Categories
Lives

What Do You Do Anyway?

When we get asked “What do you do?” here in Japan, the answer is not very simple.  If we say “Pastor” the image that most Japanese people have is that of a monk in a monastery who occasionally comes down to marry a loving couple and then disappears again to his lofty perch to contemplate the beauty of God and nature and live a quiet, discreet life away from any interaction with society.  If we say “Missionary,” then they might imagine a Jesuit priest from the 1600’s who came to help the poor uneducated people of the land perform religious rites only to suffer under an overbearing culture that outside religion just can’t quite penetrate.  It’s not their fault — they really don’t have any idea what missionaries do.

Sarah, Becca and Ruth

But more and more today, the picture that Westerners have of missionaries isn’t much clearer either.  That’s probably because, over the years, the term has been broadly applied to those who raise funds to perform their ministry, whether that ministry is local or international, disaster relief or church planting, medically oriented or spiritually minded.  Saying “I’m a missionary” is almost like saying “I’m a professional Christian who travels a lot and doesn’t really fit in anywhere.  I make a tight salary work for my family of 9 and overeat with the rest of the Americans when I’m back in the States.”

For us personally, as missionaries pioneering on several different fronts, we get to wear lots of different hats: coffee shop operators, accountants, parents, bakers, small group leaders,  unlicensed lawyers and tax accountants, fund raisers, wannabe theologians, language learners, spouses, music producers, counselors, hosts, preachers, ministry leaders and the list goes on and on.  But as we’ve had to grapple with the “What do you do?” question, the answer has become less nebulous and more clear.  In fact, the more I think about it, the more I wonder if the best title to characterize what we do for both the Easterner and the Westerner isn’t “Entrepreneur.”

Ruth and I enjoying lunch with two great friends from Paz Japan.

Heaven’s Entrepreneurs

You see, an entrepreneur is someone who takes risks to establish something that he believes with all his heart will be well worth that risk.  Let’s face it: being a missionary is not a sound financial decision.  The only thing riskier is spending tens of thousands of dollars on some liberal arts degree like music and expecting that to pay off.   (I’m two for two now.)  What makes it worth it is not the experience in itself, but the expectation of a huge return on the other side.  But is it wise to do things on a whim or a hope and prayer and expect a return for it?

In looking at all the things we are doing –  whether business or ministry, personal or corporate, local or international –  they all have a common theme in this awesome/crazy/hard-to-explain missionary life.  Our purpose in everything is to bring people closer to God and to each other.  That’s it.  That’s the Kingdom of God in a nutshell.  Bring people closer to God and to each other.  That’s at the heart of the church.  That’s the “business” that we’re growing, the “ministry” that we’re pursuing, the family that we’re raising, the coffee shop we’re leading, the music we’re writing.  That’s what being one of Heaven’s Entrepreneurs is all about. That’s the filter through which everything passes.  And I think it’s a pretty good filter — it doesn’t say we’re perfect or we’ve got it all figured out.  If anything, just moving across a border to a different people group helps you see that pretty clearly.  But it does give you a north star to keep your bearings as everything around you changes. Jesus and His message of love, forgiveness and life-transformation — the Gospel — is our message.

An ever-expanding group of people experiencing God in Japan.

What’s amazing is that in the midst of all of our failures, in the midst of the battles and the mis-labelings, the miscommunications and the setbacks, not only does God make this happen (because really this is His business, not ours), but He blesses us in the process.  We are not in debt.  We are able to be generous with our time and finances with others.  We are able to use our energy and talents towards eternal purposes.  When we allow the peace of God to guide our decisions instead of our own finite understanding of economics or self-imposed titles and positions, a new paradigm comes into place — one where anxiety fades away in the midst of a holy chaos that establishes Heaven’s rule in the hearts of men and women here on earth.

Anna and Joshua

I started writing this just to introduce a little video that we made about a small aspect of what we do: produce worship songs in Japanese while our kids bounce around the room, but it turned into a much deeper look at what we’re really doing here.  The fact that you’re reading this right now tells me that you’re also in this with us, and we wouldn’t be here without you.  If you’re just like us, you’re also believing that the risk is worth the investment, because when the people are able to look past the labels and misconceptions about missionaries and pastors, churches and ministries and simply experience the love of God in Jesus Christ with unguarded hearts, Japan will to turn to Christ faster than the famous cherry blossoms bloom and turn winter into spring.  And the whole world will flock to see a nation in bloom in the love of Christ.  That will certainly be worth it.

Categories
Lives

2018 Highlights

Happy New Year! As 2019 quickly approaches, we reflect on all that happened in 2018. What a year! Here are a couple of the highlights:

WINTER

-We began recruiting and training volunteers for Choose Life (online suicide prevention)
-We worked towards the release our first Japanese/English worship album & videos

SPRING

-Sarah started Japanese Kindergarten while Becca & Anna moved into the 3rd grade
-We launched are Life in Japan series on YouTube, now with over 6,500 views!
-We became renovators as our church moved into its first permanent home


SUMMER

-Choose Life training finished and we launched our suicide prevention chat-line
-We traveled with the whole family to the States and visiting friends, family, supporters and churches in a whirlwind tour
-We opened Paz Coffee Shop in our new location (it works closely with our church and Choose Life) and saw record amount of first time visitors

FALL/HOLIDAYS

-Our cell group multiplied and we began supervising another cell group about an hour from Noborito (where we plan on multiplying our next Paz Church/Coffee Shop)
-Choose Life is brining in its first visitors

We thank you so much for your faithful love and support. This has been a big year a stretching, but we’ve seen so much great fruit. And now in 2019 we look forward to even greater victories and conquests as the church continues to grow and move forward here in Japan. God bless you!

Categories
LIJ Episode Lives

Paz Coffee Shop Grand Opening

Warm.  Inviting.  Refreshing.  Relaxing.  Welcoming.  Renewing.  These are all words to describe the atmosphere that we have created at Paz Coffee Shop.  Our team has been working hard for the opening of this special place, and on September 15 we opened the doors wide-open to this new expression of God’s love towards Japan.  Yes- there are many ways to express God’s love in Jesus towards people, but the expression that we felt works best in the Japanese context is that of a coffee shop.

All the visitors to Paz Coffee Shop made the Grand Opening truly grand!

A coffee shop is a place to enjoy a cup of your favorite drink with great company in a friendly environment.  It is a place to enjoy music and get away from the busy rush of the day.  It is a place for the community to connect and for relationships to be forged and built.  It’s a place to for you and your kids to enjoy.  It’s the perfect atmosphere to host our Paz Church meetings on Sundays and other special concerts and community events.  Yes, this is a place we envision multiplying to all kinds of stations and key points across Japan with some of the best and most inspiring people we know.  Welcome to Paz Coffee shop.  Welcome home.  

Categories
LIJ Episode Lives Update Videos

Furlough: A Summer Homecoming

Every two years our family embarks on an exciting, unique adventure.  This adventure takes us across the world to visit people and places near and dear to our hearts.  These places — especially these people — mean so much to us — they’re the very reason we can live in Japan and share God’s love here.  This adventure is called furlough, and it’s a chance for our family of 6 to check in and catch up with our loved ones.  

While furlough may seem long to some, and to others it seems like a vacation, it is much more than all of that.  For in the short amount of six weeks, the kids catch up with 2 years of Grandpa/Grandma time, we speak at a different church each weekend, we travel all over the country to make important visits, we update our legal and banking matters, we raise more support and all while dealing with jet lag.  Yes, furlough is far from normal — and the change of pace that is very refreshing at first becomes an impulse propelling us back towards Japan for the next phase of life.  In our newest video, you get a sense of the beauty, excitement, business and adventure that is furlough in our next video.  Enjoy!

We now come back to a very exciting time here in Japan for us as our church is opening a new coffee shop — a place for the community to come, enjoy the BEST coffee around and connect with people full of God’s love.  In fact, upon arriving here in Japan, I (Nate) went off to serve in a weekend retreat our church hosts called “Encounter with God.”  It was such a powerful time and so many of the people who participated felt God’s presence and love like never before.  We are more excited than ever to be a part of God’s move here in Japan!  

Encounter with God Japan — Wow!  What a weekend!

Now we are looking forward to this next week and weekend when we will have the grand opening of our brand new coffee shop.  This coffee shop will be open during the week and serve the best speciality coffees as well as have an all-you-can-drink special blend coffee — a first (as far as we know) for Japan!  Then on Sundays we will hold our church services in the coffee shop itself.  It certainly serves two amazing purposes!  If you live anywhere nearby or here visiting, please stop by!

Categories
Lives Videos

Our Lives in Japan

High-speed trains.  Kanji.  Crowded cities.  Towering volcanoes.  Ancient traditions.  Cutting-edge technology.  Crazy work hours.  International business.  This is Japan.

American.  Brazilian.  Christian.  Modern musician.  Church-planters.  Coffee lovers.  Movie makers.  Multi-lingual.  Family of six.  This is us, the Reutters (pronounced “writers”).

Put these two things together, and you have a interesting combination of cultures — two opposites that compliment each other, that complete each other.  This isn’t just Japan, and this isn’t just about us.  This is about Life in Japan.