Where In Japan are Bob & Chris November 25th

After preaching on November 23rd Bob and Chris found themselves late on the following Tuesday helping to feed those Jesus was talking about when he said , “As you did it unto the least of these my brethren you did it unto me.” Matt. 25:40 They were invited by a member of Musashino Lutheran Church who heard Bob’s sermon on the 23rd. Yasuko Nakayama volunteers regularly to help in the ministry of the House of Star. This ministry distributes food to the homeless in the area of Tokyo around Minowa subway station know as Sanya. It is an older section of the city. At Yasuko san’s invitation Bob and Chris went with her and met the sister who runs the ministry along with other volunteers to help on Tuesday night. They met when a van with the other volunteers pulled up on a street corner outside Minowa Station. Together they drove into a small park on this cold, dark and rain saturated night. Like street vendors they quickly set up the feeding stations. The hungry were already lined up and waiting in the darkness. Chris ladeled soup with vegetables cut small enough to be consumed from a cup without need of chop sticks. Bob helped hand out rice balls with a pickled plumb in the center and a wrapping of sea weed. The food was made by nuns at a local Roman Catholic Convent. The line of “the least of these my brethren” quietly shuffled past each station first receiving the rice; then the soup; sometimes followed by a thank you or a quiet smile. Quickly the food was handed out and the van repacked. The homeless wandered away into the night; some of them back to the cardboard residences they had staked out for this night in the bushes and corners of the park. Bob and Chris back in the van were off with the others to a mall where many homeless seek shelter each night. A mall in this part of Tokyo is an area of shops with a common roof and otherwise open to the elements. Here the volunteers did not set up stations and wait for the least of these to shuffle by with hands extended. Here as far as you could look down the street of the mall were boxes and mattresses and all manner of open enclosures with humanity sitting or laying covered up to try and survive. Each one had his or her space in the cold wet darkness. The volunteers pushed a cart with soup; offering it as they passed each “residence” The volunteers this night were an interesting group. In addition to Bob & Chris there was a young woman from North Carolina employed here as a linguist, a pastor from the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church, a Roman Catholic priest in training from Uganda, and a government worker from the Republic of Yemen and some local Japanese folks. It was an eclectic mix of people whom God called together to be with Jesus Tuesday night in the dark, cold rain of Tokyo. Quickly the distribution ended and the van was packed for the final time. Bob, Chris and Yasuko returned with the others for a debriefing session at Star House; the tiny ministry headquarters in the neighborhood. Soon they were on their way back to Mitaka; walking through the same streets to the Minowa Station where they had experienced the one who said “As you did it to the least of these my brethren you did it to me.”

Keep Praying

Zen Ben