My team consists of six members including myself: Nancy, John, Phouxay, Bouasy, and Anson. We are the only Baptist m's here on the island of Kyushu. Anson and I live life mainly with college students. So far, any English speaking college students that I have encountered have been very conversational. Tomorrow, we'll be going to Fukuoka Institute of Technology. While I am here, I will also be attempting to learn Japanese!
Buddhism and Shintoism are mainly a cultural idea in Japan rather than a religious one. Their roots surely run deep. We visited a Buddhist temple and a Shinto shrine the other day. Here are some pictures!
Here you see the tallest seated wooden Buddha in Japan and a bunch of portable Shinto shrines called Mikoshi.
Konichi-wa! Some kindergarten students that came to visit the Buddhist temple. They offered prayer to the Buddha and performed some other Buddhist practice involving stone beads on a rope. We weren't sure what that was completely, but as you can see, Buddhism is very prominent even down to kindergarteners.
Please be in prayer for conversations with college students and that God would shake the foundations of the people as He shakes the Earth.
Thanks for the update Dustin! Is Buddhism practiced heavily in that region of Japan or is it just a cultural influence? From what I've studied many Japanese believe that they are direct descendants from a god and have a really strong sense of nationalism because of this. Just curious.
ReplyDeleteI hope that you are letting yourself be used to further the Kingdom and that you are intentional about not treating this trip as a vacation, like so many other "missionaries" do. I pray that you come back drained because you were used to your fullest potential. When you come back I want to here about the lives that were changed and the seeds that were planted because of your stay in Japan. Japan is a very dry place, keep working hard.
Were the kids making prayer beads? My sister made one of those when she visited a temple in Korea. It may be a standard thing to let temple visitors participate in meditation services. Were they prostrating a lot?
ReplyDelete@Tony Buddhism is mostly cultural over here. Most of our generation doesn't really have a clue about what all is included in Buddhism. More of the older generations tend to line up with Buddhist or Shintoist belief. Shinto includes the belief of being descendants from the Sun goddess. Thanks for your encouragement!
ReplyDelete@Adam I didn't see any of the kids make prayer beads. No prostrating either. They did pay tribute to the massive Buddha though. The teachers wouldn't let me play with the kids... sad day. They talked to me though! haha
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