To Russia with Love

22 February 2015

Dear Phyllis,

It just dawned on me the other day that I don't believe I have ever written anything about Russia. Had I never done anything but that in a life time of missionary service, just the privilege of what the Lord allowed us to do in Russia would have been the highlight of my life.

It was in July 1994 that I was with a team of six Japanese boarding a Russian Aeroflot in Niigata to fly to Vladivostok for a month of dendo (evangelism) in Russia. My first shock was to get off a plane only one hour flying time from Japan and see nothing but gaijins (blue eyed foreigners). This was the first time I had seen Caucasians on the west side of the Pacific. There was a Bible school in Vladivostok and we went there first to get organized. We were assigned to go to Chernigovka located about 400km along the Trans Siberian railway going up towards Habrovsk. There was an additional three Russians assigned to our team to help in our dendo.

We arrived in Chrnigovka about noon and first had to locate somewhere to eat. Chernigovka was a city of about 50, 000 people but there were only one or two restaurants in that town. After lunch our first target was to go to the city office to introduce ourselves. The mayor happened to be out that day but we were able to see the assistant mayor, who was a 45 year old lady. I was appointed to be the team spokesman. This was a totally new experience of dealing in a new country in this manner. When we sat down before the assistant mayor I explained that we were a missionary team coming from Japan to do dendo in that city and said, (1) We want use of the city auditorium for evangelistic meeting every night. “Da” (Yes). (2) We want a place to stay. “Da”. (3) We want transportation. “Da” (4) We want an introduction to the towns around here so we can preach Christ there also. “Da” (5) We want to be on television. “Da” (Yes)

To start with I couldn't believe that we were actually in Russia. It had just been a very short time before then that the Cold War was raging and the only thing I knew about Russia was the intense persecution of Christians. I was past being nervous. The entire scene seemed utterly unreal. I couldn't believe the things that were coming out of my own mouth making such demands on a Russian mayor, and I couldn't believe the response that I was getting – “Da, Da” (Yes, Yes). But the next ten minutes took me one step further off the chart. I was ushered along a hallway and into a studio. Then they handed me a mike. I asked, “What is this for?” “Talk.” “Who am I talking to?” “Fifty thousand people.” “What should I say?” “Anything you want.” Reality seemed non-existent. We had been there less than an hour and I was on TV preaching Christ to everyone in the city.

The city provided a bus to take us wherever we wanted to go. They put us up in a children's camp which was amazingly good housing with a nice dinning hall. And the TV crew followed us around filming anything they could of our activity. The next day we were going around town passing out tracts and met the local Orthodox priest. In conversation with him, he told me that he had been an engineer in Vladivostok but resigned to go into the ministry. I asked, “Why in the world did you do that?” He floored me by replying, “Bill, I saw you on TV last night. I heard your testimony that you had been a fighter pilot but you quit flying to preach Christ. I did it for the same reason you did.” Gong! Later, things were going rather slowly and the TV crew said, “Let's go back to the studio and get Bill back on the air. We need more promotion.” Gong #2! So I was back on television the second time.

Oh my goodness, I can't begin to relate all that the Lord did for us in Chernigovka. Since Rosemary's moral failure in 1990, I felt I was no longer qualified to serve the Lord. The Scripture specifies that a mans wife and children must have a good testimony (1 Tim. 3:2-12). That left me out, and for 4 years I had resigned from all public ministry. Pastor Kawasaki was our team leader, but the double translation from Japanese to English, and English to Russian was just too much. He asked me if I would take the responsibility for preaching while in Russia. I hadn't preached in four years. I wasn't qualified to be a deacon, much less a missionary; but at the least I was a witness, and I felt if I didn't share with the Russians what I knew about Jesus the Lord would hold me responsible. That was how I got back into public speaking again. For the next three weeks I preached 21 times.

The cooperation we had at the top was outstanding, but we were continually being sabotaged by lower people in between. The city hall had set up a schedule for us to have meeting in the neighboring towns. One night we went to have a meeting only to hear that someone had notified them that our meeting was the night before. Many people had come to hear us but we weren't there. The director of the auditorium apologized, but said there was a film schedule that night and we couldn't have our meeting. With that closed down, we went outside and set up to have a meeting on the steps. It was ridiculous. There were ten of us and only two small boys on bicycles there to listen to us. When the director saw that situation he came out to tell us we could come inside. They stopped the film, turned on the lights, and we had our meeting to a nice crowd. As we were going home our Russian team told us that the film that was canceled was an America film titled Satan. I thought that was pretty good. The Lord canceled Satan so we could preach Jesus.

Oh it was wonderful. Night after night I would stand on that platform and look into a sea of hungry Russian faces preaching the wonderful riches of Jesus. My interpreter Natasha was incredible. She was a 20 year old girl but the finest I ever worked with. One night I was preaching about the Mount of Transfiguration with Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus. In the middle of the message Natasha turned to me and said, “Make it simpler. They don't know what you are talking about.” Gong #3. It was unthinkable that any Japanese interpreter would say that to a speaker and for a 20 year old girl to say that to me was astounding.

One night I was preaching on John 4 of Jesus and the woman at the well. Jesus said to her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is speaking to you; you would ask of Me, and I would give you for living water.” I always turned the personal work over to our Russian team mates and I was backstage praying. God broke my heart. Natasha came backstage and asked, “Bill, why are you crying? There was a large response tonight and many are being saved.” I tearfully replied, “Natasha, they don't know the gift of God and they don't know who Jesus is.”

Books could not contain all that should be said. Eternity will reveal what the Lord did during that month. That was one of the highlights of my life.

Thank You Jesus, bill

Koji

15 February 2015

Dear Phyllis,

My dear buddy Dick Dennis got a pass about 18 years ago to be excused from all the hassle here to worship Jesus in a better environment in heaven. His wife, Millie, used to write me occasionally but it had been a long time since last hearing from Millie. Last week I had an unexpected letter from Millie suggesting my friend Koji had gone on. If this report is true that is indeed a shock. Koji was the closest friend I ever had on this planet. He was a man that I admired more intensely, and thought of more highly than any man I have ever met. Koji had an amazing testimony.

His story started with his sister Rachel Sekiguchi. Rachel's testimony was a legend. She was a high school girl in Oguri, which is a village tucked away in the backside of nowhere in Japan. She found a tract in a book that had been handed out first in Karuizawa, and then brought down to Oguri, handed to another person, who put it in a book. Rachel got that tract fourth hand. In her heart she had been searching for truth and a purpose for living. When she read that tract something rang in her heart that that message was true and Jesus was the way. Her father was the local shinto priest and she was terrified to ask permission to go to Karuizawa to attend a Christian conference. To her utter amazement her father said, “You go to Karuizawa and learn about your God and come back to tell us.” Rachel was saved and returned home to lead her entire family to Christ.

Rachel enrolled in the Bible school in Karuizawa and, much to his displeasure, brought her younger brother, Koji, to live at the school while he attended junior and senior high school in Karuizawa. Koji's room mate was Kimura san who had been a pilot in the Japanese army during the war. For the next several years Koji got filled with thrilling flying stories that inflamed him with a desire to be a pilot. He knew the Gospel message was true but didn't care for forced Christianity.

After Koji graduated from high school he ran away and joined the Japanese Self Defense Force. Being a very bright energetic lad he qualified for pilot training and went into flight training. But he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. It wasn't a matter of believing in Jesus. He knew the Gospel message was true and that was ruining his life. All his buddies were going into town and having the time of their life in bars and with the girls. He desperately wanted to be like them and enjoy a life of sin, but knowing the truth about the Bible was wrecking his life. He couldn't enjoy sin. How he wished he had never heard it.

One day he was talking with a classmate about death. He asked, “Aren't you concerned about death?” His friend replied, “No, not at all. Death is no problem. All you do is say, 'Ten no heika sama, Banzai, Banzai, Banzi', and go out” (Cheers for the emperor). No problem. Koji wasn't sure.

The next day he was standing near mobile control at the end of the runway watching birds take off. One T-33 got about 20 feet in the air and flamed out. There wasn't much of the runway left and they went through the perimeter fence finally coming to a halt in a ditch not far away. Koji was the first man at the scene. The pilots were unhurt but the fuselage was twisted in the crash and they couldn't get the canopy opened. The drop tanks on the tip of the wings were ruptured and there was JP4 jet fuel all over the place. There is a handle on the outside of the T-bird that a person can open the canopy from the outside. Koji grabbed that handle and pulled. Nothing happened. He was back on top of the fuselage talking to the pilots who were trapped inside screaming to get them out. The fellow in the back seat was his buddy he had been talking to the day before. Then the fire started. As it got hotter and hotter he had to back away and watched, to his horror, his friend burn to death in that cockpit. Koji said it wasn't Banzai. It was just awful. That sobered him up. From that moment on he decided that was not the future he wanted and got serious with Jesus.

He was within weeks of graduation but was having terrible pain with air blocks in his ear from the pressure change coming down from high altitude. In desperation he went to the base hospital. An examination revealed that the hole in the eustachian tube in the inner ear was unusually small making it impossible for the inner ear to adjust to air pressure change. He was red-lined. That was the end of his flying career.

Koji got of the military, went back to Karuizawa, and married a girl in the school there. In his own way he was trying to serve the Lord but had a lot of bad things happen to them. In 1968 he was at loose ends between jobs. I was running the language school at the time and had a need for someone to run the language lab for me for one week. He came to fill in for one week, and that was a relationship that lasted for ten years. He became my closest friend. He was the best man at my wedding. His sister Rachel was a missionary to Brazil who had been a classmate of my wife, Rosemary, at Prairie Bible Institute. Rachel happened to be home at that time, and she was Rosemary's maid of honor. I taught Koji construction and he finally left the school to start his own construction company.

Over the years we drifted far apart. Koji was controversial. There is no question that he did a few bad things. But the thing that always impressed me the most was that, when confronted with his wrong, he was unusually frank and honest to own up to what happened. This was perhaps his finest quality. He was generally recognized as a pillar of the church. His children were good in following the Lord and he was always concerned to do anything he could to salvage any wayward young man. My own son Dave worked for Koji for a couple of years.

If this report is indeed true that Koji has joined Dick and dozens of other friends on the other side of the River, that is a real shock. The last I saw Koji was about 15 years ago. He was still a very active strong man as he always had been. It I hard to believe that Koji got there first. But someday we all will again be united and enjoy a far more wonderful life than what we are experiencing here now. And best of all we will be sinless in loving and serving Jesus.

Thank God,

                              bill

PS: I just got another letter from Millie saying that the report may not be accurate. But if it is...

Covenant/Testament

8 February 2015

Dear Phyllis,

A couple months ago Paul challenged me to get more active in outreach. I asked, “How?”. Paul suggested that he would post anything I wrote on his Uncle Paul's Bible Study on Facebook. This got me going on writing a daily devotional. A couple weeks ago the well ran dry and I couldn't think of anything more to say. Then the Lord reminded me of an interesting study I had while pastoring a church in Karuizawa.

I was preaching my way through the book of Hebrews when I ran across the statement, “For this is the new covenant”. Unlike the English which has two words for the same thing – covenant and testament – the Japanese has only one word. When I saw this in the Japanese Bible that raised the question in my mind, “What is the New testament?”. I asked a number of friends and found no one had the answer. As I couldn't answer the question in my own mind, that triggered a very productive in depth study. Ironically I discovered the answer to that question in the verses following the introductory statement, “This is the New Testament (covenant) in Heb. 8:10-12. Discovering that, and subsequently reading Andrew Murray; this has had a major impact on my life. I decided to pull this out of the file for writing a series for Paul's Bible Study. I have enjoyed this like nothing I have ever written. Day by day when I sit down to compose the article for that day I pray, “Lord if You have assigned me the task of writing this article, You must give me the material You want to say.” When I finish that day frequently I say, “Wow, that is terrific!” I feel like I am plagiarizing someone else' material. I can honestly say what I am writing is not original. I don't have that kind of insight. The Holy Spirit is writing things that I have never thought of.

We can never understand what the New Testament is if we don't first have a solid grounding in knowing what the Old Testament was. There are several covenants God made with various people in the OT but we see that the Old Covenant was the one that God made with Israel at Mt. Sinai (Heb. 8:9). In the simplest terms, basically what that covenant was, was a marriage relationship of God with Israel. This was something God had never done with any nation before. If there is to be harmony in that marriage it is essential that both partners be of the same mind. You can't have unity when one partner wants to go north and the other one wants to go south. Both partners must be on the same page. What God was asking of Israel was not unreasonable.

I have said that the Ten Commandments are a definition of the character of God. There is the negative aspect of the Ten Commandments, but in the positive aspect we see that basically this is what God is. And perhaps to put it more understandably the Ten Commandments are a portrait of Jesus. If you would sew together a garment of the Ten Commandments you would see that it fits Christ perfectly.

The article for last Tuesday was as follows:

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The 6^th Commandment

The six commandment is “Thou shalt not kill”.This is probably the most misunderstood of all the commandments. God made man to have dominion over all the earth (Gen. 1:26). The devil is trying to put man at the bottom under flies. In India and Nepal cows are more valuable than humans. In Kathmandu cows help themselves to fruit stands and it is illegal to stop them. I was stunned to learn that now, in Nebraska, it is illegal to sell a horse to a slaughter house. In Tibet it was illegal to kill a worm. If you dug a hole you had to be careful not to injure a worm. If PETA has their way, soon fly swatters will be illegal and it will be against the law to spray mosquitoes. Capital punishment is commanded of God, and Saul was rejected for being king because he didn't kill Agag (1 Sam. 15). The 6^th commandment is not about killing, but the sanctity of life.

The greatest feature of all God's creation is life. Adam was made perfect. He had DNA and everything before God breathed in him the spirit of life (Gen.2:7). Life is the greatest gift He ever gave to man. And He has placed it at the top of the chart that man should sanctify it.

I have said many times that Jesus never came to start another religion but to give us life. There is a vast difference between religion and life. Religion is of man and life is from God. The first thing John told us about Jesus was “in Him was life” (Jn 1:4). In his 1^st epistle John says again, “And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (1 Jn. 5:11,12). All Christians are born twice. The 2^nd birth is when Jesus comes to live in our heart.

The fundamental difference between the OT and the NT is the priesthood. The OT was the Levitical priesthood and the law was carnal commandments. But the main feature of the NT Melchizedek priesthood is that “it is after the power of eternal life” (Heb. 7:16). The written law has no power to change us but eternal life does. I knew a girl in Tokyo that was living with a boy. She was a piece of clay in his hands, and then she got saved. Suddenly, she was a piece of tungsten steel and said goodbye. He was stunned. He said, “What kind of power is this?”. Jesus is eternal life. The main feature of eternal life is not the length of it, but the quality and power of it. The greatest gift that God has ever given to us is life. He wants us to sanctify it. Thou shalt not kill.

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As I have written these articles I have seen as never before how they tell us so perfectly what is the character of God. I still have probably another week of material or more before we get to the bottom line of what the New Testament is. I am generally surprised myself and I hope this is a blessing to others. I will give you a clue. It is Jesus living in us.

See you next week,

                                          bill

The Donkey

1 February 2015

Dear Phyllis,

I am sure very few people understand the significance of the Triumphant Entry of Christ riding into Jerusalem. Looking at it through the lens of the Inverted Kingdom, I see the Last Week as the week of the coronation of Israel's King. It started with His entry into Jerusalem, which was the historic fulfillment of Israel's King presenting Himself to the nation. Both Mathew and John specifically say, “This was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet saying...” (Mt. 21:4; Jn. 12:14); then the passage in Zech 9:9 is quoted, that told the sign of the King's coming would be when He rode in on the colt of an ass. This was the event that Israel had waited for, for over 1,000 years. Nothing could more graphically portray the Inverted Kingdom than the coronation of Christ. For the inauguration of presidents, prime ministers, and kings; they ride in the most expensive vehicles or gold carriages, drawn by the finest horses. But for Jesus' triumphant entry, when He presented Himself to the country, He rode in on the lowest animal that would hold him – a donkeys colt. But that colt was the most blessed animal that ever stood on four feet. On his back sat the Son of God. I could have wished to be that colt. What an honor! If I couldn't be the colt, my next highest wish would have been to be one of the dirty jackets they put on the colt for a blanket for Christ to sit on. But I am not worthy of such an honor. As I have thought, what my wish would be, I have settled on; I would like to be one of the dirty jackets that they spread on the road for the donkey to walk on (Mt. 21:8). If I could be one of those jackets, that would make Christ 1 cm taller as He rode in to town, I would have eternity to thank God.

For three years I have wondered, why in the world did I marry that girl (Pammy)? She is not my type. I didn't ask for her, I didn't want her, I said no four times; and yet the bottom line was, that I felt Jesus had placed her before me, and it was my call to accept the one He provided or reject her. It was easier to say yes than no, so we were married. For 2 ½ years it couldn't have been worse. What kind of a dumb mistake did I make? But now I am beginning to see the Lord's plan. I believe the Lord provided me for her. I am a donkey that she can ride on. A month ago I wrote a letter saying she was doing very well. The points just keep adding up.

Last Saturday night Pammy went to the village near here to do some shopping. In the darkness, she saw a poor fellow in a wheel chair crossing the road without a light. Pammy thought, some car is not going to see him, and kill him; so she shined the light of her Honda on him until he got across the street. She asked the store clerk where she was shopping if she knew him. Yes, he lived near there. Pammy noticed the boy had a cold and only a thin shirt on. As he was going home, Pammy shined the light of her bike for him all the way home. In talking with him, she learned that he was born crippled. Both his parents had died of HIV and his grandfather, who raised him had died. He was 23 years old and lived in a horrible place. She told him, “I am coming back tomorrow morning to take you to church.” To abbreviate the story, Sunday afternoon when Pammy was going to take him home, she said, “I will be back next week and you can accept Jesus then.” No way. He couldn't wait. He wanted to get saved right now. Monday evening Pammy went to his apartment, picked him up, and brought him to our house – like to stay. I don't know what will happen long term, but at the moment we plan for him to live with us indefinitely.

A couple of weeks ago Pammy asked me to hook up the trailer for my motor bike and take a load of things to a night market near here, so she could do dendo (evangelism). Last Friday night she asked me to fix my trailer again, so she could go back to the night market for more dendo. She is doing it extremely well. I give her an A for the way she is presenting the Gospel at that market. She has rented a stall where she sets up her table and equipment, and they provide an AC electric outlet so she can plug in her electronics. She plays Christian music and does some preaching, but she is not obnoxious. She invites people to come get free tracts and booklets. She scarcely takes a breath that she isn't telling someone about Jesus. When she got home Friday night she was really pumped up. She just craves to do dendo.

Pammy has a guitar. I would give her a C as a guitarist, but she just loves to sit and strum her guitar, singing, and worshiping Jesus for hours each day. If you are going to have an addiction, I guess that is the best kind to have – worshiping Jesus and doing dendo.

I am beginning to see why the Lord had me marry her, and why I am here. She would be very weak by herself, but being married to me, this enables her to have an outreach that would be impossible for a single girl. My ministry is next to zero, but if the Lord would use me to enable her to do what she is doing, then that makes sense. I would have loved to be that donkey that Jesus rode on, but the Lord has given me the position to be the donkey that Pammy can ride on. I still am opposed to lady pastors. But she is doing more for the Kingdom of God than any five pastors I know.

Pammy isn't deep. I consider her a very young Christian. She has a lot of negatives. There are a number of things that I would like to see different. But I am much impressed at the way the Lord seems to have His hand on her life. She definitely is growing. She is a radically different person than she was a year ago. She is eagerly listening to me now, which was utterly impossible a year ago. I maintain that I do not like lady pastors but I see nothing in the Word saying that it is wrong for a woman to have the gift of evangelism and be a well used soul winner. It seems the Lord has chosen not to give me the microphone and relegated me to the back of the shelf. But if He could use me to be a donkey for my wife to ride on, perhaps that might be the greatest contribution I can make for the Kingdom of God. Praise God, Christ is being made known.

Oinori o arigato gozaimasu (Thank you for your prayers)

                                                                                              bill