From "Japan Harvest"

I received the latest issue of "Japan Harvest" the other day. This is the official publication of the Japan Evangelical Missionary Association. (www.jema.org). There were a number of great articles.
Gary Fujino wrote "Ukiyoe Church Planting: Layers and Evangelism in Japan." He made an analogy from Japanese woodblock prints. "The Ukiyoe prints were produced by a complicated process that required multiple successive impressions of painted wood etchings on sheets of Japanese rice paper, called washi."
The parallel is that for most Japanese to come to Christ there is a complicated process involving multiple exposures to Christ. In our missionary work in Japan we often were part of the first exposure that people had to Jesus. However, most often those who actually became followers of Jesus had already experienced multiple contacts with Christians, with the Bible and with Spirit-led life experiences.
Let me encourage you to remember this when you are sharing your lives with Japanese. You might be the first woodblock impression, or only one among many. However, most will require many contacts with the Gospel before that beautiful picture is completed.

don wright