More Mino Mission

31 October 2010

Dear Phyllis,

 Dave Moore was over last night and got me telling Mino Mission stories. There is a book that should be written, but never will be. Fortunately, all this is recorded in heaven and I am sure it will be high on the reading (viewing) list in heaven. From 1963 to 1964 I had the privilege of being with Mino Mission for one year and got these legendary stories first hand.

Mino Mission was founded by Sadie Lee Widner in 1927. Miss Widner had come to Japan as a missionary with the Episcopal Board to work at the Sendai Girls school in 1917. But with liberalism coming into the Episcopal denomination she left in protest and went to Mino area of Gifu-ken, as an independent, to start her own mission. Betty Whewell came out around 1932 to join Miss Widner and was the director for 50 years after the war. God never made a fiercer fighter who hated idolatry and took a more militant stand for Jesus than Betty Whewell. She was as mean and as tough as they come. Sadie Lee Widner must have been made of similar metal.

Before II WW Mino Mission was nationally famous for taking the hardest stand for Christ. When nationalism and militarism was running at a fever pitch in Japan, Mino Mission refused to compromise or budge a millimeter. In their scrap book I have seen headlines in national news papers declaring “Mino Mission says that idols made with mans hands are not gods”. They have posters that were hung on poles urging “Crush Mino Mission”. There scarcely was a person in Japan that didn’t know of Mino Mission.

Betty told me of the time in 1935, when churches across Japan were being closed and pastors were in prison, they had an order from the police to stop Sunday services and no singing. Miss Widner said, “Here is where we draw the line.” The next Sunday they were having worship as usual. All the believers were on their knees worshiping the Lord when Miss Widner looked up to see the Kempei-tai standing in the middle of the room writing down the names of all attending. The Kempei-tai were the Gestapo of Japan and were the most dangerous force in the country. There was no law governing the Kempei-tai and they were as violent as they come.

When Miss Widner saw the Gestapo standing there, she went over to confront them. She said, “Look at them! They are worshiping the true God in heaven, and we are not going to stop!” She went on, “I have been in Japan for 18 years. The only time we were requested not to sing was when your emperor lay dead in his casket in Tokyo. Last week you issued the same order you did when the emperor died.” The horror of that remark struck the Kempei-tai like lightening, and they bolted from the room.

Street preaching was as basic to Mino Mission as an offering in a Baptist church. The only time I ever saw a Sunday with no street preaching was when the weather was so bad it was impossible. Then you did hospital visitation. Before the war street preaching was extremely dangerous. One day they were to trying to have a street meeting but such a rowdy crowd gathered that it was impossible. The little band of Christians took their box and returned back to the mission headquarter. The ugly mob followed them all the way. The pastor said, “Look, we have the crowd here. Why not preach to them from inside our compound?” He stood up on the box inside the mission compound and began to preach the Gospel. But the violent mob pushed their way past the gate and dragged the pastor off to kill him. Betty joined in the melee, and fortunately, they won the battle to rescue the pastor.

Then a young buck jumped up on the box and began to shout a message. Betty saw that young man standing on that box speaking against Jesus and something in her mind snapped. She thought, “That box belongs to our Lord Jesus! This compound is His! That boy has no right to stand there speaking against the Lord.” She gave the box a might kick and the speakers feet went flying higher than his head. He came crashing down on his back, knocking himself out cold. When he came to, he staggered off in the crowd.

But then the police showed up, and they all were taken to the police station. The police demanded of Betty, “What was he saying?”

“Shiran!” (I don’t know). Hantai hanshi!” (opposition speech). Betty Whewell was never one to use polite language. When they were finally satisfied that Betty actually did not understand the essence of his speech they let her go.

The next day the pastor came to her and said, “Sensei, that was really dangerous yesterday when that young man got up on that box and said, ‘Tenno Heika sama, Banzai!’ (Three cheers for the emperor) and you knocked him down.” Up until post-war Japan Betty Whewell was the only person who decked a guy for saying “Banzai for the emperor”; and lived.

Betty told of another time when they went up to a mountain village to have a street meeting. They set up their banners and got their box out ready to have the meeting when a furious policeman showed up. He took Betty aside and demanded, “Who do you think you are; and what are you doing here?” Betty defiantly replied, “I am Betty Whewell of the Mino Mission. We are here to preach Jesus Christ!” The frightened cop meekly said, “Ah so desu ka?” (Oh, is that so), and took off. She was too tough. The police were afraid to face her.

After the war Betty was one of the first missionaries to get back to Japan. She had a good friend, Mrs. Johnson, who had been a missionary in Manila before the war. Mrs. Johnson had a Bible study in Manila where a military couple, Douglas and Jean McArthur, regularly attended. Mrs. Johnson told Betty, “When you get back to Japan you must see my good friend Mrs. McArthur.” One day she got a lovely invitation to come to their residence at the US embassy to have tea. Betty was thrilled for such an opportunity to spend an afternoon with General McArthur's wife. After the tea Jean McArthur offered, “I have to go down town. Would you care to ride down with me in the car?” Of course she was delighted to accept the ride. As they went out of the gate she noticed that all the Japanese military guard, assigned to guarding the General’s residence, was standing at attention with full military honors. Jean McArthur chuckled and said, “There has been some mistake. Someone told them that the General was coming out. This is an honor afforded only to the General.” Betty sternly responded, “That was no mistake. God made them do that for me!”

In the 1960s and 70s the Sokka gakai were the most dangerous religion in Japan. They were an unusual militant sect of Buddhism and were very high voltage. They were very good at calling their shots and then making them good. There was a great deal of demon power. They particularly targeted Christians and openly said, “Some day we will kill you.” The Sokka gakai rented a house across the street from the mission for the expressed purpose of praying against the Mino Mission. Dear Betty had a buzzer on the end of a cord hanging right beside her chair. When she mashed that buzzer the staff would always come running. Many was the time, right in the middle of supper, we would hear the “ching ching” start up across the street. Betty would hit that buzzer and say, “We have to pray.” It was always the same prayer  – “Lord, we send those curses right back on the heads of the people who are sending them this way.”

 This went on for almost a year. Then I had to return to the states for a furlough. When I got back to Japan, I went down to Tomida Hama to see how things were going. I asked Betty, “How are you making out with the neighbors across the street?” She laughed, “Oh that collapsed months ago.” If the Lord heard our prayers and sent the curses back on the heads of the folks who were sending them our way, they must have had a terrible time. That was one of the few places that I have heard where the Sokka Gakai took such a hard licking.

Oh my goodness, Betty Whewell and Mino Mission stories are endless. When I was there I frequently said, “This is the hardest place I have ever been for my flesh and the best place for my spirit.” The tension there was terrible. Betty Whewell was as neurotic an old maid as I ever met. Being around her was so bad it would drive a wild man sane. She was domineering to an extreme.

 One day a young mother was bringing her child to church and the kid threw a fit that he wanted some candy. The taunt mother stopped at a candy store and bought 5 cents of candy. Betty found out that the mother had bought candy on Sunday and you would have thought she was in the depth of sin. (No one bought a thing on Sunday! I couldn’t read the news paper on Sunday.) The weeping mother had to confess her sin before the church and apologize to the bewildered candy store for dishonoring the Lord by buying candy on Sunday. Horror stories were endless. But amazingly, so were the astonishing triumphs of Christ.

The Lord has all kinds of workers. Some of them may be a wee bit cracked, but the Lord also sees that total commitment to Christ where He can manifest His mighty power.

See you next week.   bill

Jesus, Our Flag Bearer

24 October 2010

Dear Phyllis,

 In the Holy Spirit’s description of Christ in Song of Sol. 5:10, Jesus is described as being the “chiefest of ten thousand”. The original word there is more accurately translated “the flag bearer”. In ancient times in battle, they would take their bravest man and set him out front as the flag bearer. As the flag advanced the entire army would follow behind. The position of the flag would designate soil won. In recent years this principle was immortalized by the Marine photograph of the six US Marines raising the American flag on Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima. The Battle of Iwo Jima was one of the fieriest of the II WW and was the first time the US had actually captured Japanese soil. That famous photo sent a thrill across America and stands today as the symbol of the Marine fighting spirit.

Thank God, Jesus is our Flag Bearer. He carried the flag for the Father and won the Battle for Humanity when He triumphed over the devil at Calvary. When He cried “It is finished”, He was right. The battle was won. It is our great privilege to follow after Him in His conquest to claim soil for the Father today. There is no place on this earth that is excluded from His victory. He has assured us, “ALL POWER IS GIVEN UNTO ME IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH” (Mt. 28:18). It was because of that that He could confidently commission us to “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations baptizing them…” (vr. 19). It is an enormous privilege to be a flag bearer for Jesus and carry His flag to areas where the devil is still struggling.

Some people mistakenly credit me as having a pioneer adventuresome spirit. Unfortunately, this certainly isn’t true. But it has been my great privilege to know a number of flag bearers and, on occasion, to figuratively ride in the car with them as they charged forward.

Ron Blough was one of them. In the early years of my life following Jesus, Ron had more influence on me than any other person. I had read the books of men of faith – Hudson Taylor, George Mueller, etc. but Ron was the first person I met who lived and proved that life of faith. I saw in Ron what I had read about in the books. It was his example that gave me the convictions that molded my life ever since.

When the Lord made Ron He threw away the mold. There has only been one Ron Blough. The one word that would describe Ron the best was crazy. He was just plain nuts. He would do some of the wildest things, and amazingly often, the Lord would back him. He was a man of enormous drive and unflinching conviction. He would never compromise his convictions.

He was a man of incredible financial integrity. He had an iron-clad policy of never talking about his financial needs. He let his request be known to God – and to NO other. Consequently the Lord blessed him like He blesses few men. He always said, “The day comes the Lord does not pay the rent, I will not live in the building”. That day came. We had a fabulous Christian Center that was a converted night club. Ron had a fine house right behind it. After two or three years the day came when the rent was due and Ron was $5 short. The landlord loved us and would gladly come down on price if we asked him. But that wasn’t the issue. The Lord knew how much Ron needed and He didn’t supply. The next day Ron closed the center and moved to a cheaper location downtown.

 Ron Blough stories are endless. Perhaps someone should write the book, but then it would sound so much like fiction that no one would believe it. One time he took his family up to Nikko for a summer vacation. They had just started home when his car ran bone dry out of gas. He had an old 1952 Ford station wagon that got about two gallons to the mile. He had a small spare two gallon gas can and poured that in the tank. Then he drove 200 km home on it getting about 65 mpg (miles per gallon) out of that gas. And then he drove another 5 km the next morning to the gas station. Of course it was bone dry when he got there.

One morning in 1987 he got up and said to the Lord, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.” (Jn. 17:4), packed up and left Japan. It had been several years since last we met and I went up to Tokyo to see them off. While waiting for the plane, I asked Ron, “Where are you going from San Francisco?” He replied, “The only thing I can tell you is that it will not be west.” He got in a car with his 8 children and drove from San Francisco to Maine; then turned around and headed back west. He got as far as Littletown, NH where he settled down and did a marvelous work in starting a church and Christian Scholl. The several years later he got in his car headed for an unknown destination again, and wound up in Alaska, where he again pioneered a work for Jesus. I heard Ron retired from the ministry a couple of years ago, but I am sure there is nothing in him that will back off his tenacious spirit of carrying the  flag for Jesus with a passion shared by few men.

Recently I got a letter from his daughter Vicky. She and her mother had made a trip to Japan to visit old friends. It had been 33 years since last Vicky was “home to Japan”. She told what a thrill it was to visit pastors who where high school boys the last they had met, and have joyful Christians come up and say, “I am your father’s grandchild. Your dad led the man to Christ that saw me saved.” It doesn’t get much better than that.

Another flag-carrier that has been an inspiration to me is John Cathcart. John is considerably younger than I, and has somewhat looked to me for help, but he is cut from a different piece of fabric. When John first came to Japan in 1982, he said he wanted to do kaitaku dendo (pioneer evangelism) in Tenri. Tenri City is the Salt Lake City of Japan. What Salt Lake City is to Mormonism, Tenri is to Tenri-kyo. Tenri-kyo is the third largest religion in Japan and Tenri City is the Mecca. It is the weirdest city in Japan. It is down right spooky. There was a population of 70, 000 people there and the only Christian influence was Jehovah Witness. Somehow no missionary felt led to go into Tenri and raise the flag for Jesus. John started out by renting a room over Mister Donut’s right across the street from the eki (train station). After a year he got put out of there and rented a few other places with great difficulty.

In his desperation for a place to meet, he began thinking about renting some property and building a church. John was the most child-like man I ever met. Only a child would think of doing the stupid things that John did. But they worked. He found a man who said he would rent him a rice field and he could put a building on it. In early December John went to the states to buy the material for a church, but only had money enough for a one way ticket. He vowed he would not return home until the church was paid for. The Bible school where he had gone gave him a good missionary offering and his father-in-law emptied their own church building fund to give it to John for his church. One night, during a phone call, his mother suggested, “Why don’t you call your uncle?” (her brother). John did, and he said he would fly down to Boise the next day to talk about it. They had a good time all day but nothing was said about the building. John was getting nervous. Then his uncle asked Wert Edmonds, who was coming to build the church, “How much more money do you need to pay for it?” Wert replied, “$20,000”. His uncle wrote a check and handed it to John. He was home for Christmas with the building paid in full. I later had the privilege of driving the first nail in the first Christian church in Tenri City.

From that church five other small churches have sprung up and it is still there today.

In 1992 John took his family and went to Vladivostok to do pioneer evangelism in Russia that had just opened up. What he did in Siberia for a year was legendary. That would take another book.

 It was in the summer of 1994 that I went with John and 34 others to Siberia to do dendo (evangelism) in a 400 km area from Vladivostok. It was following John’s example that challenged me to launch out into a wider area of service that eventually led to me where I am today. I am not one to break a fresh track but it has been my great privilege to ride in the car with those who do and walk in some of their foot prints.

Chronicles are full of genealogies but in 1 Chron. 11 we find the list of David’s mighty men, with testimonies of their heroic deeds. In many cases it wasn’t a matter of army against army, but it was the daring act of a few brave men who turned the tide, and then others followed. It wasn’t just what David did in taking out Goliath, but what that deed did to the rest of Israel’s army (1 Sam. 17:52). What Jonathan and his armor bearer did in taking out 20 men in half an acre was very small but the effect of that deed did something to the Philistines and all the army of Israel so there was a tremendous victory that day.

It has always been that way. God has laid His hand on a few courageous men who have not counted their life dear unto death. These are the men who have carried the flag forward and we all are indebted to them for their courageous examples. The rest of us may not be made of that tough steel but it should be easier for us to stir ourselves and at least follow behind.

Lord, put within the Spirit to be soldiers for Jesus.

                                                                               bill

Nepal

17 October 2010

Dear Phyllis,

Last week I promised you that I had another great story to tell you. Indeed it is a good one.

A week ago last Wednesday my friend Scott Noble told me that he had met a man from Nepal at his university (Mae Jo). It is really amazing the way the Lord is using Scott there on campus to meet a wide spectrum of people. He is a very fine witness, and scarcely misses an opportunity to speak up for Jesus. Scott is the kind of guy that, while waiting at a red light, he will reach out and hand a tract to a motor bike rider waiting beside him. The Nepalese fellow said he was Hindu, but had great interest in Christianity. Scott called me and asked if I would care to have lunch with them the next day. Of course, I leaped at it.

The first year Rosemary and I were married, we had a little Nepalese boy live with us almost like a foster son. Ritu’s father was a medical doctor in Kiryu, about an hour and a half from Karuizawa. We had a children’s school in Karuizawa that his parents wanted him to attend, but he needed someone to live with. Through that contact we met the Rhais and developed an intense interest in Nepal. Six years later I went to Nepal to adopt a Nepalese girl, and see about living there as missionaries. I spent a month traveling around the country, but came back with a very clear conviction that the Lord wanted us to remain in Japan. Rosemary just wasn’t up to living in that country. However, I have always had an intense interest in Nepal.

When Tre (pronounced tree) came to meet us at the Mae Jo cafeteria, I immediately liked him. He is 35 years old, with streaks of grey hair, married with two children in Nepal. He obviously was an intelligent man and unusually serious. We immediately hit it off. I had been very close to his home in Nepal, and there were a large amount of common interest things to talk about. After the initial get-to-know-each-other conversation I asked him about his interest in Christianity. The story he told was truly amazing. Seldom have a met a person that so conspicuously has the hand of God upon him.

He told about how he had a friend who became a Christian 15 years ago. There was such a profound change in this man that Tre wondered what had made him so different. His friend gave him a New Testament which he read from cover to cover in one week. That was the first time he had seen the Word of God. He was greatly attracted, and became a seeker. He loved the teaching of Christ, and was convinced that this was the greatest teaching on earth. He also had a copy Hindu scripture which he admired and frequently read. Though he was a great admirer of Jesus, he still considered himself a Hindu. In his quest for spiritual truth he had attended several churches in various places. He had gone to a house church in Nepal, a Catholic church in India, and when he came to Thailand he was invited to attend a Pentecostal church in Chiang Mai. He had attended this Pentecostal church for two years and had become a regular member of a Care Group meeting every Friday night. He had three Bibles – Nepalese, Hindi (Indian), and an English one. In his love for the Word of God, he always slept with his Bible under his pillow every night.

As we sat there in the cafeteria I asked him to get out his English Bible and read John 3. For the next half hour it was like we were reliving that night when Jesus spoke with Nicodemus.

Tragically, the Pentecostal church where Tre was going is the most upside-down church as I know in Chiang Mai. Through other friends I was very familial with that church and knew it was a spiritual disaster zone. Tre was a regular attender there but was turned off. He was interested in learning about the Gospel but no one had spent any time teaching him, and he was confused by the irreverent type of worship. He told Scott that he just didn’t think that was the way we should worship God.

When we began to read John 3 together I asked him if he had ever read this before. With a serious look on his face he replied, “Never”. Of course, he had covered it in general Bible reading but what we were looking at was a first time experience for him. He had background enough in Bible knowledge to know who the Pharisees were, and he was slam on the mark when I asked him why Nicodemus came at night. But when we read that a man must be born-again in order to see the Kingdom of God – and unless a man is born-again he CANNOT enter the Kingdom of God – it was like that blew his mind. I asked Tre, “Have you ever heard this before?”  “Never!” He had the most strained, perplexed, look on his face and pleaded with me, “How is it possible for a man to be born-again?” I felt just like Jesus talking to Nicodemus. I explained to him “that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit”. I told him that there must be a spiritual birth before a man can understand the things of the Spirit of God. We ran out of time so I invited him to come to my house Saturday night.

The next night he came at 6:00 PM. We went out to get some pizza. After supper we opened the Word again at John 3. It was wonderful! Every word seemed to just come alive and come off the page at us. Seldom have I experienced such enabling of the Holy Spirit to take His Word and make it come alive to us. When we got down to verse 14, we read, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of man be lifted up”. I took him back to Num. 21:4-9 to explain that story to him. I asked Tre, “When was it that Jesus was lifted up?” He replied, “Oh, that must have been when he came back to life or when He went back to heaven.” I told him, “No. ‘Even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up’. Moses made a brass serpent and put it on a pole. Then he lifted it up. Jesus was nailed to a Cross. Then He was lifted up in the air.” I explained this to him and showed him how “Jesus was made to be sin for us” (2 Cor. 5:21).On the Cross Jesus took upon Himself the responsibility and wrath of God against sin that we might be free. The night before the crucifixion the Romans had made three crosses. The third cross was for a fellow named Barabbas. The Jews asked that Barabbas be released and to crucify Jesus. So that afternoon, Barabbas was walking free around town while another Man took his place on the Cross (Mt. 27:15-26).

Then I took Tre back to John 1:12 – “but as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become sons of God.” When I asked Tre if he wanted to accept Jesus, that was like asking a drowning man if he wanted to get in the life boat. I asked Tre how he would like to pray. “Would you like to pray by yourself or would you prefer to have me lead you?” He requested that I lead him. We knelt together on the floor and I led him in prayer to receive Jesus as his savior. But this was unique. When I would say a phrase ‘Lord Jesus, I am a sinner’; rather than repeating exactly what I said, first he would emphasize it by saying, “YES”, and then add more depth to it than my simple statement. When we finished our prayer I looked over at him. It was an awesome moment. Tre was kneeling on the floor with his eyes closed but his arms and face lifted to heaven. It was several minutes before we spoke.

Shortly after that he went home. But thirty minutes later I had a phone call. The man on the other end was like he was going out of his mind with joy. He kept raving, “I WILL NEVER FORGET THIS DAY! THIS IS THE FIRST DAY OF MY LIFE!” The day before he had asked me with deep perplexity, “How can a man be born-again?” Now he knew he was and knew that that was the first day of his life.

The Mennonites have an excellent Bible school, IGO (Institute for Global Opportunities), in the southern part of Chiang Mai. I go there once a month. I’m sure I have told you about it. Scott had been bugging me to take him to that service. The next morning Tre was over and we all went to IGO for church. It was excellent! After the service Tre kept raving, “I’M SO HAPPY! I’M SO HAPPY!” He sure was. Later that day he told Scott, “I wasted two years going to the wrong church.” Scott’s wife Khae replied, “Don’t worry. I wasted ten years before I got saved.”

 Monday night he was back to my house for some more Bible study. Again our time was excellent. Seldom, if ever, have I met a man who is so uniquely taught of God. Before he was saved, I asked him if the Lord had ever spoken to him. He thought for a moment and then replied, “Yes, I believe He has. He has spoken to me about my sin.” I explained to him about the three parts of the heart – the intellect, the emotions and the will. And I told him, in the realm of the Spirit, it is necessary that the mind function as a servant rather than as a master. He grasped that immediately. I know people who have been saved 15 years and still don’t know that.

After our Bible study I suggested that we have a time of prayer. Again I was unprepared for what happened. I prayed first. When Tre tried to pray the struggle was terrible. Then he wailed, “I’m such a bad man!” I don’t know if I have ever seen such brokenness in my life. Obviously he was having another intense time in the Spirit. He didn’t have a handkerchief, so while he was praying, I went down stairs to get a roll of toilet paper for him to blow his nose.

 Tre is only eight days old in the Lord but I believe he is a very special chosen vessel. I can’t imagine him being anything other than a pastor. He has a very good job with the Nepal government in agriculture. He will only be here for another three months before he finishes his graduate work at Mae Jo University. Then he will be going back to Nepal. But already he is talking about possibly coming back to Chiang Mai with his family to go to IGO Bible school.

Only time will tell how he turns out. But the amazing evidence of the Holy Spirit in his life leads me to believe he is one rare jewel. Times like this don’t come along very often. But when they do, it makes you just get on your knees and thank God for the awesome privilege of allowing you to see the might working of God in the lives of others.

Thank You Jesus!

                           bill

Burma

10 October 2010

Dear Phyllis,

Last week I conclude my letter with “I just got back from an interesting trip to the Burma border and I plan to go back this week. I don’t know, but I might have a different story to tell you next week.” I didn’t go back. But I will tell you the story anyway.

The situation in Burma (Myanmar) is just plain sick. I wonder if it isn’t the worst in the world. The situation in North Korea is bad. The insanity that those poor people live under is horrendous. There are places in Africa where ethnic cleansing has gone on that is staggering. But Burma is somewhat unique. Burma has been run by a military dictator ship for 30 years, that has one goal – to stay in power. There is an enormous portion of Burma that doesn’t care for the government and would prefer to be left alone. But the Burmese government has been using the Burmese army to do everything possible to run people off their land and get rid of them. Several years ago one high government official said, “In another ten years the only place where you will be able to see Karen will be in a museum. (The Karens are a major minority people group that have a strong Christian culture.) Today there are 1,000,000 Karen displaced people living in the jungle or internal refugee camps inside Burma, and another 1,000,000 that have fled to Thailand and other places as refugees.

I have a good friend, David Eubank, who has founded a very unusual organization, FBR (Free Burma Rangers), that is dedicated to helping the displaced people inside Burma. Dave spends eight months of each year living in Burma, training workers to help the victims of the Burmese atrocities. No, Dave does not get his passport stamped when he goes into Burma. Recently he put out a prayer almanac with pictures and testimonies of the people inside Burma for the purpose of encouraging others to pray daily for these suffering victims. It made me sick to read it. After you have read the first page you have read everything. Every page is the same monotonous story repeated – “The Burmese army killed…the Burmese army raped... The Burmese army burned the village…” The stories of what is going on inside Burma are endless. It is pointless to try to share them here.

 Several years ago my good friends Mark and Astrid met a very fine Karen couple, west of here, that were working extensively to help their people. Through Mark and Astrid I was introduced to Rosebell and her husband and have gone over there several times to make things for them and teach in their Bible school.

Rosebell told Astrid about another Karen couple, who were living about two hours south of them, who were doing extensive work to help Karen refugees. Astrid went down to meet them, and was encouraged to start an IDP (internally displaced people) refugee camp just inside Burma across the river from Thailand. There were 90 children whose parents had been killed or other wise separated, who were in bad shape there. Astrid was able to build a lovely camp for them and the children were intensely responsive to the Gospel.

Then about a year ago the compassionate Burmese army came to kill the children and take their camp. Being right on the border river to Thailand, miraculously they were able to escape to Thailand; and, amazingly, none of the children were killed. Of course the Burmese army burned everything that Astrid had been able to construct to house the children and their chapel. Then they planted land mines so no one could go back to that area.

But now Astrid was struck with 90 children illegally inside Thailand sleeping on the ground with nothing to protect them from rain, and nothing to eat. In addition to that there were another 460 people about 20km away who had nothing to eat. Organizations in the states were very generous in providing money, and Astrid was able to provide food for the second group and build another refugee camp on the Thai side of the river for the 90 homeless children.

The situation here in Thailand is very confused. Thailand doesn’t want refugees who have fled to their country. In the days of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, when Pol Pot was killing millions of his own people, hundreds of thousands fled to Thailand only to be forcefully thrust back into Cambodia. There were reports of the Thai army gathering up truck loads of Cambodian refugees, then throwing them down slopes back into Cambodia into mine fields. The situation in those days 35 years ago was horrendous. International pressure has forced Thailand to be a little more lenient with refugees and, through the UN, Thailand is making a lot of money by housing EDP (externally displace people) in massive refugee camps. And the situation that Astrid was faced with, with 90 illegal children who couldn’t go back to Burma, and had to be sheltered in Thailand, was very delicate. 

Then another disaster emerged. It turned out that the Karen man who had encouraged Astrid to build the first IDP camp inside Burma, was a first class crook. She was pouring a large amount of money into the new camp, but most of it was going into the pocket of the “Christian” Karen man. Again the children were suffering while he was getting rich. When the sheep-skin mask fell off, and the fangs came out, he proved to be a serious drunk and an extremely violent man. Rosebell was terrified of him, as were all the children. Of necessity Astrid had to write off the first camp, go buy new property, and build a new center. This is all very recent. I had heard all these stories.

 The other day Astrid stopped by to see me to ask my advice on what kind of a drill to buy for a carpenter who had contracted to build bunk beds for the children. As we talked, I finally said, “Look, let me go over there with you to see what is going on and get the man set up to build bunk beds.”

When Astrid stopped giving money to the crook, and started building her new center, the evil turkey put up a barricade and wouldn’t let Astrid come on her own property to get things she needed. She had spent over $30,000 on material alone and wanted to get some of that back for building the new camp. She asked me to tear down one of the buildings and get the lumber.

 I bought a large sledge hammer and tore down the barricade the bum had put up. He had the reputation of being an extremely dangerous man with a gun but he seemed to be frightened by the gaijin (foreigner) who showed up with the sledge hammer and cowboy hat. He wouldn’t come out of his house to talk to us. I did what I could in tearing down the first house but told Astrid I couldn’t go any further without a chain saw. That was as far as we got that day.

I have always wanted a chain saw in Thailand but never had a need for one. This provided the need, so when we got back to Chiang Mai, I bought a very good one with the view of going back in a few days to finish the job. I really have a tremendous amount of work stacked up in front of me but I felt that Astrid’s needs were top priority. Bewilderingly, since then, there has been a phone call from Mae Salit advising us not to come back to finish that job at the moment.

As maddeningly and as sickeningly as that situation is in Burma, there is a marvelous bright side to the picture. The stars in the night shine the brightest in the darkest sky. The Burmese army has done everything demonically possible to bring hell to earth – or make earth like hell. But this has provided the canvas where the glory of the Lord and the love of Jesus shines in a way that is virtually impossible in any other setting. We are seeing the tangible, visible, Kingdom of God here in a way that is difficult to imagine in America. These children, who have seen their parents and friends killed; they have endured unimaginable suffering living for years in the jungles without the most basic necessities for life – but now they are in a safe environment surrounded by love of God – their response to the Gospel is explosive. They just flat LOVE JESUS. Their worship, their prayers, their singing, is something like you have never heard. What a contrast! It is hard to imagine any place where you could have heaven and hell stand so closely side by side demonstrating the difference. These children are just a unique species of humanity. It is a tremendous privilege to be the hands of Jesus loving them.

The carpenter making the beds for the children is a lovely Karen pastor. He was ecstatic when I showed him the drill I brought for him and was able to show him a few tricks how to make the beds. I greatly admire his testimony and ministry among his own people. Our fellowship was excellent. Nearly the entire population in that area by the Burma border are Karen. I asked Astrid what was the percentage of Christians. She replied, “Nearly 80%”. One hundred meters (yards) away is a never-ending nightmare. On this side of the river is the Land of Jesus. But even here we still have to deal with the devil.

I guess that is the way the system works. We have this treasure in earthen vessels (2Cor. 4:7); but, oh my goodness, what that treasure is! It is nothing less than the very life of Jesus Himself.

Praise God,

                        bill

PS: I have another great story to share with you next week, but you will have to wait for that.

Three Ministries

3 October 2010

Dear Phyllis,

In the gospels we see that the disciples only asked Jesus to do two things for them. In Luke 11:1 we see one of the disciples (probably John) asking Jesus to teach him how to pray. And in Luke 17:5 the apostles asked Jesus to increase their faith. I wonder if there is anything in life more important than this. Perhaps the two greatest ills in the Body of Christ today are the prayerlessness of Christians and our abysmal anemic faith. When I read those two requests, it was with keen interest that I considered Jesus’ response. I can’t go into what He taught about prayer today, but I do want to share with you some things that the Lord has taught me about increasing faith.

 At a cursorily inspection, the Lord’s response may appears rather odd. At first He said “If you had faith…” you could do amazing things. I have never found that helpful. But then he told the story about a man who had servants out plowing and feeding cattle all day. But then at evening he demanded that they wait on the table for him to eat. When he was finished, then they could eat. And then, after all that commendable service, they were to consider themselves unprofitable servants. But this is the key to increasing our faith.

Watchman Nee suggests that plowing is evangelism and feeding cattle is teaching Christians. I think he is right. It has been expressed that there are three ministries – to sinners, to saints, and to the Savior. You have all three in this parable.

The first step to increase faith is simple – do your duty. Do the task the Lord has granted you. Use the gift that you have. We all are different. Some are better at evangelism and others are more gifted in teaching Christians. But whatever task the Lord has entrusted to us – DO IT. It is pointless to pray for more faith if we don’t use the faith we have in executing the ministry we have. If we want more faith – BE FAITHFUL!  

I feel very strongly about the second point the Lord emphasizes. In our day of labor relations we might think this is a little over the top of the master demanding the servants, who are weary of hard work all day, to first fix supper for him. After he is full, then they can have supper themselves. But here the Lord is teaching us a vital spiritual principle. I fear this is one that is seriously neglected in our teaching today. This neglected ministry is the ministry to the Savior.

In Acts 13:2 we read of the church in Antioch, “As they ministered to the Lord… the Holy Spirit said…” It was as they were engaged in ministering to the Lord that He spoke to them. Perhaps this is one reason why we hear so seldom from Him. If we spent more time waiting before the Lord – ministering unto Him – perhaps we could hear His Voice more often, and a little more clearly.

A common concept of prayer is that it must be a constant stream of verbiage headed towards heaven. To pray for one hour seems like a Herculean task of keeping up a solid hour of verbally expressed requests and praise. Very few can do it. But I have found it more profitable to be swift to hear and slow to speak in prayer. We generally say that we speak to God in prayer, and He speaks to us in Bible reading. But I have found that more often God speaks to me in prayer, and I find my self speaking to God in Bible reading. I find that awed silence is often some of my most spiritual prayer.

Paul told us a very basic truth when he wrote, “faith comes by hearing – and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17). There are three vital points in that statement; the first is that faith comes by hearing. If God does not speak, I have no idea what He wants me to trust Him for. It is pure presumption to attempt to trust God for something where He has not spoken to us about it. It is a serious error to try to put words in God’s mouth and then believe Him for it. It won’t work. I can believe God for no further than He has committed Himself to reply. The first step of faith is to hear from God. Faith comes by hearing.

The second point is the nature of God’s Word. In the Greek there are two different words that are translated in English simply as “word” – logos and rhema. Logos is the written word. This can be read. The other is rhema. This is the spoken word. Rhema can only be heard. Faith does not come by the logos of God but by the rhema of God. I would be the last person on earth to down-grade the logos of God. That is the Bible. The Bible certainly is the Word of God. But faith comes by His spoken Word – not His written Word.

For those who are strong on the argument that faith comes by the logos of God, all we need to do is to point to the ones who know the logos of God the best. I believe it is evident that most seminary professors, who are highly knowledgeable of the logos of God, are generally not the ones who are mighty in faith. We don’t see many seminary professors praying down healing, casting out demons, and performing miracles. Many of them know the Word of God but they have a very shallow understanding of the God of the Word.

The third point is that we must be careful that what we hear is God speaking – not our imagination – or occasionally the devil trying to get in the act by presenting himself off as the voice of God.

I have often wondered how do you minister to the Lord? The best example I know in the Bible is Nehemiah. He was the king’s cup bearer. What an experience! His sole responsibility was to stand before the king and hand him his cup when he was thirsty. Nehemiah was closer to the king than most of his ministers.

I can’t imagine a more exalted position than to be Jesus’ cup bearer. How I long to do that! Just to stand in the presence of the Lord, waiting on the Lord, and hand Him His cup when He is thirsty. Oh how wonderful that would be! But how do you do it?

One of the best illustrations I ever heard was a story Amy Carmichael shared. One day she was in prayer, and in her heart, it was like she could see Jesus weeping. She was very surprised and asked, “Lord Jesus, why are you crying?” The Lord replied, “I am weeping for the poor temple slave children of India.” In those days thousands of children were sold as slaves to the Hindu temples. Amy Carmichael said, “Lord Jesus, may I kneel beside You and weep with You?” She was later used to rescue many of these children. There was a woman who knew the Lord, and shared the heart of the Lord like very few ever do.

I believe the best place to be to hear the Voice of the Lord would be standing beside Him while He is seated at His table. It should not be drudgery to wait on the Master after a hard days work. That should be the highlight of the day. We should look forward to coming out of the field where we have been plowing or taking care of cattle and wait on Jesus. Oh that my heart was more concerned about His satisfaction than meeting my own needs! If we want to increase our faith, this is the place that it is done.

In the OT, there is no question but what there is a vast difference between a priest and an ordinary believer. The priests were set apart to stand before the Lord to minister unto Him (Deut. 10:8).                                                                                                   The ordinary believer simply stood outside the temple by the brazen altar where the blood was shed for the forgiveness of sin. But the priest entered in the temple and stood before the Lord. Who was closer to God?

In the NT we see that every believer is called to be a priest (Rev. 1:6. 5:10, 20:6). This is so astonishing that it would be more than offensive in the OT. Saul was rejected for trying to function as a priest when Samuel didn’t show up (1 Sam. 13; 8-14). Uzziah was struck with leprosy because he attempted to offer incense in the temple like the priest (2 Ch. 26:16-21). It would have been unthinkable in the OT for an ordinary believer to function as a priest. But in the NT this is not only a privilege the Lord has extended to us, but a very clear invitation to draw near to minister to the Lord. The central message of the book of Hebrews is an invitation to enter into the Holies of Holies – the very presence of God. Oh my goodness, is such a thing true?!!

 

Of the three things that Jesus told us was the way to increase faith, the first is do your duty, the second is major on devotion, and the third is humility. Gomen nasai, but I out of space and can’t deal with the third point today.

But the theme of our access to God, and the unspeakable possibility, and responsibility, of ministering to the Lord is a subject that has dominated my thinking in recent years. I don’t know if you could say this has increased my faith or not but it certainly has radically altered my view of spiritual truth. Things sure look a whole lot different today than they did twenty years ago.

I just got back from a very interesting trip to the Burma border a few hours ago and I plan to go back again this week. I don’t know, but I might have a different story to tell you next week. But until then, let’s make waiting on Jesus, listening to what He has to say to us, and devoting ourselves to see that He is satisfied; let’s make that our primary goal for this coming week.

Your grateful brother in Christ Jesus – in Thailand,

                                                                                   bill