It's five o'clock here and the doors have just opened at Tokyo's famous Bodoukan. Thousands will be pouring into the 10,000 seat stadium to hear Michael W Smith and other Christian musicians. Then Franklin Graham will address the audience. It is part of a much anticipated Billy Graham Evangelical Association's (BGEA) "Celebration of Love" or in old terms "crusade".Last night and this morning the scene was repeated, and tomorrow evening the final large gathering will take place.
They've trained many Japanese Christians in "counselling" skills to minister to those who come forward and have engaged the support of more than 400 local churches. They've gathered and trained a huge choir of locals to perform (I haven't heard how large).
One of our sons is good friends with the son of one of the BGEA's missionaries. It's been interesting to get to know that family just a little and see the vast amount of behind the scenes work. On Monday I was in the office building that houses their head office and was taken in the office for a short while to meet someone. There were about a dozen Japanese people busy on phones and computers. It was very intense, the air full of joyful anticipation.
In this land of 126 million people, less than 1% love the Lord. If this were the start of something big, it would be amazing. Japan has never seen a large-scale Christian revival. We continue to pray.
Here are a couple of links you might be interested in looking at:
- A report from last night.
- Here's a live link you can watch tonight's event at from 6pm Tokyo time (5pm Qld time).
- Here's a pre-event flash mob on the streets of Tokyo advertising the event (we know a number of the faces in this vide).
No comments:
Post a Comment