TOKYO, JAPAN – As the Tokyo Games reach their final few days an evangelism team of International Mission Board missionaries are using all means possible to share the Christian message in a nation where 99% of the population is yet to know Jesus.

From teaching English on the streets, to even dressing up as a sumarai this dedicated team is engaging in hundreds of people who might otherwise have never heard the Gospel.

While the last few days of the Tokyo Games continue to take place behind closed doors, a team of dedicated missionaries with the International Mission Board are taking every opportunity to share the Christian message on the streets of the city throughout the Olympics.

IMB team member Scott Bradford says the response has been very positive as they’ve used several creative ways to engage with people.

We have used Five-minute English and we’ve done four of those events and they’ve been very good. People in Japan are very interested in learning English as well. People we’ve engaged with have been able to go on to talk about spiritual things. We were distributing some of our pins. And I was dressed up in a Samurai outfit. It opened doors for people to stop and look and ask “Why are you dressed that way?” And we are trying to a variety of ways to reach the Japanese people. Whatever it takes. What is it going to take to reach people with the Gospel? Whatever it takes.

Bradford concluded by sharing their expectations for their outreach efforts beyond the games.

Our goal is that everything we’ve been doing during the Olympics we can continue to do after the Olympics and work with local churches. A lot of what we’ve been doing has actually got them excited and we’ve had a number of church members come and join us in ministry. So we’re hoping that these things they’ve seen and heard us doing, will enable us to continue these things moving forward. So that’s our goal to keep doing that things that will allow us to engage the Japanese.

And so as these IMB missionaries continue to work alongside local churches in fulfilling the great commission it’s hoped they will be able to reach many of the 99% of Japan’s population who don’t yet know Jesus.

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