Welcome to the Art, Life, Faith Podcast, and I’m your host, Roger Lowther.

Well, a lot’s been happening since our last podcast, so let me catch you up a bit. First, our church, Grace City Church Tokyo, celebrated its 15th anniversary this past Sunday on Pentecost Sunday, June 8, 2025. We started weekly worship exactly 15 years ago, and it’s been quite a journey since, which became real to all of us watching the presentation we made of pictures over the years and seeing my own children as little kids. Two of them are now in college. A lot of time has passed since this church started. And to just think about all the things that we’ve gone through over the past years. There was a lot of pain, but a lot of joy as well. And it was so exciting to celebrate that together with this community. We’re so thankful for how God has blessed over these years.

Now, the most exciting part of the worship service was the space that we moved into. We have been on the move for 15 years now. It’s really hard to find a space to worship. Renting halls in downtown Tokyo is really expensive, and we’ve been turned down by so many people who won’t let us use their spaces when they’re not using them. Some of the cheaper halls that we are able to find have a lot of restrictions like not allowing food so we couldn’t do communion, or not allowing children, which … What hall doesn’t allow children? … And then things like not allowing the collecting of funds, which rules out collecting tithes and offerings. Sometimes we weren’t able to find a place at all and we had to meet in a park at the mercy of the weather. And the few times that we did that, thankfully, God protected us. Rain fell and we were like, Oh, we have to cancel, and then it stopped just long enough for us to gather 70 people in the park, and then it started raining again and we had to go home.

But now things have changed. An opportunity was made available for us to move into a place 24/7 that we can use throughout the week. So we started something called the Tokyo Tabernacle Project to raise funds for it and moved into the space on June 1. The room was not quite finished. All the past week, the construction crew was trying to finish that up, get the rest of the wallpaper up, get some monitors up, things like that, and then for the church’s 15th anniversary this past Sunday, we were able to celebrate together and invite a lot of guests in to celebrate with us. We had some pastors come in who used to be on staff but have since gone out, sent out to plant other churches in Tokyo. We had the building committee up front to thank them for all their hard work. We had a representative from the building itself come and speak to us about the whole process and thank him for everything he did to make possible. We also had a video greeting from our founding pastor, and we were even honored to have the missions pastor and head of the missions committee from a church in the States to help support this project. It all smoothly proceeded forward under the fearless leadership of our pastor, Daisuke Kimura.

The building where we’re meeting, Ochanomizu Christian Center, has a number of churches that meet for worship on Sundays. We’ve been working very hard over the past few months to develop those relationships. We were honored to have pastors from the church that meets just above us to come and bless us and pray for us, to share a meal with us during the two-hour party after worship. And they also bought us a big bouquet of flowers, which we were able to put in the entryway. It’s been so cool to see how God has pulled all this together as we look expectantly to see what he’s going to do in the future.

We have other cool things to share as well. On July 1, we are launching a new book called Third Culture Kids. It was written by a missionary kid, Ulrika Ernvik, who was raised overseas. She wrote this book to help people understand the various things they need to think about when raising their children overseas in a third culture setting. There was a Japanese missionary family who went to Papua New Guinea, Yu Fukunaga, and he was so moved by this book and how helpful it was for him that he decided to undertake the task to translate it and then look for a publisher. He found us, and we agreed to work with him. This project has really been going on for a year now, and we are so proud of the results. So, this is the Japanese edition of Third Culture Kids, written from a Christian perspective. There really was nothing like this in the Japanese language before. So we’re really excited about how this is going to help families in the future. If you’re interested in learning more about this book, please contact me and check out the show notes. We pray that this book will really be a blessing to many Japanese families living around the world, whether in missions or not, even if it’s a transfer for a company. We believe this book would be really helpful for them.

I’m also happy to announce that my next book will be coming out this summer called Hidden Beauty: Seeing God in Japan. It’s about the Japanese aesthetic of beauty in hiddenness, and it’s also about seeing the hidden beauty of God in Japanese art and culture. Now, this is a project that’s been on the back burner for a while. I’m so happy it’s finally coming to fruition. We plan to launch it on August 1. I submitted the audiobook version just last week, so we’re going through the process of having that approved, and I’m waiting for proofs to come from England right now so I can make sure the covers look okay. It’s been quite a process giving birth to this book, but I’m so excited to finally be able to release it to all of you. There are a lot of stories in there that have meant a lot to people in our congregation. I tell stories of five of them in there, along with a lot of other stories as well. And they were saying, Oh, you’re finally coming out with that book, so we’re celebrating together. Anyway, I can’t wait to share it all with all of you.

This episode, I talk with Verity Hayhow, who has been interning with us for the past three months. She’s an illustrator and designer who worked with Harper Collins in London just after college and took a break from that to work alongside us for a little bit, and we are so grateful. She immediately dived into many of the book projects we had going on at the time, as well as writing and illustrating her own book called Moon Creature, which we’re going to talk a little bit about. I’m also happy to announce that since the recording of this podcast, Verity has asked to be part of our missionary team, and we accepted. Now she’s going through the process of being approved by a mission agency and raising support. So we can’t wait to see her again in Japan as soon as she can raise those needed funds. I’ll have more information about that at the end of the podcast if you’re interested in supporting her and helping her get here. So for now, let me invite Verity into the conversation.

Welcome to the Art Life Podcast, and I’m your host Verity Hayhow.

Nice. I love it. Thank you, Verity, for being on the program.

Thank you for having me.

So I am excited to sit down with you and share some of the stories of what God has been doing during your time here in Japan. I would love to start by interacting with you about the Art Life Faith event we had last week that you led. Thank you for doing that. It was really well-attended, and I thought the atmosphere was great. What are your feelings about it?

It was a good time. Yeah, I was pretty nervous running up to it, but I hope people had a good time, and I had a good time talking about my work.

Tell us a little bit and what you shared in that time together.

So the event was divided up into two parts. The first part, I just talked about myself, my favorite thing to do. And then the second part was my second favorite thing to do, which was to engage other people in something creative. I talked a bit about where I’m from, the work that I like to make, and this project that I’m working on at the moment, The Moon Creature.

Okay, we’ll be getting more into that in a little bit.

We will be. Yeah, I guess I started off by talking about why I make art and what I enjoy about it and my creative journey as well.

I know a big part of what we did that evening was a workshop of making bags. Can you tell us a little bit about that and why you decided on that project?

Everybody got a bag and everybody got to paint one and take one home with them. This was something I decided on doing that I think maybe you don’t usually do in Art Life Faith events. But I think part of my practice as an artist is getting people involved in creating art themselves rather than just creating art by myself. There’s something very spiritual about getting other people involved in making art for themselves. Because I think that when I’ve run events like this, people come along and they always start off by saying, “Well, I’m not creative” or on Friday, “Oh, I’m not a painter. I don’t make images. I’m a musician or I’m a director.”

It was a little scary for me, not a painter, as a musician to try to paint a bag and be like, “Oh, what if I make a mistake?”

Exactly. It’s this unfamiliar territory. What if I do something wrong? What if it ends up looking bad? And people always have these fears, and they always, in my experience, come away from the event feeling like they did something special, which I think then leads on to something that I believe about the process of creating art is that it responds to something deep within us. That is not necessarily about just creating something that looks nice, but also making things echoes who we are as human beings made in the image of God. And that’s why, to me, workshops are something that I enjoy running because I think they give people an opportunity to answer this call within them, whether they consider themselves a creative professional or a professional creative or not.

Yeah. Well, let me ask you. So I know one of the cool things about it were the conversations that we were having. I was on that side of the room, and you were at the table with the other side of the room. We had some really amazing conversations in our group together because we were painting side by side and just talking as we were painting. So is that part for the community building aspect?

For sure. I think that people start to open up when they’re making things together. They start having these conversations. Maybe it’s easier to open up when you’re making something with someone else because your attention is directed elsewhere. So, yeah, I find that you do end up having these interesting conversations with people.

It was Good Friday. It was Easter weekend. And so you were leading us on a resurrection theme. For me, the most moving story was of the actress who we talked about in the past podcast, who we’d worked with, made a film together, and what she had painted. Did she interact with you as she was doing it, or was it more at the end?

A little bit throughout, I didn’t fully understand what she was painting until she had finished and she explained it.

Yeah, and what was it?

So this actress, she doesn’t speak a whole lot of English, and I don’t speak a whole lot of Japanese.

Right. I guess that’s a problem.

Our communication is pretty bare bones. But in the beginning, she was like, “I’m going to paint a sake bowl.” And I was like, “Okay, cool.” Then at the end, she shows me this painting that she’s made. And she’s like, “This is resurrection sake.” It’s an image of the sake and the cup, and then there’s some pickled vegetables on the plate. Those were also resurrection imagery. Bearing in mind that this girl, I don’t think that she’s a Christian, but she was telling us about how this sake has this resurrection imagery built into the process of drinking it. And how these pickles are stored underground. So there’s also that resurrection imagery of them being brought up into the light in order to be consumed. And she was talking about this with me, and I thought that was such a thoughtful response to the prompts of resurrection. That’s such an interesting interpretation, right?

I explain this a little bit in the past episode, how she has not met with Christians much. With the idea of painting the resurrection theme, she’s like, “Oh, my goodness, I don’t know what that is.” The sake imagery you mentioned, she explained in Japanese how there’s this sake that you bury out of the light for a long time in order for its taste to grow. And then after five years or so, when you open it up, you want to warm it up. And as you warm it up, the flavor really comes out. So you have to have hidden it away in the dark, and then you bring it out and it has to be warmed up in order for the flavor to come out. It was buried in a sense, and then it’s being brought out. And so as she’s trying to interact with the theme of resurrection, that’s what she came up with. And then the other was the movie, the film that she was involved in with us making from my book, A Taste of Grace, pickles that you keep underneath the floorboards in the kitchen, and you have to go in and you have to stir every day. Otherwise, it gets moldy, and fermentation stops if you don’t keep stirring it. You bring it back out then and the flavor comes out and it’s healthy for you. And so it has this resurrection theme in the pickles itself. And it was just so cool for her to be thinking through traditional Japanese culture, and interacting with what the resurrection looks like. As she’s heard now about Jesus, really for the first time last month, she’s trying to contextualize it with what she knows and interacting with all these Christians around the table, painting her bag, talking with you about it. It was just really cool to hear her story and watch her work through that process.

Yeah, for sure. I think it’s also just so interesting it’s such an unexpected image, but I think it really shows how, again, she’s an actress. She’s not a painter, but she had this really, I don’t know, really creative interest. It made me start to think about this whole idea of resurrection. It was just so unexpected, and it was very special.

Yeah, I felt like that, too. I was getting a new insight into what the gospel looks like in Japan. It made me praise God more by hearing her story. To see this person who isn’t a Christian, who has interacted with Christians, to be trying to wrestle with what it is that Christians believe and what does that look like. It was only because of this event that she could do that, that she was put in that community. And afterwards, it was really the community aspect of it, just how she was so excited to be like, “Let me know when there’s another event. I want to come back.” And then we had a professional film director who was also here at the event, and the two of them got to meet and talk. They said, “We should do something together. We should make a film together.” And my heart was just leaping for joy to see that new friendship. I do hope they make a movie together. I’d love to see that. The film director is a Christian. And so, again, to meet more Christians, be around more community, and just to keep interacting with these themes. But It’s really all about that. These events building community, building friendships that go way past the event itself.

I think they also create a far more accessible environment for people to start thinking about their faith. As creative people, but also just as people. If you stood up in church and started telling a room full of people about the resurrection, some people would hear that. Some people would understand what you were saying, and they resonate with it. Some people would just be like, this is just some American guy proselytizing to me, and they would go away and they wouldn’t think twice about it. But I think that when you create these environments for people, then I think it opens them up to this idea of resurrection through the art, because the art is this third space. It’s like a neutral space to talk and to think about these ideas.

Definitely. I was just embarrassed when comparing her bag with what I made. I was like, I don’t know how to paint a resurrection theme, so I’m just going to make a musical theme. And I made this rainbow city with a black note on top of it. Well, it’s very practical anyway. I used it for carrying my music to worship on Easter Sunday, so that was appropriate.

There you go. I made mine themed to the book that I’m writing so that when people comment on it, then I can tell them about the book.

Okay, so I want to get to talking about the book. Before I do, what have… Well, first, let’s go back even further. Who are you? What are you doing here in Japan?

What am I doing in your apartment? It’s scary. So I’m Verity. I’m an illustrator and designer from London, and I’m currently here in Japan. I’m interning with Community Arts for the past nearly three months, headed back to London soon.

We love having you here.

I’ve been having a great time, been learning about this whole intersection of faith and art and how they work together. Yeah, it’s been amazing.

I know you worked a little bit in the book publishing industry before you came here. We’ve had you in some book projects since you’ve been here. What are some of the projects you’ve been working on while you’re here?

Well, the first one is this one with you, Roger. Roger is an author, and one of the books that he’s got coming out in the next few months is this book called Hidden Beauty, which is about this whole idea of the idea that something is more beautiful if it’s more hidden in Japanese aesthetics and how God is hidden within Japanese culture as well, that we don’t explicitly see a Christian God in Japanese culture, but he’s still there because he’s everywhere. And so I’ve been working with Roger on a cover for that.

And that hasn’t been easy, has it?

No, it hasn’t been a straightforward road.

Because even when we both agree this is good, and then show it to some Japanese people, they’re like, No, you can’t do that.

I will say one thing that I’ve been learning in my time in Japan is Japanese aesthetics have so much more nuance than people think that they do. They’re very unexpected, and you can think that you understand them, and then you really don’t, which is what I’ve been finding. But yeah, this cover has … It’s been had a lot of U-turns and going back on itself, but I think we’re getting somewhere.

Thank you for your patience and endurance to keep going. What about the children’s book? Tell me about that.

Yes. I have been very willingly roped into advising on this kids’ book, also written by Roger and illustrated by our other lovely intern, Holly. Tsunami Violin is the title, and it tells the story of this tree by the coastline in Japan. Her home, her whole life is ripped apart by the 2011 tsunami. But she, through the course of the story, she finds a new purpose, very musical purpose, and it’s a real story. I have been advising on the illustrations as an illustrator myself, also on some of the text and then typesetting things as well.

Yeah, that has been a huge help because I know in our first book, Pippy the Piano, we weren’t thinking… I was putting the text in. You were doing an amazing job of thinking, “Why don’t we have the text fit the image and have it not just straight lines but wave around and do interesting creative things with the words.” So, I’ve really been appreciating that.

It’s been a learning process for me as well.

Yeah, so let’s talk about your book, The Moon Creature.

Right. The Moon Creature is this book that I’m writing and illustrating, and it tells the story of this little creepy cat, rabbit, animal. She lives on the moon. She’s best friends with the moon. When they have a big falling out, then she is left unmoored. She has to figure out her life. And the story just follows her as she makes a lot of mistakes as she figures out who she is and she figures out what it means to love another person and to be loved by another person and how she might have been getting it wrong all along. And It’s a book very close to my heart as a young person, because I think as a young person, that’s a journey that everybody has to go on. They have to figure out how to be a healthy adult with healthy adult relationships. And so, yeah, I hope that it resonates with other young people, too, when it comes out.

I know it will. And I can’t wait until it’s finished so more people can see it. But you’re doing the illustration as well, right? I think the story is powerful and the illustrations, too, are just amazing. So your goal is to finish part one, right? And get that done before you go back to the UK? It takes more time than we thought, doesn’t it?

It is. Actually, writing and illustrating a whole book by yourself is so much more work than I thought it would be. Yeah, so part one is hopefully coming out sometime in the near future, even if it happens while I’m in the UK. But yeah, it’s a story in four parts. I think it might take a while, but I’m hoping to be releasing a web version and then maybe some print versions as well to be able to share it with as many people as possible.

When this project is done, how can people find it?

Keep checking my website https://verityhayhow.com/. There will be more details on there shortly about how you can access the first chapter.

When it’s done, we’re definitely going to announce it on this podcast as well. So keep listening to future episodes and you’ll hear more about that. Is there anything else you’d like to share before we end our time together? While you’re thinking about that, I can say that one thing that I know that we’ve really enjoyed doing, especially with the children’s book, The Tsunami Violin, working together, there’s really been four of us sitting around the table meeting almost weekly to talk about the direction of the book and how much fun it’s been to not feel like you’re alone in a process, and interacting with you about The Moon Creature as well. It inspires you. I feel like each of these projects have gone infinitely better by working together, and it keeps you motivated to keep going on them and feel like you’re really, I don’t know, somehow providing a work that’s going to make a difference in people’s lives.

I agree. I think Moon Creature is so much better for the collaboration aspect. I think it also is what we do as Community Arts Tokyo, is that we’re producing work together. It’s not just for us, it’s for everybody.

Yeah, definitely. Well, that’s all the time we have today. Thank you so much for being here in Japan, for coming, sharing your life, your time with us here. We can’t wait to see the Moon Creature completed.

Thank you, Roger. And thank you for having me on the podcast, for having me in Japan. I hope to be back soon, and I hope to be sharing Moon Creature with everybody soon as well.

Awesome. Thank you. God bless.

Thank you for listening to the Art, Life, Faith podcast. If you’d like to give to Verity so she can join us here in Japan, please click this link or message me personally. As we say in Japan, “Ja, mata ne.” We’ll see you next time.