Baptisms in the Kiddy Pool

Without a church building of our own, we continue to look for creative solutions for baptizing new believers. Praise the Lord that this is even an issue for us! This Sunday we baptized two new believers in the kiddy pool of a nearby kindergarten.

D-san has a mother with a business as a Buddhist guide. His father abandoned them. His grandfather that lives with them has a severe drug habit. Not surprisingly, D-san himself has battled depression. But since coming to church for the first time last fall, he has been steadily growing, changing, and healing. He accepted Christ last December, and is looking forward to be baptized this Sunday at 31 years of age.

H-san took a bit longer to come to faith in Christ. She is a middle-aged housewife who visited our home 7 years ago when we first began church planting work in Kawasaki. A pet lover, she was very interested in meeting our "joyful princess" Keekee. But she was some time away from a decision for Christ. During those seven years she maintained a close relationship with a core church member as God led her through some difficult times. This spring she was back in church again, and this time she was very open to the Gospel. She is growing in Christ and already a tremendous asset and encouragement our the church family.

Praise God for these baptism candidates! Would you pray for their continued spiritual growth and witness to their families? And thank God for good rare sunny weather on Sunday. An issue for us as the rainy season continues here and the pool is outdoors.

Laverman Atlantic Adventure

Sounds like a movie title or a waterpark ride, but it is just the three Lavermans in the Atlantic ocean near Ocean City, NJ. We've swam in the Pacific (hard not to if you live on an island in the middle of that ocean like ourselves), but the Atlantic was a first experience for all of us. Impressions: saltier than expected, big and powerful wave action, clean beach but foot-scalding hot sand, many too many clams. And, wow, have I mentioned those powerful waves.

In some ways we were foreigners to a new land, definitely out of place with our lawn chairs and "beach umbrella" (a large doorman's umbrella), and pretty clueless in a lot of other ways. We saw no point to investing in those things for a single visit to the beach. We did, however, get a boogie board for Justen (Hey, it was his 12th birthday!) Kevin managed to monopolize the time on it.

Another use for the beach, we discovered, was as a great big baptismal for new Christians. One of the churches we visited on a Wednesday night along the shore line, baptized a couple families in the ocean! An approaching storm made for some cold temperatures and big waves. Planting a Baptist church in Japan, we've had our own unique baptism sites, but ironically the ocean is one place we have yet to visit. A new one for my idea list.

Bath or Baptism? (Part 2)

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.

Bath or Baptism?

You have to be creative as a Baptist church planter in Japan. There aren't a whole lot of options for a baptism, particularly this time of year. We've no church facility yet with a baptismal. Outdoor pools aren't going to work in early spring either, even if one had exclusive access. Rivers and lakes are out. The best we could come up with was using another church facility and a borrowed tub. But even then only some of our people would be able to attend as the service would need to be at a different time and in a different place.

Then the thought occurred..."What if we were able to use the local public bathhouse?" Public bathhouses in Japan are still quite common, as many small urban apartments do not have space for a bath tub or shower. Typically a male or female only bathhouse can handle 20 - 30 bathers at a time with individual faucets for each, and a collective tub for everyone (okay, you'll have to see one to understand the idea).

It would be extremely unlikely the owner would agree to something like that. They've no understanding of Christianity, let alone what a baptism is. It would come across as an odd religious thing. With the many radical new religious groups in Japan, Japanese have a heightened adversion to getting involved with religious things period.

Well, God goes ahead and opens impossible doors for us when we knock on them in faith. Amazingly, the owner of our local bathhouse agreed to let us use the facility exclusively on a Sunday morning for a baptism. Of course, he expects to collect 400 yen a head.

Clearly there was some initial confusion about what a baptism was on his part. He wanted to know, "So, will all the people from your church being getting into the bath together?" "No," we assured him. "Just one. And even he will be wearing clothes." "Oh." he replied, "but if you're paying you should take a bath together anyway." Well, that would be a level of Christian fellowship we're not really ready for.