My Times are in Thy Hands

26 December 2010

Dear Phyllis,

It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes I sit down and open the Bible at random; and a verse just leaps off the pager at me. It is almost like God speaking to me in an audible voice. That happened the other day. As I went out on my balcony where I meet with the Lord everyday, I opened my Bible and my eyes fell on Psalm 31:15 – “My times are in Thy hand”. That was a word from God to me.

As we close out 2010 I am intensely engaged in one of the most confusing projects of my life. I am totally restructuring my shop. My dear friend, Dave Moore, is working with me, and when we get finished, it will easily be the finest shop I have ever had. Frequently I scratch my head and wonder, “Why in the world am I doing this?” The only explanation is that I have been forced into it.

When things closed down at NLL in Japan eight years ago, I walked away from thousands of dollars of excellent tools and the best shop I had ever had, to go back to SEA to be a Bible smuggler. I had no expectation that I would ever pick up a hammer again. But soon after getting back to Chiang Mai a brother asked me if I would make some tables for an orphanage. I said, “Of course, I would be glad to, but I have no tools.” Fritz replied, “That’s no problem. I have plenty of tools and you can use my shop.” When I got there I was shocked. He had a lovely home, but his tools were a disaster zone. They were next to totally unusable. I had zero support, and what little money I did have was barely enough to live on. Of necessity, I had to go out and buy a few basic tools to do the orphanage project.

As time went on I found myself acquiring more tools, but I desperately need some place to work. My good friend, Mark, had given me a room to live in, in his warehouse for Bibles. It was a nice duplex house, and they were using the other half as a school for their children. There was virtually no place to work. The only place available was a very narrow section six feet wide and about 25 feet long behind my house. There was a clutter of water pipes on the concrete and the slope was fairly strong. In desperation I decided to make a simple wooden floor over the water pipes and make it level. I made a simple roof over it, a bench for a chop (slide) saw, and at the end of the house I made a small extension where I could put a table saw. It was cramped, but I could at least do some basic work.

A year later they stopped using the other half of my duplex house for a school, and the children no longer needed the playground in the lawn at the end of my house. Marks’s wife, Astrid, asked me to make a large double bed for a new missionary. It was impossible to make that in my close closet shop. As the children were no longer using the swing set and merry-go-round in the playground, I move that, and made a simple wooden platform 8’x 8’ beside my shop to make the double bed on. That lasted for a year, but soon rotted. By that time the simple wooden floor in my hallway shop rotted and had to be replaced. Dave and I cleaned up the water pipes and poured a concert floor over that and a major extension in what was formerly the children’s playground. Now I had a first class shop, but it was still tight.

 A few months ago Mark asked me to make a new kitchen for them. I was glad to do that, but the kitchen was so big I couldn’t make the cabinets in my tight shop. If I was going to do that job I had to make another major extension in the lawn. A couple months ago we poured another major section of concrete. But, of course, it needed a roof. As we got started adding a roof to the new extension the Lord showed me how to tear out every thing we had put in thus far and totally restructure the entire shop. The simple roof we had put in seven years ago was rotted and the termites had totally eaten the posts that were holding it up. All that had to be replaced.

As 2010 closes down I am in the midst of restructuring everything, and soon I will have the finest shop I have ever been in. But why in the world am I doing this at this time of life? I am 75 years old. You would think I was 25 and just starting out in life. I am supposed to be closing things down – not putting things up. As I have wondered at the Lord’s strange guidance forcing me into things I never would have dreamed of, the Lord spoke to me from that verse, “My times are in Thy hand”.

Many years ago I met a dear brother who had gone through the Batan Death March in the Philippines in 1942. As the 2^nd WW progressed, the Japanese took a number to the American POWs and brought them to Japan to use as slave labor digging coal in Kyushu. Jesse Miller told me how they were working 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, digging coal, on one small bowl of rice a day, and 15 minutes break. I told Jesse, “The numbers don’t add up. There isn’t that amount of calories in one bowl of rice to do that amount of work. How did you survive?” Jesse simple replied, “God holds the last heart beat in His hand.” He told me how one day he was talking with another prisoner deep in the coal mine. The other man said despondently remarked, “It is all over. No one is going to come out of here alive.” Jesse replied, “No, my times are in the hands of God, and He will keep me until He is finished.” Ten minutes later, a 40 ton rock fell exactly where they had been standing, confirming that indeed his times were in God’s hands. I recently heard that Jesse Miller went to be with the Lord. He must have been close to 90.

My life came to an end in 1990. When my family collapsed, I lost EVERYTHING. I lost me wife, my family, my home, all my worldly possessions, my ministry, my friends, and my reputation. I literally had NOTHING left but Christ. For the next five years I was homeless drifting around Japan building churches and homes for missionaries and Japanese pastors for free. In 1995 I joined NLL, and for the first time I had my own room and bed to sleep in. Then in 2002, that came to an end. For the past 19 years I have had one request that I have asked the Lord for. Each year at Christmas time, I have pleaded, “Lord, please make this my last Christmas on this planet.” Each year has closed, and I have prayed, “Lord, You didn’t do what I asked You for last year, but please make this my last year here.” This year is the first time I haven’t made that request. I would be delighted if indeed 2011 is my last year on earth, but my times are in the hands of Jesus and I am satisfied to stay here as long as He directs.

I can’t imagine why I am making such an elaborate work shop when I should be hanging up the sign, “Out of business”. I didn’t come to Thailand to be a carpenter. My heart is totally given to promoting the Kingdom of God. I would rather be building His Church than making kitchen cabinets. But this is what He has placed in my hands and the only job I have. I do have an occasional opportunity to preach, which I enjoy immensely. We have a weekly Bible study at Scott’s house, and I do teach Japanese and share the Gospel in the ladies prison each week. There have been a few people saved. But is this a missionary life?

But the Lord has brought me to a time of life where I have never enjoyed Jesus more. Every morning I feel liked a kid on Christmas morning opening packages under the tree.

Many years ago one of my closest friends was Dennis Turner. I didn’t know a man in Japan who suffered more than Dennis Turner. His wife had left him for another woman. He had been ostracized by his home church and the missionary community. He was living by himself in a freezing house in Ina, in central Japan. But what a man of God! His life was Christ! He told me how one day he went into town, and the store owner remarked, “Tana (Turner) san, you must have had some good news this morning. Your face is shinning.” Dennis replied, “Of course my face is shinning. Man, I have just been digging diamonds.” Diamonds they were! Oh the jewels Dennis would find in the Scripture! The man was filled with Christ. He never took a breath but what he was praising the Lord or sharing Jesus with someone. I never met a man who could witness like him. There was nothing artificial or canned about him. Everything that came out of his mouth was life.

Dennis told me how one morning he was out having his morning walk, and went by a field where an old woman was working. She asked, “Tana san, why did you come to Japan?” The standard answer is, “I came to preach the Gospel”. That is what a missionary is supposed say. But Dennis replied, “Obaa chan (grandmother), I have found that many people have a nayami (sorrow).” The old woman burst into tears and shared, “I have a nayami.” He touched her heart. I never met a man who won souls like Dennis Turner.

One day I said to him, “I would give anything to be able to witness like you.” Dennis later told me, in his heart, he thought, “Man, you are mad. You have no idea the price that costs.” I will never be Dennis Turner. But the Lord has been extremely good to me in bringing into His house of wine (S of S 2:4). I know what Dennis is talking about in digging diamonds. I have no idea what 2011 has in store, but I do know that my times are in His hand; and that is all I need.

Joyfully,  bill

Christmas 2010

19 December 2010

Dear Phyllis,

The calendar on my computer tells me that next Saturday will be Christmas. Apart from the AmericanChristmas carols that we hear in every department store, there is little else around here to suggest that Christmas is near. Up until yesterday, it has been a very pleasant winter. The sky has been cloudless for a month, and the temperature in the 80s almost every day. But yesterday I was surprised to wake up to the sound of rain, and it was so cold and clammy all day that I had to wear a shirt. In northern Thailand, from November until April, it is the dry season. We will go 100 days without a drop of rain or a cloud in the sky. This is really the best time of year here, but it sure wouldn’t remind you of Christmas.

Churches, of course, all crank up with Christmas programs that are primarily designed as an evangelistic outreach. Traditionally, I suppose I should have some Christmas devotion to share with you today. When I think of our Lord’s birth I always marvel at the wisdom of God in how it was engineered.

The Lord certainly spoke a very significant word to the entire world in the birth of Christ. Born in a barn! Who would have ever thought of that?! But the very place of Christ birth speaks volumes.

Perhaps the first message is the accessibility of Christ. You couldn’t find a more accessible place. Had He been born in a hospital, you would have to go through the administration desk first to get to Him. There could be restrictions. There might be a sign No Visitors Allowed. Had He been born in a home you certainly would have to go through the home owner to get there. For children who are born at home, it would be impossible for some stranger just to walk up and knock on the door asking to see the new baby. My goodness, who knows what they might have in mind? They might have a cold, or bring in some infection that would endanger the baby. We have got to be more protective than that. The fact that Jesus was born in an Inn is highly significant. There is nothing more public than an Inn. The very nature of an Inn is that the doors are always open for anyone who wants to come in. But had Jesus been born in a room in that Inn there certainly would have been some restriction. The manager would have said, “I’m sorry, but the rooms are private. We can’t just let anyone enter any room they want.” But there is nothing private about the barn. There were no locks on that barn. There was nothing private about it at all. Any guest, any house maid, any cook, any stranger walking down the street could walk in there any time they wanted, to see the new Baby. Even some shepherds, who were out in a field, could come in the middle of the night and walk right in to see the new Baby. They didn’t have to change their clothes, take off their shoes, wash their hands, or wear a face mask; they could walk right in and see the new Child. You can’t get more accessible than that.

Surely this is the first message the Lord had to say to the world when He sent His Son to live among us. Anyone who will may come. The very life of Jesus began being in the most accessible place God could choose. And, praise God, that is still true today. There are absolutely no restrictions on anyone coming to Christ. As the years pass I increasingly marvel at the unqualified offer, “Whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Rom. 10:13).

 A few years ago the famous serial killer, Ted Bundy was caught and sentenced for execution. Before he was executed, the prison Chaplin led him to Christ. He wanted to give his testimony, but the only man in America he would trust was Jim Dobson. Dobson interviewed him hours before his execution, with an amazingly clear testimony of salvation. The media and millions of people went bonkers over the suggestion that such a serial killer, who had killed over 27 women, could be saved so simply.

Dutch was the director of the infamous Tuol Sleng Prison during the horrendous regime of Pol Pot in Cambodia. He was probably personally responsible for more unspeakable tortures and deaths of Cambodians than any other single person. There were over 18,000 persons brought to that horror chamber – most of whom were innocent. Of the total 18,000 who were brought to that prison, only 12 survived alive. Today the Tuol Sleng Prison is the #1 sickening tourist attraction in Phnom Penh. When the Vietnamese took over Cambodia in 1979, Dutch escaped to the Thai border. Some years later he was brought to Christ by a Baptist missionary. After 30 years, recently, he was brought to trail for his war crimes and sentenced to 40 years in prison. He was the only one of the Pol Pot regime who was truly repentant. He will die in prison, but he is a true child of God, and will spend eternity in heaven. Many find that offensive. But if the worst offenders, as Ted Bundy and Dutch, can be saved, that leaves the door wide open for lesser offenders. You can’t get more accessible than that.

Today, America is one of the most difficult countries in the world to get into – unless you are an illegal Mexican. I would much rather deal with a communist government than with the US Immigration Department. They are just plain evil! It cost $200 just for an interview to make an application for a tourist visa; only to get insulted and refused. And the Immigration Department keeps the money. But anyone who wants one, can have a free citizenship in heaven simply by accepting God’s unspeakable gift of love in giving to us His Son. There is nothing on this earth more ridiculous than that! How can you make it any more easy? How can you make it any more accessible than that?!

And yet, in the wisdom of God, He has perfectly concealed His Son. Years later Jesus would rejoice in spirit and say, “I thank Thee, O Father, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes.” (Lk. 10:21).  Who would ever dream of looking for the Son of God in a barn? The Bible is correct when it says, “Not many wise men after the flesh are called (saved)” (1 Cor. 1:26). God has chosen the foolishness of preaching to save the humble. No man can get into heaven by his brain. It wasn’t to the PhDs in Harvard or the University of Jerusalem, but to shepherds in a field,  that the message came by angels, “You will find Him in a barn” (Lk. 2:12).

 

If there is any message that Bethlehem has to say to us, it is that the one prerequisite for salvation is humility. Salvation is securely hidden from the proud. Only the most humble person would have gone out to seek Jesus in that barn. I am sure a few house maids went out to see the new Child. The wife of the Inn manager probably went out to see Him. But if a guest suggested to others to go see this new Babe, I can well imagine someone responding; “What? you want me to go out there in that barn? My goodness, I would get my shoes all filthy there.” You would have to be willing to get a little cow manure on your shoes if you wanted to see Jesus.

The fact that Jesus humbled Himself so low as to be born in a barn is an eloquent testimony of His fundamental character. In Japan the lower members of society bow lower to those of higher rank. It would be culturally wrong for a teacher to bow lower than a student; or an employer to an employee. No one ever bowed lower than Jesus. Not even Moses is to be compared to Jesus for humility. Paul certainly brings this out when he wrote in Phil. 2:6-8 on how low Jesus humbled Himself – even to the death of a cross. He started out His life in a barn, at His peak, He said He had no where to lay His head, He had to borrow a donkey to ride into Jerusalem, died a criminal’s death on a cross, and was buried in a borrowed tomb. Jesus warned us that the servant is not supposed to be above the master. How is it possible that some who claim to be genuine followers of the Lamb suggest that we should live like the richest kid in town???

We would be utterly enraged if someone suggested that our son should be born in a barn. “No way! Do you think I am nuts to let my wife have a baby in a barn. Maybe my son might be born in the hallway of a hospital but he is not going to be born in a barn!”

 Oh how is it that we miss that message? We have glorified the manger scene so much that we have lost the message. This is the life that Christ is calling us to. The suggestion that we should be like Jesus is so unthinkable that it is down right repulsive. But this is the entrance to the Kingdom.

 Perhaps I have told you that I have written two books. One is my autobiography of the First Fifty Years. And the other one is The Inverted Kingdom. I have noticed that most – if not all – of the laws of the Kingdom of God are exactly the reverse of the natural laws of this world. There hardly is anything more eloquent than the very birth of Christ. What a start! But this is the way of the Lord. Perhaps if we took this more seriously, and tried to live accordingly, we too might find Jesus in a deeper way than when we have looked for Him in the rarified atmosphere of success.

 
It is kind of lonely here in Chiang Mai at Christmas. The Lord has been good in giving me a few friends. I didn’t send out any Christmas cards and I didn’t receive any. I have bought no Christmas presents for anyone, and I doubt that I will receive any. This certainly is not a commercial time for me. I will be working in my shop on Christmas. But one of the greatest miracles that has ever happened is real to me today. The very Spirit of the Christ who was born in that barn in Bethlehem has been born in my heart. I don’t know anything more amazing than that.

                                                                                        bill

Koji Sekiguchi

12 December 2010

 Dear Phyllis,

When we were in the states many years ago I used to listen to a daily radio broadcast by a marvelous Assembly of God preacher, DM Ward. He was a man of the caliber of AW Tozer – a very realistic, down-to-earth, man of God. At the time I was listening to him, he had a series going on of testimonies of outstanding Christians he knew. I found those testimonies very helpful. I can’t match the stories DM Ward told, but it has been my privilege to know a number of unusual Christians over the years.

One man who stands out in my life is Koji Sekiguchi. Koji was the closest friend I ever had. He was the best man at my wedding and for years I said he was the most outstanding Christian I had ever met.

Koji was Rachel Sekiguchi’s younger brother. Some time ago, I wrote you the story of Rachel Sekiguchi. She was the high school girl from Oguri that received a tract fourth hand and was marvelously saved. She wound up being a missionary to Brazil, where she has spent her entire adult life.

There were seven brothers and sisters in the Sekiguchi family. Over the years she saw all her family saved, including her dad, who was a Shinto priest. Her elder brother, Takao, was the head elder in my church in Karuizawa.

Koji was about 12 years old when Rachel got saved. As she, very soon, was a student in the Karuizawa Bible School, she influenced the entire family to be associated with the Bible school, and got Koji to come to Karuizawa to live at the Bible school, and go to school in the Karuizawa public junior high and high school.

As a young boy, Koji didn’t care for coerced Christianity, but he was a captive and had no choice. The budget at the Karuizawa Bible School was terribly low. Food was scarce and the rooms were freezing. That was bad enough, but Koji especially resented the imposed day of fasting once a month. More than that he had to stand on the street corner, participating in street meetings. He would stand there embarrassed to tears as his school friends would come by to make fun of him. Christianity definitely was not the life he wanted to choose.

His roommate was Kimura san. I wrote you the story of Kimura san some time ago. He was the Japanese fighter pilot who got shot down by a Christian American pilot overt the Philippine Sea, and then spent seven years as a POW in Siberia. After his release from the Russian slave labor camp in 1952, he returned home to find all his family had been killed during the war. With nothing left in life, he devoted himself to being a Buddhist monk walking around Japan praying for the spirits of his family and friends who had died during the war. One day he was in Karuizawa and saw a group of students from the Bible school having a street meeting. Through that initial contact he was saved and stayed on as a student in the school. Kimura san was considerably older but shared a room with young Koji.

Quite naturally, the young fellow was fascinated by the flying stories Kimura san told with him. This excited a passion to become a pilot himself some day.

After graduating from high school, Koji ran away from home (the Bible school), and joined JASDF (Japanese Air Force). His dreams were becoming a reality. At last he was in pilot training, well on his way to the top in the aviation field. Koji was elated with is freedom from forced Christianity and was now free to enjoy the full savor of a life of sin. But he had one major problem. He knew too much Gospel. He knew the Gospel was true, but wished he had never heard it. All his buddies could go out and have a good time drinking, and with the girls, but he couldn’t. His conscience was making him feel guilty, and terribly uneasy. He was struck in a lose-lose situation. His knowledge of the Bible was keeping him from a life of freedom in sin, and sin was keeping him from the freedom of Christ.  

One day he was sitting in the mess hall (dining hall) talking to a friend, sharing with him his concern. He asked, “Aren’t you afraid of death?” His buddy cheerfully responded, “Oh no. That’s no problem at all. When I die I will just say, ‘Tenno heika sama, banzai!’ (Three cheers for the emperor).” Koji wasn’t sure death was that easy.

The next day he was standing along side the runway watching aircraft take off. There was one T-33 on take off. At the most critical point of getting about 10 meters (30 feet) in the air, suddenly they had flame-out, and settled back to earth. The bird was going too fast to stop, and overshot the runway. The plane went through the perimeter fence and wound up sitting in a ditch just outside the airbase. Koji was the first one at the scene. The pilots were unhurt but the fuselage had been twisted in the crash, and they couldn’t get the canopy open. There is a lanyard on the outside of the T-33 that someone can pull to get the pilots out. Koji grabbed the handle and gave it a might jerk. Nothing happened. The canopy was jammed. The plane had a full fuel load and the wingtip drop-tanks had ruptured in the crash, dousing the area with JP-4 fuel. Some of the fuel got near the hot engine and ignited a fire. The two pilots inside were frantically banging on the canopy trying to get out. Koji was standing on top the fuselage pulling on the canopy and looked inside to see the face of the terrified trapped pilots. The man in the front seat was his buddy he had been talking to the day before. The intense heat of the fire drove Koji away from the aircraft, and he stood 50 feet away watching his friend burn to death in that cockpit. Koji said. “It wasn’t ‘Banzai’. It was just horrible!”

That sobered him up. It was bad enough to watch a man burn to death in a cockpit, but he didn’t want to spend eternity burning in hell. No pleasure of sin was worth that. He surrendered his life to Jesus.

Now he was a Christian, life looked a little less complicated, but another problem came up. He was having serious problems with ear blocks coming down from high altitude penetrations. Of course, all aircraft are pressurized, but there still is a serious change in air pressure from about 10,000 feet to sea level. This was causing terribly painful earaches. The pain was so intense Koji finally had to go to the base hospital to see if the doctors could do anything to help. An examination revealed that the hole in the inner ear, that provides for equalization of air pressure in Koji’s head, was smaller than usual, making it impossible for the air pressure to adjust. This was the cause of the earaches. He was within days of graduation. Because of this medical problem, Koji was grounded. Another crash.

Being eliminated from pilot training, Koji left the Air Force and returned to his roots in Karuizawa. He had gone far enough in training to acquire a commercial pilot’s license, which was a treasure for any young Japanese boy in 1962. They had a special ceremony. Koji stood up and announced, “I have only one idol in my life” – and he burned his pilot’s license.

He got pressured into marrying the English interpreter, Yoshiko, at the Bible school. Nothing seemed to go right as he was struggling to find God’s will for his life. They worked for an apiary honey man in Yokokawa for a couple of years, but that didn’t work out.

In 1968 he was at loose ends between jobs and came up to see me one Sunday. Just at that time I had a friend coming in from the states and had to take two weeks off from the language school to show my friend around Japan. I asked Koji if he would run the language lab for me for two weeks. That job lasted for eight years, and was a major event in both our lives. We became in separable. I never had a closer friend or one that I loved more dearly. We did every thing together. I taught him carpentry and we built the Union Church chapel and several other major construction jobs together.

Then the devil got involved. There were a couple of extremely serious failures where I had to discipline him, but still wanted to maintain our relationship. I had to fire him from the language school but kept him on working full time with me in construction. But the bond was gone. It was like a divorce that was a huge loss for both of us.

After a year of strained relations, I called him in one night to try to find out what caused the break. To this day I still don’t know. With intense pain in his heart Koji said, “Do you remember the time when the students in the language school were coming to me with their problems rather to you; and you were jealous of me?” I adamantly replied, “That never happened! I was pleased that you were doing so well, and everyone respected you so highly. I was never jealous.”

  “Yes you were. I could tell by the look on your face. That hurt me deeply.”

As near as I can tell, it was 100% demonic interference by imagined misunderstanding. But it was a misunderstanding I have never been able to bridge. To Koji it was a very real event. And to me it was one that I could never recall.

That was over 30 years ago. Koji is now 67 years old. He went on to start his own construction company, and has done very well. I have had loose contact with him over the years, and he has gone on well as a man of God. He is a major leader in the church today and has a good tract record in heaven.

 We all have had major upheavals in life that have been life-changing. But over all of them we can write “Romans 8:28”. Through them all we can see the hand of God bringing us to Himself. I am looking forward to spending eternity with Koji;

And with you too;

                                  bill

Glue Lams

5 December 2010

Dear Phyllis,

I don’t know if I have ever told you about the story of my carpentry. I say I was born with a hammer in my hand. My earliest recollection was making things when I was 4 or 5 years old. When I was 9 an uncle died and left me a chest full of classic cabinet maker tools. When I was 12 I had a complete shop with all the power tools. When I was in 7^th grade I had more tools than my shop teacher.

 I have always loved wood. My major in college was wood technology at the University of Michigan, which is a very unusual field of wood engineering. My freshman year at Michigan, there were 5,000 new students, of which there were only 2 of us in the field of wood technology. But when I went into the Air force I put wood working behind. From then on my life was to be flying.

It was while I was in pilot training that Jesus invaded my life. I had no idea what I was getting into when I said yes to Jesus, but when He took the steering wheel of my life He has led me along a path that I never would have imagined. From the first month I discovered that the Bible was true and Jesus was actually living in my heart I have never had any other ambition than to live totally for Him.

When I went to Japan in 1958, the first man I met was Russ O’Quinn, and within three months we started the Church of the Open Door. For the next four years missionary work was my primary occupation and flying was something I did on the side. In 1962 I left the Air Force to go straight to Karuizawa for Japanese language study. From the time I went in the Air Force until 1967 wood working was pretty much on the shelf.

When I was asked to be the director of the Karuizawa Japanese Language school, my first big project was to make a language lab. That involved making four booths for students to listen and speak into a tape recorder, and a master console desk. It really was a pretty major job that turned out well. Forty years later that language lab was still in use.

Then the big moment came in 1969 when I was on the Union Church committee. We had been trying, without success, for two years to put up a new multi-purpose building to use for both the church and the language school. At a committee one day, I suggested, “I believe I could put up that building.” They asked, “How?” I replied I would make curved arch glue laminated wood beams. This was a totally radical approach, but the fellows said, “If Bill can do it let’s let him try.”

Glue lams is a highly technical field, but one that I had studied at Michigan. I wrote to the US Forest Products Research Center in Madison, Wis. for advice, and they suggested I contact their sister organization in the Japanese government. The top authorities in both countries were very polite, but warned that what I was attempting was utterly impossible. To abbreviate that story, the building has been standing for over 41 years and is in as good  shape today as the day we finished it. Through that project I became known as an authority in the field of construction in Japan.

In1972 we returned to the states for furlough, and got stuck there for two years when Rosemary was sick after Dave’s birth. During most of that time we were in Greenville, SC where I was working on Joe Carroll’s new Bible school, putting up several buildings, and in charge of the woodshop making furniture for the school.

In 1974, we got back to Karuizawa to continue being director of the language school; and, again, I found myself actively engaged in doing several major construction jobs. For the next six years I basically wore three hats as I as directing the language school, pastoring a Japanese church, and doing construction at the same time.

When we returned to the states for a furlough in 1980, I was terminated as director of the language school; and a year later, when we got back to Japan, I had nothing to do. While asking the Lord for direction, I was asked to build a church in Tobu, 30 km from Karuizawa. For nine months I built that church nearly totally by myself. Of course, I did it for free, but through that project, Toshiko was generous in allowing me to spend a lot of her money to buy tools. Then when that project was finished we moved down to Ikoma to work with Japan Mission basically, in helping missionaries and churches in construction.

My greatest joy in life is preaching. The only reason I live is to serve Jesus and extend His Kingdom. From the time I left the Air Force I have never had any other occupation than a servant of Christ. I planned to be a missionary, but I have learned that being a missionary involves a broad field. Nearly all missionaries teach English. Many work in education, some in the medical field, and a number of other related fields. My lot has basically been in construction.

I will turn off the equipment and lay down my hammer anytime to speak to someone about Jesus. I will put personal work and preaching above any construction job I have. If someone needs help, or has something to be fixed, I will put that above any job I may be working on. But working in my shop is where I spend most of my time.

For some reason the Lord has not chosen to give me much of a preaching ministry. In 1998 I heard of a place in Vietnam where five churches were using one Bible. With that need burning in my heart, I boarded a plane in Tokyo to go one way to Vietnam to help the underground church there. While in the Central Highlands of Vietnam the Lord told me clearly to return to Japan and shuttle back and forth from Japan; working 2/3 of my time as a carpenter with NLL, and 1/3 as a Bible courier taking Bibles into closed countries in SEA. In 2002 NLL no longer needed my service as a carpenter. With nothing else to do, I returned to Chiang Mai, Thailand, where I had been basing out of for the previous four years, to work full time in Bible logistics.

When I walked away from my shop at NLL I never dreamed that I would get back into wood working. But shortly after I returned to Chiang Mai, a Dutch brother asked me if I would make some tables for an orphanage. To do that job I had to buy some new tools. One morning, the father of a man at a men’s early morning prayer meeting, handed me a $100 bill and told me, “This is for a power saw.” It has been utterly amazing how the Lord has provided the funds to get reestablished with a marvelously well equipped shop here in Thailand. This is something I never dreamed would happen. I have never considered my work as anything but a ministry, and therefore have always worked for free. With the exception of a two year period when I worked for Architect Japan building churches, I have never drawn a salary for my work.

When I first got my power tool workshop 62 years ago, I never thought I would be doing that for the rest of my life. When I said yes to Jesus and dedicated my life to being a missionary, I never dreamed that carpentry would be my basic ministry. Over the years the Lord has given me several high quality shops. Three times I have walked away from thousands of dollars of excellent equipment to step out into an unknown future. Each time the Lord has amazed me in providing for an even better shop.

From the moment, that night, when I said, “Yes, Lord Jesus, I will follow You”; there was no way I could have imagined what lay ahead. Since then He has privileged me to do everything from spending several years flying high performance supersonic fighter aircraft, to preaching and ministering His Word in most countries in Asia ranging from Siberia, Russia to Nepal. Nearly 50 years of that time has been spent in Japan, but now He has privileged me to live in Thailand. The Lord has gone beyond my wildest dreams in allowing me to spend many years as a Bible smuggler. I am now one of the most senior experienced men in Chiang Mai in that field. This is perhaps the greatest honor the Lord has given me.

My heart is very much in reaching Muslims for Christ. I would lay down my hammer today if the Lord would send me to Pakistan or Afghanistan. Jesus shed His Blood for me and I will be disappointed if He does not allow me the privilege of shedding my blood for Him.

In Japan I called myself Nazareth Construction Company. Our CEO is Jewish Carpenter. Jesus said, “I will build My church.” It has been an unspeakable honor to be a co-worker with Him in that construction project. But, surprisingly, most of my time is at the carpenter’s bench rather than in the pulpit. I guess it doesn’t matter that much which it is – standing in front of a large crowd preaching the Gospel, or in a kitchen washing dishes – Jesus needs servants to do it all; and maybe the lowest job is the best.

Thank you for your fellowship with me in the service of our great King;                  

                                                                       bill