Brought here to love others

I like to read the mission notes in our UCC/DOC Global Ministries e-mailings, and I always give special attention to those written by my seminary classmate Jeff Mensendeik, who does mission work in Japan. He was close to the situation in northern Japan during the tragic tsunami in 2011. (I wrote about his ministry setting here and here.)

Recently, he wrote about his return to Fukushima to visit one of the tiny Christian churches that maintain an outpost there. I was struck by the way he described his encounter with this small fellowship, and the contrasts with some American churches I visit.

Although the Fukushima church only has 10 members, 60 percent of them were present in worship the day he visited.  My latest church draws about 24 percent of the members on a Sunday.