After years of dreaming, praying and preparing, on August 13, 2021, Drawbridge Creations’ ministry officially began with the launch of our first online manga series — Waypoints.
We’re grateful for God’s leading up to this point, and thankful for the support and prayers of His people along the way.
But now that we’re here, what happens next? And how does actual ministry happen through this project? Today I want to share about how we see the Waypoints website developing, and how we hope it will become a useful ministry tool for churches, missionaries and ordinary Christians, especially here in Japan.
1. How is this a ministry?
First of all, we believe art and story themselves can be effective in touching hearts and changing minds, as mentioned in our vision comic. But online, it would be easy for people to come, read some manga, and leave without making any deeper connection.
That’s why we hope these stories will be conversation starters, and that the website itself can be a platform for that. So not only will we upload new manga each month, but we’ll also leave readers with questions to think about and respond to in the comments. In addition, the blog will be updated regularly with articles on the Bible passages and themes related to the stories we’ve posted, as well as videos to get people thinking and talking about life, faith and Jesus.
We’ll also encourage people to contact us if they’d like to ask questions, receive a free Bible or visit a church. We plan to network with churches and missionaries around Japan so that when a reader is ready they can connect with a Christian community in person.
2. How will Waypoints resource the Church?
One big reason for serializing this series online is that it allows us to connect with ordinary, unbelieving Japanese people who don’t have a connection to a local church. But I imagine most of our traffic will come by “word of mouth,” as churches, missionaries and ordinary Christians use Waypoints as a resource in their own ministries and witnessing.
So here are some ways Christians might use this tool:
You could share a link to a specific story that resonates with you, or that the person you’re sharing your faith with might enjoy. It could be a good conversation starter about spiritual things, or even a “springboard” to get people reading the Bible itself — “Hey, if you like that story, let’s look at the Bible passage it’s based on together.”
If you have an online ministry platform, you could link to one of our stories when it’s on-topic with your own blog, video or social media content. Think of it as “bonus content” for your own online ministry.
These Bible-based manga could also be used to supplement Bible study materials. For example, you could share a link with the members of your Bible study group, asking them to read the manga adaptation before getting together to study the related Bible passage together.
We do plan to have printed materials someday as well, but these are just a few ideas for using our online content as a ministry resource. Can you think of any others?
3. What do we need to keep this ministry moving?
We are just getting started, and definitely can’t take this ministry very far by ourselves. So first of all, we need your prayers. That’s not just the spiritual answer, it’s the truth; if we want to see people saved, not just entertained, we need God’s leading, provision and anointing.
Secondly, please tell others about this ministry if you think they might be interested, whether they’d want to use it as a ministry tool as outlined above, or get involved in some other way.
And lastly, yes, we do need financial partners as well. We have funds to keep this thing going for several months, but if we want to build a body of content and keep the site online for at least a few more years, we need to raise a lot more.
If you’d like to get involved in any way, please check out our Partners page or get in touch via our Contact page.
