In places of the world with great spiritual darkness, opposition to the good news is common: lack of interest, hostility, or spiritual attack are just some of the challenges believers in Jesus may face. This was the reality for Christian and Rie, who moved to Japan eight years ago to spread the gospel.
They saw very little fruit and felt deeply discouraged. But God gave them a light in that darkness. A way forward.
And it was so simple—prayer and blessing.
Japan has a population of 125 million people, and only 0.3% are evangelical believers. There are 8 million gods and goddesses in Japan. “It’s very difficult soil here to spread the gospel,” Christian confessed. When they first arrived, Christian and Rie used more traditional relational evangelism approaches, offering life coaching and English teaching as platforms for building relationships with Japanese people. But after seven years, they were questioning whether their work was making a real difference.
Things began to change for them after they went through Novo’s Activating Prayer Cohort. The prayer tools and the challenge to practice launched Christian and Rie into something new in Japan.
While Japanese people were resistant to Christianity, they were deeply spiritual and open to spiritual things and prayer. Christian and Rie discovered that encountering the power of the Holy Spirit through prayer often awakened people’s curiosity.
As Christian and Rie have focused more on prayer and blessing, stepping out boldly in public places and directly with people they know, doors to the gospel are opening up!
Watch this video to hear how leaning in to prayer and the power of God is creating new opportunities in Japan:
Connecting With God Through Prayer
Christian and Rie have found that praying with people directly or introducing simple prayer frameworks evokes greater interest in Jesus for Japanese people than Bible study. When people encounter the power of God or the presence of the Holy Spirit through prayer, they are attracted to it and often want to know more about Jesus.
Connecting with the deeply spiritual core of Japanese people through prayer has also minimized historical baggage about Christianity being a “western religion.” Japanese people encounter the real God personally—as a Japanese person he created in his image—and experience that Jesus really is for them.
Blessing people in Jesus’s name has been particularly powerful. When Rie offers to pray for friends or her English students they are open and accepting of that, but it doesn’t have the same impact as speaking a blessing directly to their face.
She recently led an English lesson where her students discussed things they were anxious about. Then Rie told them she wanted to bless them in Jesus’s name. “I looked into the faces of the class and I blessed them,” Rie said. “And their faces lit up!
Blessing seems more personal; people feel like they’re a part of it, rather than it being just me and God” (which is what just offering to pray for someone can be like).
In addition to praying with and blessing people directly, Christian and Rie frequently prayer walk and bless the land. They’ve realized that worship has an important part to play in changing the spiritual atmosphere as well. This past spring during a prayer walk, a visiting mission team brought their instruments and broke into spontaneous worship in various locations—in a busy park, in a busy downtown area, and on a mountain where Christian and Rie often go—and they felt the atmosphere change. It wasn’t just a spiritual change, but also people approaching the group, wanting to listen in. “We felt like this was a different world,” some of the listeners told them.
“A lot of times we don’t do [certain things] because we assume people might not like it or [not] be interested,” Christian shared. “And then it’s amazing that once you break through that [belief] and try something, the Holy Spirit works! Not everybody will respond, but some will actually be interested … little breakthroughs here and there. So we realize we should really be a little more courageous, trying different things … trusting God and trusting the Holy Spirit as he moves us and encourages us.”
Gathering a Team to Bless Japan
As Christian and Rie have uncovered the power of blessing in Japan, they connected with the ministry of Local Houses of Prayer (LHOP) in Ffald y Brenin, Wales. Rie and Christian gathered a few believers serving across Japan to learn together from visiting LHOP missionaries in person, and everyone resonated with the blessing prayer approach to evangelism. They agreed prayer and blessing would be key for impacting their various contexts in Japan.
Several of these believers traveled to Ffald y Brenin this Spring to learn more. These four groups of believers have very different ministries, but they all sense God calling them to the work of blessing in Japan. Now Rie and Christian are planning to move their family to Tokyo to be closer to these other families committed to blessing prayer in Japan. They have long been praying for ministry teammates, and right now it seems God is raising up a “blessing team” and calling them to be part of it.
Christian and Rie are grateful for the ways they can now recognize God at work, moving in the hearts of Japanese people, changing the spiritual climate through prayer and worship, and bringing believers together for a unified purpose. They are excited about the doors God will open for more Japanese people to encounter his power and love through their continued prayers of blessing.
Inspired by this story? Discover the heart behind why we do what we do—visit novo.org/mission
ABOUT THIS STORY
Christian and Rie Manabe-Kim live in Fukuoka, Japan with their son Noah. They joined Novo in 2017. The Kims have a vision to see movements of people coming to Christ, and a heart to be a catalyst of reconciliation and healing between cultures and generations in Japan. They hope to relocate to Tokyo in 2026, and are constantly learning more about how prayer and blessing pave the way for movements of the gospel.
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