Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Correspondence Partners

For those who are helping in America by volunteering for correspondence I would like to say thanks. I want to give you some background so you can understand the situation. While I teach some classes at church, the students involved in this correspondence are all in classes at community centers. There is no overt evangelism in these classes; however I think they are very important. People in the community get to know me and know about my faith and when someone wants to learn about Christianity it makes me easier to find.

What I would hope for correspondence partners is to just write the women interested as a friend. As you share your life and struggles share your thoughts about how to approach them. If these thoughts and approaches include your faith, naturally share it.

I need to say that Japanese people have a very negative veiw of religion as a whole. I think this stems from their World War II experience in which national religion was used to bring the nation to war and tremendous suffering to the Japanese people. Also Japanese communication styles are very indirect, so try and be very polite and not too pointed on any one topic. Thank you for your cooperation. If this goes well I have another community class of 5 women I would like to find correspondence partners for after winter vacation. Initially all correspondence will flow through me but then later after trust has been developed people can either write or email each other directly. Thanks Again.