Thank you for giving me Japan from The We Love You Project on Vimeo.
Poorly filmed, but expertly acted and directed- based upon the true story that started the We Love You Project to begin with.
Who knew that the story of three men giving their lives for their faith would turn into a t-shirt project to raise money for their families? Who knew a friend of mine named Mike Thames would choose to write a one-scene play about their story? Who knew it would get produced? Who knew that everyone in the auditorium would be on their feet at the end of it? Who knew hearts would be ignited by it?
I stand amazed.
God and Country from The We Love You Project on Vimeo.
Starring - Herman Gonzalez, Nic Wysong, and David Gianino
Directed by - Britton Bagwell
Written and All Rights Reserved - Michael Thames - March 2009
“Do you think this is your job, to meddle in these people’s lives? I know what they teach you at seminary now: this psychology and that. But I don’t agree with it.
You think now your job is to be an unpaid doctor, to run around and plug up holes and make everything smooth. I don’t think that. I don’t think that’s your job…. I say you don’t know what your role is or you’d be home locked in prayer…. In running back and forth you run away from the duty given you by God, to make your faith powerful….
When on Sunday morning, then, when you go out before their faces, we must walk up not worn out with misery but full of Christ, hot with Christ, on fire: burn them with the force of our belief. This is why they come; why else would they pay us? Anything else we can do and say anyone can do and say. They have doctors and lawyers for that…. Make no mistake. Now I’m serious. Make no mistake. There is nothing but Christ for us.
All the rest, all this decency and busyness, is nothing. It is Devil’s work.”
- From Updike’s “Rabbit, Run”
So I’ve been busy, helping out our friends at Faveur. They’re the ones who print all the WLYP shirts. James and I were working on the new site design for weeks, and it’s still needing some love. I’m never satisfied with such creative projects. Always feel unfinished… could be refined, fixed, reworked…
Anyhoo, go show them some love, since they’ve done so to us!
Someone told me I should attach some more detail about my forthcoming trip across the sea (points for anyone who got the Weezer reference), so here you are:
Back in August of 2008, I was invited to be a part of a Homestay program down in Florida. All I knew going in was that there would be a mess of Japanese young people to love on. That was all i needed to know. What followed was a week that recharged my entire soul.
See, for as long as I can remember, I’ve had a fascination with all things Japanese. Anime, videogames, the music, the art, the history and culture… I can even say a few things in the language- so great was my obsession. I’ve bought books in Japanese, art books mostly, and comics, and music CD’s, watched countless travel videos and documentaries about Japanes history as well as their current culture. And in all my fascination with the surface-level attractions of so foreign a place and people… I discovered both hope and a rooted desperation.
Japan has nearly half the population of the U.S., but the same number of suicides every year. Think about that for a moment.
More than 30,000 people in Japan end their own lives every year. That’s about 100 people a day, one for every 15 minutes.
Perfectionism.
Kills.
I found the foreign culture I adored had secrets just as deep and dark as my own did. The long-held senses of honor and fate have driven Japanese young people to form online suicide pacts with complete strangers. Businessmen confined to their cubicles twelve hours a day, six days a week, for the rest of their lives… and if they make a mistake, they are so ashamed they will sometimes kill themselves as a means of ‘redemption’. In dire financial straits, husbands and fathers, will end their own lives so family can collect the insurance money. A 12 year old girl throws herself off a building because she was teased about being small. A 14 year old boy hangs himself after the shame of classmate bullies pulling his pants down at school. I’m not saying America is perfect in comparison. Far far far far far from it. But I see something I hadn’t before- in these Japanese people.
I’ve been there- teased and bullied, stressed to breaking, without hope. I’ve been a self-perfectionist, unable to feel free to make a mistake and recover from it stronger. I’ve been isolated. I’ve been hopless. I’ve been suicidal. Not in the melodramatic sense- in the “I’ve made a plan and am storing up the courage to act upon it” sense.
I would be dead right now, instead of typing this, if not for Jesus. I would be afraid of embarrassment, exposure, inadequacy, my flaws, my failures, my future… if not for Jesus. I would be isolated, alone, imprisoned in one way or another… I would be the bully, the bullied, the one with no way out… if not for Jesus. There is no basic difference between American and Japanese cultures or societies. Same pressures, same issues, same sin, same need. But the culture is not the people… and the only difference between me and the people of Japan is that I have Jesus and they do not.
Yet.
If not for Jesus, my fascination with Japan would have died out like a fad, I’m convinced. If not for Jesus, I would shrug at the dying heart of another nation and go back to my own pursuits without a care. If not for Jesus, I wouldn’t even be alive to pray for them.
And because of Jesus, I want to go and meet some of them. The young people, in high school, in university, preparing for a life of adult pressure and perfectionism that waits in the shadows of their future to attempt to destroy them. It’s a lie that we must be perfect. Jesus was for us. It’s a lie that we don’t get a second chance. Jesus forgives and lifts us back up after every single failure. I want them to know that there’s a real way to live. I want to introduce them to Jesus.
I am not the only one who can or should go. God doesn’t require me to save Japanese young people. I can’t save them anyway, but I can make myself available for Him to work through me… as He does the rescuing. I have a heart for them. I have an opportunity to meet some of them, and love on them, and maybe… show them how intensely Christ wants them to be free.
That’s pretty much the gist of it. I have an opportunity to go and do just that- introduce our Father to a people who need to meet Him. Please comment on this post if you’d like to know more of the details of my trip- without obligation.
Even if you don’t feel lead to do the financial support thing, or can’t afford to, that’s fine- I promise! But I think prayer is eternally more important, so if you can do that, I’d be even more grateful. I’m trusting God for the money part of the trip, so I know He’s got it… But I need prayer. Not for me, specifically, but for the young guys and gals in Osaka… that they would meet Jesus.
Thanks for listening to this.
I have to go to Japan.
As in… have to.
It’s a compelling draw, one which the past few weeks has seen fit to damper. I’ve been bogged down with worry and interpersonal nonsense, obligation, sin, frustration, hidden fights and hiding from fights.
But I still have to go.
Not to run away, but to do what always brings me back to life- to give myself. I’m not so proud as to say that God needs me to go, or that I must because I’m necessary in the lives of some young Japanese students and it’s integral to the Lord’s plans for the universe that I get there… I’m not that proud. But I’m also trying not to allow this fire in the marrow to die out as a result of the opposition.
As James said in his 4th chapter… I have not the cash to go in May, probably because I haven’t asked.
So I’m asking.
Please give me some of your money.
I’ll be going with these guys for the month of May ‘09.
Pray about it.
Merry Christmas to all!
Enjoy your families and friends, but most of all, enjoy Jesus.
Rather than post another Japanese rock video (which I do enjoy tremendously), I think I shall instead bring your eyes and ears to the work another organization is doing in this broken world of ours. Support the Sold Project, if you would please.
The SOLD Project - Web Promo 1 from The SOLD Project on Vimeo.
This is probably my favorite Asian Kung-Fu Generation video ever.
keep looking »Order Shirt / Donate
Any donation amount helps. If you don't want a shirt but still want to help- every penny of your donation will go to Global Church Missions to be given directly to the families and communities in need.
Shirts are $15 each, printed on American Apparel.
Over half the amount of the shirt goes to GCM (the rest to recoup printing costs so we can do it all over again- God willing!)
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