Kansas Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists (KNCSB)

KNCSB team to serve in Tokyo for third year

June 2010 will mark the third year that a KNCSB team has served in Tokyo, Japan, the world’s largest city with nearly 34 million people.

KNCSB works with I Go Global in Tokyo. I Go Global cooperates with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board.

The team of 34 people will meet for training June 6-7 at Webster Conference Center, Salina, Kan. They will leave for Japan early June 8 and return June 17.

Kansas-Nebraska Southern Baptists are urged to begin praying now for the team.

Japan is a country that is open to the gospel. However, it is very dark spiritually because it is the land of 8 million gods, said Terry McIlvain, KNCSB director of youth ministries.

“We are one of the first teams that come in during the summer,” he said.

While in Tokyo, the KNCSB team will go prayerwalking and use a variety of methods to meet people and share the gospel.

During the June 2009 trip, the KNCSB team began to see the results of concentrated prayer. Three people accepted Christ then—a phenomenal result considering the culture. Along with their background of countless gods, the Japanese people are very slow and deliberate in making decisions.

Along with prayerwalking, the KNCSB teams use a variety of outreach activities, such as “5-Minute English.” These impromptu lessons lead to spiritual conversations by asking such questions as “What’s your favorite book?” 

“For Tokyo: A Prayer Journey” calls 5-Minute English an “incredible outreach tool. Many times these encounters lead to an opportunity to talk further, and many people have come to Christ.”

When KNCSB team members get contact information from a Japanese person, they invited that person to a “friendship party.” That helps the local IMB and I Go Global personnel keep in touch with them.

Super Summer will begin soon after the KNCSB team arrives back home. As in previous years at camp, team members are looking forward to sharing reports of how God has been working in Tokyo since they left.

It also is not too early to begin thinking about the 2011 KNCSB mission trip to Japan. Applications with I Go Global will be due in August, shortly after Super Summer ends.