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February Update
February 2024
In many ways I feel like I've stumbled into the new year. It's hard to actually believe that it's February already. Last year felt so packed and then these last two months have somehow been even more busy. Thankfully I'm coming into this year with some good experiences, some needed rest, a few new ideas, and an eagerness to push forward!
I was grateful to be able to return to Vermont to be with my family for Christmas and New Years. For the first week or so I felt like I had a cold, but I didn't plan on going anywhere anyways. I think the combination of a stressful year, travel and jet lag, and adjusting to a new (drier) environment came together to knock me out for a bit. After recovering, I had some great time with family, lots of good food, saw plenty of snow, and got some much appreciated sleep.
About the snow, I've decided I like seeing it from my window, but I don't have a need to interact with it much anymore (sorry Vermont). I had plenty of fun in the snow when I was younger. One of the blessings of living in Tokyo is that it rarely snows and when it does, it even more rarely sticks. So, after returning from my travels, you can imagine how I felt after it began snowing in Tokyo. One of my friends says he hasn't seen it snow like that here in a long time. Because it is so rare though I was able to enjoy it in the moment. It mostly melted the next day anyways.
After my visit to Vermont, I flew to Tokyo and had about two weeks before I left again. In that time, my teammates Kevin and Jane returned to Japan. I am so glad they are back and really excited to do ministry with them. Amazingly, God provided an apartment for them really quickly and they just moved in. The day after Kevin and Jane came in, the team had some visitors from our organization. One of them was Amy Richey who many of you know as the person who helped me relocate to Michigan and organize my time there. It was great to see her again and catch up. Recently Amy took on a greater role within the Asia Division so I'm excited to hopefully get to work with her more.
In mid January, most of our team went to Malaysia for a division gathering. Going from snowy Vermont to cold Tokyo to 90 degrees Malaysia was a bit of a shock, but I still enjoyed it. Besides the heat, I really loved my time at the gathering. One of the highlights for me were getting to hear from a church planter from Singapore and how he and his church have been effective in their disciplemaking ministries. Another big highlight was reading through the book Soul Care by Rob Reimer and discussing it with others at the gathering. I highly recommend the book. God has really used it in my life and I think a lot of what I learned from it will be helpful in my ministry.
From Malaysia I went to Greece. When I would tell others about my travel plans they'd often give me a look like I was kind of crazy. I went from Malaysia to Singapore, had a long layover there, flew back to Tokyo, stayed at the airport and then flew out a few hours later for Turkey where I had a layover, and then finally stopped in Athens, Greece. I can admit it wasn't my smartest decision, but surprisingly it was my cheapest option and I wanted to make it all work.
While the timing of going to Greece right after Malaysia wasn't Ideal, I am so glad I went. It was for a missiology course on contextualization that I have been taking the last few months. You can read more about it below.
Finally, at the end of January I returned from my travels and I have no desire to travel again for quite a while. This past week I started my Japanese classes again. While my opportunities to travel have been really beneficial for me and my future ministry, they won't be as helpful if I don't have the Japanese ability to back it up. So, I'm hoping this year to buckle down a bit and focus primarily on language learning. I'm excited to see how God works through this year to come!
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Shige and I picked Kevin and Jane up from the airport a couple weeks ago. I'm so excited for them to be back in Tokyo!
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Japanese Study Update
Starting from February 5th, I am back in intensive Japanese classes. After all my travels it was a bit of a bumpy start, but I think I am starting to get back on track. I am glad to be in class this month with someone who I had taken classes with previously. I also have a couple of teachers I've had before.
My classes are three hours a day with the time roughly broken up into the first hour learning kanji (the characters), the second hour on grammar, and the third hour on speaking practice. I like the format. So far the classes at my school have been helpful.
To make sure I am on track with my learning, I decided to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test last December. There are five levels and I already passed the N5 level which is the easiest. I took the N4 level in December and just found out that I passed! I was grateful, but not too surprised as I am supposed to be a bit beyond that level based on my current intensive class. I am hoping to take the N3 level this July when it is next offered and then N2 in December if everything works out. N1 is basically native level fluency which I think could take me a bit longer.
I'm looking forward to leaning into my Japanese study this year and really preparing for the ministry that God has for me. Please be praying for this journey I'm on!
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Our Missiology Cohort group at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece.
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Missiology Cohort
Earlier last year I saw an opportunity to be a part of a Missiology Cohort to learn more about contextualization. There are a lot of definitions of contextualization, especially in relation to ministry, but essentially for my work it means putting the Gospel into a context that is easily understandable to the people you are trying to reach. While I was in Michigan at New Heart Church I gave a sermon on 1 Corinthians 9:19-27 which is all about how Paul contextualizes himself and his ministry to reach others. In preparation I learned a lot and got me interested in learning more. So, when I saw the opportunity to do so, I jumped on it.
Over the past few months I have been reading about contextualization and talking about it with others in my cohort. We had an awesome mix of missionaries from all over the world as a part of the group. The learning we did was part of our goal of creating case studies for the contexts that we are serving in. My case study was on art and beauty in Japan and how I can use those things to share the Gospel with Japanese people. I'm still doing some final work on my case study, but I'm hoping to be able to share it with you all in the future!
The culmination of our time as a cohort was a four day residency in Athens, Greece. In Athens we heard from Greek theologians doing ministry in the city and how they were contextualizing the Gospel in their context. We also were given a tour of some of the major sites in the city by a Christian tour guide who gave us a lot of the history, and Christian history, of Greece. Probably my favorite part of the tour was when we went up to Mars Hill (the Areopagus) and our guide read from Acts 17 where Paul gives his sermon to the Athenians on the very spot we were standing.
In Athens, each of the participants in the cohort also gave a presentation on their case studies and got feedback from the group. The were case studies on everything from the word used for God in an indigenous people group in Costa Rica to the patronage system in the Middle East to God's design for women in East Africa. I learned a lot from the other case studies and received a lot of great feedback for my case study too. I'm excited to continue working on my case study this year and develop it further until I can present something to my team and to others. Please be praying for me and everyone in the cohort that we'd be able to take what we learned and apply it to our different contexts and that the findings in our case studies would be a benefit to our ministries.
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Mars Hill (the Areopagus)
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else." Acts 17:19-25
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Some more pictures from my time in Greece.
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Prayer Requests
- Pray for new Tokyo teammates. Kevin and Jane just returned to Tokyo and are getting settled into their new apartment. Please pray for them as they are setting up utilities, getting furniture, and figuring out a new routine. We also have another new family joining us this month. The Cordills, including Colin, Megan, and their two kids, will be arriving next week! Pray for them especially as they travel with young kids and then try to set up their new life here in Japan. Since they don't know any Japanese yet they will need a lot of help so pray that we can provide that as a team for them. Pray that they would adjust well to the culture shock and many new things they will experience.
- Pray for Japanese learning. With starting new classes means more homework and studying! It can be overwhelming at times so pray for perspective and perseverance for me in my language learning. Pray that I would give myself grace, but still be disciplined. Please pray for my relationships with my classmates and teachers as well that I would be a good witness to them and a light around them.
- Pray for rest and energy. I feel like this is a constant prayer request, but at the same time things always seem busy! I am still fighting off some jet lag from my travels and haven't been sleeping great. Pray that I could sleep well and get back on a good schedule. Pray too that I would continue to have the energy to move forward into Japanese study and ministry. In all of the busyness though, please pray that I would continue to fix my eyes on the Lord and his leading in my life.
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If you'd like to give, please click on the link below!
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Thanks for reading!
I appreciate you all! As always, feel free to email me at adam.bailey@efca.org or text me at 802-505-7676. You can also go to my website at adamintokyo.com. Thanks! - Adam Bailey
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