History & Hope in Japan

Inside, small blackboards list the day’s menu. But as good as the food is here, it’s something else that makes this place truly special. It’s the community shaped here that’s extraordinary, a wide welcome for those often turned away elsewhere …the LGBTQ community, the addicted, the formerly incarcerated, the sick. Here they find acceptance.  Practical supports. A hot cup of coffee and a Christ-like love.

This place also brims with history. The house where the Bazaar Café is located had been the property of the UCC since 1938, a residence for mission personnel sent by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) to serve in Kyoto. (ABCFM is a predecessor mission agency  to Global Ministries.) Last September, we transferred ownership of the Bazaar Café property to our local partner there, an intentional act of returning local resources to local people, a signal of our commitment to de-colonize our global ministries. The property is itself a legacy: of our historic presence here, and now of the beautiful ministry it still makes possible.

We travel to eastern Japan by train to visit still another partner, the Asian Rural Institute (ARI) near Nasushiobara. As we near, we drive down narrow roads between rice paddies swollen with the falling rain. Finally we reach ARI,  a training center for rural leaders on a 6-hectare farm. There are fields and crops and animals and chores to be done on this farm, yes. But it’s more than that.  It’s like a mini-United Nations: 30 program participants from 17 countries. They’ve left their countries for nine months to do this intensive training. They have dreams for their home places and hope that what they learn here will give them a better chance of making them come true.

Tokyo is our last stop. On our final morning we visit the General Secretaries of the UCCJ and the National Christian Council of Japan (NCCJ). We participate in a forum we’ve co-sponsored. The topic is heavy: we talk about increasing militarization in Japan and around the world, and circumstances that march us closer to the unimaginable prospect of a third world war. What can the Church do, we wonder, to usher us back to the ways of peace? How can we work together as partners across the globe to counter growing fear and the devastation of war?

As I listen to the conversation, I reflect on all I’ve experienced in just these few days in Japan: ministries of bold and generous love, historic relationships that have shaped and taught us, investments in the future of places and people around the world, a shared passion for a just and sustainable world.

 This is what we do to find our way to peace. We build relationships that endure the tests of time. We create spaces of welcome in our communities and break down barriers between us.  We talk about things that matter, find common purpose. We show up for one another. We learn from the mistakes of history and move forward better and wiser. We join hands for the journey and remember that God walks with us through all of it.

The Reverend Shari Prestemon began her service with the national ministries of the United Church of Christ in January 2024. As the Acting Associate General Minister & Co-Executive for Global Ministries she has the privilege of overseeing several teams: Global Ministries, Global H.O.P.E., Public Policy & Advocacy Team (Washington, D.C.), and our staff representative to the United Nations. She previously served as pastor to local UCC congregations in Illinois and Wisconsin; the Executive Director at the UCC’s Back Bay Mission in Biloxi, Mississippi; and as Conference Minister in Minnesota.