Who Will Build...?

"I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none." - Ezekiel 22:30

Takako and I had just spent a peaceful afternoon in her church friend's small third-floor apartment getting our hair cut. Her friend was beautiful and skilled with the scissors; she had left a beautician job to stay home with her bright-eyed seven-year-old son (one of the first Japanese children, incidentally, not to be afraid of me).

Her apartment was warm even though snowdrifts piled high outside, and it smelled pleasantly of fragrant hair rinses and green tea.

Takako and I had finished our hot cocoa and were about to leave for the evening when her friend said, "Let's pray first."

"I want to pray, too," Takako said. "I'll pray for your husband to become a Christian."

As the three of us knelt together on the rug by the coffee table, praying softly in Japanese (and me in English), I wanted to weep at those all-too familiar words: "I'll pray for your husband to become a Christian."

Something like anger rose in me as we prayed, thinking of all the radiant Japanese Christian women I know who are married to or dating non-Christian Japanese men.

Where are the Japanese men of God?

As I knelt there next to this kind beautician, her lips moving in prayer, I remembered woman after woman whose husband does not share her faith.

I could name only two Japanese Christian women dating Christians... and one of those men is not Japanese.

"I'm so lonely," I remember a new Japanese Christian guy saying after returning to Japan. "Almost all the people at church are old women."

In some Sapporo churches, women seem to outnumber men three to one. I remember the day I stopped asking, "Is your husband a Christian?" because I knew the answer would be no.

I can name only two Japanese pastors in Sapporo. But I can name three Korean pastors, three American pastors, one Mexican...

And year after year children grow up without the influence of godly fathers, brothers, grandfathers, male teachers and role models.

Who will build up the wall in Japan?

Please take a minute and pray for the Japanese Christian men you know - Keigo, Atsushi, Mr. Kenji, Masahiro, the evangelical movement among former yakuza (Japanese mafia) members, to get you started... Even if you don't know them, the Lord does.

Brothers in Christ, I ask you to search your hearts! Could God be calling you to Japan? As I write there are six journeymen in Japan - all women. Not a single man!

Who will teach the young men to love Jesus?

Who will show teenage guys that happiness is not found in alcohol and the meaning of life is not found in a corner office?

Who will be the role model for beautiful little black-eyed boys with unruly hair and a life of crucial choices stretched out before them?

Who will build up the wall and stand before God in the gap on behalf of Japan?

Christian men, generations of Japanese are waiting for you...