We had a great celebration today. I was privileged to baptize one of the young believers in our church, brand new in his faith and eager to use his life for God's glory. Baptisms in Japan, let alone decisions for Christ, are still too few and far between. The challenge of reaching even a small percentage of this country for Christ has been one that deeply discourages many a missionary. Recently I read that 99% of the missionary force serves in countries where at a majority of the population are believers. With Japan's 0.5%, I'm not sure whether that would make us the bottom (or top?) 1%, but it is a challenging field and a challenging work. So, today was a great day of victory.
During the baptism celebration lunch, our "international division" at church sang choruses of a song in Hindi, English, Indonesian, French and Japanese as a reminder that we are different people (and nations) in one body under Christ. It was a taste of heaven, where peoples of all nations will surround the throne of our God and Savior with collective praise. Keeping that image alive in our minds is an inspiration in the challenging field. Click the image (above) to see the whole baptism celebration group.
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