For 60-year-old Seiichi Arai, Christianity was something he had stumbled upon.

The Saitama native had been taking up odd jobs in Tokyo and sought temporary lodging in various Internet and manga cafes. That was where he first met 66-year-old Rev Louis Lau in the fall of 2012 outside Ikebukuro Station.

The Singaporean missionary has been running Lazarus Ministry in Tokyo with his wife Christina for the last 13 years, serving destitute and homeless individuals.

“Louis approached me and asked if I had some time to spare. He gave me a pocket New Testament, asking if I’d like to read it.

“I just thought that since a foreigner had come to Japan to do this kind of work, I couldn’t just refuse it – I didn’t want to create a bad impression. So I took the Bible from him.”

But Arai found himself in a tricky position having the Bible in his possession.

“My mother’s family was Shinto, so we worshipped a different God. My grandfather was also what you’d call a Shinto priest – like how Christians have pastors or Catholics have priests. Everyone in our house was like that. Even if they weren’t actively serving, they held that faith.

“There was no one around me who was Christian. So I had this Bible, but how was I supposed to return it?”

Arai felt strongly that even though he was raised in a different religion, he couldn’t just throw away something from God into the trash.

Recalling his conversation with Rev Louis, Arai decided to visit a church mentioned by the Singaporean, thinking that he would be able to catch him there to return the Bible. That was Arai’s first time ever stepping into a church.

“I just wanted to make sure I returned the Bible to him. But he was never around, so I ended up going back every week.”

About two years later, he finally met Rev Louis again unexpectedly – on the day of his baptism.

“I became a Christian, but nothing about me changed”

“I was a really heavy smoker. I’d been a bad kid growing up, so I’d been smoking since I was really young. I just couldn’t quit smoking,” Arai shared. “At church, we’d sing praise songs, but I couldn’t sing a whole song without coughing.”

It had been some time since he had become a Christian, but he hadn’t really become an exceptionally transformed man. He struggled with making the decision to kick his smoking habit and felt no push to do so either.

But one day, someone in church declared that he was going to quit smoking. And he did.

That inspired Arai greatly. “He had become a Christian a year after me. If he could make such a decision… I wondered if I could really call myself a Christian. Even after becoming a Christian, nothing about me had changed.”

The same night, Arai prayed about kicking his smoking habit, although he joked that it felt more like an argument with God instead.

But from the next morning onwards, he never smoked again.

Quitting smoking thus became a pivotal moment in his faith journey where he truly was able to believe that God had called and chosen him.

From apathy to empathy

According to an official government survey in January 2024, there are close to 3,000 homeless people in Japan, with slightly over 20% of this population residing in Tokyo alone.

Yet the reality is far more complex, with hundreds of homeless individuals in Tokyo hidden from the public view. The government officially defines homelessness as this: living in public spaces, such as streets and parks, excluding those in shelters or temporary accommodations.

It is estimated that around 15,000 individuals sleep over in cyber cafes in Tokyo alone. These people are also known as “internet cafe refugees”.

Arai is one of them. Most of them do not have a place of permanent lodging and often end up in Internet cafes as they offer a private space, internet access and basic amenities like showers round the clock.

Under the work of the Lazarus Ministry, Louis and his wife along with their team of volunteers have fed some 80 to 90 destitute locals in Ikebukuro without fail every Thursday since 2012.

Today, Arai is now serving actively in church and manages the logistics of the Lazarus Ministry.

“I used to be someone who wasn’t really interested in other people’s lives and their living situations,” he shared.

“But now after every Thursday night, I would wonder, “Is that person okay?” or “I met them this week, but will I be able to meet them again next week in good health?

“I’ve started having such feelings about others.”

Bread, bao and bento

30-year-old Singaporean Jackson Lim first met Rev Louis at the Asian Cultural Training Institute in 2022. He had just relocated to Tokyo to become a full-time missionary and was looking for a way to continue serving the homeless there as he had done back home in Singapore.

On a Thursday night, we followed Arai and Jackson around on the streets of Ikebukuro, along with the other volunteers of the Lazarus Ministry.

Salarymen lined the streets, often with a can of beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. We headed into a crowded convenience store near the station, and the volunteers began filling up three shopping baskets with bread.

“We usually rotate between bread, steamed meat buns, rice balls and bento boxes… Every week we give out three items. Convenience store bread is the most popular because it can be stored for days.”

That week’s menu was bread, buns and a bento box. We met up with the rest of the volunteers and began handing out printouts to everyone. Each printout contained the Bible verses for that night’s sermon, as well as the weather forecast for the week.

“The weather forecast for the week is very important for them because many of them have no digital devices or access to the internet. This is their only way of finding out what to expect for the week ahead,” Jackson shared.

After a short time of prayer together, the team moved toward a back alley near the station. Arai had already arrived ahead to gather the homeless folks around. Everyone was lined up in rows.

It was Jackson’s turn to share the message this week, and the Singaporean preached fluently in Japanese, his voice amplified by a mini wired microphone and speaker slung across his body. Each person listened attentively, their eyes fixed on the printout in their hands.

After Jackson concluded his message, the group moved quietly and orderly in lines to collect the packs of food prepared for them. Arai walked off swiftly to the next venue to gather the next group of beneficiaries. The back alley became quiet once again, save for the groups of salarymen hanging around for their smoke breaks.

The team of volunteers packed up and moved off to the next location – a public park. One volunteer, an elderly Japanese man named Yoshino, stayed behind to pick up litter and sweep the floor.

“He insists that we must always leave the place in a better state than when we came. So he takes it upon himself to clean up the area every week.”

“This can be a matter of life and death”

Faithfulness in everything that they do is something the volunteers hold closely to their hearts.

When Jackson first showed interest to volunteer with the Lazarus Ministry, he was met with a stern word of caution from Rev Louis.

“To us, this can very well just be another weekly ministry thing that we do. But Louis had been very firm to remind me that to the beneficiaries of our ministry, this can be a matter of life and death.”

Rev Louis’ firm stance towards volunteers’ commitment to the ministry is not without basis. While the weekly work of the Lazarus Ministry has been consistent and important to meeting the needs of the homeless, it is still not enough.

Last winter, one of the regular beneficiaries of their ministry was found dead on a bridge. He had died of starvation. By the time the paramedics got to him, he was long gone.

“You never know whether this is someone’s last meal.”

If you would like to partner or contribute to the work of the Lazarus Ministry, you may reach out to Louis at: [email protected] or Jackson at: [email protected]