ELKHART, Ind. (Mennonite Mission Network) — Abby Findley and her husband, Andy, weren’t expecting their service trip to Japan to remind them so much of home in the Midwest United States.
As their plane approached, they saw the mountain ranges and water surrounding the island nation. The Elkhart couple was not expecting to be reminded of flatlands and farms. Once they were at the service site with the Youth Venture Japan team with which they were traveling, a lot of Midwestern life was exactly what they got.
“It was the landscape, the flowers,” said Abby Findley, marketing assistant for Mennonite Mission Network. “There were peony bushes and azaleas … all of these things that were the same as we have here [in Indiana]. There were similarities, but it was also different.”
The Findleys led four Youth Venture participants in serving alongside long-term workers Akiko Aratani and Ray Epp at Menno Village in Hokkaido from June 17 to July 8.
Youth Venture is a Mennonite Mission Network service program where young people ages 14 to 22 experience and see how God is at work in a culture that is different from their own. Menno Village is a 40-acre Christian community involved in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and education. The Menno Village directors, Ray Epp and Akiko Aratani, are mission associates with Mennonite Mission Network.
The team, which consisted of Tierney Frey of Goshen, Ind., Ian James of Middlebury, Ind., Matthew Rodenberg of Halstead, Kan., and Andrew Koerner of Freeman, S.D., did farm work. The team took on tasks such as cleaning chicken eggs, whacking weeds, and fox-proofing a chicken coop. During work and breaks, they interacted with local residents. They exchanged testimonies, and particularly enjoyed hearing from Epp about the vision of Menno Village to help Japan reinvigorate its farming heritage. The team had arrived at a time of year when fewer farm workers were at Menno Village. Epp told them that they were helping to accomplish his dream.
The team also attended church and did some sightseeing, such as taking a bus to Sapporo, Japan’s fourth-largest city by population, and a train to Otaru, a port city that is a popular tourist destination.
The Findleys created a blog to document the team’s experiences and reflections during and after the trip.
For example, on cleaning chicken eggs, Tierney Frey wrote:
“It was actually a pretty fun job even though it took us all morning and most of the afternoon to finish up. It definitely taught us how to be patient.”
About attending Shiroishi Church in Sapporo, Ian James wrote: “It was very interesting to hear some of the Japanese adults talk about Christianity … lots of adults don’t get baptized until they are in their 30s. It was really satisfying to hear how God is working in all our lives.”
Christianity has more than a 150-year history in Japan, but less than 1 percent of the nation’s 128 million people are Christian. Shinbutsu Shūgō (a combination of Shinto and Japanese Buddhism) is the predominant religious system. Farming was once the major employer in Japan up until the 1940s, though only 20 percent of the nation’s land is suitable for agriculture. As the technology boom drove the economy in decades after World War II, interest in farming declined among Japan’s younger generations. However, with the recent economic down turn, and increased competition from tech companies in South Korea or China, many Japanese tech companies are converting factories to produce agriculture. Japan’s agriculture is dominated by aging farmers who are working small family-owned plots.
“Knowing where and who your food comes from is a powerful thing – whose hands it has passed through to get to your table and at what cost,” Andy Findley said. “We all gained a very personal understanding of what it looked like to support localized agriculture, and the relational and spiritual implications of supporting your neighboring farmer.”
"Leaders such as Abby and Andy are key to the overall Youth Venture experience,” said Arloa Bontrager, director of Youth Venture. “They are mentors and, in a sense, pastors to the participants on the team. I am so grateful to them for stepping up this year."
Abby Findley said that some of the more moving moments of the service assignment occurred as the team members gathered to make music around a piano at Menno Village that had not been played much. This became a treat for Akiko Aratani’s father, Noboru Aratani, and aunt, Tomoko Sanka. As the youthful team played on the final day of the service assignment, the elders tapped their feet and wept as they enjoyed the music.
“They had been so kind to us and given us so much that it was as if the team was giving a little back to them,” Findley said. “A lot of times, churches may not see the value in sending youth to other countries to learn about the culture and do some service. For us, we did a lot of physical labor and it was an opportunity to see God moving in these larger ways and for the team to see the bigger picture of the global church. It was moving and touching for Andy and me as leaders.”
(Update: The size of the farm and Tomoko’s last name were updated. 8/4/2014)
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Mennonite Mission Network, the mission agency of Mennonite Church USA, leads, mobilizes and equips the church to participate in holistic witness to Jesus Christ in a broken world. Media may contact news@mennonitemission.net.
