Our First Few Weeks in Japan

What a thrill it is to be in Japan!

For several years, I have wanted to move here serving as the president of Asian Access. This year proved to be the perfect time! Our family was ready and next year Asian Access turns 50! What a joy to be here where it all began nearly 50 years ago.

It’s been an adventure… to say the least!

Those who follow us on social media are well aware. Even with a tremendous team in place to help us settle and with all these years of experience settling staff in country, we still faced a series of challenges that boggle the mind. As I reflect back though, I see it all as God’s divine plan. You know, at Asian Access we often talk about The School of God. The Lord has taught us many lessons the last few weeks and there are many more to discover I’m sure.

Our home came mostly furnished and stocked by our incredible team. Thank the Lord for such a fantastic crew of people. All of this while our national director for Japan, Takeshi Takazawa, has been in the hospital—the better part of 2 months so far. He’s been posting profound thoughts that we hope to capture in another blog someday. Please pray for him.

Even with this amazing setup and team, we have a treasure of stories of life challenges:

The local registration office requires a marriage certificate. This has never been required before according to all of our staff and Silk and I aren’t even sure we have one! We’ll have to ask California to provide us with the original. Otherwise, we’ll only be considered as relatives here in country. They at least see us as relatives because of our son John’s birth certificate. I must admit, it’s kind of weird being a pastor and the president of a mission and having people question whether or not you are married!
The local bank readily gave my wife and son a bank account. But, they were concerned about me! I guess there were identity theft issues tied to my name somehow that they had to check out. Again, it felt pretty weird being the odd many out and especially when your 16 year old son can get an account and you cannot! So, all money flows through my wife’s account. I finally got approved the other day.
It took 2 full days and 2 three hour visits to get mobile phones here. And, they wouldn’t accept our credit cards so we had to make several trips to the ATM to withdraw money because they couldn’t use our bank accounts either.
Our home internet took several weeks to arrive as well. So, we were living off a mifi which quickly was over extended and then nearly maxed out two of our phones data plans before it finally arrived last night. Trying to serve as the president of a mission with limited bandwidth is quite a challenge, even more so when you have a tech savvy teenager in the home!
Finally, the kicker was that my wife Silk fainted before school on her very first day of teaching. It was quite a scare, to the point of us needing to go to the hospital to ensure she was ok. Praise God that all is well and she just had either hypotension (low blood pressure) and/or benign vertigo. Whew, what a relief! She’s ok and we now have strategies for her to manage the situation.

As I look back, and as I see other colleagues of mine across Asia facing a number of illnesses, I realize that we are in a spiritual battle. I’m convinced that first and foremost our ‘battle is not against flesh and blood’ but ‘against the powers of darkness.” (Ephesians 6). Our work is spiritual in focus and we have an enemy who is bound to take us out!

Second, we as pastors and spiritual leaders can often neglect our health and lead very unbalanced lives. At the core of Asian Access teaching is that healthy churches grow and are lead by healthy pastors. When we are unhealthy, the churches we serve can also be unhealthy and fall into bad habits. It’s a reminder to lead healthy lives!

Third, the realities of cross-cultural living are immense and dynamic, even when you have strong support systems. Through each little trial, the Lord is taking us through his school: The School of God. He’s teaching us lessons for our character: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23) Each of these challenges gives us opportunity to stretch our faith muscles and display the fruit of the spirit. These are not easy traits but as we lean into Jesus, he gives us strength to be ‘salt and light’ to those around us.

Silk, John and I are grateful to be here in Japan, to celebrate 50 years of Asian Access next year and to live with and among colleagues here in Japan and across Asia. We are delighted to experience a little of what our partners and staff face on a daily basis to gain better perspective of life and ministry.

We covet your prayers both personally and for the work of Asian Access. May we lean into Jesus and walk in a manner worthy of him so that he may be glorified among the many who have yet to hear about him!

Thanks for praying with us. We need you! And, most importantly, We need Jesus!

Joe Handley

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@jwhandley

This is Why We Go Together

Our value for community and the importance of partnership

We often exhort one another at A3 with the proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” While the exact origins of this proverb are murky, the truth of it is undeniable: for sustainable ministry (and really, life in general), we need each other.

And just days before departing with our 2023 Summer Short-Term Team, I experienced this truth in a profound way.

Introducing A3.Missional Partners

Our Missionaries Have a New Name!

For several years, you’ve become familiar with new ministry streams such as A3.business and Young Professionals. But today, I am excited to announce that our missionaries in Japan have a new descriptive name. We are now calling them “Missional Partners”.

Beauty Before Me

As much as I’ve tried to process, ponder, and pick stuff apart, I’ll simply say for now that the last seven years or so have been disorienting. I won’t go as far as to say I’ve been deconstructing, as that word is a bit loaded and a lot dramatic compared to what I’ve been doing. At the same time, I don’t want to understate the amount of disappointment, confusion, shock, anger (occasionally bordering on rage), and deep sadness I have felt toward certain branches of the stream of Christianity I’m a part of. Perhaps detangling is a better term. But I’m not wanting to go into that a ton here. Not yet anyway. 

What I am wanting to do is practice being more of a noticer—seeing people who don’t seem to be flailing around in choppy waters like me but instead are more like anchors. People like my mom: a woman who is stable and steady, who sees similar things as me, yet keeps on watering her flowers, making food for people, playing the organ at church, showing up for her friends, and volunteering at a thrift store that employs people in the penitentiary system. She keeps on making music, meals, and memories, keeps on listening to Reactionary, Big Feeling Me, and keeps on being her steady self.

After Three Years of Waiting, Finally!

Tokyo Summer Olympics 2020 Team Going to Japan

A3 (formerly Asian Access) began decades ago with a thriving short-term summer program called Scrum Dendo. Every summer, multiple teams would come to Japan, partner with Japanese churches, and create bridges to each community through English language outreach.

At the beginning of 2020, we had high hopes of reviving these summer mission teams, partnering with churches who wanted to do major outreach work surrounding the Tokyo Olympics.

We had no clue what was coming that year.

I Come Bearing Gifts

For over a decade, February 1, 2011, remained memorialized in my mind as my “Japanniversary,” the day God took me to Japan, one month before the Triple Disaster. Each passing year, I have acknowledged this date in some way—karaoke with friends, a Facebook post, or a quiet prayer to God.

But 2022 was the year I wrapped up over a decade of life in Japan and moved “home.” In 2023, to recall my arrival date in Japan, I had to look at my 手帳 (techō, my pocket schedule book). I was too late! The day, March 16, had passed by me without so much as a wink.

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FROM THE PRESIDENT

Stories from Joe Handley, president of A3