We (Mark and Lynn Pratt) had not been missionaries to Japan since 1985. And had not attended ICOM after that. But I was asked to speak at the Ladies’ Tea at the 1998 convention. I’d just assumed that current missionaries from Japan were regularly exhibiting–but was terribly shocked to find that Japan was not represented. Japan is such a strategic country. But the older missionaries were retiring/dying, and no one was in the wings to replace them. What was going to happen with Japan missions?
After the Ladies’ Tea, I was wandering the exhibit hall, not even thinking about Japan. Suddenly . . . well, it was kind of like a vision. An idea stopped me in my tracks: someone could host a cooperative exhibit for all Japan so that Japan missions wouldn’t fall through the cracks, even when the missionaries themselves could not attend the convention. Then the question entered my mind, “Who could do that?” And the next thing I knew, I was responding, “Well, um . . . I could!”
The missionaries applauded this idea, and I named my effort Say Yes To Japan (which was the title of a little booklet written years before by veteran missionary Mark Maxey). So at the 1999 convention, I hosted the first Say Yes To Japan exhibit–along with great help from some former Japan missionaries (and that’s been the pattern ever since). The exhibit helps keep Japan in the minds of the churches. I’ve lost track of how many new missionaries have gone to Japan since that time. And at the exhibit we often meet people who have Japanese exchange students or who want to help someone find a church in Japan. We do what we can to help, and often hear, “You guys are an answer to prayer!”
At the convention we also cooperate with other exhibitors who send workers to Japan; most recently, that’s Team Expansion, Let’s Start Talking, and OMF. We send people who want to go to Japan to those exhibits to talk with those groups about real possibilities, and they send people to us to chat with our experienced staff and to learn general information about Japan.
My website www.sayyestojapan.org, aims to feature all the Christian Church/Church of Christ missionaries in Japan, along with providing some general resources for fans of Japan. And I help connect the dots for people who contact me personally.
A terrific but unexpected by-product also resulted from the Say Yes To Japan exhibit at ICOM. At my first convention I set up an origami table. Little did I know it would be swarmed with kids, some of whom not only camped out there for big hunks of time but also returned year after year to hang out with us. As these young people grew up, they were hearing the adults answer questions about Japan missions and explain the spiritual situation in Japan—just naturally absorbing it all while they had fun with origami. Some of the origami crowd have gone on to do mission work in Japan.
I could go on and on about the encouragement, the incredible God encounters, and more that happens at the Say Yes To Japan exhibit. But the truth is, without ICOM as the perfect arena for all that, I . . . well, I can’t imagine.
Lynn Lusby Pratt
Say Yes To Japan
