Dutch evangelism
Are we, being Dutch missionaries, engaging in ‘Dutch evangelism’? I guess when that is defined by our passport and occupation, we are. But the other day an American missionary friend told us that Dutch evangelism refers to having a big family. True or not (googling ‘Dutch evangelism’ wasn’t really much of a help), our new church plant does rejoice in recent natural church growth – i.e. through growing Christian families.
Our church family itself is growing, too. Not explosive, but very natural through networking with commited Christians. We have held a series of events, such as the recent piano concert – which by the way was a great succes with over 50 people attending inclusing more than 20 non-christians - and the upcoming TOKYO 09 SUMMER PARTY. Such networking events are a stage for meeting the friends and co-workers of Japanese Christians living or working in central Tokyo. Gradually our network of contacts is expanding, like a fishnet that is dragged throught sea. As a result we have several people who are interested in reading the Bible for the first time. End of May we start CROSSROAD, a series of 5 meetings introducing seekers to the Gospel.
It is really exciting to see people move forward in their quest for the truth. We cannot give one Japanese faith, but we believe the Holy Spirit can. Especially when it comes to the salvation of the rich man, Jesus himself says that “with man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” (Marc 10:27) Isn’t that a great comfort when evangelizing among the young Tokyo professionals! That is not Dutch evangelism, but Kingdom Evangelism.
By the way, if Dutch evangelism would, according to that American missionary (who himself has 9 children!), indeed refer to having a big family, we are blessed to support church growth in that way, too. Yes, we are expecting! And we are very excited … because our extra blessing seems to be a double blessing as we saw two little hearts beating on the ultrasound. Yes, we are expecting twins! What a surprise. Dutch evangelsim? No, sheer GRACE!