourselves. Every week, I am investing somewhere around 20 hours to write my sermons, starting with translating the texts directly from the original languages to Japanese, and another 20 hours on the content of the mobile devotionals. Once you start adding other meetings with different group leaders, administrative staffs, editors and spiritual seekers and more, it is somewhat understandable how the time flew by so quickly.

Please pray for us as we are stretched thin physically and mentally for the ministry of the Gospel, so that the life that Christ gives may be displayed clearly to those we serve. We love what we are doing because as we spread the knowledge of God, His grace is being experienced by more Japanese people, causing thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. Spiritually, we are encouraged and far from being burnt out. But physically and mentally it feels overwhelming at times.

Currently I am preaching through the book of 2 Corinthians. And as I prepare my sermons, I am totally blown away by how committed Paul was to the glory of God. Paul was not interested in promoting himself or his ministry (3:1, 4; 4:5). He was often misunderstood and attacked by those whom he loved (2:4-11). Yet he willingly became like their slave (4:5). As result, he was constantly in danger of physically dying like Christ (4:10). He was pressed on every side by troubles; he was persecuted and knocked down at times (4:8-9). One might wonder what kept this man going? He endured all of those things for their sake, so that they may experience the grace and life that God provides through their faith in the Gospel. He endured all things for their sake, so that the grace that was including more and more people might cause thanksgiving to increase to the glory of God (4:15). What we experience as missionaries is nothing close to what Paul endured for the sake of the Corinthians. Yet we resonate with his ministry because we are willing to endure hardship and stress so that the life of Jesus may be visible in our body for the sake of Japanese believers. That is what keeps us going.

Please pray for the following requests as we continue to work with you to bring more people from Tokyo into the Body of Christ.

1. I personally need a secretary who can take care of editing, printing, communicating, and scheduling for me. Currently I am doing most of the work that anyone (who can natively read and speak Japanese) can do. It really prevents me from corresponding with key partners more frequently and taking care of other important tasks.

2. Pray that God will provide other like-minded full-time workers who are culturally relevant and professionally competent.

3. Please keep Amy in prayer as she will start working twice a week at a local Japanese nursery next month in order to build up her credentials and also to make more contacts with non-Christian people. Amy will be playing a huge role in one of the new ministries we are planning, which involves teaching English to unchurched pre-schoolers and their mothers. She will continue her language training during this time.

4. Please continue to pray for our financial needs. The value of our support from the U.S. still remains low. God is using this time of financial stress to grow our dependence on Him, but it would be nice to be able to solely focus on our ministry and not be forced to make difficult financial choices due to a lack of funding. If you are not yet a regular giver and would like to join the team, please fill in the regular giving form and become our quality ministry partner!

5. Please pray for workers with media/graphic designing skills. As we are starting to publish more resources, we need to package them professionally to make them appealing to those living in Tokyo. We need creative people who can design and promote our resources professionally in order to increase the effectiveness of our work. We are also looking for someone who can host a mirror site of our website in the US. That will definitely speed up the loading time of this site for those who live in the US.

Thanks for reading our rather lengthy update. I will try to update more frequently in the future, as originally planned.

One of my favorite authors from my childhood, Robert Louis Stevenson, once said, “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant.” With this mentality that echoes the spirit of the Bible, and through your prayers and support, we will continue to strive to spread the knowledge of God effectively in Tokyo as God wills. Thank you so much for your involvement. We wish all of you could come and see what God is doing through your generosity and prayer support. If you ever get a chance to visit Tokyo, please come and visit us. God bless.

P.S. We are still raising funds for the special projects mentioned on the last post. If you can help us out with any of them, please let us know by email.

I cannot believe my time in Tokyo is almost over. It was one of the shortest summers that I have spent (being busy with setting up our ministry and spending time with key people) and simultaneously one of the longest ones (being away from my wife, Amy). Let me give you a final update before I leave Tokyo this coming Sunday.

Two Sundays ago, I spoke from Romans 12, addressing how God builds His Body. The first verse encourages believers to present their bodies (plural) as a living sacrifice (singular), holy and acceptable to God, which is our most reasonable and spiritual response to God’s saving grace. Paul’s emphasis is not “doing” something for God but rather “being” something for God. According to Paul, what God considers to be holy and acceptable is not individuals independently dedicating their lives to God. While our personal dedication to God is good, this passage does not teach that concept. Rather, it teaches that we are to be a collective offering – believers coming together and being built up as one sacrifice offered to God.

But how can we become a collective living sacrifice when that is not natural to our regular way to thinking? Paul says God never intended us to do it with our own effort. If we rely on our own effort, the best we can do is to allow the world to change us. The biblical answer is to let God do the job of transforming us by renewing our collective mind. If we try to accomplish God’s supernatural work with our own effort, we cease to be holy, or set apart, from the world. But God’s transforming grace allows the body of Christ to be able to discern and approve God’s will. This chapter teaches that God’s good, acceptable, and perfect will is for us to live a connected life to the Body of Christ, using our gifts to increase its effectiveness, and to demonstrate our unity by practicing unconditional love and acceptance toward all men, being committed to one another for the long haul. Again, in this passage, the idea of “being” the church is emphasized, not simply “doing” it.

Last week I spoke from Colossians 3. In this chapter, Paul teaches about what it looks like to have a Heaven-focused community life based on Christ’s accomplishments. Skipping to v. 12 and the following, Paul encourages his readers to put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, and Christ-like forgiveness. Some might notice that these virtues do not need to be shown to God but only to other people who are imperfect. Paul caps this by saying, “And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful” (vv. 14-15). Paul does not teach that our goal is to be one body. He says we were called in one body in order to experience the ruling peace of Christ within the Body. In order to achieve this peace and unity in spite of our diversity, we must recognize that our ultimate motivation must be love, which is the only virtue mentioned in this section that can be shown both to God and men.

But how can we demonstrate these virtues and allow Christ’s peace to rule in our hearts? Once again, it can happen by allowing God to do it for us. Paul previously prayed for the Colossians to “be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might,” so that they may have “all endurance and patience with joy” in spite of the mess that people may cause within the Body (Col 1:11).

I have been very thrilled and satisfied as many of the members at our church are positively responding to these truths, wanting to be changed to make a difference collectively in Tokyo.

Besides preaching, I have been spending at least three days a week meeting with key people in the church and outside of the church to solidify our commitment to be a value-driven church that can effectively and attractively reach the people in the city. I have also been sharing the Gospel with three different unsaved individuals. While each case started out with casual conversations, we ended up spending hours talking about the cross and the worldview that the Bible teaches. One of them, Mr. Sato, asked me to spend another evening with him to share more about the Gospel.

They are being stirred by the truths they heard from the Bible, and I promised to continue our conversations when Amy and I return to Tokyo (hopefully very soon). The more I share the Gospel with Japanese people, the more I understand how to do it more effectively. Maybe I will share some of my thoughts on how do it in one of my future posts, but for now it is encouraging to know that I am speaking their “language,” which is something many missionaries and pastors have not been able to figure out yet.

I have also attended different cultural centers and events, trying to see how to be the church to those who live in Tokyo. For example, I attended a huge block party in the Shibuya district last week, where I enjoyed meeting new unsaved people (most of them being somewhere between the age of 18-40) and thinking how to reach them effectively with the Gospel of Christ. I have also spent a lot of time with internationally accomplished artists that are committed believers, asking them to partner with us in our future ministries. Instead of waiting for people to come to church, I am going out to where the lost people are and actively seeking forms that would be relevant. I’ll share more about these ideas later.

Additionally, I have been prayerfully approaching several members in the church asking them to consider being discipled by me for the next 7 years. I am committed to impart everything that I was entrusted with by those who discipled me to these capable young men. I would also train them to be able to take spiritual leadership within the church so that eventually we can start multiple sister churches in the city as God permits.

Please continue to pray for us. We are very passionate about sharing the Gospel with the lost in Tokyo and providing them with excellently made resources to help them grow in the city. Also, we covet your prayers for my mother, who is moving to the final stage of her battle with cancer. Now her pain prevents her from walking to the closest grocery store. It causes us great pain as we see her health deteriorate rapidly before our eyes, especially because we remember her as someone who tirelessly served the Lord over the years. She is still spiritually focused and constantly looking for new ways for us to raise our full support. We thank God for His work in her life, and we would like to be back in Tokyo with full support before she passes away.

After spending this summer here, I can finally visualize how Amy and I may be able to realistically impact the city with the Gospel of Christ. It has given us a clear understanding on what needs to be done in order to keep the movement of Jesus alive for the next 20 years (reminder: the average age of pastors in Japan today is 70).

Therefore, partner with us through regular giving today and be part of this great ministry that is changing people’s lives daily. Please pray to God and ask Him to give you a renewed passion for the lost. If you are personally incapable to partner with us financially, let’s be creative and share about us to your friends or small group that might be able to assist us. We need additional $4,000 monthly commitment before we can return to Japan. Our target date is sometime during the second week of November, which is also the time my visa runs out to be in the US. Over 600 people visit our website weekly. If each person can contribute $7 per month towards this cause starting this month, we can be in Tokyo before November. One person cannot do everything. But everybody can do something, and that small something can change the world we live in. Our next update will most likely be from the state of Ohio. If you are in the area, please let us know. Thanks again for reading.

Well, lasting change does not happen overnight. What Japanese people need today is not money, but committed people who can effectively minister to them with God’s Word and encourage their faith. This begins with time and a commitment to build Christ-centered relationships within a community – a job that continues through one’s lifetime.  By financially partnering with Kazu and Amy through regular giving, you can make this happen. With your partnership, you can enable us to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those living in Tokyo, teaching them how to embrace God’s transforming grace in their hearts.

This is where the coffee comes in.  Many of us drink coffee regularly to keep us going, and something as simple as giving up one of those cups once a week will help keep our ministry in Japan going. Regular giving means donating to Fellowship International Mission on an ongoing basis – bi-weekly, monthly or quarterly – to ensure that we can continually do God’s work effectively in one of the most spiritually deprived cities in the world.

Regular giving is so important because it’s an income we can depend on. If we know that the money is coming in, we can minister to people with confidence, knowing that we do not have to fear leaving the field prematurely, or reduce the effectiveness of our service by not being able to produce quality resources, due to lack of funds.

Setting yourself up for regular giving is simple. In fact, it’s as easy as giving up one cup of coffee a week (or more if your budget allows and you really love your caffeine!). We are looking for friends and family who are willing to give up an amount that equals one cup of coffee per week to make an eternal difference in the lives of those who live in Tokyo. Obviously, you can participate in regular giving even if you don’t drink coffee, don’t want to give up your coffee, or think you can regularly give without thinking of coffee. In the tradition of a famous coffeehouse company from Seattle, WA, we want to provide options for our generous sponsors based on their ability to give.
We are looking for the following three different levels of sponsors:

100 “Tall” sponsors who can donate $10 per month
40 “Grande” sponsors who can donate $25 per month
20 “Venti” sponsors who can donate $50 per month

Collectively, by giving so little per month, regular givers can be used by God so much in Japan. Currently, we have 10 regular givers. We need to widen that base among the community in order to allow God’s work to bear long-term results in Japan. Our total goal is to raise $3,000 through this initiative by the first week of November. We need to have as many pledges as we can get by this summer so we can accurately estimate when we will be able to return to Japan. We boldly and prayerfully ask you to take a moment and consider partnering with us, not because we seek the gift itself, but we seek for “the profit which increases to your account” (Phil. 4:17).

Becoming a regular partner is really easy. Simply contact Fellowship International Mission’s office (888-346-9099 [toll free])and ask them how to support us regularly, or go to our donate page, or more conveniently,  you can download, complete, and submit the Regular Giving form attached to this post and have your chosen amount deducted monthly. Either way, you get a tax-deductible receipt at the end of the year to lodge with your tax return.

So just give up one cup of coffee a week to make an eternal difference in the lives of Japanese people through Kazu and Amy. It’s that simple. You’ll never miss that small amount each month and, best of all, you’ll be able to see what God is going to do through us and say, “God graciously used me to make that happen!”

If you are capable to make a pledge and follow through it, please let us know by e-mail saying, “I’m pledging to be a ‘(Tall, Grande, or Venti)’ donor” (or simply let us know that you want to financially partner with us through regular giving). Make sure you leave us your name and contact information, too, so that we can personally thank you and add you to our regular e-mail newsletter subscription list. If you have been ministered to by Kazu & Amy in the past, or God has been convicting you to support committed and capable missionaries regularly, or if you believe in God’s ability to use Kazu & Amy in a remarkable way in Tokyo, partner with us today.

By the way, if we get enough pledges to meet our goal within the next few days, we will be able to move to Japan as early as next month instead of waiting until our original target date which is not until the middle of November. Can you imagine what that would mean for those people prayerfully waiting for us in Japan? If we can enlist enough donors to get us to Tokyo next month, that would be nothing but awesome (and I try not to use that word flippantly). While it sounds challenging, let’s try it together and make it happen for His glory.

If you want to support us but don’t think you can give up your daily caffeine due to your addiction, go to this website to get some help.

So the outah statah says to the Down-Eastah…..”There sure are a lot of funny looking people around here” And tha Mainah says….”Ayuh….but come Labah Day, they’ll awl be gawn”!

Well, that outah statah would be me. Our first destination on our fundraising trip has been the state of Maine, specifically Down East. It is a magical place where you encounter many wonderfully strange people and bad roads. It is a place where people measure distance in hours; where you know several family members who have hit a deer more than once; where you see people wearing camouflage at church events, a place where you install security lights on your house and garage then leave both unlocked.

“Maine: The Way Life Should Be,” the sign says just after you cross into the state, from down south, or allthemotherstates, as Mainers define the rest of the country, where life is not the way it is supposed to be. While the state slogan can be challenged by the non-Mainers, Amy and I have been enjoying our time in the Down East region of Maine. We are truly thankful to God for providing us with generous and hospitable friends, Eric and Jill Holmes, who have opened up their home for us so that we can visit different churches in the area that are mission-minded.

Our plan is to meet with at least a few individuals during the week and fill the rest of Sundays with church meetings. We want to seize every opportunity to share about our ministry to anyone who has ears to listen because we truly believe that God can use us to impact Japan in a way that has never been touched before. Please pray that we will be sensitive to those opportunities and have boldness from Christ to share about what God can do through us in Tokyo.

Our visit to Maine has reminded us of how great the body of Christ is. Perhaps living in Maine is not necessarily the way life should be for everybody. However, when we stop for a moment and witness how God has united a guy from Tokyo, a girl from Alabama, and a family from Maine to attempt to fulfill the Great Commission together for His glory, we see a greater force at work among us. We see how God’s grace has radically transformed all of our lives and our values regardless of our upbringing. We see how Christ’s blood has bridged the gap between these apparently disconnected people, allowing them come together and serve God with a united heart. All I can think of is, “Thank you God, that’s truly the way life should be in Christ!”

We know that many of you faithfully pray for us regularly. We want you to know that we have not ceased thanking God for all you and your interest in our ministry. Well, here’s ways you can pray for us more specifically. Please pray for us, during this month, as we meet with key church leaders in the area and others who are interested in God’s mission around the world. Getting a meeting can be fairly easy, but getting a meeting with any real possibility of gaining support from the church is much, much more difficult, especially for someone from outside the area. Please pray that God will allow us to boldly share the spiritual needs of the believers in Tokyo so that people can accurately understand the great need that the Japanese inner-city people have. Also pray that God would use this period to allow us to grow in our own faith as we continually rely on His grace for our needs. Finally, pray that my relationship with Amy would be strengthened by going through these life events together, relying on God.

As an important reminder, let me emphasize this again: if you have been thinking about supporting us, please make a pledge today, as much of the new missionary support today comes from individuals rather than churches. The Bible gives examples of churches and individuals giving to missionaries and for the cause of churches in need. As many of you can understand, raising financial support takes time and incurs travel and ministry expenses. However, unless we secure commitments for 51% of the required support determined by our mission board, we can’t withdraw money from our account to enable full-time deputation. Unfortunately, Tokyo being the second most expensive city to live in in the world, we need to raise significantly more than average missionaries. The good news is that we are very close to having 51% of our support. We are excited to see how far God has brought us so far but more still needs to be done. You can truly make a difference by partnering with us through regular giving today. Visit our “Donate” page for specific instructions on how to partner with us financially.

Let me complete this post by giving you a heads-up on what is happening with us. Before June 21st, I (Kazu) need to leave the country once to renew my immigration status. Thankfully Canada is not so far away from where we are staying right now. We are not expecting any difficulties, but please pray that whatever happens, I will be able to demonstrate Christ within me to those I encounter during that time. Also, during the month of July, I am planning on flying back to Tokyo for a month while Amy drives down to Alabama to be with her family. I need to take care of some ministry-related business with the church where we will be serving. It will also be a good opportunity for me to visit my mother, who has been fighting cancer for many years now. If you know anyone who can contribute towards the cost of the flight, please let us know by e-mail. Any contribution would be appreciated.

Finally, we want to thank everyone who helped us move out of our old house and my office (Kapusta, Parsons, Headlees, Arthurs, Petersons, Williamson, Mackey, and many others) and those who blessed us with extra donation to help us with our trip (you know who you are). Your kindness is not forgotten, and we know you will be rewarded handsomely one day by Christ on our behalf.

We will start a new fundraising initiative within the next few days, so please visit our Web site frequently. Thanks again.

Kazu & Amy

The time has come. It has finally arrived. We are no longer employed. We are finally leaving the comfort of having a steady income and a place where we can call home. While it is absolutely frightening to think about the decision we’ve made, we’ve never been so excited to see what God is going to do and how He is going to provide all of our needs as we strive to serve Him unreservedly.

For some of you who are getting to know us for the first time, we are Kazu and Amy Kato, missionaries with Fellowship International Mission (FIM) heading to Tokyo, Japan. We are truly burdened to reach more than 35.6 million people* who live in the Greater Tokyo Area that are lost, not experiencing the hope which can be found in Jesus Christ.

Protestant Christians in Japan constitute a religious minority of 0.4% today.* More sadly, the number of biblically faithful Christians who attend churches in Tokyo is estimated to be no more than 0.03% of the city population.

God has uniquely equipped us (Amy and Kazu) to be able to reach those people who are considered to be extremely difficult to reach with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Kazu is a fourth-generation Japanese Christian who spent most of his life living in major cities in the United States and Japan. His bilingual ability, combined with his formal biblical training and passion for city people, will only strengthen his ability to communicate God’s Word effectively to those living in Tokyo. Amy is also blessed with a personality that transcends cultures and countries. She has a natural ability to befriend people from various backgrounds, allowing her to attract many people to Christ. You can read more about us in the “About/Kazu & Amy” page, which you can find on the left column of this page.

Anyway, I hope you keep visiting our site to find out what God is doing as we begin our journey as we travel around the country and the world, motivating enough people to pray for us and support us to get us over to Tokyo this year. We need all of your prayers and support in order to accomplish something greater together in Tokyo for God’s glory. Please subscribed to our RSS feed to keep in touch with us. If you don’t know what I am talking about, visit this link. If you are, at this time, interested in financially contributing to God’s cause through us, please click the link to your left which says “Ways to Help.” It will give you a link which you can click to receive the form which you can use to support us monthly. We still need to raise $4,000 a month on top of what we have. But I know this would be possible through people like you whom God has blessed richly. Please invest in us so that God may use all of us together to bring the Gospel to one of the most un-evangelized cities in the world.

In many ways, our Web site is incomplete (as you can tell). We will continue to improve it so you can find out what God is doing through us immediately and effectively. This week we are moving to Maine to visit six churches, Lord willing. Please pray for us or leave messages to us via “Shout Box,” to the right, or by e-mail. Thank you for reading this. God bless.

By His grace,

Kazu and Amy