Dear Friends,
Twenty-three years ago (in 1995), the worst terrorist incident to take place on Japanese soil occurred when a sarin nerve gas attack was carried out on the Tokyo subway system. The attack left 29 people dead and 6500 injured.
This indiscriminate attack was carried out by members of the religious cult, Aum Shinrikyo (Aum Supreme Truth Cult). This cult, which combined a mixture of Buddhist teaching, Hindu meditation, and Christian apocalyptic teachings with yoga and the occult, was founded in 1984 by Shoko Asahara. At one time, it had more than 10,000 followers in Japan (many of them graduates of the best universities in Japan) who were attracted by promises of being able to survive the coming Armageddon (a supposed nuclear attack on Japan by the U.S.).
On July 6th this year, Shoko Asahara, who masterminded this nerve gas attack, and six other senior members of the cult were executed by hanging--after over 20 years in prison. This terrorist attack not only shattered the country’s faith in its reputation for public safety, but also, in my opinion, ended up making it even more difficult to spread the gospel in Japan. Why? Because this horrendous terrorist attack by a “religious” cult succeeded in creating widespread fear, suspicion, and apprehension of all religions not native to Japan—which continues to this day.
In spite of various obstacles that exist in Japan, the gospel is still being faithfully shared throughout the country, and there are those who are accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior. February 28th, I had the privilege of baptizing Dr. Takaaki Ikeda. Dr. Ikeda, who has a clinic in our suburb, was an active Jehovah’s Witness for a number of years but began to question their doctrine/teachings as he earnestly studied the Bible on his own. He eventually left the Jehovah’s Witness cult and began attending services at the Yoshino church. Several months later, he asked to be re-baptized because he realized that his baptism to become a Jehovah’s Witness was not baptism into Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.
Dr. Ikeda continues to faithfully attend our Sunday services. He has also begun taking online Bible courses from Osaka Bible Seminary and started a YouTube site to share the true message of the Bible with Jehovah’s Witness believers. Please keep him in your prayers as he continues to grow in his understanding of true biblical Christianity.
Dr. Ikeda’s Baptism - Feb 28th
Let’s move on now to a brief review of some of the highlights of the past few months. February 12th, members of the Yoshino church attended the 39th Annual Rally for Evangelical Churches in Kagoshima. I presided over the afternoon session, and several ladies from Yoshino took part in the special music part of the program. This year’s rally was special for us because the guest speaker was one of our own, Daiki Kishimoto, president of Osaka Bible Seminary. Both of his messages were powerful, easy to understand, and well received.
Osaka Bible Seminary President Kishimoto speaking in Kagoshima
February 22nd-23rd, I was in Miyazaki (the next prefecture) to attend the annual meeting of Christian prison chaplains in southern Japan. One of those in attendance was fellow Church of Christ missionary, Al Juve, who is a chaplain at the Miyazaki prison. Al was one of the speakers on the program and talked about how he used his own conversion story to tell inmates, “If God can change me, He can change you, too.”
March 18th, I flew to Tokyo to attend a memorial service for one of our veteran missionaries, Harold Sims. Harold, who passed away in the States in January at the age of 93, served the Lord faithfully (with his wife, Lois) in the Tokyo area for 50 years. The Sakurayama Church was packed with close to 100 people whose lives had been touched and influenced by Harold’s ministry. I learned a lot from Harold about what it takes to be a missionary in Japan: learning the language, working with Japanese ministers and church leaders as equals, being involved in the local community, and staying connected with our churches all over Japan by always attending our annual All Japan Convention. I briefly talked about that when it was my turn to speak at the memorial service.
Tokyo Memorial Service for Harold Sims
March 23rd, I was in Osaka to attend the graduation ceremony at Osaka Bible Seminary and the trustee meeting afterward. At this meeting, I was asked to be the next head trustee of OBS, effective April 1st. Since it was established over 80 years ago, graduates from OBS have served in over 70 churches throughout Japan. At present, OBS has 12 students. In addition to training future ministers and church leaders, OBS faculty regularly visit our churches in Japan to teach special courses on the Bible, Bible doctrine, church history, and sermon preparation.
Yoshino Church Easter Sunrise Service
Sunday, April 1st, members of the Yoshino church gathered at our mausoleum for our Easter sunrise memorial service to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and to remember those from our church who have passed on to be with the Lord. Afterwards, I preached for Easter services at Kokubu and Yoshino.
Sunday, April 29th, was a particularly long Sunday with three services: Kokubu and Kagoshima in the morning, plus an afternoon service at Kushikino. Since we don’t get to fellowship with the Kagoshima and Kushikino churches that often, this day was a blessing.
May 17th, Mary and the ladies from the Yoshino church attended the all-day combined women’s meeting for our churches in Kagoshima prefecture, held at the downtown Kagoshima church. The speaker this year was the minister from one of the larger evangelical churches in Kagoshima. About thirty ladies from our churches enjoyed this day of special fellowship and sharing.
Combined Women’s Meeting - May 17th
On June 7th, Mary and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. It still seems incredible to us that 50 years could go so quickly, but we are very grateful for all the years together God has given us.
Celebrating our 50th Anniversary overlooking the city
This feeling was brought home even more keenly when three days later, early on Sunday morning, June 10th, I experienced heart attack-like symptoms and immediately had Mary drive me to a large hospital on our end of the city (which actually specializes in heart treatment). Thankfully, after thorough testing, it was confirmed as not a heart attack but as stress cardiomyopathy (a temporary weakening of heart muscles caused by stress/fatigue). This does not cause permanent damage to the heart, and full recovery occurs over a period of a few weeks. I was able to return home after five days in the hospital.
At my doctor’s urging, I cancelled all of my scheduled activities for the rest of June. After a two-week break, I resumed my regular schedule of preaching and teaching on July 1st. I am feeling fine now and am grateful for the excellent and reasonable health care we are able to get in Japan.
We want to close by thanking you for making it possible for us to continue our ministry in Kagoshima through your prayers and financial support. We deeply appreciate it. God bless you.
In Him,
Walter & Mary