Welcome to the SEAPC September prayer focus for the nation of Japan! Every time we as an SEAPC community of friends go to Japan, we are greeted with genuine kindness and a stirring to see the impossible become possible. This month, we want to take you on a journey to connect on a deeper level with the people here. We want you to touch the inward heart of the Japanese, and those who are serving the harvest. This harvest needs much prayer and care. We have asked some of our closest friends who are actively involved on the front lines to share their passions, visions, and heart cries for Japan.
At SEAPC, we are focusing our eyes into this nation at the highest level ever. This is one of the last great open yet unreached people groups on earth. That is a staggering thought considering the technology and availability of connection available to and from Japan. Prayer is essential. A special call is going out this month to set our eyes and ears HERE, knowing God is going to move in an unprecedented way.
I will never forget an encounter I had on one of my first trips to Japan that captured me to stand in the gap for the Japanese people. My hosts took me to a temple outside Osaka. After prayer walking and talking with some of the people visiting the temple, I looked behind the main walkways that surrounded it. I saw a woman laying down on the ground. As the voices around me grew quiet, I could hear a deep sobbing. Both of these things—a posture of laying down and a sound of distress—are nearly never seen in public in Japan. My curiosity took over. I had to see what this was. I quietly walked around behind the woman so she could not see me, and right there before me (behind the public eye) was a tiny “graveyard.” A graveyard filled with hundreds of little headstones. Headstones with the names of aborted babies. This woman had brought a little teddy bear and a rose for her child and had both gifts tightly gripped in her hand. She could not hide her heart. She could not “keep it all together” on that day. The cry of motherhood was too much. Her heart was exposed, and her need was fully unveiled.
As I watched her weep over this little tombstone representing a life she never knew, I wept with her. I saw the power of love. I saw a microcosm of the raw condition of hearts across Japan. Hearts longing for the deep healing, true love, and liberty found in Jesus. I saw the heart of why I was HERE: to stand in the gap for LIFE and to bring the good news of Father’s love to broken lives and dreams.
In September, you can enter in with us to pray as we launch Attack Lambs resources within Japan.
From this launch with partner ministries such as Every Home for Christ and YWAM, we will begin to mobilize north to south, community by community prayer walking with local Japanese churches, and global prayer teams rallying around them. Please prayerfully consider joining one of these teams to impact the Kingdom!
In addition, this month, you will enter into one of Japan\’s key felt needs – ministry to children and the support of the biblical family structure. These needs are at the center of the SEAPC parenting platform, and also at the center of the transformation of Japan. You will see the many practical ways you can help pray for and invest in the healing of broken homes, child abuse, fatherlessness, and providing a Christ-centered biblical foundation for the emerging generations.
We can’t wait for what our Father has in store this month! Now is the time for focused prayer for Japan. Prayer that makes a way deep and lasting way for breakthrough for this land!
