The D House internship

“I’d like you to start an internship program here in Japan. We will call it D House. ‘D’ stands for ‘Discipleship,’” said Paul Suzuki. “You and Susan design it and give the Japan Council a proposal.” With those words, the leadership of SEND Japan began to establish an internship program that would lead to an increase in new missionaries to Japan.

My wife, Susan, and I looked back on our own experiences as short-term missionaries in Japan, as leaders of short-term teams, and as long-term missionaries entering Japan in 1993. We decided to narrow our focus to English-speaking applicants who are seriously considering Japan for long-term missionary service. With wise input from others, we decided to limit this internship to less than 90 days. That way we could have three sessions each year with a month in between to recuperate and prepare for the next group of interns. It also meant we would not need to apply for visas from most countries we expected interns to come from. Finally, we decided that interns would live with us. It has long been my conviction that much more is caught than taught. Interns would learn more about life and ministry in Japan by observing us daily than by hearing us merely teach on those subjects.

We had four goals with the D House internship. First, to give our interns a realistic missionary experience in Japan so that they could better determine how the Lord might be leading them. Second, to give SEND missionaries exposure to potential incoming missionaries so we could better understand how to best serve new missionaries. Third, to positively contribute to ministry being done in Japan. And fourth, to give interns a chance to better understand SEND’s organization and culture.

Susan and I focused on five broad areas with our interns.

1. Living skills

When we were short-term missionaries in the 1980s, we did not shop for our own food or cook our own meals. As a result, when we arrived in Japan as new full-time missionaries and the veteran missionaries took us to our cabin at TEAM Center in Karuizawa for language school, we had little knowledge of how to identify foods in the grocery store or how to prepare meals in Japan. Susan and I aim to have our interns be able to shop for and prepare several meals on their own. Our interns help us with food shopping, meal preparation, and cleaning up.

Additionally, Susan and I teach them how to get around on public transportation, use Japanese money, and speak basic Japanese. We do some language teaching, but we also look for opportunities for our interns to learn from Japanese people themselves.

We give interns money to use for eating out, charging their SUICA card, and buying snacks. They keep track of expenses and account for it before we give them additional money. “Try to get lost” is one of my encouragements to interns. I want them to explore on their own and find their way home. Once we lost two interns on the same day. One got on the wrong train going in the opposite direction. He got off, explored a new area on his own, and found his way back. Another intern went for a walk around our neighborhood and found himself lost. He, too, eventually found his way home. (We give interns prepaid phones to call us if they need to.)

2. Cultural understanding

To live in Japan and communicate the gospel so that it will be heard requires some level of cultural knowledge. Through cultural experiences, conversations, and reading, we attempt to introduce interns to some distinctives of Japanese culture.

We go to a few Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. We visit historical sites. When possible, we participate in school festivals, tea ceremonies, and other events. One day two interns walked with me through a park during hanami season. A young man saw us and invited us to join his group. We talked with these university students for an hour.

Until this year, our D House has been on the outskirts of Sendai. We always send our interns to Tokyo for a week to see how life and ministry looks in an urban context. This spring Susan and I moved to a city in rural Yamagata Prefecture. Our internship will expose interns to a rural context, and we will continue to send them to Tokyo and probably to Sendai to see other subcultures within Japan.

3. Engaging the unreached

Susan and I have become increasingly aware of the high “wall” around local churches that make it difficult for Japanese unbelievers to be in a position to hear the gospel from a believer. With that in mind, we intentionally get involved in the community so we can meet and build relationships with unbelievers outside the church building. Volunteering, English conversation groups, tours, and just greeting people we meet in our daily lives are ways we meet new people. Of course, we also assist in church ministry and practice hospitality in our home.

We visited a local jidōkan (community center for children) one day with two interns. One of them saw a guitar and asked if he could play it. He sat on a small chair and started singing a praise song. Probably without understanding the words, several staff sat around him and clapped along. Soon afterward, we began volunteering weekly at this after-school program.

Three interns began building a relationship with a young woman at a hat shop. Through apps and limited common language, they learned about each other. Before these interns left Japan, they bought a Christian book for this new friend.

4. Staying healthy

We explore how to stay healthy physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. What resources are available to take care of yourself? How might you incorporate Sabbath rest into your life in a culture that doesn’t rest? How do you connect with others? How do you feed yourself spiritually when you may be involved in a church where your understanding of song lyrics and sermons might be very limited? Long-term missionary service requires intentionality in taking care of ourselves in every way. We all have different ways of taking care of ourselves. We discuss ways our interns might keep themselves healthy if they were to return to Japan long-term.

5. Understanding missionary organizations

SEND International is an organization. It has procedures and a culture of its own. We want our internship program to allow and even encourage interns to meet many other missionaries. We want them to know that missionaries are very different from each other. Our personalities, gifts, lifestyles, and organizations can vary substantially. We want our interns to not just hear but to see that. Of course, they will be most exposed to SEND missionaries, but they will also meet missionaries from other organizations.

Since 2014, we have hosted 23 interns in our home in Sendai. We’ve had as few as one and as many as five at a time. We’ve found three or maybe four to be our comfortable limit.

This spring two former interns returned to Japan as fully supported long-term SEND missionaries. Another intern is returning to Japan with his denomination’s mission organization. Another intern moved to a different city in his home country to be involved in ministry to the Japanese there. Some former interns determined that living abroad is not for them. Others returned home to continue their education and are praying about returning to Japan.

Several other missionaries within the SEND International world have adopted the principles of D House and adapted it to their ministry context. As my wife and I enter what is likely our last decade of missionary service in Japan, it gives me great hope and joy to be involved in the lives of future missionaries and prepare them for success in life and ministry in Japan. 

Photos submitted by author