Different Responses to World Crises

Mark Lewis of EFCA TouchGlobal:

Yet our crisis response will be different in Japan from our response in Haiti—just as it has been different in every region where we’ve sent help, from tsunami-ravaged Southeast Asia to Katrina-flattened New Orleans.

Our response will be contextualized to culture. For example, members of one Japanese church we partner with have been taking large pots of clean water and washing the feet of people crammed into the shelters. In a country where the people always take off their dirty shoes upon entering a home, this is the Great Commandment being lived out in a uniquely Japanese manner. These are Jesus’ hands at work, speaking the heart language of the people.

That contextualization is spiritual as well, because people’s spiritual awareness is different in Japan than in Haiti. Not only are there few churches, and even fewer Christian leaders to help rebuild the society, but it’s also an incredibly shame-based culture. Each year, more than 30,000 people in Japan kill themselves—a number even higher than the death toll from the March 2011 tragedies themselves. The concepts of mercy, grace and forgiveness seem nonexistent.

So in Japan, we’ve got to do some pioneering work to build churches. To do so, we’re working with the Evangelical Free Church of Japan, as well as with any like-minded Christian ministry that wants to advance God’s kingdom.

In both Japan and Haiti, we want to see intentional, sustainable disciple-making movements flourish. And that happens, we’ve learned, by putting boots on the ground and engaging in long-term relationships. That’s also what we’re doing in New Orleans and Manila, Philppines; in Myanmar and Chincha, Peru.

Wherever God has opened the door for us, post-crisis, to bring that Great Commission and Great Commandment focus, we’re in it for the long haul.