My Third Life

• Population: 1247 as of Feb. of 2016
• Village Office website(Nicely done English site): http://www.town.atsuma.lg.jp/ (you can click on the English)
• Every small town or village has one common theme: To increase or maintain the population. Many small towns have similar phenomenon: More older people, less youth. In order to keep the younger generation, they need to provide jobs. In order to provide jobs, they need to have investment on entrepreneurship.
• This town is known for ski resort in Tomamu area.
• The town office is promoting the new comers from other places by providing housing for young family, and support for those who come from other places. They pay for a part of the purchasing an used house or a land for a new house.

The following video is at the terrace area of Tomamu resort(This resort was sold to Shanghai based company):

Prayer Points:

1. Please, ask the Lord of harvest to send His laborers into this town. (Matthew 9:38, Luke 10:2)
2. Pray for the development of business start-up ministry who are called to help people to start a new business. This will help the village to develop and the whole village will welcome this type of ministry.
3. Pray for the Christian ministries to be developed in this village.

• Population: 2630 as of Feb. of 2016
• Furano area has several town names with Furano. MinamiFurano is one of them. Furano is known best from the TV drama series, call Kitanokunikara (From Northern Country: meaning Hokkaido). This TV drama continued over 20 years with same cast. Because of the TV drama, Furano became very popular tourist attraction in the past decades.
• Minami means South. Therefore, this town is located in the southern Furano plain.

The following video shows the fall season of MinnamiFurano:

People go fishing on ice:

Prayer Points:

1. Please, ask the Lord of harvest to send His laborers into this town. (Matthew 9:38, Luke 10:2)
2. Ask the Lord to bring new ways of approaching this small town.
3. Pray for the Christian ministries to be developed.

• Population: 5130 as of Feb. 2016.
• Town Office: http://www.town.nakafurano.lg.jp/ (Click on the foreign langugae)
• NakaFurano is known for its Lavender flower field. In the summer season, the whole lavender field is painted with purple.
• Local farms become the center of tourists’ attraction. Many tourists buses from many foreign countries, come to visit this famous scenery.

The following video shows the scenery of Farm Tomita:

Prayer Points:

1. Please, ask the Lord of harvest to send His laborers into this town. (Matthew 9:38, Luke 10:2)
2. Since the typical church planting in a rural area would be very difficult, it would be great to start a house church. Please, pray for the house churches to be started in this area.
3. Self-sufficient missionaries are needed in order for them to sustain themselves in this small town. Please, pray for the new wave of self-sufficient missionaries would be sent to this town.

• Population: 11,127 as of Feb. 2016
• This town also has lavender fields. The Tokachi Mountain Range can be observed from many places in Furano plain.
• They try to register the Tokachi Mountain Range as a GeoPark of Japan.
• The population is decreasing each year. The town has a program to invite people to live in their town or try to support those who decide to live in the town.
• There is one Christian farming family living in this town.

This is an official introduction video from the town:

Prayer Points:

1. Please, ask the Lord of harvest to send His laborers into this town. (Matthew 9:38, Luke 10:2)
2. Work can be a main idol sometimes. They put so much efforts at the expense of their family sometimes. They put work as the number one priority in their lives, and it seems that work is an idol. Please, pray that they will find the Lord and put God 1st above all else.
3. Pray for the Christian ministries to be developed.

• Population: 10,380 as of Feb. 2016
• This town’s main produce is rice. Starting from the beginning of this town, the rice was the main produce.
• This town is increasing in population. They are number one increasing town in Hokkaido. Maybe this town is located near Asahikawa city which is the 2nd biggest city in Hokkaido. So it is commutable distance between HigashiKagura town and Asahikawa city.
• It is located right next to Asahikawa airport. Probably the closest town from the airport.
• They also focus on setting flowers on the streets. This beautifies the town.

This is a video at the flower field in HigashiKagura town:

Prayer Points:

1. Please, ask the Lord of harvest to send His laborers into this town. (Matthew 9:38, Luke 10:2)
2. Work can be a main idol sometimes. They put so much efforts at the expense of their family sometimes. They put work as the number one priority in their lives, and it seems that work is an idol. Please, pray that they will find the Lord and put God 1st above all else.
3. Pray for the Christian ministries to be developed.

• Population: 8,110 as of Feb. 2016
• This town’s population is growing. Mainly because it’s location close to Asahikawa city. The 2nd biggest city in Hokkaido. Just like HigashiKagura town, this town is within commutable distance between Higashigawa town and Asahikawa city.
• This town is a part of Taisetsuzan National Park.
• This town declared as a town of pictures. The whole town’s events center around pictures. Usually pictures of rich natures. Lots of picture contests are presented.
• Even the elementary school has photo clubs.

This is a travel guide video for Higashikawa town:

Prayer Points:

1. Please, ask the Lord of harvest to send His laborers into this town. (Matthew 9:38, Luke 10:2)
2. Work can be a main idol sometimes. They put so much efforts at the expense of their family sometimes. They put work as the number one priority in their lives, and it seems that work is an idol. Please, pray that they will find the Lord and put God 1st above all else.
3. Pray for the Christian ministries to be developed.

• Population: 6,741 as of Feb. 2016
• This town has philosophy about how to develop this town. They try to teach children with actual participation of understanding basic life needs. Rice as main source of food, forest that supplies with lumbers, and flowers that enrich people’s hearts. Primary students actually grow rice for the next year’s food at the school lunch. Numerous parks and forest areas are developed to teach kids about the nature and harmony with life.
• This town is a part of Taisetsuzan National Park.

This is a newly developed area in Tohma town:

Prayer Points:

1. Please, ask the Lord of harvest to send His laborers into this town. (Matthew 9:38, Luke 10:2)
2. Work can be a main idol sometimes. They put so much efforts at the expense of their family sometimes. They put work as the number one priority in their lives, and it seems that work is an idol. Please, pray that they will find the Lord and put God 1st above all else.
3. Pray for the Christian ministries to be developed.

• Population: 3,863 as of Feb. 2016
• Pippu town focuses on Skiing and Strawberry as their specialty.
• Here is the live camera for this town: http://www.town.pippu.hokkaido.jp/cms/webcam.html
• Here is YouTube channel for Pippu town: https://www.youtube.com/user/pipputown

This is a CM for Pippu town:

Prayer Points:

1. Please, ask the Lord of harvest to send His laborers into this town. (Matthew 9:38, Luke 10:2)
2. Work can be a main idol sometimes. They put so much efforts at the expense of their family sometimes. They put work as the number one priority in their lives, and it seems that work is an idol. Please, pray that they will find the Lord and put God 1st above all else.
3. Pray for the Christian ministries to be developed.

• Population: 3,032 as of Feb. 2016
• Aibetsu town focuses on mushroom as their specialty.
• This town’s main theme is to create a great environment to raise kids. They have different kinds of benefits for those who have children under high school.

This is a promotional video for Aibetsu town:

Prayer Points:

1. Please, ask the Lord of harvest to send His laborers into this town. (Matthew 9:38, Luke 10:2)
2. Work can be a main idol sometimes. They put so much efforts at the expense of their family sometimes. They put work as the number one priority in their lives, and it seems that work is an idol. Please, pray that they will find the Lord and put God 1st above all else.
3. Pray for the Christian ministries to be developed.

• Population: 3,873 as of Feb. 2016
• Kamikawa town has forestry and tourism as their main industries.
• The town is located near the Souun mountain range. It has beautiful scenes through out the seasons.

This is a tourism video for Kamikawa town:

They had garden show in 2015 Here is the promotional video:

Prayer Points:

1. Please, ask the Lord of harvest to send His laborers into this town. (Matthew 9:38, Luke 10:2)
2. Work can be a main idol sometimes. They put so much efforts at the expense of their family sometimes. They put work as the number one priority in their lives, and it seems that work is an idol. Please, pray that they will find the Lord and put God 1st above all else.
3. Pray for the Christian ministries to be developed.

• Population: 3,308 as of Feb. 2016
• Kenbuchi town was started by Tondenhei(Farming Soldiers recruited by the Japanese government to pioneer and to protect from Russian invasion).
• The town is focusing on picture books at the library. They have over 35,000 picture books collected. Each year they choose the best picture book voted by the people who visited the library.

This is a tourism video for Kamikawa town:

They had garden show in 2015 Here is the promotional video:

Prayer Points:

1. Please, ask the Lord of harvest to send His laborers into this town. (Matthew 9:38, Luke 10:2)
2. God has given each person or town with a specific talent. Pray that God would reveal the gift of who Jesus Christ is for whose who find who they are in Christ.
3. Pray for the Christian ministries to be developed.

• Population: 3,418 as of Jan. 2016
• Shimokawa town is very active to invite people to their existing businesses as successors. The town helps to start-up business. And the existing business owners help young and willing persons start or succeed the business.
• Because of the town’s location with full forests, their lumber business is big.
• They started ice candle at winter time.
• This town also started to build Great Wall like one in China around the park. All of the rocks were brought by hand and allowing people to leave their own messages on the rock from all over the world.

This is a festival video at the Great Wall park in Shimokawa town:

They had ice candle museum:

Prayer Points:

1. Please, ask the Lord of harvest to send His laborers into this town. (Matthew 9:38, Luke 10:2)
2. God has given each person or town with a specific talent. Pray that God would reveal the gift of who Jesus Christ is for whose who find who they are in Christ.
3. Pray for the Christian ministries to be developed.

• Population:2463
• Chippubetsu town is very small farming town. It was started by 400 Tondenhei (Farmer-Soldiers) in 1895-96.
• In 1992, this town’s rice was elected one of the top 100 rice in Japan.
• The names of villages and towns are from Ainu language because Ainu was here before Japanese came to Hokkaido.
• Hotsprings, marathon event, park golf, easy access to Sapporo or Asahikawa, good support for the children’s health insurance, seasonal farming experience, one dollar per square meter land purchase for the new settlers, and a Rose Garden are some of the highlight for this town.

Here is a good introduction video in Japanese:

Here is the video of Rose Garden of Chippubetsu:

Prayer Points:

1. Please, ask the Lord of harvest to send His laborers into this town. (Matthew 9:38, Luke 10:2)
2. Pray for God’s supernatural leading people to the Lord.
3. Pray for the evangelists and pastors are raised up from this village.

• Population: 1965 as of Dec. 2016
• This town was started from 1893 be the immigration from Chiba prefecture.
• The sunflower is the symbol of this town. Near the roadside station, they have sunflower field where draws lots of tourists in the summer.

Here is the landscape view of Hokuryu town:

The following video is the beautiful scenery of Sunflower Field:

Prayer Points:

1. Please, ask the Lord of harvest to send His laborers into this town. (Matthew 9:38, Luke 10:2)
2. Pray that God will prepare the hearts of people when the evangelists arrive.
3. Pray that God will show strategic way to approach this town.

• Population: 3134 as of Oct. of 2016
• Moseushi town has specialized producing rice.
• Like any other small towns and villages, this town also struggling with young people leaving the town looking for jobs.

Here is a video of Yarensoran festival. This team is from Moseushi town:

Prayer Points:

1. Please, ask the Lord of harvest to send His laborers into this town. (Matthew 9:38, Luke 10:2)
2. Pray for the awakening for this town.
3. Pray for the openness to the Gospel from the people in this town.

• Population: 2546 as of Oct. 2016
• Main industry is rice farming.
• Uryū (雨竜町 Uryū-chō^?) is a town located in Uryū District, Sorachi Subprefecture, Hokkaido,Japan.As of 2008, the town has an estimated population of 3,054 and a density of 17.68 persons per km². The total area is 190.91 square kilometres (73.71 sq mi).
• The name of the town is from the Ainu language, but the origin of name has been lost. Urir-o-pet, one possibility, means “cormorant river”.
• Uryu town was started in 1889 from a farm committee called Kazoku Committee Farm with 50,000 ha land.
• 明治22年、皇室御料地として全道に200万ｈａを設定、華族組合農場へは未開地5万haが払い下げられます。公爵三条実美、旧徳島藩主の蜂須賀氏らが設立した華族組合雨竜農場は、このときに払下げを受けて創立されたものですが、その後、蜂須賀農業となり、耕作面積は4000haを誇るまでになりました。蜂須賀氏は小作経営に変更する一方、私費を投じて、かんがい用水工事を行い、雨竜開拓の基礎を築きました。
• Uryu wetland is popular here:

• Rice Field Art:

Prayer Points:

1. Please, ask the Lord of harvest to send His laborers into this town. (Matthew 9:38, Luke 10:2)
2. Pray for the creative way to penetrate the hearts of people living in this area.
3. There is need for new job creation. Please pray that Christian ministry with job creation may be started here.

• Population: 6793 as of Oct. 2016
• This town has unique history where Totsukawa in Nara prefecture experienced the flood which left almost nothing. This led them to move to Hokkaido for pioneering the farm land. It was in 1889. When they arrived in their current location, it was 1890.
• Because they came from Totsukawa, the name of their town became Shintotsukawa wehre Shin in Japanese means New.
• Rice farming is the main in this town.
• This town became a location for the NHK drama regarding the pioneering story called Shintotsukawa Legend.

http://cgi2.nhk.or.jp/archives/tv60bin/detail/index.cgi?das_id=D0009010382_00000

The following video is long and you can just go through them for the pictures:

Prayer Points:

1. Please, ask the Lord of harvest to send His laborers into this town. (Matthew 9:38, Luke 10:2)
2. The strong pioneering spirit still lives in the people. Please pray that there will be pioneering teams can come to this place for God’s Kingdom. And out of this place, many pioneering teams will go beyond their own territory.
3. Please pray that the beauty of the nature would speak to the hearts of the people in the land.

• Population: 10,850 as of Oct. 2016
• Akabira (赤平市 Akabira-shi^?) is a city located in centralSorachi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. The name is Ainufor “mountain ridge”.
• This city was centered around coal mine. In order to be a city, it had to be at least 50,000 in population. There used to be over 50,000 in this city because of the coal mine. But the coal mine was closed and the population dropped rapidly.

• Akabira – a former coal mining city

  The Akabira Coal Mines played a pioneering role in Hokkaido’s industry. Today, Akabira promotes itself as an industrial city characterized by warmth, water and greenery. Akabira is located in central Hokkaido and covers a total area of 129.88 square kilometers. It adjoins four other cities – Ashibetsu to the east, Takikawa to the west, Utashinai to the south and Fukagawa to the north. Land reclamation in the area began in 1891, local roads were completed in 1897 and railway services began operation in 1913. The history of coal mining in the city began in 1918 with the opening of the Moshiri Coal Mine. Akabira’s population continued to grow, making it Hokkaido’s 18th largest city by 1954. However, the coal mining industry fell into decline in around 1960, leading to the closure of the last mine in 1994 and the end of the city’s 76-year history of coal mining. In the meantime, Akabira has transformed itself from a city with a mining industrial structure to one
  with a manufacturing structure and promoted sound community development as a way of
  dealing with the difficult situation it faced. The local government remains committed to making
  Akabira an industrial city of warmth, water and greenery by carrying on the rich history left
  behind by their forefathers and bringing together the knowledge and enthusiasm
  of the people who live there.

  Moshiri Coal Mine: 1918 – 1969　　Akama Coal Mine: 1937 – 1973
  Toyosato Coal Mine: 1937 – 1967　　Sumitomo Coal Mine: 1938 – 1994

• Here is the pitures of Akabira in YouTube:

Prayer Points:

1. Please, ask the Lord of harvest to send His laborers into this town. (Matthew 9:38, Luke 10:2)
2. The town was relying on coal mime before, since the coal mines were closed, they have been struggling with economy and population reduction. Please pray that the Christian ministry to rebuild this city would be started with Business As Mission.
3. Please, pray for the wisdom for any Christian who are called to this village to overcome the current difficulties like Joseph in Egypt.

• Population: 3553 as of Oct. 2016
• Utashinai (歌志内市 Utashinai-shi^?) is a city located inSorachi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. It is Japan’s smallest city by population.
• It was formerly a prosperous coal mining city, but has declined greatly since the closing of the coal mines. The population hit a maximum of 46,000 in 1948.Efforts to transform Utashinai from a gritty coal mining town to an alpine tourist destination have met with mixed success. The town has adopted a Swiss theme as part of its tourist oriented strategy, and many new buildings are Swiss chaletstyle. A medium-sized ski hill, Kamoidake, attracts a decent crowd of locals and hosts frequent ski meets, while a hot spring resort called Tyrol, after the Austrian region, is known throughout Hokkaido for the quality of its water. However, despite these new projects, Utashinai continues to experience population decline and economic stagnation. The high school closed in 2007, with students now traveling to Sunagawa, Akabira or Takikawa for their secondary education.
• Penkeutashunai River, a tributary of Ishikari River, flows through Utashinai. There is Mount Kamoi on the northwest of the city.
• The name is derived from the Ainu ota-us-nay (オタウㇱナイ) meaning “River connected to a sandy beach”.

The following video is an overview of the city:

Prayer Points:

1. Please, ask the Lord of harvest to send His laborers into this town. (Matthew 9:38, Luke 10:2)
2. Since the decline of the population, they struggle with young people leaving the city. Please pray for the Christian ministry to create jobs in this city.
3. The city needs new and active work of rebuilding manpower. Please pray for the creative people who are called by God to be sent to this city.

• Population: 3278 as of Oct. 2016
• Kamisunagawa (上砂川町 Kamisunagawa-chō^?) is a townlocated in Sorachi District, Sorachi Subprefecture, Hokkaido,Japan.
• Kamisunagawa was a coal mine town, but the mines were closed. After decline of the population, town struggles with creating more jobs in the town.
• Here is an introductory video from the town:

Prayer Points:

1. Please, ask the Lord of harvest to send His laborers into this town. (Matthew 9:38, Luke 10:2)
2. A pastor from this town has a church in Sunagawa city. He wants to reach out this town. Please ask the Lord to raise up more Christians to have heart for the smaller town like Kamisunagawa. 
3. Please pray that Christian ministry will rise up to create jobs in this town.

• Population:3429 as of Oct. 2016
• Tsukigata (月形町 Tsukigata-chō^?) is a town located in Kabato District, Sorachi Subprefecture,Hokkaido, Japan.
• The town’s name originates from the first warden of Kabato Prison, located in Tsukigata, Kiyoshi Tsukigata.
• This town was started by the prisoners. 3rd warden was a Christian and his policy was showing the teaching of the Bible in the prison.
• This town office shows the vivid history on their official website in Japanese.

Prayer Points:

1. Please, ask the Lord of harvest to send His laborers into this town. (Matthew 9:38, Luke 10:2)
2. Prison became the center of the pioneer for this town. One of the warden was a Christian who was very active in sharing God’s word for the prison. Please pray that the Christian workers are rising for this town to meet the needs of this town.
3. Please pray that the creative ways of Christian ministry will be expanded for this town.

• Population: 3240 as of Oct. 2016
• Shinshinotsu (新篠津村 Shinshinotsu-mura^?) is a village located in Ishikari District, Ishikari,Hokkaido, Japan.
• Shinshinotsu is the smallest and the only village in Ishikari Subprefecture. Ishikari River flows the east of the village.
• Here is the tourism PR:

Prayer Points:

1. Please, ask the Lord of harvest to send His laborers into this town. (Matthew 9:38, Luke 10:2)
2. This village is doing good job in business where chamber of commerce, JA, and village cooperate. Please pray for the Christian influence over this village in every area.
3. Pray for God’s supernatural power to be revealed in this village.