God’s team-building to reach a city in the snow

This Facebook post in February 2021 on the Operation Japan Prayer page captured my attention:

Obanazawa is one of four cities in Tohoku that still lacks a church. Shion Christ Church in nearby Murayama city has had an outreach in Obanazawa, but a church has not yet been established there.¹

At the time, COVID had significantly reduced our existing ministries, with D House interns unable to enter Japan and most outreach activities in our house and in our church canceled for the foreseeable future. My wife, Susan, and I had decided to visit smaller communities to see the churches and perhaps meet the pastors. Specifically, we were looking for an opportunity to assist a Japanese church and relocate the D House internship program to a less urban area.

It was at that time, a couple months away from home service, that I read the Facebook post about Obanazawa. The city grabbed my attention because a few years earlier in August 2018, Susan and I had driven to Yamagata Prefecture from our home in Sendai for a short vacation. While we were there, we learned that the Hanagasa Festival was happening in Obanazawa and that Ginzan, a picturesque onsen village, was located there. We drove about an hour north from Yamagata City and spent a day in Obanazawa.

Another visit

Back to 2021. Susan and I drove to Shion Christ Church in Murayama City on a Monday morning in March, arriving there shortly before noon. A man was just driving away from the church. We ate lunch and returned to the church. The man was back changing light bulbs in the sanctuary.

I introduced myself: “Hello, we’re missionaries in Sendai. We read that this church is doing outreach in Obanazawa, and we’d like to know more about it.”

“I’m not the pastor. Let me call him,” the man replied. (I later learned his name is Oyama-san, and he’s a member of the church leadership committee.)

Mr. Oyama handed me his phone.

“Hello? Who is this?” Pastor Ken’ichi Sakamoto asked hesitantly (I learned his name later). After introducing myself and my purpose for visiting Shion Christ Church, Pastor Sakamoto said, “I’d really like to meet you in person. Can we meet you at the church tomorrow morning?” Susan and I had planned a two-day trip, so we agreed to a 10:00 a.m. meeting.

Susan and I then drove up to Obanazawa. The closer we got, the deeper the snow. We drove around the town. We located the elementary school and the middle school. We saw lots of local shops and a few chain stores—Tsuruha drugstore, the Komeri home center, and Aeon Big supermarket. We greeted one man on the street and commented about the deep snow (about two meters). He told us that half of it had already melted! We drove to Ginzan to see what it looked like in the winter. It’s beautiful! We then spent the night at a hotel 21 km south in the big city of Higashine.

The next morning, we drove back to Shion Christ Church. Expecting to see only the pastor, we were greeted by Pastor Sakamoto, Mr. Oyama, and two women—Mika, the pastor’s wife, and Mrs. Wada, a retired elementary school principal and a member of the church leadership committee. They sat us down and showed us a PowerPoint presentation about the history and vision of the church. The church was started by Dr. Haneda, a Christian medical doctor, who started Bible studies in his clinic.

The vision for the church is threefold:

1. to establish local chapels in the area towns;
2. to serve the community through education, social welfare, and medical care; and
3. to contribute to world missions. (Dr. Haneda and his wife went to Nepal for a few years as medical missionaries after establishing Shion Christ Church.)

Regarding Obanazawa, they told us about Dennis Foster, a black American missionary who lived in Obanazawa for 25 years. Three Japanese women who were now part of the Shion Christ Church had been high school students when Dennis discipled them. (For more about Dennis Foster, see the Summer 2023 issue of Japan Harvest.²) They talked about a few other missionaries who served in Obanazawa in the 1990s up until 2004. None had remained more than four years.

After the presentation, Pastor Sakamoto turned to us and said, “When you called yesterday, I want to say I was thankful, but honestly, I was shocked. You see, the day before you came to our church, we had a leaders’ meeting to talk about how to reach Obanazawa. One of our members said we really needed to find a missionary to live in Obanazawa and assist the believers there. The next day, you walked in!” Later, we learned that another woman at that leaders’ meeting exclaimed, “Find a missionary to come live in Obanazawa? Let’s be realistic!” After we moved to Obanazawa, she confessed to us her lack of faith with a happy smile on her face.

Susan and I talked a little bit about ourselves. We shared our faith journey and how we came to Japan. We stated our ministry experience in Japan till that point. We explained the D House internship program. We promised to talk with our SEND Japan leadership about the possibility of moving to Obanazawa in Spring 2022 after home service.

Are you coming to Obanazawa?

Returning to Sendai, we wrote down all the details of our two days in Obanazawa and at Shion Christ Church. We jotted down our observations, our questions, and our concerns. I talked with leaders within SEND. I also contacted missionaries and Japanese pastors Pastor Sakamoto had mentioned he knew. In June, we returned to Shion Christ Church with two of SEND Japan’s leaders. The same four people met us at the church and served us lunch. They drove us to Obanazawa and showed us the area. We returned to the church and talked a little bit more. As our time together drew to an end, Mrs. Wada asked, “So are you coming to Obanazawa?” When we responded that we would pray about it and talk with our supporters in America, Mrs. Wada threw up her hands and exclaimed, “Why can’t we get an answer now?” She’s been a great encourager and ministry partner for us. Her energy and passion are infectious.

We moved to Yamagata in April 2022 after home service. A first-term missionary, Andrew Phillips, joined us. We initially lived in temporary accommodation, then moved into our house in Obanazawa in June 2022. The location is perfect as it’s across the street from a park where children play. Andrew moved into an apartment.

Obanazawa is known for three things: snow (about three meters every winter), suika (watermelon), and the Hanagasa Odori Uta (Flower Hat Dance Song, created when Lake Tokura was dug up as a reservoir for the rice fields).

Since moving to Obanazawa, we have found ways to get involved in the community. However, the simplest way is to engage people in regular life activities—grocery shopping, eating at local restaurants, shoveling snow (a daily activity and necessary for good relationships with neighbors), playing in the park, walking or jogging the streets, and soaking in a local onsen.

Something we did not foresee was the need for fellowship among rural believers. They rarely saw each other except on Sunday mornings, and Shion Christ Church is a fairly long drive for people living in Obanazawa, especially in the winter. Opening up our house once a month for believers only and then weekly for anyone has hugely benefited local Christians in their faith walk.

By having D House (more in the Summer 2022 Japan Harvest issue³) in Obanazawa, we expose potential long-term missionaries to the needs and opportunities in rural communities and give Japanese believers an opportunity to share their testimonies and their vision for their beloved home communities.

God is at work, sometimes in miraculous ways, in lesser-known areas in Japan. Clearly, there are Japanese churches like Shion Christ Church that want to reach not only their own community but also neighboring unreached towns and villages. Perhaps they, too, are praying for harvest workers to assist them.

1. Don Wright (Operation Japan Prayer), “Prayer for Yamagata’s Unchurched Areas,” Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/groups/operationjapan/posts/6079771765435887 (February 18, 2021).
2. John Edwards, “Dennis Foster’s Lasting Impact,” Japan Harvest 74, no. 3 (Summer 2023), 14–15.
3. John Edwards, “The D House Internship,” Japan Harvest 73, no. 3 (Summer 2022), 10.