We live in a small Japanese neighborhood nestled among about six houses.  We have long been praying for our neighbors, and have dutifully sought to build up relationships with them by baking and giving cakes and going to local festivals. It has taken five years, but we are beginning to be more and more accepted!!

Each Christmas, David imagines and plans a design in lights to hang up outside our house.  He has made designs of Angels, stars, and other Christmas symbols.  Through this, he tries to entertain and to hopefully share a bit of the true meaning of Christmas.  

This year, his design was really different.  He took the Japanese character for “Friend” and put it up outside our house.  (A photo of it is up above in the photo section).  Now, the character for friend has two parts to it...one looks like a cross that is leaning a bit to the right and the other looks something like a manger.  Together, they make up the word “Tomo”  ?? There are many Japanese characters with a Christian meaning that can be found if they are taken apart in sections, but this is our favorite.  Jesus is our friend because He was born in a manger and died on a cross for us.  It is simple and easy to explain.  David even placed a lit-up baby Jesus on the manger to complete the message.  

With all the lights it took to make it, we hoped it wouldn’t be too obtrusive in our small Japanese neighborhood. (It is quite bright.)  The first person to comment was our landlady who lives downstairs by herself.  She has had a few difficulties over the past few months and when she called to comment, we waited anxiously.  She thought it was lovely, and as David explained the meaning, she said, “Ah, that makes me feel comforted”.  We were blessed.  

We still wondered what our neighbors directly across the street thought as our landlady took me over to talk to them.  The first thing said was, “My children took photos of it”  “It is beautiful”.  They hadn’t understood its Christian meaning and thought it had to do with trying to make peace because of the recent issues here with the American military. However, our landlady proudly explained the meaning.  There was a thoughtful pause, and then I heard, “Oh, that is nice.  Now I understand.”  I followed up with some details, but one other positive outcome was that a deeper relationship was formed.  We made plans to get together soon. 

The next day, David saw a leak in our next door neighbor’s roof water tank and went to inform him.  While there, he inquired about the man’s brother who had been recently hospitalized for mental illness and asked if the brother could have visitors.  Our neighbor said he would check on it and then proceeded to ask questions about faith.  He keenly listened to a short Gospel message.  After a time, our neighbor said he had to go to work, but asked if he and David could talk again. He added, “I’d like to know more”.  

God has called us to be “the salt of the earth and the light of the world” wherever we might be.  For David and me, teaching is satisfying, as is our service to our church and the Okinawa Baptist Convention. However, we live in a neighborhood of people who need to hear about Jesus. As we live in relationship with them, we are able to share the Gospel.  We feel that God put us here in this neighborhood for that purpose.  It may take some time, but we want to be faithful to God and to the relationships He has placed in our paths.  

The words I use in my discipleship classes at Okinawa English Discipleship School come back to me: in this age of compartmentalization, we need to remember that we are called to be faithful as Salt and Light in our families, our neighborhoods, our workplace, our towns, our states, our countries and our world. 

Thank you for partnering with us as we seek to shine forth His Light in this community.  

David, Leslie and Joanna