Christmastime in Japan
Legend has it that Americans living in Japan finally gave up on finding a real Christmas turkey and settled for a feast of Kentucky Fried Chicken instead. Their compromise either misled a local branch manager into thinking that all Americans practiced a similar tradition or maybe this KFC employee simply saw an opportunity. Either way, Japanese people have been told that Christmastime equals KFC ever since, and it is now deeply ingrained in their minds and holiday traditions. It’s a tradition that my family has happily joined for the past three years as we have lived and served in Osaka, [...]
Evangelism Isn’t My Job
If there’s one thing that any missions pastor hates hearing, it’s “I don’t have the gift of evangelism.” Or even worse “I just don’t feel called to evangelism.”. In fact, I’m willing to bet a few of you even cringed a little bit just reading those statements. However, you’d be surprised if you knew how often I hear it from people who profess to be Christians. I experienced an example of this a few years ago at a meeting I was having with some other pastors from across the city. During the meeting we all introduced ourselves, and spoke [...]