It’s been way too long since this blog has been updated! So here’s what’s been going on with our ministry in the past year or so.
In late 2023, after 2+ years of online manga content, we published our first printed manga — a short booklet featuring one of the stories from Waypoints, our online manga series. We distributed about 5000 that year before Christmas, and with some fresh promo in late 2024 sent out 3000 more, for a total of over 8000 copies. These were sent to churches and ministries across Japan to be used in their outreach efforts, who were able to order free copies through our resource page. We’re thankful for a good response from the Japan missionary community in particular!
2024 was a quiet year for Waypoints.jp because we were busy with another project and with support raising. We added just one short story to the site. But 2025 is off to a big start, with a major website redesign. And we’ve just posted our latest manga, “The Pool.” We’re aiming to produce and post 4 or 5 more new Waypoints stories in 2025, and hope that with the new design and content, this manga project will become more and more effective in pointing people to Jesus.
One big highlight from the past year was our partnership with ZOE Japan. We worked with them to produce a short manga (called “Don’t Give Up!”) about the dangers of sextortion. The Japanese version can be read online, and ZOE will be distributing print versions in both English and Japanese as part of their outreach and education work. We’re excited to have had this opportunity, and for the great work our new collaborator Wakame Kyo did on the illustrations.
This project was a milestone for us in that it was a big step towards our vision of being a multi-project, multi-platform ministry, with manga targeting various audiences at different stages of their spiritual journeys — all to bridge the gap between church and culture, between Jesus and Japan.
We officially launched Drawbridge Creations in 2021 when Waypoints first went online. There have been a lot of challenges since then, but by God’s grace (through the prayers and support of many) we’ve come this far!
For more frequent updates, please join our email list HERE and/or follow us on social media (links below.) Thank you for your interest in this manga ministry!