We’ve landed safely in a world that looks much like the one we left. Skyscrapers and suited businessmen. Bright lights, billboards, and delicious smells wafting from restaurants on every corner. Upon exiting the airport we entered the world’s most efficient metro system complete with color-coded pathways and marked “stalls” for orderly queuing. It’s hard to believe that the masses surrounding us are one of the world’s largest unreached people groups.
The first lesson of Tokyo: spiritual need looks like us.
“Unreached people groups” conjures up memories of exciting missionary biographies. “Spiritual need” is supposed to look like stone-aged jungle tribes, murderous natives, people barely clothed and without written language. In other words, people very unlike us.
But here? Standing in Shibuya Crossing, the busiest pedestrian intersection in the world, we’re reminded that need also looks like the pinnacle of intelligence, success, and efficiency. Both we and the people around us are all on equal footing before Christ with the naked jungle natives.
We all stand with the same need. The hundreds of thousands that will cross Shibuya Crossing today look like they have it all, and yet stand poised to lose their very souls. The harvest is plentiful in Japan and we’re ready to begin!
