She Couldn’t Resist: A Nashville-Bound Songwriter Follows God’s Call to Japan

• “No!” the owner exclaimed as Alana Essex stepped inside the share house. Alana had just landed in Tokyo and was anxious to get settled in her new room. She had doubted her decision to come to Japan right up until she boarded her plane yesterday, and the first words spoken to her after she …

How Beautiful are the Feet

One foot is in a pointe shoe. The other is bare. One foot is dressed for onstage and is presentable to audiences. The other shows blood, sweat, and tears. On stage, dance is beautiful with costumes, choreography, sets, and music. Off stage, dance is cuts, bruises, sore muscles, and injury. Feet are the means through which they bring the good news and preach the gospel.

The Hope of Kintsugi

The auditorium was packed with students and professors as part of a week of events sponsored by the Asian Studies Department at Belmont University in Nashville. For my part, I talked about kintsugi, the traditional Japanese art of joining broken shards together with gold. “Kintsugi is not about fixing; it’s about recreating into the new. …

A Life Transformed in Tokyo

Chieko Ozawa came to faith after being invited to a Bible study during a three-year stint in England. She fell in love with Christ and the Church, but her faith threatened her relationships with what she most loved. Her husband and mother were not supportive of her conversion to Christianity and she feared she might …

The Great Exchange

I am a member of a community art group made up of Japanese from many different backgrounds. We exhibit in downtown Nagoya twice a year. Each exhibition theme is chosen by the director. For an upcoming group exhibition entitled The Color of Buddhism, I started making this piece The Great Exchange. It represents my friend’s experience and invites questions about the great exchange needed for heaven in death. What kind of exchange is fair for both rich and poor? What kind of exchange would be sufficient for people from every tribe, tongue, and nation? What kind of exchange would involve both justice and mercy even for those who have done terrible things? What kind of exchange would make heaven assured? What kind of exchange gives peace to someone facing their own mortality? …