Art Life Faith Podcast

“Kanpai!” We called in a loud voice together as we clinked our little ceramic cups. This was my very first experience of sake and I really didn't know what to make of it. ...

Nukadoko is a mixture of rice bran, salt, and water, where cucumbers, carrots, radishes, and other vegetables could be put in to make a specific kind of pickle called nukazuke. It has to be stirred daily to prevent the growth of mold and allow fermentation to continue to happen. And here is the interesting part. It has to be stirred by hand. The yeast in the fermentation comes solely through the hands of mom in the kitchen and can be passed down from generation to generation. ...

Deep in the shadows of the mountains and autumn leaves, red paper lantern faintly illuminated the entrance to a traditional Japanese restaurant. The roar of a river filled our ears as it plummeted down the cliff next to the road. The air was moist and cold, as was typical for that time of the year. ...

All 40 plastic gallon jugs were completely empty. I lifted each just to be sure. Sweat evaporated from my face so quickly that all I felt were deep layers of salt crusted on my skin. Hot wind blew in my face as if from a hairdryer. Knee-high bushes and cacti did little to provide shade. Abi and I were hiking across the Mojave Desert, a 37-mile section of the Pacific Crest Trail, famous for its high temperatures and lack of water. ...

Let me try to paint the picture for you. You're walking through a really busy shopping district. There's nothing Christian anywhere around. Then you suddenly come upon Mayu's pop-up shop in the middle of the most popular area of the busiest city on the planet. And there Mayu sat, in a display window, painting and talking with everyone who came by. ...

March 11, 2023 is the 12th anniversary of that devastating earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster that struck the nation of Japan, and a day that changed everything for me. During that time, I saw firsthand the power of the arts to bring hope and encouragement during really dark times. The people I worked with in the relief movement had lost everything—family members, friends, homes, jobs, entire towns. And during that time, people responded to the arts in ways I never dreamed possible. We knew people really needed food, water, and supplies. But it turns out they really needed beauty as well. ...

Welcome to the Art Life Faith Podcast. This is the show where we talk about art, what it has to do with your life and what it has to do with the Christian faith. And I'm your host, Roger Lowther.

Well, I got back late last night from a three-week trip to the US and I really pushed probably a little too hard, so I'm pretty tired, but glad to be back and looking forward to continuing the stories about how God is working here in Japan. I first made a trip to Boston where I gave an organ concert for a new organ installation. I met a lot of people during my time there, and also spoke at a college.

Then I traveled to Memphis, where I spoke and played in a foreign missions conference and was interviewed by a radio station. I had the privilege of being one of the main speakers for the conference. The theme was arts, worship, and missions. For the Sunday morning service, I spoke about the role of worship in the call to missions. And in the evening service, I spoke about the role of the arts in the call to missions. In case you're interested, I've included links to both in the show notes for this episode on my YouTube channel.

One of the fun elements of the conference was a collaborative art project. The idea was to be able to create something that we could bring back to Japan and use in the ministries here. There were three large banners where people could write prayers for the Japanese people on Japanese origami paper, tear them into small pieces, and paste them onto the banners. It was a tangible way to show prayers and encouragement from America for the people of Japan. The art project also had additional symbolism of brokenness. By tearing the paper, we were symbolically showing our own brokenness, and in the hands of the artist, this brokenness comes together to make a beautiful picture. In this case, it was a scenic picture of Mount Fuji with a rainbow behind it and Christ carrying the cross at the base of the mountain. And all this was designed by our intern, Mayuko.

There was also a campaign to raise money for Community Arts Tokyo. This summer, we're going to have lots of events with interns and short-term missionaries who are planning to come to Japan. Japan has really been closed down lately. In America, COVID may seem like something that's in the past, but not so here. People are still pretty fearful. I live on the 22nd floor of an apartment building, which means I have to ride an elevator many times a day. And believe me, if I forget to put a mask on, there will be consequences. Others will furiously go for the buttons to get off at the next floor. We also still have large plastic dividers on tables at restaurants and still have to sanitize our hands going into many buildings along with temperature checks. Restrictions for worship services were just lifted in December, only two months ago, so people are still really fearful of getting together. We tried a few small events, but they really weren't well attended. But the idea is that by this summer, through the activities of Community Arts Tokyo, by renting spaces, providing food, and giving music and art events people would be willing to overcome their fears and gather together again and form community around beauty. And we pray that God is going to use these efforts for the sake of his glory in the building of his church.

There are many interns and short-term trips coming this summer, not just with our team, but with all the other missionary teams as well because last year, the country was still pretty much locked down. And people have been waiting. Now they're ready and raring to go. And we sure can use their excitement and energy.

So for this episode, I thought it'd be fun for a change to interview two interns who were here last month to give them an opportunity to share their perspective of their time in Japan. The first I'd like to introduce you to is Zoe Phillips. She's planning to graduate from university this May with a degree in composition and singing, and so came on a two-week vision trip to decide what to do next. And she's considering missions full-time. Boy, we kept her busy, probably too busy! I think we wore her out. She met person after person, did event after event, and most of the travel was by train or on foot. As a singer and composer, she sang in many places, accompanied by herself on the guitar or by me on the piano. Well, without further ado, here's Zoe Phillips.

Zoe, I wanted to sit down with you for a second. By the way, your singing today was beautiful. Thank you so much for doing that.

[Zoe]

Of course.

[Roger]

It's really a privilege for me to be talking to a musician and a student now. You are trying to decide what to do with your life, and here you are on this vision trip to Japan trying to figure out if you want to be a missionary as an artist. Just after hearing you share a little bit this Art Life Faith event tonight, I wanted to ask you more questions about that and let our listeners know some of your stories. First, let's go back and say, why are you in Japan? How did you get here in the first place?

[Zoe]

How did I get to Japan? Well, I grew up basically watching anime my entire life. The culture of Japan, as much as anime can portray, was just always super interesting. Then when I got to college and I joined a campus ministry, I was like, “Oh my gosh, I can go to Japan and do missions.” Then I get to senior year and my parents are like, “Okay, time to be realistic. Being a musician is a dumb idea probably. Being a musician in missions is an even dumber idea. You need to get an actual job.”

[Roger]

How do you explain that to your parents?

[Zoe]

It was hard. Especially with missions. You have to raise money and getting right out of college and not making money but having to ask people for money is just mind-blowing to them. I decided to just go ahead and do it anyway. Last fall, I decided to look up, just on my computer, missions in Japan. The first thing that popped up was MTW (Mission to the World). I clicked on it, and I got in contact with a woman named Theresa Webber. We had our little discussion, our little talk, and she was like, “Okay, where are you interested in?” I was like, “Well, I'll go anywhere the Lord tells me to go, but if there's somewhere in Japan, I would absolutely love that.” She was like, “Okay, cool. We have some people there.” She was like, “What ministry are you interested in?” I was like, “Well, anything that the Lord says, I know I'll do, but if there's something in music, that'd be even better.” And she was like, “Oh, that's so crazy. We have a ministry there in Tokyo, and they do music, arts, and stuff like that in Japan.” I was like, “Wow.”

[Roger]

That's so cool.

[Zoe]

I was like, “Okay, what's the next step? How can I actually do this?” And she was like, “Okay, the next step would be to go on a vision trip. And just so you can go out, meet them, get to see all the stuff they do.” I guess there was something going on with the scheduling and stuff like that. So she was like, “Okay, how about this? We're going to send you to a conference where they're going to be at CPI and you're going to be helping with the children, but maybe at some point you'll be able to sneak away and get to meet Roger and Abi.” I was like, “Cool, that sounds awesome.” But then when I actually got to Japan, this was in November, I just totally forgot about the secret mission because I was so scared about being around hundreds of kids and teaching them the Bible.

[Roger]

CPI, Church Planting Institute, is a huge conference. It's actually the biggest conference we have of mission leaders and church leaders all over the country. And so there were hundreds of kids there.

[Zoe]

Weren't there? Yeah, it was overwhelming, actually. I was like, “I'm not sure I even like kids all that much.” I'm like, dealing with so many of them and their parents are just leaving them here.

[Roger]

Thank you for your sacrifice and doing it. My kids were in that program too, so I know they really enjoyed it.

[Zoe]

Anyway, got there, totally forgot about the secret mission. And so I'm talking to a few of the other people on the team, and I'm like, “Yeah, I do music. And so if I came back and did missions, full-time missions, and I wanted to do music…” and she was like, “You have to meet Roger and Abi Lowther.” And I was like, “Okay, if there's time, whatever, whatever…” I talked to multiple other people, and they all said the exact same thing. And so one thing led to another and I finally got to meet you one time when you were checking in your kids. And I was super distracted trying to make name badges for the children. And you were like, “I'm Roger.” I was like, “Oh, my gosh.”

[Roger]

Someone had texted me and told me about you and said, “You need to go find Zoe.” I'm like, “Okay, all right.” And so, that was the first time we had met.

[Zoe]

Yeah. And so we met and I got your contact information and all that stuff. And the conference went and passed. And so this past semester was my last official semester of college. And I was like, “Okay, so now it's time to do the vision trip with you guys.” And so we emailed, did other stuff, and I was honestly not sure it was going to happen because it was so last minute. I was like, “I have to raise money again and I'm still not working. My parents think this is crazy. I'm going back, and it's only been three months since I've been there.” But anyway, we still would go through with it. I'd already raised all the money, and now I'm here.

[Roger]

And we are so glad you are. I mean, while you've been here, we've done do a lot of great things together. We went down to Nagoya. We gave some concerts in a café. We visited a private high school about a future concert. We met a lot of people, various ministries around the city. It's been really cool to have you be able to join in and see what those are....

I was saved in college in 2000 in the USA, where the pastor told me to ‘put off your old life of sin, everything Japanese, and put on the new life in Christ.’ I tried very hard to do that for 18 years in the States through marriage, childbirth, my husband's affair, separation, single mothering, running a social enterprise, and my art. And now I'm trying to find Christ in Japanese culture. ...

Everything we delight in now in the festival of Christmas is but a taste of that ultimate beauty and joy we find in the Great Festival of Heaven.

In a profound and mysterious way, God saved the world by coming into the world. He came as a little "thread" to 結ぶ (musubu), "to tie" onto our tangled and fraying lives and communities. Jesus was cut off on the cross that we might be tied to God. He became the isolated and broken strand so that we could be gathered into community with him. In a world quickly unraveling in sin, he binds us together with his love into a big and beautiful tapestry in the peace and harmony of the kingdom of God.