Apostle Paul in his strategic missions to the gentiles, chose to be a bi-vocal missionary.
Tentmaker
He chose to be a tentmaker. Why? Because he wanted to model his life style to the gentiles who did not have any law or the Bible. There was no one who could show what a Christian is like. So, Apostle Paul decided to show what a Christian is like in those time.
Today, Japan is very similar. They do not understand what God had done in creation. They heard the name of Jesus, but they do not simply grasp the concept of forgiveness nor the grace.
It was the very will of God for me to be a bi-vocal missionary in Japan. It was 1996 when I was living in Sapporo, Hokkaido when God began to speak to me about business with missions. When I first heard from the Lord about this. There was struggle in my and my wife. Our missions model was only “Faith Mission.” YWAM was where we were. At that time, it was not common even in YWAM to go this route as a tentmaker.
After about 10 years of being a tentmaker, I began to see why this was so important in Japan. First of all, Japanese value work as the most important area of life. They sacrifice everything for their work because it suppies for thier financial need. In Japanese, they say, “まじめに働きなさい” – meaing, “work faithfully.” It has conotation of seriousness in it when they say it. Everything revloves around the work they do. Therefore, business relationship is the most important relationship in life. When I began to understand this, I said to God, “You are right on this!”
