AsiaStories

Lin Sung* had just completed evangelism training in East Asia. As students dispersed to surrounding villages to practice sharing the Gospel, Sung sent a text message, telling a friend where he would be. When government officials intercepted that message, his homework assignment changed from sharing Bible stories to a fight for survival.

Susie Rain takes a look at Yoko Dorsey’s uncanny ability to feel and understand each tsunami survivor’s individual grief, yet bring laughter. This trait endears her to Japanese tsunami survivors. As part of the Tokyo Baptist Church ministry, Dorsey even moved from the city to this disaster stricken neighborhood to radiate hope.

Southern Baptists reach out to survivors of Japan’s tsunami. See previously resistant area slowly open to the Gospel during past year.

As the Japan tsunami anniversary approaches, Shukuko Sasaki searches for comfort and peace. She folds origami cranes in the hopes of easing her survivor’s guilt.

Many men and women in rural areas in East Asia have few options for income. Ted Wong* is committed to using business and entrepreneurship to teach believers in rural areas how they can support themselves and their ministries. His vision is to provide rural farmers with a cash crop. This could provide an additional source of income as well as allow more time for ministry. Zhe Wang Hu* and Jia Liang* are two of the men Wong works with.

Jia Liang* shoulders a heavy load for a 29-year-old. Because he was the first to come to faith in his village, he is looked to as the leader of their house church. He balances leading this church with raising a family and farming the rice, soybeans, yams and coffee that sustain his extended family.

Chinese New Year is a time of festivity, but also a time of pagan worship. Pray for Chinese Christians and for people to come to Christ. Read more on AsiaStories.

The young Chinese woman steps from a back room into the soft, pink light of a small brothel. She adjusts her short dress and black stockings. A middle-aged Chinese man follows a few steps behind, handing her the equivalent of $60 U.S. Transactions like this happen every day in brothels throughout China, a Christian worker says. By praying and sharing, she hopes to bring the Gospel to China’s commercially exploited women.

Every district looks the same: construction sites, cheap restaurants, factories, factories and more factories. Southern Baptist worker David Rice* sees this city through different eyes. His mental map of Dongguan is a labyrinth of ministry possibilities — a medical clinic here, management training classes over there and maybe a Christian coffee shop in the heart of a red light district.

Southern Baptist worker David Rice* challenges you to make an eternal impact on this city that “supplies the world.” He’s looking for partners to adopt each of the 32 districts in Dongguan, China.

Takahashi is one of the 4,000 homeless living in Tokyo and no stranger to distribution lines. He spends part of each day waiting for food donations or other supplies. He isn’t on this side of the line very often — giving, instead of receiving. So when the chance comes to leave his sidewalk “bed” outside of Shinjuku train station to volunteer more than 240 miles away, in one of the hardest hit tsunami areas with Tokyo Baptist Church, Takahashi takes it.

Kiyoshi Sugioka and his team made billions for the Japanese investment company where he worked. The bubble burst when one of Sugioka’s employees made a risky investment resulting in a huge loss of money. When Sugioka chose to repay the company from his personal wealth, he became a Japanese government statistic, joining an estimated 4,000 people sleeping on the streets of Tokyo.

It’s an unlikely group sitting around the table searching through the Scriptures. Until a few months ago, all but one of the men was homeless, living under interstate bridges and in local parks. Now, they are blossoming house church leaders, understanding in a way only the homeless can that “house” is not essential to “house church.”

After Hironobu Honda lost his job at a cleaning company in July 2009, he and his wife, Mitsuko, lived on the streets of Tokyo for weeks. Every night they faced the challenge of finding a safe place to sleep. Every day they worried about where to get their next meal. Their lives changed when they met IMB workers, Mark and Wendy Hoshizaki.

Shanghai native Yan Hua* cannot forget the life lessons she’s learned: trust no one, play both sides, be invisible and don’t rock the boat. At 75 years old, she still looks over her shoulder in fear. Like many of China’s elderly, she has never heard the Gospel of hope.

Shanghai is China’s trendsetter in fashion, business and standard of living, and has been for years. Comparisons to New York City fall often from the lips of stunned international visitors. With 23 million people, it boasts a population larger than that of the entire country of Australia. The cosmopolitan mecca pulls in dreamers from all corners of China and the world.

Seoul, South Korea, stands apart from other Asian megacities for its commitment to Christianity and its global influence on evangelical Christian causes. Yet tensions between the traditional and modern are evident both within Seoul society and the church.

As a result of ongoing agriculture projects in East Asia, many hundreds have heard about God’s love for the first time. Many have been through intensive training to help them make a living.

Here are just a few success stories:

The call came just a few weeks after the triple disaster — earthquake, tsunami and nuclear threat — hit Japan on March 11, 2011. All they wanted was clean underwear, but we shared so much more with them.

Feng Tan pastors a Southeast Asian church full of believers of Chinese descent. Along with his wife and five members of his congregation, he travels to South Asia to conduct discipleship training among former Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus. In each meeting, the Chinese believers teach the basics of Christian conduct, but more importantly, they hope their presence will encourage South Asians that God can mature Asian Christians into believers with effective and powerful ministries as He has done for them.