THE GOSPEL HERALD REPORT
Luke Leung
Monday, May 13, 2013
Yuan Zhiming Tokyo Evangelism Conference Unites Chinese Churches in Japan
Yuan Zhiming, Xiao Ming and Christian celebrities from mainland China led an evangelistic and Bible-study conference in Tokyo days ago.
Over 2,500 Chinese throughout Japan came together. Around 230 decided to place their faith in Jesus Christ and more than a dozen expressed their commitment to serve full-time in country’s mission field.
Yuan wrote on his blog that it is the first time that 41 Chinese churches throughout Japan, including Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Kyoto, Hokkaido, and Hiroshima, gathered.
“Looking from different angles, this is the many first of Japan Chinese churches: great unity, great revival, great commission, great mobilization, great harvest,” he said.
In the three day gathering, award-winning Chinese actor and actresses in China Haiying Sun and Linping Liu and Chinese Christian songwriter Xiao Ming gave their testimonies. A joint church choir and Christian singers sang and Yuan delivered short messages and altar call.
Yuan said that of the 2,500 participants who attended, around 230 people who came forward during the altar call registered their names to receive future updates from local churches. In the last night’s gathering, tens of people stood up expressing their will to serve the Lord full-time in Japan. Church ministers and co-workers together came on stage to give them a prayer of blessings.
While the Tokyo evangelistic meeting reached a conclusion, Yuan believes that the road for the gospel to reach all Chinese in Japan still has a long way to go. In Japan, people worship different idols, their hearts are hard as steel, he said. In addition, the mission in Japan has always been very weak.
After doing a bit of calculation, Yuan said the population of Chinese in Tokyo is similar to that of San Francisco, which is hundreds of thousands, but the population of Chinese Christians there is not even a tenth of San Francisco. Even if comparing with China, the percentages of Christians in Japan are still extremely low.
