One of my jobs is answering emails that come through the OMF Japan website. It really isn't a big job, but like most jobs the work load ebbs and flows. Some days can go past without any emails at all, then a whole glob of them arrive at once. Usually, though, I only receive one or two emails a day that require a response (i.e. that aren't junk or advertising).
The usual types of emails that come in are asking more information about serving with OMF International or how they can pray. Occasionally I'll get emails from Africa or the Middle East asking us to send missionaries to their country or looking for paid employment in Japan; neither of which are what OMF does. It is a bit like a traffic director. I answer the ones I can and direct the ones I cannot to others who can better answer or I find out the answers from others and answer myself!
But this week, just to compliment my already fairly full schedule, I've received a bunch of complicated ones. Emails that wouldn't be easily answered. Here are some examples:
Our New Zealander Financial Manager received an email from the UK from someone he doesn't know asking about Youth Ministry that we do in Japan and wanting more information about getting involved. He wisely passed this on to me as he does no youth ministry and didn't even know how he got the email sent to him. I am no expert on youth myself. So I directed the email to one person within OMF Japan who does, and answered the "how do I get involved" bit myself with a standard email response that we use.
I received an email from the UK asking for the address of our Guest home in Tokyo. Not hard, I sent the email address of our guest home back and they countered with the request for the snail mail address as the person for whom they were enquiring didn't have email. Well, I had to go searching for that myself!
A Kenyan sent an email in asking about how to get involved in ministry in Japan. Saying he's felt God's leading to Japan. He may very well have felt that, but OMF doesn't have sending facilities in Africa, so I cannot help him. But he was very persistent in wanting information about others who send Africans to Japan. So I had to go searching, I emailed my Field Director who didn't know anyone. And then I emailed the office of the Japan Evangelical Missionary Association, asking if they had missionaries on their list. They did, but not many. I'm now trying to rout out some kind of contact for this guy who is so keen. But it isn't easy.
An email came from someone who wanted information about how much they'd have to raise to go to our language school. This is not information we give out because our language school isn't a business, in that people go there and independently do courses. It is part of a total support package of a missionary, that includes many things, such as accommodation, living expenses, transport, medical expenses, etc. I handed this one back to our Finance Director.
Another came from a lady who's heard of our youth ministry in Sapporo called fmZERO. But it took a couple of emails to figure out what her exact query was. It was important for me to know, so that I could direct the email to the right person! Eventually I sent her on to our Short-term ministries coordinator to move her through the process of coming to Japan for a short-term ministry trip.
It's been a bit of an unusual week. I generally don't mind answering these, though some of them take a bit of problem solving and some careful wording. I do get a bit annoyed when we have university students or Bible college students who basically want us to do their research for them; I pretty quickly point them to our website and other resources. Oh, and during the crisis period after the March 11 disasters I had a few who seemed to feel as though we were withholding information about missionaries in the disaster zone. When, in fact, we didn't know much ourselves. The missionaries themselves didn't have power or internet connectivity!
But genuine seekers of information about ministry in Japan, ways they can serve and pray – those I love to help. It is always a great encouragement to receive those emails!
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