With this post, Asian Access has launched the new EnVision discussion board.

Please post your questions here, and Asian Access missionaries will address your questions and comments.

Hello!

I'm Jasmine, and I am very much interested in serving short-term missions in Japan. In hopes of a future commitment, the EnVision trip seems to be an ideal choice of scoping out churches and the spiritual condition in Japan.

A bit about myself, I have grown up in the church, and have always considered myself a "Christian". However, my spiritual life was filled with battling God during my middle and high school years. It is in college that I am only beginning to truly live out my Christian faith. I believe that God has been growing my love for Japan since middle school. It started out with my interest in manga, then doramas, Japan's culture, and the country in general. I took Japanese for 3 years in highschool (then forgot most of it haha) and in college, I have been self studying. Even in the manga I read, I felt there was a huge need for God in an spiritually dark country. It is only after praying about this call and talking about it with close friends that I dared to sign up in the forum to ask some questions.

WHICH leads to my questions. Haha what a great segway.

1. Is the EnVision trip customizable to each person who applies? Or will it strictly be a 10-14 day trip. The reason I ask is because I would love to spend more time in Japan and possibly serving with a church.

2. If I wanted to serve in June or mid-July to early August, will I need to turn in my application by the end of March?

Those are the questions I could come up with now. Thanks for reading, I look forward to hearing from anyone soon! (<- favorite face ever. XD)

Hi Jasmine-
I love hearing about your background and how God has brought you to a place of sensing a real call to Japan... We are all here servin in Japan because God has given us that same calling.
I will let others answer the specific questions about details of the program. But it is possible-- I hope I'm not speaking otu of line -- that you could do sort of a hybrid type of experience that would allow you stay longer than the normal Envision and minister more indepth. We've just had a short-termer who was here in Kansai for three months. He really blessed the Japanese church where he was working.
I'd love to see it work out. We will have someone get to you quickly about when the application would be due and the length of service. Feel free to continue asking questions...
Blessings,
Sue Plumb Takamoto

Hi Jasmine,

Welcome to the forum! It is great to have you. We look forward to dialoging with you to help give some perspective and insight, all for the purpose of you seeing where God is at work and joining in.

It was great to hear of your Japan connection, Did you know that a great new manga Bible just came out in Japan? You can check out the English version here.
http://www.nextmanga.com/

To answer your question, in reverse order. 2. In order to be here this summer, you would need to apply ASAP.

But before doing that...

1. Yes, you could come longer, which would be part of the jTeam program. We are opening this up to "solo teams", so there is the potential for you to come. Sue wrote in a previous email about staying longer and ministering in-depth. That's great advice. Let me give you a brief explanation as to the difference between these two programs.

Envision: if you have cross-cultural mission experience and know that God is taking you to the field overseas, and now are trying to figure out where, with who and in what capacity, than Envision is the right choice. On Envision, you would "shadow" a missionary and see what serving in Japan is like by doing ministry together. But to be clear, Envision is for people who already have the "call" to the field.

jTeams: If you want to jump into Japanese ministry, culture, language and relationships, then partnering with a Japanese church through jTeams is the answer. This would give you an amazing opportunity to partner with Japanese Christians to help them reach their local community with the love of Christ. You would gain great insight into churches and the spiritual condition here. While doing this, Asian Access could also give you the info we would give you if you came via Envision.

If you would like to talk further, let me know. There are fantastic opportunities here, and Japan needs to see the live of Christ lived out. If God leads, we would love to have you. Sometimes replies on the forum is slow (our fault, sorry about that), but it is possible to connect directly via email, or Skype. If you would like to, let me know and we can talk more. If you would like to email me directly, follow this link and click the email link in the Contact Info.
http://www.asianaccess.org/people/staff/thomson.html

Again, thanks for checking out Asian Access and exploring what God might be doing. We look forward to helping you discern God's call.

Blessings,
Peter

Thank you for your replies!

I tried to respond to Sue earlier, but then there was an error and the message didn't go through. D: And wow, manga Bible? That is seriously awesome. I will definitely have to check that out.

It seems that solo J-team would be more of what I was looking for. At this time in my life, I don't believe I will be going for long term missions, though I have it in mind after I graduate. I was actually hoping to apply for the Jet program (have you heard of it?) and help a church grow while teaching English over there. But I will definitely have to see if that's what God has in mind too haha.

Thank you for your thorough explanations, I will definitely contact you via e-mail for further details about the potential trip.

Hi again Jasmine-
Yes, we know a lot about the JET program, and we have partnered with a number of different Christian JET teachers over recent years who have come through the program and been able to plug into churches Asian Access is working with. There are some great advantages - and some disadvantages- to doing ministry through a secular organization like JET. We can talk about that another time.

Just based on what you have written, I would encourage you to get in an application for J-Teams and we can keep talking about dates, etc. The summer months can be an exciting time to minister because people are all "out" -- outside, hanging out, school kids have summer break, career people have usually at least a week off. We find these to be exciting times for ministry, and trust that God will place you where He can use your gifts and abilities in a unique way.
Take care!
Sue