Japan is known more for its innovative technology and until recently was the second largest economy in the world (only recently overtaken by China). Less known is the fact that only 1.5 percent (nearly 2 million) are ‘Christians’ or that the Jehovahs Witnesses (a cultic group) is the second largest ‘Christian’ group after Catholics, followed by the Unification Church (Moonies), another cultic group.

Baptists numbering about 50,000 members are mainly from the three groups that are affiliated to BWA and APBF, they are l) Japan Baptist Union ii) Japan Baptist Convention and iii) Okinawa Baptist Convention. From August 20 till 30, APBF President Rev. Chu Wood Ping and its General Secretary, Rev. Bonny Resu paid a visit to all the three conventions. The following is a brief report:

Upon landing at Narita Airport on August 20, we were received by Rev. Makoto Tanno, General Secretary of the JBU. From there we drove straight to a Japanese barbeque fellowship of the Itako Baptist Church, not too far from the airport. The barbeque was held in the premises of a outreach center of the church called ‘Cooking House’, which is a beautiful double - storied building that serves as a place to minister to families with mentally disturbed members – among other things, they come and share or learn cooking skills 4 to 5 days a week. Many non-christian families come to these events and it provides opportunity for contact. Chu and me stayed there for the night with Pastor Tanno.

The next morning on 21st August, we left after breakfast to visit Pastor Shigemi Ono (center) of the Itako BC. He lives in the church campus with his family. Pastor Ono is also the President of the Japan Baptist Union. From there we drove over 2 hours to the non-denominational Asian Rural Institute which was established in 1973 by Rev. Dr. Toshihiro Takami with the idea of training leaders from developing countries with skills of farming and animal husbandry using indigenous low-cost materials and methods. From its inception till now - 1,130 rural leaders from 51 countries throughout Asia, Africa, and the Pacific have been trained. We were warmly received by Mrs. Tomoko Arakawa, the Associate Director, students and staff, complete with a welcome song. After a quick tour of the facilities, we bid farewell and drove to Tokyo, to the Korean YMCA Hotel to stay two nights.

On August 22, Sunday, morning Chu and me were assigned to different churches to preach. I had the privilege to fellowship and preach at JBU Soshin Baptist Church in Yokohama. It is a beautiful church and considered one of the largest church of the JBU – with over 300 baptised members. Interestingly, the co-pastor of the church is Rev. Prof. Makito Morishima the Chancellor of the Kanto Gakuin University which has over 20,000 students.  .

On the way to the hotel, we visited the first Baptist Church in Japan, the First Yokohama Baptist Church. Interestingly the first official Baptist missionary who came to Japan, Nathan Brown, served in Assam, India very close to Nagaland prior to coming to Japan. He was a genius with languages and after translating the Bible into Assamese, came and did the same into Japanese.

August 23 (Monday) – we visited the Japan Baptist Union office which is located in an imposing building. We met with the leadership of the JBU. We also had opportunity to share about APBF ministry using a power point presentation, and also receiving a report the JBU & its ministry. Among Baptists of Japan, JBU has been the first to send missionaries abroad. I met their first missionary –   Dr. Haruo Hasegawa (sitted on Chu’s left) who went to India and worked in a Hospital from 1969 – 1972. Rev. Eiji Osato and family serving in Thailand is also from JBU. We heard encouraging stories of church growth attended to by faithful ministers – including women pastors.

The JBU has 75 churches with 4500 members but is blessed with about 15 institutions including the Kanto Gakuin University. It has much potential for growth.

August 24 (Monday): Our visit to the Japan Baptist Convention ministries commenced when Rev. Makoto Kato, the General Secretary of JBC came and picked us up from out hotel. Our first stop was at Saitama, in the suburbs of Tokyo where the headquarters of the JBC was located. The JBC was officially formed at Fukuoka in 1947 with 16 churches out of the work of the Southern Baptist Missionaries who came to Japan as early as 1889. Today they boast of 328 local churches all over Japan, making it the largest Baptist group with close to 40,000 baptised members.

After meeting with officers and staff of the Convention we headed for Amagi Baptist Assembly (a conference centre) which can accommodate upto 500, located in the south West of Tokyo – a journey of 2 hours.

We joined the JBC church music directors conference with over 200 delegates being trained in various aspects of church music and instruments including creative worship. The JBC has a Church Music Department led by Ms. Mikako Ehara. No wonder the church music in all the Japanese church is so beautiful and professional. We were also treated to a concert by a concert soloist, Dr. Soo Jung Cha from Korea Baptist Theological Univ/ Seminary. Both of were warmly welcomed and given opportunity to bring greetings! Amagi area is also known for its hot-springs and horse radish. We were treated to horse radish ice-cream!

August 25 (Wednesday): After Breakfast we checked out of our very comfortable rooms and once again hit the road with Rev. Makoto Kato. We passed through some lovely country-side in the foothills of Mt. Fuji – 85 percent of Japan is mountainous. Our first stop was Mishima Baptist church – a small church with less then 100 members. They told us of losing members who migrate to larger cities for work. Pastor Joji Chujo (striped shirt) and his wife Tomoko, are both theologically trained.


Our next stop was the beautiful Fujiyoshida Baptist Church at the foot of Mt. Fuji, a launching place for hikes to the mountain. The pastor is the dynamic Rev. Yorie Ito who was also at the BWA Congress in Hawaii. The church has ministry to the locals as well as tourists who come to see or climb Mount Fuji. Rev. Ito took us to a tea ceremony and also a hot spring to dip our feet and refresh ourselves.

August 26 (Thursday): Ahoy OKINAWA! Having had a wonderful time of visiting with the two Japan Baptist groups affiliated to APBF on the mainland Japan, and experiencing their gracious hospitality we dropped to the Haneda airport by Rev. Takashi Hiroshima, General Manager of JBC Foreign Missions Department. Our flight to Okinawa – was about 2 hours. We landed at Naha Airport and was received by Vee Tetseo, a resident of Okinawa for the past 10 plus years, and now the President of the Asia Pacific Baptist Youth Fellowship. We were taken straight to Vee and Ai’s home where we ate a delicious home- cooked dinner, and was then taken to Goya Baptist church to stay in the guest rooms of this newly constructed and beautiful building – we were the first guests – as the church has not yet been officially inaugurated even.

27th August (Friday): The day started with a morning meeting with the leadership of the Okinawa Baptist Convention at the OBC office. The OBC President Rev. Hikofumi Tomari warmly welcomed the APBF leaders. It was a time to share with each other and discuss. He thanked APBF for its role in facilitating Rev. Iwao Kochihira to go to work in Nepal for the past few years. OBC has been very active in attending APBF/BWA gatherings including the hosting of the ABWU Assembly in 2003, and APBYF leadership conference in 2009.

After being treated to a sumptuous lunch, Chu and me were off to explore Baptist work in Okinawa, starting with a visit to a Baptist potter, Mr. Matsuda who along with his twin brother has become nationally acclaimed for their craftsmanship. After that we were driven to visit the vibrant Koza Baptist Church which primarily serves the US military personnel and increasingly even to the locals.  One reason for their growth could be their vision – Exalt, Equip and Engage! We were warmly received by Pastor John Reimer and Associate Tim Smith and shown around the lovely church facility, after which we were treated to lunch at the military base golf club facilities. The church is a member of the OBC and have also been indirectly supporting APBF through their support of Vee/ APBYF.

August 28 (Saturday): Was a day to relax and also witness the pre-dedication service of the Goya Baptist Church of which Rev. Hikofumi Tomari is the senior pastor. It is truly beautiful structure with a lot of space and light. In my greeting I likened it to a modern airport – and airports are meant to enable people to go to greater heights and distance – so also a church to maturity and mission.

The evening was designated as APBF nite at the new sanctuary of the Goya Baptist Church! We had a good group of around 100 people who came to church and joined the celebration. The music was lively with special songs by several groups. A power point presentation of the APBF ministries was given by yours truly. An offering was also collected towards APBF. Rev. Chu brought a brief word of greeting and challenge to the gathering, also using some of his illusionary skills.

August 29 (Sunday): The Sunday morning, Chu and me went to worship at the first morning service of the Koza Baptist Church. After that we returned to Goya Baptist church and joined the worship. The futuristic Goya Baptist Church building is a symbol of the outward looking Okinawan Baptist vision – who wants to do outreach and see growth. Goya BC also has a pre-school. It may be mentioned that many Baptist churches in Japan have a pre-school which serve as a means to serve the community and also reach them with the gospel. Another ministry is conducting weddings – as many Japanese young people, even non - Christian want to get married in churches. Okinawa has always had a welcoming culture and intermingled with various races, being closer to the rest of Asia.  We believe Okinawa could be a bridge for Japan to the rest of Asia!

Conclusion: Japan like most developed countries is materialistic and even atheistic, with declining population due to reduced birth rates. The national debt is high and economy is not as good as before, and so the normal person is under much pressure to do well in society. But the Japanese people are industrious and creative – not to speak of being gracious and kind, especially to their guests. In the midst of all these seeming gloom, there is a beacon of light, the light of our Lord Jesus Christ! and it is being faithfully borne by a band of faithful believers in the Baptist churches along with other Christians! The churches maybe small, but their ability to do mission is not diminished as their relatively strong economy and currency enables them to travel and support partnership ministry in other countries. Before I went on this trip a former missionary (not Baptist) told me – Bonny do not be discouraged when you see small churches, the Japanese believe in quality and you will find them even in their churches. I must say that was true. Praise God for His church in Japan!

We left Japan with happy and grateful hearts, full of fond memories for the kind hospitality and friendship we experienced. Japan is commonly known as the land of the rising sun! Much more, Japan is the land of the Risen Son! and we would pray that all of Japan will come to Christ!

The CBCNEI: The CBCNEI is a confederation of 6 Baptist conventions in north –east India, all of which resulted from the work of the American Baptists (Northern) almost as long ago as 175 years. Five of these conventions are members of the APBF/BWA, they are the  Assam, Garo, Karbi Anglong, Manipur and Nagaland  Baptist Conventions, the sixth one is the Arunachal Baptist Church Council which is yet to be accepted as member. Between all these 6 conventions they have about 1,028,315 baptised members.

(There are 11 Baptist conventions in north-east India – with close to 1.5 million baptised members.Others are not part of CBCNEI due to their various mission origins viz. Mizoram, Lower Assam, Tripura etc.) The CBCNEI has grown from less then 2000 local churches when the missionaries left in the mid 1950’s to now close to 6000. All the assetts and ministries of the erstwhile American Baptist Foreign Mission Society was handed over to the local leadership elected from amongst these conventions in the early 1950’s. They include 1 Theological College and 6 hospitals and some very valuable land. I would say that CBCNEI has been good stewards. My Link With CBCNEI: I started my ministry in 1985 as a young man, by joining  as the Secretary (Director) of the Youth and Christian Education Department. Those days all the above conventions were affiliated to the BWA and APBF (then ABF) through the CBCNEI only and it was how I got introduced to BWA first at the BWA General Council at Singapore in 1986 – and then led a delegation of 77 youth delegates to attend the BWA Youth Conference at Glasgow in 1988.   In 1992 there was a restructure and all the conventions were given freedom to affiliate directly to all national and international bodies viz. APBF and BWA. This restructure has somewhat weakened the CBCNEI, as every convention is now busy with their own programmes – typical Baptist problem.

The Conference Venue: It took 9 hours of driving to reach Williamnagar. The town is situated on a low plateau – surrounded by low lying hills – with streams coursing through the town. The beautiful town itself would have less then 10,000 population. The Garo Baptist Convention (India) was the official host of the gathering. The host church was the Kusimkol Baptist Church, which is just 10 years old, but now has 700 members and is the first church amongst the GBC to send a missionary abroad,  to Sudan, Africa. The church sits on not less then 4 acres of land. That was where the meeting tent was constructed – which was beautiful until the rains came and then we had to move inside the church – the evening meetings and Sunday morning saw about 1000 attend. The gathering took an offering in the first night for APBF and we received Rs.9800 (US$200).

My role: I had the privilege to speak on Saturday and Sunday evenings on Baptist Unity and Mission respectively. A good number made commitments to rededicate their lives to Christ and his mission.  Five young people – four college students and one a technical graduate responded to the call of being open to being missionaries. I also had the privilege of consecrating the new team of leaders for the next two years. The President is Mr. R.D. Shira (picture below - third from left in front), a dedicated Christian layman who has retired as a government bureaucrat.

There was a panel discussion on the Baptist distinctive of Autonomy of local church vis-a-vis Baptist Unity! I was also one of the panellists.

Significant Decisions: Among the significant events/decisions of the Session was i) Install a full fledged Mission Secretary (Director) in the person of Dr. Jolly Rimai from Manipur; ii) Restructuring of the Executive Committee and other committees (to make them smaller); iii) Entering into partnership with a Christian Organisation – called 4B Serve Health Care Company, to run one of the hospitals (about 200 bedded) at Guwahati city etc. iv) Among other plans are also to start consultations on starting a Baptist University.

The General Secretary of the CBCNEI is Rev. Dr. A.K. Lama (right), and he has just completed one year of 5 year term. He received his Ph. D from Trinity International University at Chicago in Old Testament. Dr. Lama is one of the approved speakers for the 8th APBF Congress. He is a gifted speaker and comes from Arunachal Pradesh (India-China border). Prior to his present assignment, he was pastor of Shillong Baptist Church, where I am currently a member. Eventful journey:  At about dawn of Monday, the day of our departure, we experienced a severe storm and many trees were blown down and blocked the roads and this delayed our departure by some hours. We finally departed at 7 AM. On the way, I made a quick stop at Tura town to visit Mrs. Lepmonie Sangma, the former Secretary of the Asian Baptist Women’s Union, who had lost her husband, Dr. Pinsonath Momin and then their first son, within a span of 10 days last month. She had kindly prepared lunch and we enjoyed our time of fellowship and prayer with her. She also gave a gift of Rs.10, 000 (US$ 210 approx) to APBF.  On the way we got into a severe rain storm and the roads got flooded and caused a traffic jam and got delayed us by over 2 hours. I finally reached home at 9 PM after 14 hours of travel. Praise God for His mercies, and thank you for your prayers too!

bangladesh mission conference, april 7-11, 2010

Bangladesh, a land known more for the devastating floods every year, or the immigrants that flood into India and the many challenges it faces as a crowded country with nearly 150 Million people in a country the size of north Korea (which has only 26 million), and yet green, beautiful and fertile land, with a very creative and hard-working people. It is a country with 86 % Muslim and 0.7 % Christian only. It is listed number 45 in the World persecution list. (China= 13; India=26; Indonesia=48). We found that the heart of people are also fertile to receive the gospel.

APBF President Dr. Chu and myself were invited by the Bangladesh Baptist Church Fellowship (BBCF) to speak at its Mission Conference and Biennial General Meeting from April 7 – 11, 2010. A total of 500 delegates came for the 5 day conference under the theme of Acts 1:8. The conference was held at the 30 Acre, green and beautiful BBCF Conference Center and Prayer Garden. The center is about 50 KM away from the capital city Dhaka. 

The BBCF was established in 1919 by missionaries from Australia and New Zealand. Today it has grown to 472 local churches with a membership of close to 18,000 members with churches in 41 of the 64 districts of the country. That the BBCF has a passion for mission is obvious when we see their reports. They planted a total of 28 new churches between April and August 2009! The conference was ably led by the President Rev. Sushil Bose, and General Secretary, Rev. Leor Sarkar.

The gathering brought in pastors, evangelists, women and youth leaders and many lay people too from all over the country. Apart from the warm – almost too hot, weather, I must say the fellowship was very warm and the worship was lively and refreshing. In the 5 days Chu and me preached 8 sermons between the two of us. We saw many rededications in our services.

We also had the privilege to witness and lay our hands in the ordination of 10 persons including a lady pastor – Mrs. Aroti Chowdhury (now Rev). She is the second women to be ordained, after

Rev. Mrs. Judith Milita Das, who is also the Secretary of the Asian Baptist Women’s Union. (right picture) On the last day I had the privilege to pray and install the new team of leaders for the next 2 years with Mr. Tapan Chowdhury, a businessman, as the President.

I met some of the evangelists from Chittagong Hill tracts (right picture) whom APBF had a role to facilitated their training and their continued support through BBCF till date. The work among the Buddhist majority Chakma tribe (600,000) is going on well, and in the last 5 years over 3000 have come to Christ despite severe persecution. One of the Chakma leaders Pastor Dirbadon Chakma (in white shirt) was also ordained – he is the first from his tribe. They also suffer from conflicts with the majority community from the plains over land. Chu and me took the opportunity to visit the home of our former President Rev. Jason Das, where we not only had fellowship, but also a lovely lunch prepared by his dear wife Helen. He looked well and strong. His son Victor just got married last month and so they are very excited. We met their daughter in law, Jessie. Jason has been busy going about preaching in various conferences and churches through out the country. He even spoke at the recent joint church Easter programme in the city on Easter morning. We thank God for his life and ministry. As we sat in his home news of the passing away of one of his aunts came, and that delayed his joining us at the conference. He could eventually come and join us at the camp. He preached at the ordination and was also re-elected as one of the three advisors of the BBCF.

We also met Mr. Samson Chowdhury, the former Vice President of BWA and Rev. Dennis Dutta, the 2008 recipient of BWA Human Rights award.
The BBCF is blessed with many good leaders. I was amazed to see the number of their members who are leaders of various international NGOs working in Bangladesh viz. World Concern, Youth For Christ etc. We also met several partners and friends from various countries working alongside our brethren. The BBCF has a full fledged Aid Department called the Bangladesh Baptist Aid as well as Mission and Evangelism department. They join other Christians in supporting a seminary where most of their ministers are trained.

On the whole, the Lord blessed our time with the brethren, blessed his word through us and we also could learn more about the BBCF and its leadership and ministry. Thank you for your prayers.  There are many opportunities for ministry and partnership in Bangladesh. Pray for the witness of the church.