Welcoming angels

Don’t neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it. (Heb. 13:2, HCSB)

“When I was overseas, my host family invited me to church, so I went for the first time,” Emi said, her eyes shining. “I was moved very deeply by the worship songs and by the warm welcome so many people gave me . . . so when I returned to Japan, I decided to go to church here as well. I learned that God loved me just as I am, and my tears just flowed.”

There are many stories of Japanese people who turn towards Jesus while they are overseas. I have been told by several people that in recent years, the number of Japanese people converting to Christianity is roughly the same outside Japan as it is inside Japan. Given that only about 1% of Japanese live abroad at any given time,¹ this is remarkable. Many of these new Christians return to Japan, and those who persevere in faith have great potential to reach their own networks in Japan (and beyond) for Christ and strengthen Japanese churches and church movements.

Many, like Emi, might not become Christians while overseas. However, they often leave Japan with little exposure to Christianity but return actively interested in Jesus.

Ready to be reached?

When Japanese people go overseas for study or work, they are generally open to new things, including learning about the historical religion of the country they visit, and they are looking for friendship. Some of them are trying to escape the pressures they have experienced in Japanese society. Some are searching for peace, joy, and answers to deeper questions.

As I delved into the stories of Japanese people who returned to Japan as Christians or active seekers, I found God to be powerfully at work among these “returnees” through the small acts of his people overseas simply living their lives as faithful disciples of Jesus. I compiled these stories, and the following three themes emerged.

Hospitality

The golden thread that runs through almost all the stories I have heard is the theme of hospitality. The majority of the time, the word translated as “hospitality” or “hospitable” in the English New Testament literally means the love and care of the stranger or foreigner in the original Greek.² Before I knew that this was how the Bible talked about hospitality, I thought it just meant having people in one’s home, and especially cooking meals for them. But loving the stranger can take so many forms, and in hearing the stories of returnees, hospitality in this biblical sense had a significant impact in their walk towards faith.

Returnees talk about experiencing a welcoming feeling among Christians and are moved by the acts of kindness done for them by people who genuinely do not expect anything in return.³ They talk about practical gifts like rides offered and bank accounts opened and even more frequently about gifts of friendship and spending time like coffees and walks together, meals shared, being prayed for, and reading the Bible together one-on-one. The majority of them talk about a special feeling of warmth and friendliness they have not experienced in their lives before—some say “not even close.” They then ask, “Why are these people so different?” This leads them to finding out more about Jesus.

Sometimes Christians simply invite them to church, thinking the sermon will have an impact. In reality, while the sermon might often be above their level of English, what deeply impacts them is nonverbal, like the love and joy they sense from Christians.

One specific expression of hospitality that has a significant impact on young Japanese is a Christian homestay. Many young returnees speak about the love they saw and experienced as they lived with Christians. One man shares that he did not know families like his host family existed, and it “felt like heaven.” Other returnees, like Emi, went to church with their host family, where they had a larger kingdom experience of a loving family, which brings me to the second theme.

Christian community

When Japanese people were invited into Christian community overseas (church services, English conversation cafes, Bible studies, etc.), they were impressed with the relationships between Christians and how they cared for each other.⁴ “I was so welcomed anywhere in Christian community. It made me feel loved and comfortable, and it made me wonder who is the God they believe in!” one young lady shares. “It was helpful for me to build relationships with Christian friends and see how they relate to one another rather than just talking about the gospel.”

Another lady, soon to return to Japan after becoming a Christian, shares, “There are very few Christians in my country, but when I came to Australia, I was able to be with many Christians. I knew there was something different about them. When I was invited to read the Bible with someone, I said yes because I thought I might find answers to my questions there. And I did. It was Jesus and the gospel! Becoming a Christian was the most wonderful thing that could happen to me. My prayer is that God would be at the centre of my life when I live in Japan again.”

Music

The third thing often mentioned as a catalyst in drawing Japanese to Christ is music, specifically music experienced communally. Returnees share being moved to the point of tears when they experienced musical worship overseas (in some cases, simply one guitar accompanying group singing). They sense something bigger than themselves, a certain beauty that they experience for the first time, and that touches their spirits deeply.

Gospel choir ministries are fruitful in Japan, and I have personally seen deep emotional reactions to many types of music among Japanese people I rub shoulders with in a way that I have not experienced in any other place I have lived (South Africa, England, Australia). From Bach to Bethel Music, music written and produced by Christians is carefully listened to and absorbed, and hearts are touched and changed.

Imagine: A group of musicians in a small church somewhere in England turn up on a Sunday—perhaps tired after a week of work, yet faithful—to lead music at a church service. Little do they know that they have reached the heart of a person for Christ, a person visiting from a nation that is considered unreached by the gospel, like Japan. All that by faithfully using their gifts on just another Sunday.

Perhaps not what we think

There are many more stories that do not quite fit these three themes. For example, a number of returnees who already knew the Bible was the world’s bestseller read it looking for good advice for life. Also, there was a professional footballer who was touched by the other-centeredness of the Christians in the Brazilian team he was playing for. Perhaps the most interesting story was a woman who studied English history in Scotland and was touched by the faith she saw in Queen Victoria’s diaries, which led her to seek out Christians and eventually become one.

What struck me the most was that not once in any of the stories did I hear anything along the lines of powerful gospel presentations, impressive speeches, or grand displays of any kind. Rather, it was everyday faithfulness and kindness—Christians simply and naturally sharing the grace they have received—that made the difference.

So much potential

Those not called into full-time mission are often faithful partners in God’s worldwide mission as prayers, givers, mobilisers, senders, and more. However, in our current world of people moving countries at an unprecedented rate, partnering in missions as welcomers is perhaps an underrated area in which the Spirit is clearly at work. For those of us who live in a country that feels like home to us, if we keep our eyes open to see the strangers around us and care for them, even in the smallest of ways, God might just be ready to use us mightily in his plan to reach the unreached people of not just Japan but many nations.⁵

1. “Number of Japanese Living Abroad Falls for Second Year Running,” Nippon.com, https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h01452/ (October 12, 2022).
2. Philoxenia: Rom. 12:13, Heb. 13:2; philoxenos: 1 Tim. 3:2, Titus 1:8, 1 Peter 4:9; xenodocheō: 1 Tim. 5:10.
3. In Japan, there is a custom called okaeshi. Whenever one receives a gift, there is an obligation to give something smaller back in return.
4. For some returnees, it was eye-opening to find kindness in not just one Christian individual but in a collective experience among many Christians.
5. For inspiration about God’s work and “people on the move,” see the following Lausanne paper: https://lausanne.org/content/lop/lausanne-occasional-paper-people-on-the-move.