Back to Thailand

28 August 2016

Dear Phyllis,

Praise the Lord, I am home again. The trip Japan was well worth while and definitely ordered of the Lord, but again the Lord has shown me that Japan is not my home. I only had two opportunities to speak, one was in Nakahara's home one evening from 9:00 to 10:30 to four people and the other was a chance exchange I had with Mrs. Nakahara and her daughter Masayo a few hours before I left. There were no churches open to me. But the renewed fellowship I had with old friends certainly made the trip worth while.

I cannot speak too highly of Sam Benedict as he was God's angel for me in doing everything from fixing my computer to making it possible for me to get a Thai visa. Sam is a low keyed brother that is not a high profile missionary, but quietly, with a gift of helps, he is as valuable man as I met.

Pammy met me at the airport in Chiang Mai and said two people wanted to see me. We first went to see her friend Kasuri. She is an unusual Lao sister who was 20 years old when a journalist swam the Mekong River to get her and pulled her with a rope back across the Mekong to get her out of Laos in 1975. Her husband wrote a book about their experience which was later made into a major Hollywood movie. She lived in Australia until 1996 when she got saved and her husband dumped her for another woman. She has been living in Thailand for the past 20 years and her son is the Tom Cruise major movie star of Thailand. From there we went to see a fine Thai pastor, Peter, who wanted to see me. That would have been fine except all the conversation was in Thai, of which I know nothing. After two hours I was ready to go home, but Pammy was having the time of her life. I was really squared jawed when we finally got home at midnight, but then the Lord showed me how selfish I was in thinking only about my own convenience and not considering what a good time Pammy was having. My absence for a month in Japan has sharpened both of our appreciation for each other and renewed our determination to honor Jesus in our marriage.

In my absence Pammy spent much of her time in her home town of Lampan. The Lord has been good to her in saving her sister and brother-in-law. It is a real blessing to see them going on with Christ. She is anxious that we go down there to teach them and so my first weekend home was spent in Lampan.

The Lord has laid two messages on my heart in recent years. The dominant one is Back to Jerusalem, and the second one is the New Covenant. It is largely in the past two years that the Lord has brought this message prominently to my heart. I am indebted to Andrew Murray for most of it but it is a message that I suspect very few Christian have any idea what the New Covenant is all about.

Several years ago Dave Hanson challenged me with the question; “Are the Ten Commandments a prohibition or a promise?”. At the time I was stumped. But today the answer to that question is very clear. At the time Dave asked me that question I don't believe even Dave fully knew the answer. I feel very strongly that this is a message that is largely misunderstood by 90% of Christianity today. I certainly did not understand it for 50 years. Andrew Murray has explained it as clearly as possible in many books, but there is not 1 Christian in 1000 that read Andrew Murray today. Consequently, I fear the vast majority of the Body of Christ today have very little understanding what Jesus has done for us and what the New Testament (Covenant) is all about. This is a message that burns in my heart, but I am without a microphone or audience to share this with. Lord willing maybe I can get more into this in my letter next week.

Thank you for the privilege of your fellowship;

In the bonds of our wonderful Lord Jesus,

bill 

Japan's Problems

21 August 2016

Dear Phyllis,

Lord willing this is my last week in Japan. I have a ticket to return to Chiang Mai on Wednesday. Last week was both good and sad. I had an excellent week visiting David Verwey, Ron and Katie Sisco, Sobi Abraham, Dan Brennen and the Sam Benedict family. Man howdy it was fun to talk about old times. These are some of the very people in the world with whom I can have a conversation with about those days 30, 40, 50, and 50+ years ago. The world and Japan are radically different today that it was in 1960. Japan is totally automated. You don’t deal with people but with machines. When our son Dave was 6 we sent him to a Japanese shogako (primary school). The teachers were deeply impressed by him. They said he was the only child in the school who could entertain himself or work with his hands. We didn’t have TV. Dave never sat in front of a tube looking at cartoons. He either read books or made his own games. For every other child their totally input was by looking at TV. They could not independently use their brains to think. Today everyone (I mean everyone) has ear phones in their ears listening to their smart phones. This means that no one is using their brain for anything, and all their input is either by ear or looking at a computer. This has changed society radically

Japan is a very affluent country to live in. But I get the impression that the church is dying in her sleep. Basically the church in Japan seems to be asleep and she is dying without noticing it. There is no persecution in this country. There is no opposition, trauma, or outward problems. She is just asleep. The age of the average pastor in Japan today is 70. That means that there are no (few) young pastors. The older generation is dying off and there is degeneration in the younger generation. The Southern Baptist was the largest mission organization in Japan. Their seminaries went liberal and all the new pastors are Bible sneering unbelievers. The missionaries quit the field and have gone home. The same thing happened with the Evangelical Free mission. Formally they were a very good mission. Ron Sisco told me that he went to a farewell service for Bob Vermey. He said Bob had an excellent message, but all the pastors were either disinterested or disrespectful. Ron was crushed to see it. The Karuizawa language has closed and so have a large number of small Bible schools. Consequently the number of churches has gone down considerably. It would appear that Jesus has gone on by Japan and the church is dying in her sleep. Like America, there are a few pockets of good churches, but nationally speaking the situation does not look good.

Japan has had a problem for many years in that the church has not been reproductive. This is the biggest problem in Japan. The church has always been highly pastor-centered and believers just do not win souls. I believe the cause of this is that the Gospel has been presented as religion. Religion does not have life. Only Jesus has Life. John told us, “In Him was life and the life was the light of men” (Jn. 1:4). And Jesus told us, “I am come that they might have life” (Jn. 10:10). All living this are reproductive. All things, whether it be botanical or zoological; if there is life they will be reproductive. If it is not reproductive there is a serious question about whether or not there is life.

This is a question that I frequently ask about a church – “Is there any life?”. If not you can write it off as a dead church. Dead religion is a drag. You can keep it. I am not interested in dead religion. And this applies to our individual lives. There is only one way to maintain that life. That is to abide in Christ. Jesus said, “I am the true vine”. "Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself...neither can you except ye abide in Me" (Jn. 15:1, 4). This is the problem. Are we abiding in Christ? If not we better re-examine ourselves. The proof of that, of course, is fruit. If there is no fruit coming from our lives we better look again.

Seeing the pace of life here in Japan causes me to wonder if we are not so caught up in living that we neglect life. Life is being joined to Jesus. It is not a matter of just having devotions. Of course it is impossible to stay joined to Jesus without meeting with Him on a daily basis. It is assumed that all Christians have daily devotions. But what is the quality of those devotions? Does Jesus speak to us? What does He say? What have we done about it?

In recent months I have gotten away from the Song of Solomon. The other day I went back to it and was slowed down by the shockingly personal relationship of the Bride with Jesus as we read it there. But then I recalled that this is the kind of relationship that Jesus desires with every member of His Body. Samuel Rutherford lived in the S. of S. Every letter he wrote is filled with passages from the S. of S. He frequently mentioned, “Let me smell His breath”. Rutherford talked much about His tender kisses. This might be embarrassing but it is Bible. I believe the Lord meant every word He said in the S. of S. I believe this is the relationship He desires with every member of His Body. But this is almost unknown in today's busy world. Whoa! Slow down! Maybe we should take more seriously what Jesus has said to us in His Word and close the gap between our souls and Jesus.

I cannot escape the conviction that this is one of the problems in Japan.  I cannot imagine the church being so dead if believers were more in love with Jesus. And maybe this applies to Bill Cook. Am I taken with the smell of His breath? I know next to nothing about it, but God knows my heart; if it is possible for a human to know the smell of His breath that I long to know more.

This has been a very profitable time in Japan. It has been great to see a few old friends. It has been very natsukashi (I don’t know how to say that in English - maybe nostalgic) to visit old stomping grounds. I have enjoyed this very much but, Lord willing, I will be writing you from my balcony in Chiang Mai next Sunday.

As they say in the south “Ya`ll pray for us now, heya (hear)”, bill

Ah, natsukashii na… 

More From Japan-The Hirotas

14 August 2016

Dear Phyllis,

I believe one of the reasons the Lord sent me to Japan this time was to see the Hirotas.

There is dark side of life that is almost concealed. It is as prominent as birth but because of its depressing unattractiveness we avoid discussing it. It is so discouraging I am reluctant to write about it today, but this is a major component of life.

The English expression “over the hill” is very descriptive. We have a tendency to think of life as an ascension up a hill where every step is a move up. From birth to retirement we like to think of our advancement. And, of course, we like to give the Lord the glory for leading us from victory to victory, to an ever higher position. Then in our elderly years we are revered by the younger and held in honor for our success.

But life is not always that way. Several years ago a Japanese pastor was showing me the pictures of his trip to the states. He showed me one of a pitiful, bumbling, old man and said, “This is Shelton Allen”. I couldn't believe it. Shelton Allen was the one of the most energetic, fluent, missionaries in Japan. I couldn't imagine that pitiful old man was Shelton Allen. It isn't supposed to end like that. But, by far, the end of some of God's greatest servants is a pitiful form of helpless humanity.

As I thought about this problem it came to me that even Jesus was not exempt from this depressing end. The Body that Joseph and Nicodemus took down from the cross was not a pretty sight. It was a bloody, mutilated, mass of flesh. There was nothing attractive or victorious about it.

This depressing trash-can end is an enormous mystery to me. I see no victory, no glory, nothing praise worthy about the end of valiant servants who spend their lives holding up the banner of Christ and then wind up in a pitiful end. How, or why, should they wind up so ingloriously? The only thing I can think of is that this is not the end but the prelude to the resurrection. In the resurrection all will be restored and they will be beautiful. But what a terrible close out of the world.

It seems like it was only last year that Hirota came to our house in Ikoma to talk about airplanes. He was saved within weeks. It was shortly after that that Miyuki called one day asking if she could come to see us. She has one of the more unusual testimonies and was saved the first night. They were a fantastic couple. He was an undisciplined, big kid, playboy. But he was highly intelligent and was into everything. Miyuki was a very serious minded business woman who was as diligent as they come. Together they made an unusual couple, and the Lord placed them in the front ranks of His fruitful servants in Japan. Hirota would have been worthless without her, and she never would have been so spectacular as a single lady. Together their home was a terrific lighthouse for Jesus. They were the last family I had in Japan where I could show up any time and say “Tadaima' (I'm home). That is the only image I had of them, and that was what I expected for this trip to Japan.

My first inkling came when Hirota wrote me that Miyuki was suffering from initial dementia and was not driving any more. She was always the strong one of the family but he was the driver. The last I saw them he was losing ground with diabetes and was slowly losing his sight. Consequently Miyuki had to step forward and be the driver for the family. What I was not prepared for was the sight I saw when I first arrived at their home last Sunday night. Miyuki had aged 30 years since the last I saw her. I remembered her as a fairly young woman but now she looked like she was 90. But the big shock came the next morning when Hirota told me that Miyuki has had Alzheimer's disease for two years. She is not a vegetable yet but is incapacitated so that she does nothing in the home. The weight of the entire household is resting on his shoulders. What that has produced is indescribable. By nature he has always been a pack-rat. If there was anything for sale he bought one. The house was stacked to the ceiling with every electronic gadget made. For 30 years Miyuki had her hands full keeping things sorted out and maintaining a well organized house. Now he is in charge. The kitchen now looks like they are in the process of moving and everything they own is stacked on the floor, table, and counter. There is not one foot of flat space in the kitchen that doesn't have something sitting on it.

Miyuki's 95 year old mother is living with them. All three look like they just came out of a POW camp starved to death. Previously everyone was very healthy but now they are nothing but skin and bones. I was there two days and there was not one meal served. It looks to me like they just aren't eating.

Their future is set in concrete. Miyuki's mother should be in a nursing but they have chosen to take care of her there. It may be that Miyuki will die before her mother, But one thing is clear, both Miyuki and her mother are simply waiting for death. Then Hirota will have to sell the house and move into a smaller apartment. But what can be done about the horrendous pile of junk is a question that totally exceeds my imagination.

Where is the glory of God? Where is the victory? Where is all the praise? What an indescribable sad end of one of the finest families I knew in Japan. How is it possible that it could end like this? That is a mystery that blows my mind. This is the back side of the hill and every step gets lower. They hit the top of the mountain two years ago when Miyuki first started to complain of headaches. When she stopped working the slope could only go down. I don't see where any amount of prayer is going to change anything. In time mother will die; barring an unimaginable miracle Miyuki will die, and Hirota is left with a huge mess on his hands.

I had no idea that this was the condition of the Hirota family. My heart is heavy but I believe it was to show me this sight that the Lord brought me here.

But Jesus has overcome and next will be the resurrection,

Praise God,   bill

Back to Japan

7 August 2016

Dear Phyllis,

John Cathcart was one of the best missionaries I knew in Japan. He not only pioneered the Gospel in Tenri City but he also had a vision of getting many other missionaries to come help in the harvest. There were five or six families that came out. Of these Rusty White was probably the best.

The Whites came to Japan in 1994. From the beginning Rusty had a burden to do dendo (evangelism) in Yoshino. Everyone was against it. It was inaka (country). Everyone said go to a city or some more populous place. But Rusty was hard head. John asked me to take him around to try to find a house or some place to live. Of all places he found a restaurant that was for sale or rent in Higashi Yoshino. Rusty asked me to do a major job in converting that restaurant into a living quarter and meeting place, and I spent a couple of months there converting that restaurant for Rusty and his family. That was about as ridiculous as it gets. Higashi Yoshino is a lovely area. The nature around it is some of the best in Japan, but there were far more deer and wild pigs than there were people, and there wasn't such a thing as a town. All it was was beautiful mountains with gorgeous forest and a few houses scattered in an area of many kilo meters. But this was Rusty's goal. As we were restructuring the restaurant Rusty boasted that he was going to have the largest church in Nara-ken (prefecture). He said he was going to have a church of 5,000. There weren't 5,000 people living within an area of 50 square kilo meters, and I don't know of a church in Japan of 5,000. I thought, “Well, I have heard this before, but Rusty will be a wiser man in five years”.

Three years later I got a call from Rusty saying they had just bought a mansion (small hotel) and wanted me to come down to convert it to a home for him and a church. I had just got back from a trip to SEA. I was working at NLL at the time and if I was not working there I had no income. To go down there meant a personal loss of $30,000 that I wouldn't get in pay. But Rusty was insistent and for Jesus sake I went down there.

The building was fantastic. It was practically new and extremely well built, but to convert that was the most difficult job I ever did. By Japanese construction they put up a 4X4 post every six feet to hold everything up. The second floor was all guest rooms with posts every six feet. Rusty wanted that for a meeting place and that meant taking out everything that was holding the roof up. What the Lord showed me to do was build a room within the room with massive rafters to hold the roof up. Quite miraculously that worked and we were able to convert that small hotel into a beautiful large church.

But the thing that impressed me was Rusty's church (people). Believers were coming from Osaka 50 km away. There were around 30–40 excellent Christians gathering every Sunday. I began to wonder if maybe Rusty wasn't right and he was going to have a church of 5,000. His Sunday services were excellent but the midweek service was the thing that impressed me the most. It was easily the finest midweek prayer meeting I had ever seen. After an initial song or testimony everyone would take off for some corner. They turned the lights down and everyone prayed by themselves for an hour. Then they got together to discuss what the Lord had said to them. I mean it was good!

I was there for six months working on that major project and marveled that Rusty had the finest work among the five or six other churches that John had sponsored. He was the lion in a cage of kittens. But surprisingly, after just five years the Whites pulled up stakes and returned to America.

After the Whites left the church began to have terrible problems and shrunk to almost a family church of the Ogaito family. I have had very little contact with the Higashi Yoshino New Beginning Church, but some time after the Whites returned to America that church began to send me $200 a month support. This has gone on for over 12 years. It is the strangest church-missionary relationship I know. No one there speaks English and I don't write Japanese letters. With absolutely no communication whatsoever they have faithfully supported me for 12 years and they are the only church in the world that sends me regular support. I thought it was tremendous sacrifice that I made to go build that church, but over the years I am sure I will be well over compensated.

I am writing about them today because last week Masayo chan took me over to Higashi Yoshino to see the believers. We had an excellent time and I was there again for the service today. Hiroko Ogaito married a very fine brother, Naka san. He has worked for a medicine company for 18 years. The Nakas live in the church in Whites former residence and Naka san has been the pastor ever since Rusty left. The church is no longer the lion in a cage of kittens but the church is still healthy and the believers are faithfully going on with God.

Apart from my time with the Nakahara family with whom I am staying, this is the first stop I have made to visit old friends. And expressing my thanks to that church is the most important stop I have in Japan.

Physically I am doing amazing well. Last week I spent two days cutting weeds with a gasoline weed cutter. It was very strenuous work and boiling hot but I stayed up with another brother who is 33. He told his wife that night, “Bill san is amazing. I can't believe he is 80”. My strength level is very close to 100%.

Next week I must start moving and visit other places. Pammy writes nearly every day saying she misses me very much, but is doing well in Chiang Mai. I still have no idea of my schedule in Japan but it is good to be back home.

Thank you for your continued fellowship,

In the bonds of our marvelous Lord Jesus,

                                                                          bill