Jesus to Japan

New Year in Japan

The year 2009 started with much anxiety for many of the Japanese people.  Many were afraid of loosing their jobs (and many did), and  prospective college graduates were afraid there would be no jobs available for them.  So, this year there was a huge influx of people going to the temples to pray for good luck.  The newspapers said a record 99 million  went to a temple to pray during the first few days of the new year.  Going to the temple, or the Shinto shrine  is a common practice for people here in Japan.

In Takarazuka we also have a very famous temple/shrine that has hundreds of thousands of people visiting during the first two months of the new year. This shrine is especially visited by shopowners and business people.  People walk for an hour in a slowly mowing row of people to get to the shrine, and from afar, you can see the inscence smoke rise up above the rooftops.  People living around the shrine need special permission from the police to drive their cars  to their homes.  This is to protect the people and help on the traffic jam.  Our church is also inside this special area, so we need a paper slip in our front window of the car when driving home.

This year was different, though; we never saw the congestion of people.  At the station they had set up special buses to take the worshippers up to the temple, but they too, were fairly empty!  Are the people giving up on their «gods»? Are they hopeless!  I think many are.  So, this is truly a time for God’s people to rise up and shine! there is hope, because our hope is not in money, but in Him who told us not to worry about tomorrow.  He will take care of us.  This is the message we want to bring out to as many as we can during this coming year.

Dette innlegget var lagt inn på fredag, februar 20th, 2009 i 15:31 . Du kan følge svarinnleggene til dette innlegget gjennom RSS 2.0 feed. Du kan legge igjen et svar, eller trackback fra din egen side.

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