Striking Gold in California
Exactly 150 years after the first wave of
immigrants from Asia came to the United States to join the California
Gold Rush, Yuji and Sumie Uno came to Southern California and found a
spiritual type of "gold" they had never experienced in Japan. The gold
they found is unprecedented openness and fruit in advancing the Gospel
among the Japanese. 
Since their arrival in 1999, the Unos have
focused on evangelizing and discipling Japanese businessmen, their
wives, and singles in the South Bay area of Los Angeles. There are 500
Japanese-owned businesses in this part of Los Angeles. Their ministry
has a fellowship group of 40, and half of them have come to know Jesus
in the past three years.
"In pioneering the community work in
the Kobe area of Japan in 1985 to 1999," says Yuji, "we didn't have a
convert in the first three years. But here, in three years, we've had
20 people come to Christ and confess Him in public at their baptism.
I've never had so much fruit in such a short time."
What makes the Japanese in the United States so open to the Gospel? Yuji says there are three main reasons.
First,
they have moved to a Christian culture in the United States. And many
of their first contacts were the result of an outreach of Rolling Hills
Covenant Church. The church had in place classes for teaching English
and classes to learn U.S. cooking and culture, which Navigator staff
Tom Steers helped start. Out of those classes, the Unos had 30 women
contacts to start with.
Second, they have more time to explore Christianity in the United States than in Japan.
And
third, they are stripped of their Japanese cultural ties, especially
relationally. It is easier for them to make independent decisions here.
There are no family and friends saying, "Don't do that!"
The Unos learned that one way to reach Japanese
is through "food evangelism." In November, they held a Sushi Outreach.
It helps that the very first man who responded to the Gospel in the
beginning was Masahiro Horita, a master sushi chef for the past 30
years. More than 160 visitors attended.
Another new outreach is
the V.I.P. Club, which has been extremely effective among Japanese
businessmen and businesswomen in Japan. The Japan Navigators have
helped launched this lay-led ministry in Japan. Most often the clubs
meet for lunch in a nice restaurant. Laypeople who know Jesus invite
their nonbelieving business friends. They all listen to one person's
testimony at the end of the meal. No direct evangelism is done.
What the Unos are doing is actually an
extension of the Japan Navigators' Community Ministry. For the U.S.
Navigators, Asian American Ministries has the honor of hosting and
facilitating a ministry that couldn't be sponsored without the Unos.
This
is a new, mature form of missions. Not only does the U.S. Navigators
send missionaries, we also receive them. This is an imperative of the
Great Commission: all people groups going to all people groups! Without
laborers like the Unos, we can't reach various people groups here in
the United States, such as the Japanese Yuji and Sumie are reaching out
to.
Yuji has also been blessed with an eager younger man who
wants training. Matt Nishioka has just joined the Asian American
Ministries staff after the U.S. Navigators' Staff Conference in Tampa
last November.
Yuji and Sumie have three daughters. The
oldest, Yurie, is married and living with her husband, Koji, in Japan.
Their youngest, Mariko, is presently a student at Biola, in Southern
California. And Megumi is a school nurse in Yokohama, Japan.
Together is a quarterly publication produced by The Navigators' Ethnic Ministries.
For more information, you may go to the Cultural Affairs website,
or contact Cultural Affairs at:
The Navigators
Attn: Cultural Affairs
P.O. Box 6000
Colorado Springs, CO 80934
Email: cultural.affairs@navigators.org
