From China to Pakistan

28 March 2010

Dear Phyllis,

I’m sure I have told you this story before, but it is so good it bears repeating. Last summer I went on an extensive 15, 000 km trip clear across China to the Pakistan border. From Chiang Mai, I went to Laos to get a visa for China and take the bus from Vientiane to Kunming, China. I had bought my bus ticket through the guest house where I was staying, but when I got on the bus, the man taking the bus tickets said to me, “This is no ticket.” The bus was leaving in ten minutes and that was a bit of a problem. I replied, “Where do I buy a ticket?” Apparently he didn’t speak much English and just kept saying, “This is no ticket.” We had an interesting two sentence conversation where both of us kept repeating the same line. Fortunately, there was a girl on the bus that overheard our discussion and came to my rescue. I don’t know what happened other than she politely told me to sit down and not worry. Somehow the ticket I bought was valid.

Twenty two hours later we were just inside China at the border town of Mengla for a two hour noon break. I was walking up and down the main street looking for a restaurant when I saw the girl who had helped me the day before coming the other way. I told her, “If you can find a good restraint, I will buy you lunch.” It was a terrific relief to be with a bi-lingual Chinese who knew where to go and what to order.

When they served the food she turned to me and asked, “Are you a Christian?” Needless to say I was stunned by that sudden remark.

“Why do you ask?”

“Because I am a Christian and we always pray before we eat.”

That is how I met Rosy. When I told her who I was and where I was going she said, “You must visit my brother who is a pastor in Kunming.” I told her, “I will buy you a ticket to Kunming if you will go with me and introduce me to your brother.” The next day I found myself staying in the home of a house church pastor in Kunming. This was a tremendous break, and while there, I had the rare privilege of attending a house church Sunday morning meeting.

I asked this pastor, “Do you need any Bibles?” He replied, “I could use 300 here in Kunming, but the other churches in our group could use 3,000.” I promise him that I would do what I could to get the needed Bibles to him and the other churches associated with him. Since last August this has been a major project that I have been working on.

Chiang Mai is one door that we use to get Bibles into southwest China, but we are limited to what can be carried on an airplane. That would be extremely expensive to try to get 3,000 Bibles that way. For large quantities, the eastern door is the best avenue. But to get those Bibles to the brethren in southwest and central China proved to be almost impossible. I wrote several letters, but nothing ever materialized.

Then about a month ago I was talking with some Mennonite boys who were going to Hong Kong and indicated that they might be able to get the job done. My heart soared.

The code word for Bible couriers is “donkey”. That is exactly what they are. These boys are just dumb donkeys who use their backs and legs to carry millions of copies of the Scripture through customs in suitcases into needed areas. You won’t read about them in magazines. You don’t see pictures of them in missionary prayer letters. They are the unsung heroes who are doing a heroic work in being the lifeline for millions of Christians who have no hope of ever holding a copy of God’s Word in their hand except someone carries it to them. I can’t say praise enough for these young men who are doing this incredible ministry and seldom get thanked. They are just a vital link in the supply chain carrying Bibles from point A to point B, but seldom ever meet the people who are the final recipients of their ministry.

As soon as I learned that these fellows might be able to pull this one off, I immediately contacted Rosy in Vientiane asking her to get in touch with her brother in Kunming and set things up. E-mails flew but the response was too slow. Unfortunately, the Mennonite boys were only going to be in HK for ten days and had a large quantity of other jobs to do. Finally I got a letter from the top three people in this entire supply system advising that the window was too small and the boys couldn’t get my job done in the short time allotted.

I wrote Rosy telling her that it couldn’t be done. When I sent that letter off, another e-mail came from the main man living here in Chiang Mai saying that there was an outside chance that they might be able to do it after all. I can’t imagine what happened other than I know two weeks ago I got a chance to hug the heroes who did the impossible, and the much prayed for Word of God is now in southwest China.

 Last week I wrote a letter to Roald Lidal, the director of New Life League. The copy is as follows:

25 March 2010

 Dear Roald,

I just received word today that the 3,000 Bibles you gave us have safely arrived in Kunming. Little can I express the joy this has brought to thousands in southwest China.

On the behalf of Christ, I want to thank you for the splendid decision you made to allow us to send 3,000 Bibles to Yunnan and Shaanxi area of China. I am keenly aware that these Bibles are not free, in the sense that someone has to pay for them. I know your printing in Japan is probably some of the least expensive in the world on the basis of mass production with amazing Japanese hi-tech. But still in all, paper and ink are not free. What you gave us was probably between $7,000 to $8,000 worth of Bibles.

I can understand your policy of charging organizations who are raising funds for Bibles to pay for them in order to defray the total cost of your entire operation. But to allow someone outside of your organization to have access to your stock is as fine an example of the function of the Body of Christ as there is.

When people ask me what organization I am with, I reply, “I am not with an organization but an Organism – the Body of Christ.” That Body is wonderful. It transcends organizations and unites for the single purpose of promoting the work and ministry of Christ.

I don’t know how many different organizations were involved in this project, but there must have been well over half a dozen. First there were the people probably in several countries and many denominations who gave money to TBL for these Bibles. I know that The Bible League is one of your main partners in ordering and funding a significant portion of your total production in Japan. Then there was NLL that actually printed them. Next were the Mennonite boys who paid their own expenses and spent several days physically carrying them into mainland China. Then there was another fellow with a different organization who was responsible for getting them sent to Kunming. In the middle of that there was my contact in Vientiane, Laos, who had to coordinate everything to get the information of where to ship the Bibles. Without the cooperation of this vital coordinator in Laos, nothing would have been possible. Once they got to Kunming, they were received and distributed to an autonomous Chinese house church group that were waiting for Bibles. And somewhere in all this mixture there is Neil Verwey and the Japanese church in Nara that support me to live here in SEA. Without their support I wouldn't be here. No one organization could possibly do that by themselves, but the Body of Christ working together did a spectacular undertaking to get the Word of God to thousands of Christians in southwest and central China.

Brother, I am tremendously humbled to be a very small link in the chain that the Lord used to meet this serious need. I will write you later explaining the most unusual way the Lord led me last summer to get in touch with this house church group. I am a very small segment in this miracle, but it was through my relationship with you all that these people now have their Bibles. And this would have been impossible if you had not been so Christ oriented to release these Bibles for the Mennonite boys to carry into China.

Lord willing, I will be traveling up to China in June to visit the areas where these Bibles went. My main contact that made all of this possible is setting up this trip and will be going up there with me to introduce me to the leaders in various cities who actually received the Bibles.

 Although the part that I played was extremely minor, yet this was perhaps the greatest achievement of my life. And had you not been willing to let us have these Bibles, they would still be setting in a warehouse and the people in China would still be praying for Bibles.

 Thank you for the great privilege of your fellowship;

In our worthy Lord Jesus,

                                                       bill

Pakistani Testamony

21 March 2010

Dear Phyllis,

The Mennonite meeting this morning was at their Bible school, IGO. I always enjoy these combined meeting once a month. I have told you before about the lovely Pakistani brother who attends there regularly. This morning he had a tremendous testimony.

Pervace is working among the Pashtuns, which are the largest and the fiercest minority group in Pakistan. They are very strict Moslems with a rigid code of ethics. The Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan are basically Pashtuns. There are areas in the Northwest Territory that are so tight that even the Pakistan army can’t go in there. A few weeks ago brother Pervace told of a considerable number of Christians who have gone into these extremely dangerous areas to have training missions and raising the flag for Jesus. Today he told about and incident that recently happened and is still going on.

Four months ago a fine 24 year old boy was brought to Jesus. He has become extremely bold and courageous in his testimony for the Lord. He gave a CD of the Jesus Film to a girl that was a relative. She was watching this on her computer when her brother walked in. She immediately turned the computer off but the CD was left in it. Later her brother turned on the computer and saw what she was watching. He is an extreme radical Jehadist fighter and immediately called their ruling council. This body of men are the highest order of law in these areas that has considerably more authority than even the Pakistan government. They can call for an execution, or hands or feet to be cut off, and it is done. The girl was beaten and forced to tell where she got the CD. Next the council raided the home of the boy who gave her the CD and found more CDs and some New Testaments. He got called on the carpet and could easily face execution. The council members read the NT and asked what they were. He replied, “That is our book that you can buy at a book store”. Miraculously the council members were impressed with the NT and have not taken action on the boy yet. The Christians are very encouraged that the council members are reading the NT. What a way to get them into the Word of God – or perhaps rather the Word of God into them.

 In the mean time the Christian had planned a training session in that area, but there had been a bombing and some wondered if it was too dangerous to continue their Christian witness.

What they are facing in Pakistan today is extremely dangerous, but it is no more difficult than what the apostles faced in the 1^st century. They are our example. In Acts 4 & 5 we see the persecution that was raised up. First the apostles were arrested and severely threatened (Acts 4:17, 18). Peter refused to back down (vrs, 19, 20). Next they were put in prison (5:18). But the angel of the Lord came and got them out of prison at night commanding them to, “Go. Stand, and speak to this people all the words of this life” (vr. 20). Then they were arrested again (vr. 26). Peter’s witness against the council was fearless (vrs. 29-32). At this point Gamaliel wisely advised the council that it wasn’t too swift an idea to fight against God (vrs. 34-39). With nothing else they could do the council had the apostles beaten and further threatened. “And they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His Name. And in the temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.” This should be the pattern for every Christian. Fear has no place in a Christian heart.

As we know this was no computer game. This very body of men had pulled off the crucifixion of Jesus two months before then. At the end of cheaper 7 we see Stephen stoned. And not too long after that James was killed with the sword (12:2). The devil can only do three things; threaten, torture, and kill. But he cannot stop a Spirit filled Christian witness. It is to the credit of our brethren in Pakistan that they are not backing off. And for us, who face such silly resistance, what excuse do we have for not having an equally bold witness?

I heard the testimony of a courageous Christian sister in China several years ago who was so bold is proclaiming Jesus that she was tried for crimes against China and sentenced to be shot. The law in China reads that when someone is sentenced for execution they must read the confession of their crime publicly. To fulfill this law the sister wrote out the strongest testimony of salvation possible. By law the court and the public had to listen to it. The impact of her testimony was so powerful the judges found it impossible to have her killed. So they commuted her sentence to life imprisonment. But once in prison the impact of her witness was so strong; so many prisoners and guards got saved, that in order to save the prison they had to put her out. The officials feared that if she stayed any longer the whole prison would be saved. That is the way it should be – to save the prison they couldn’t let her stay.

Last Sunday was Pray for Burma Sunday. The other day I wrote Dave Eubank the following letter:

Dear Dave,

I believe it is a basic truth that you can never overcome evil by taking a defensive stance or simply responding to it. The only way you can overcome evil is by taking the initiative and taking the fight to it. Evil must be overcome by aggressive action. There is no record in the Bible of any victory ever won by taking a defensive posture. In the case of your recent victory in Burma, it was not your defensive posture, but your aggressive action to station yourself between the Burmese army and the villages under attack. You stepped in front of them and they took off.

The devil is a bold coward. As long as you cower before him, he will just keep pushing. But if you boldly take a hard stand to confront him, he will collapse and flee (Jm. 4:7).

 Marie Munson was a very outstanding missionary in China in 1930. At one time she was captured by some Chinese bandits. They were as dangerous animals as there were on the earth. Marie Munson told a friend of mine of an incident where an ox of a man was bearing down on her with a club to beat her brains out. She was a tiny woman, but rolled her nose up at this murderous bandit and defiantly said, “You can’t touch me. I’m under the Blood of Jesus.” At that, the killer dropped his club and ran. She was held captive for two weeks but was practically in charge when they had to let her go.

In 1942, after McArthur made his escape from Corrigador and made it to Sidney, he found Australia was in a full blown panic. They had conceded half the continent to the Japanese and were going to allow them to invade unopposed. Then they were going to challenge them at Alice Springs and hoped they could stop them there. McArthur wisely told the Aussies, “You can never beat the Japanese defensively. The only way you can stop them is by attacking.” As the Japanese were advancing across New Guinea, he took the Australian diggers and sent them in to the crest of the Owen Stanley ranges to take on the Japanese. It was gruesome fighting, but, for the first time in history, the Japanese met their match and retreated. From that moment on the flow of the war never changed and the Imperial Japanese army just kept retreating back to Tokyo. 

If we are ever going to see an end of the wanton killing in Burma it will be because of aggressive action against the Burmese army or government.

 

I don’t believe it is possible to bring in enough M16s or F-16s to blast the Burmese army into submission. I am not opposed to warring after the flesh but the Bible does tell us that “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but might through God to the pulling down of strong holds” (2 Cor. 10:4). I believe basically this is how this battle must be fought. Personally I do not know what the weapons of our warfare are, nor do I believe anyone else does either. I doubt that a manual could be written saying, “This is the weapon of our warfare and this is how you use it.”

There is this much about it, the battle must be the Lord’s and He must do the fighting. And usually He chooses the weakest instruments to do His fighting. Gideon’s 300 (Jud. 7:7, 8); Sampson – one man against 1,000 with the jawbone of an ass (Jud. 15:15); David and Goliath (1Sam 17;45-47); Jonathan and his amour bearer (1Sam 14:6). You couldn’t write a manual how to fight the Lord’s battle from these incidents. “You have to have the jawbone of an ass; you have to have trumpets and pitchers with torches; you have to have sling shot; you have to have one man with a sword and his amour bearer.” That would be some ridiculous manual.

But there is another item that is a common denominator in all of these cases – guts. It took guts in each case to stand against the Lord’s enemies at a ridiculous disadvantage. There are two reasons why Christians fail: one is because of self confidence – “Yes I can do it.”. The other reason is no guts to stand and fight. I don’t know anyone who thinks they can walk into Burma and kick out the Burmese army, but I do know an enormous number of Christians who would die of fright at the suggestion of taking on the Burmese army.

Personally, I would like to take on the Burmese army. I want to look at the rear ends of those turkeys headed south. But I wonder if we might be better off going for the head of the serpent rather than banging on its tail. I’m sure half that army doesn’t want to fight.

There is no question about what the Lord can do. He brought both Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar down in one night (Dan, 5&6). We were startled to see both the collapse of world communism and East Germany in almost a matter of days. It actually was a few months but an extremely short time. It was Ronald Reagan who did it, and he was the only man with that kind of guts. He was the only man in the world who could say, “Mr. Gorbachev, take down that wall!”.

I don’t know much about the government in Burma, only that they are not nice boys. I don’t know the root problem in Burma but the Lord certainly knows all about it, and He alone has the authority and power to do something about it.

I suggest our fundamental problem is in heaven. Very few men walk close enough to God to be in a position where the Lord can use them as He would like. I don’t believe the Lord would be resistant to a request that He do something to change the situation in that country. It is a sad commentary about Israel, in the days of Sampson, that we read, “The Lord sought an occasion against the Philistines” (Jud. 1:4). Nobody in Israel had guts enough to fight to throw off the Philistines, and the Lord had to use Sampson’s weakness for women to force an issue to fight.

 Gomen nasai (I’m sorry), Dave. I know your heart for Burma and you want to see and end of this horrible evil more than I do. More than that. I believe God wants to see an end of it too. But I believe the Lord has been looking for years for a man He could use to close the devil down. The Lord knows I will sign up as a volunteer to fight. You already have. The main point is that we must know that the battle is the Lord’s and He is going to do the fighting. And the second thing is; I feel we need to get off a defensive posture and take the fight to the enemy. Beyond that I am only a stable boy for the Lord’s servant’s horses and not the general making battle plans. But I do believe what we are facing is a very doable situation and great good can be accomplished if we have the right attitude and stand in the right place.

 May God bless your marvelous ministry for Jesus sake;

                                                                                                bill

Angels Visiting Roland Buck

14 March 2010

Dear Phyllis,

Many years ago a church in Boise, Idaho had an unusual session of visitation by angels. I have never met Pastor Roland Buck, personally, but I have been in his church, and some very close friends of mine are long-standing members there. To the best of my knowledge I can certify that I believe these stories are true.

For several months there had been frequent visitation by angelic beings sharing interesting information with Brother Buck. One incident that I recall was when he was told that a couple from Los Angeles would be calling that day. He told his secretary that he was expecting that call. But when she went home at 5:00 o’clock she said, “Well, that one didn’t happen.” He stayed on after hours.

At 5:15 the phone rang and he answered, “Yes, Mr. Wilson, thank you for calling. This is Pastor Buck.” The man on the other end was a little unnerved that he could call a man he had never met and have him call him by name. But they made an appointment to come immediate for marital counseling.

This fellow and his wife had had a very storm marriage and decided to go to Boise for a vacation. They had checked in at a motel and saw a phone book on the table with the church number marked. They thought talking to a Christian pastor might help, and 20 minutes later they were in Pastor Buck’s office. After a few minutes of friendly conversation they explained their situation, but then added, they had talked things out in their motel room, and were satisfied that they had gotten to the bottom of their problems. They didn’t want to impose themselves on Pastor Buck any further. Brother Buck cheerfully thanked them, and said he was happy that they had got things settled. Then he remarked, “But before you leave, sister, I would suggest that you give me that pistol you have in your handbag that you brought to kill your husband.” She burst into tears. With trembling hands she reached in her handbag and handed a loaded 32 caliber pistol to Pastor Buck. Her husband went wild. An hour later, a tearful couple left his office that he had just brought to the feet of Jesus. Brother Buck had the pistol in his desk as a souvenir.

But the story I like best was the sequel. Several months had passed, and everything had quit. Brother Buck concluded that that was the end of this unusual window into the spirit world. Life had reverted to normal. Then one day, when he was alone in his office, suddenly an angel appeared in front of his desk. He was very surprised, and was about to address the angel when the phone rang. Now there is an interesting scenario that Emily Post never thought about when she wrote her book on etiquette. What do you do in a situation like that; ignore the phone and speak to the angel, or ignore the angel to answer the phone? As Brother Buck was trying to sort that one out in his mind, the angel indicated for him to answer the phone.

A lady was calling from Sacramento, California that he had never met. Through a friend she had heard about these visitations, and was calling Roland Buck. Without any introduction she blurted out, “Pastor Buck, are you still seeing angels?” He replied, “As a matter of fact, one is standing before me right now.” She pleaded, “Oh, Pastor Buck, would you please speak to the angel for me. My husband is old and very sick. We have had some terrible financial problems and an enormous amount of difficulties. We have prayed and prayed but the Lord does not seem to hear our prayers.”

 Pastor Buck replied, “Sister, you don’t need an angel to intercede for you. In Christ, you have more access God than angels. Through Jesus, you can go directly to the Father.” She said, “Yes, I know all of that; but somehow it seems that if an angel would speak to God for us it might carry more weight.” He responded, “Well, I’ll try.” But before he could say a word the angel spoke, and said, “Tell Bonnie Thompson that her prayers have been heard and help is on the way.” Brother Buck picked up the phone and started, “Sister, I have a message for you. The angel told me, “Tell Bonnie Thompson…” He got that far and she screamed over the phone, “He knows my name!”  “Oh, that is all I need to know. All is well. He knows my name!”

Actually, that was not her name. But Bonnie was the name her mother used to call her when she was young. It had been many years since anyone had called her Bonnie.

On the day of Pentecost it is recorded the people said, “We do hear every man in our own tongue where we were born” (Acts 2:8). In commenting on this passage, Spurgeon said, “It is interesting, when God choose to speak to the multitude on the Day of Pentecost He spoke to them in the same language that their mothers used when they were young.” I’m not sure that this is universally true, but certainly it does seem to be the ways of God to speak to men in the language that is most tender to their heart. When God spoke to Bonnie Thompson that day, He called her by her childhood name.

That story has always stuck by me. It seems almost unbelievable that the Father should know my name. Jesus told us some amazing truths; one of which is “He calleth His own sheep by name” (Jn. 10:3). That may be the easiest to take hold of. We know that salvation is a very personal thing. No one is saved until they have a very personal encounter with Jesus Christ. We had a dog one time that had 12 puppies, but they were all born one at a time. It is that way with humans. We are all born one at a time. And we are all born of Spirit of Christ, one at a time. In many cases we are not conscious of it at the time, but, in retrospect, we can look back at that day and realize when we first came to Jesus it was because He was personally speaking to us calling us by name to Himself.

Not only that, but Jesus also told us that the Father knows the very number of the hairs on our head. Mothers delight in counting the ten little toes on their new-born baby’s feet. But our Father has gone beyond that; He counts, and keeps count, of the number of hairs on our head (Mt. 10:30). What must be the personal interest the Father takes in us that he keeps tract of the number of hairs on our head! Isa. 49:16 tells us, “I have graven thee upon the palms of My Hands.” Charles Wesley was right when he wrote, “My name is written on His Hands.” Oh the wonder of this bottomless truth – He knows my name!

Roland Buck was correct when he told Bonnie Thompson that she had more access to the Throne of God than angles. We don’t need to go to angels to get an audience with God. Jesus is there. We can’t do better than that. We don’t need to have concourse with angels. We have the Word of God. More than that, we have the very Spirit of God, Who wrote that Word, living now within us; Who came to teach us what is written, and to make it experiential in our lives. Luther rebuked us when he wrote, “What more can He say than to you He has said; to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?”  Jesus sitting on the very Throne in heaven, and He has sent His Spirit to live in our heart here on earth making the connection as real as possible. Would a hand written letter from Gabriel help?

Gomen, Phyllis. Maybe I’m boring you with this. But frail human being that I am, I struggle with questions in my heart. What is going on in heaven? I have no problem that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father at this very moment. Jesus told us several times, “Whatsoever ye ask in My Name, I will do it” (Jn. 14:13). If this is true – and I cannot help but believe that it is true – why in the world don’t we see more answers to prayer?

 

I know the traditional exaltations. It is possible that there is spiritual resistance. Daniel was told that from the first day he prayed his prayers were heard, but it took the angel three weeks to get there (Dan. 10:12, 13).

The Holy Spirit is the great administrator of the will of God. Obviously, the Lord is not so stupid as to give us every silly thing we ask for, but only those things that He knows are in line with His will (1 Jn. 5:14, 15). There are exceptions to this, but the results of that are grim (Ps. 106:14, 15).

 Perhaps the Father is glorified more when we have to wait in faith than when we see immediate results. Abraham probably waited fifty years or more.  It is interesting that when Abraham prayed for Abimelech, the Lord heard Abraham’s prayers for Abimelech before his prayers were answered for his own wife (Gen. 20: 17).

I am glad that Jesus was so honest in dealing with this issue, but His teaching is one of the deep unexplained mysteries of the Bible. He told the story about a poor widow who wore down a wicked judge where she had no leverage with him whatsoever. He said this to place in contrast the scenario of what she was up against with what we are dealing with. Then Jesus raised the question, “Shall not God avenge His own elect which cry day and night unto Him – though He bear with them long?”(Lk. 18:1-8). Why the long delay? Jesus underscored the certainty of answered prayer by adding, “I tell you, He will avenge them speedily! Maybe that speedily belongs to the same time category as the Lord’s promise to come quickly (Rev. 22:12).

I am bewildered by both, but I do believe that when Jesus comes we will agree He was right on both accounts. Let’s hang tough until then.

                                                  bill

My CEO is a Jewish Carpenter

7 March 2010

 

Dear Phyllis,

I am presently building a house for a friend here in Chiang Mai. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say,”overseeing” as we have two Burmese workers doing all the grunt work. Fifty two years ago when I set out serving the Lord in Japan, construction was one thing that was not on my mind. In my early years my ambition was to be a preacher of the Gospel and a Bible teacher. The Lord has been gracious in giving me a little opening to preach over the years, but the thing I am best known for is a carpenter.

I should be grateful for this as my hammer has been my salvation. Had it not been for my ministry in construction, I certainly would not be here today. I am not the kind of guy that can pass out a few tracts, have two meetings a week, preach to a small congregation on Sunday and teach English. For many years I was able to do all of that, but to fill in the time Monday through Saturday the Lord has been good in allowing me to build a large number of churches, houses, and cabinets for His servants.

When I first went to Karuizawa in 1962 I noticed that nearly all the missionaries were frustrated over a lot of minor physical things that could be easily fixed, but no one had any tools. Simply as a community service, I began to buy a few basic tools to loan and to personally use to do minor jobs.

Then in 1969 the big break came. I was the director of the Japanese language school and on the Union Church committee. We had been trying in vain for two years to erect a multi-purpose chapel/recreation building. Because we wanted to use it for recreation, that demanded it must have a high ceiling. The only way we could build that kind of a building was by steel construction. But the price of that was prohibitive. At a committee one day I suggested, “I believe I could put that building up.” They asked how I would do it, and I replied, “By making glue lambs.” (Large laminated beams of curved arches.) We had a most unusual gang of brothers on the committee that were crazy enough to try anything. They said, “If Bill can do it, let’s let him try.”

My major in college was Wood technology – a very unusual field of wood engineering. I had studied the technical field of laminated beams and knew enough to ask an intelligent question. I first wrote to the US government center for Forest Products Research in Madison, Wis. I had visited there as a student in 1955. The man who answered my letter gave me some helpful information and suggested that I contact their sister organization in the Japanese government. My co-worker, Koji, was able to find a phone number for the research center in Tokyo, and made an appointment for us to go down there to talk with them.  

That was a momentous day for all of us. The top authorities at the research center were surprised to meet this strange gaijin (foreigner) who spoke Nihongo (Japanese) and asked the most technical questions about laminated beams in Japan. I was delighted to discover they knew exactly what I was talking about and answered all my questions. They were very polite, but pleaded, “Please don’t do it.” Laminated beams were a very new thing I Japanese construction. Very few people had ever heard of them. The architect who got our building permit had never heard of them and I had to explain to him what they were. There were only three factories in Japan that were making glue lambs at the time and they had had some serious failures. The men at the research center were anxious to introduce this beautiful type of construction in Japan and didn’t want another discouraging failure.

 

The top authorities in both countries told me that to make curved arches “shade-tree” (DIY in a garage) was utterly impossible. To make them required very sophisticated expensive equipment, and for an armature to do it at home was unthinkable. If there had been a law, the Japanese research center certainly would have called the police and stopped me; but, legally, there was nothing they could do. They were genuinely alarmed when they learned I was seriously plunging ahead, and adopted the attitude, if the couldn’t stop me they would join me. They insisted I borrow their equipment and came to Karuizawa to take pictures every time I drove a nail.

That project was one of the major miracles of my life. I had no idea how to design a laminated arch but sat down with a pencil and paper, asked the Lord to show me, and started drawing sketches. The mathematical calculation for design is extremely advanced mathematics that very few men are capable of doing. But I drew designs until I felt the shape was about right. After the building was completed, the men at the research center I later had one of their mathematicians do the calculation,m and assured me that my design was very good. I counted the direct miracles we experienced in putting up the Language School Chapel was well over 30.

One was, I had to have a shop where I could make the beams. The summer conference Union Church was the logical place but it had to be heated. We had been trying in vain for two years to raise money and the budget was close to zero. The first day I spent Y10, 000 out of my own pocket to buy insulation to heat the Union Church we had a gift come in from a missionary in Kyushu for Y10, 000 who knew nothing of our need. The funds were liked that all the way through. In August we dedicated the building complete debt free.

There are tons of pressure involved in bending those boards and the top authorities told me that it was impossible to build a jig that would withstand all that pressure. I found a huge wooden  beam laying behind the Union Church. The Lord showed me an unusual design to make a jig using that beam as a base to hold the pressure. It worked perfectly.

Dry lumber was a critical issue. I knew of no dry kilns in Japan, but while driving down the road one day in Nagano I went by a flooring mill that had what looked like a dry kiln. Koji called there, and – sure enough – they had one. At first they refused, but later miraculously consented to dry our lumber. A week later they called over one afternoon at 3:00 PM saying our lumber was dry and we could pick it up. I looked out the window and the sky was black with rain clouds. Koji called a friend, and we commandeered a lovely man and his truck to go with us to pick up the lumber.

 We got there just as they were closing down at 5:00 o’clock. The lumber was in a place where we couldn’t get to it with a fork lift and had to load it one board at a time. We were frantically loading the lumber when the rain started to come down on us. An old man was standing there watching us, who I later learned was the company CEO. He said, “You had better quit. Tarp what you have and go home.” I had been furiously praying, asking the Lord to turn off the water. When the old man suggested we quit I roared, “Ton de mo nai! (Never happen).This is our Father’s work and He isn’t going to soak us.” At that instant suddenly the rain quit and I had a deep peace came over my heart that we were safe. For the next hour we loaded at our leisure and not a drop hit a board until we finished and threw a trap over our load. It poured while we were tying down the load.

 We drove through heavy rain for two hours coming back to Karuizawa, but when we got to the Union Church the rain had quit. I got home at midnight and was thanking God for the incredible miracle we had in getting dried lumber, safely in the Union Church, when the heavens opened and it poured all night. Our lumber was safe.

It was just liked that at every stage of the project. It would take a good size booklet to enumerate all the miracles the Lord did for us on that job. That was 41 years ago. The chapel is still there in as good shape as the day we dedicated it to the Lord for His use. The Lord alone knows the number of souls who have come to Christ in that building.

The men at the research center in Tokyo told me that I was probably the leading gaijin authority in that field in Japan. Soon the phone began to ring as different missionaries called me asking for advice or help on their projects. It was through that that I backed into construction.

For the next ten years I wore three hats as I was the director of the Japanese language school, pastoring a Japanese church and doing a great deal of construction at the same time.

 In 1980 I left the Language school. Then in 1982 Neil Verwey invited us to come down to Osaka to work with the Japan Mission. My main goal was evangelism but for the next 18 years the vast bulk of my time was spent building churches and homes for pastors and missionaries. One goal that Rosemary and I had agreed on before we were married was that we wanted to have an  open home. It is to Rosemary’s credit that she was very good at that and we had innumerable amount of house guest who came for a few hours to staying for two years or more.

In 1998 when I first came to SEA to work on Bible logistics, I had no expectation that I would be doing construction Thailand. But here I am. In Japan I called myself Nazareth Construction Co. Our CEO is a Jewish carpenter. Jesus is in the process of building His church. It has been my great privilege to be somewhat involved in placing a few living stones in that great structure. I would give up my hammer tomorrow if the Lord would open for me more of a preaching ministry. That looks highly unlikely.

I have told the Lord I am willing to clean the barn for the horses of the Lord’s servants. Building houses and churches is a higher calling than that. But regardless where we stand in the ladder of the Lord’s service; anything we do for Jesus is a privilege. Even driving nails.

See you next week,    bill