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For this reason of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and found."Luke 15:24.


Wgen Jesus told the parable of the prodigal son, He may as well have been speakin to a group of students missionaries, because "lost" is how we viewed the whole world.
one night we heard a great comotion in a town near Osaka,
and a group of us wnt to check it out. It was a festival of some sort with drums pounding, brightly lit lanterns, and colorfully
deressed people dancing in the streets. "What's going on?" Iasked
a japaneese friend.
"It's a celebration,"he announced.
"Who for?"
He clapped his hands to the beat of the music. "For the dead,"
he said. "Our ancestors like it when we sing and beat our drums
for them."
Not everyone in Japan belives that dead ancestors enjoy
such festivals,but many still do. As a matter of fact, some wor-
ship the dead, asking them for guidance in their daily lives.
Jesus compared such people as these Japanese to sons and
daughters who've wandered far from home and become lost in a
world of confusion and lies created by Satan. Missionaries who
travel to foreign lands or simply talk to a neighbor across the back-
yard fence have onc central goal-to save the lost, to bring them
into true understanding of God. In this case, we know that the Bible says dead people sleep and cannot listen to pounding of drums.
I watched my friend enjoy the festival and secerately askes God
to help me find ways to invite prodigal sons and daughters back
home again