For many of us who attend church, summer is almost synonymous with missions. Short-term opportunities are led by churches and other organizations to help meet the needs of the poor in all parts of the world, spread the gospel message to participate in the mission of making disciples of all nations, and provide a way for the missionaries—often young people like youth and college-aged students—to participate in what God is doing around the world.
I’m excited to announce that this summer, Beneath the Tangles will be participating in the sending of someone (or multiple people!) on missions. We’re partnering with Jesus Otaku, an incredible ministry located in California but now with branches in various places across the nation, in their annual work at Anime Expo, one of the nation’s leading anime conventions. From their website, here’s a blurb about the mission work that Jesus Otaku does at cons:
For several years, Jesus Otaku has hosted a booth in the convention exhibit hall at Anime Expo. We have also had booths and tables at other various conventions throughout the US. This gives our team a physical and consistent space to connect with other con-goers. The exhibit hall is normally a very busy and loud place, so we always try to create a space where it is easy to connect with others and have a conversation. Our ministry also hosts panels where we speak about various topics about being an otaku. We have also done performances at conventions that show and celebrate our love of anime. All this is to connect with as many con-goers as possible. Our belief is that the best way to minister to others is through personal relationships we can build on from year to year.
Are you someone with a passion for the lost? Are you eager to follow Jesus’ command to make disciples of the nations? And now for a more unusual question—are you an otaku? Then maybe God is encouraging you to join Jesus Otaku in their mission this summer!
If you’re interested, please complete and submit the form below. We’ll email you back with some questions and connect you to Jesus Otaku, which runs the mission entirely. For our part, we’re partnering by hopefully connecting people who are members of our community—who engage with us in various ways. We’ll also run a short campaign to hopefully help defray some of the costs of the mission, which will be in the neighborhood of $1,000 plus the cost of airfare.
March 19th is the commitment date for this trip. It’s just around the corner, so please message us about your interest as soon as possible and we’ll get you connected to Jesus Otaku.
We hope you’ll prayerfully consider this trip. God bless, otaku!
[…] month, we put out a call for those interested in being part of our first Beneath the Tangles mission team! A few responded, […]