branhow.com

I have been blessed to have friends from all over the world, friends I have made online and then friends I have met either in my hometown or my travels abroad. This friend of mine I have been talking to for several months now and I have had the tremendous pleasure of getting to know her better. This friend of mine is named Hitomi and she is a Japanese Christian. Earlier this morning (EST), late evening (JST) she wrote me an email about the details of her being baptized on her birthday! She does not know that I am doing this blog post, so I was not sure if she would want me to post a picture of her face or anything. But this photograph that I chose to post instead is much more important! Hitomi has made a great leap in her faith by choosing to be baptized and I am so proud of her.

Christianity in Japan is well in the minority and to see a young Japanese woman of God stand up for her faith encourages me and gives me a heart of excitement! People often call me an egg (because I am white on the outside, but yellow on the inside) but they think its for superficial reasons. I believe I have such a heart for East Asia because God has given me that heart and He definitely cultivated it, because I used to not be interested in Asia AT ALL. But I just wanted to encourage others to be praying for the nation of Japan to come to Christ! According to the data pulled from Wolfram Alpha, Japan has a total Christian population of only 4.28 million people out of 127 million people, which makes Christianity only 0.2% of the Japanese population. So the people of Japan need prayer and the gift of salvation! We also need to be praying that God will be sending those who have a huge heart for Japan to spread the Gospel and rise up individuals in or from Japan to witness!

Hitomi! I know God has an enormous calling on your life and I believe that one day you will be able to lead a massive amount of Japanese people to Christ! Keep up the good work and Happy (late) Birthday! I know God is extremely proud of you!

~ by branhow on August 21, 2012.

Posted in Archived
Tags: baptism, baptismal, baptized, christian ceremony, christians, christians in japan, japanese christian