Health Update

25 August 2019

Dear Phyllis,

A week ago Pammy and I went 100 kn north of here to Phrao to attend a Lahu minority people Christian conference. I don't know how many were there. Pammy said there were 200 but it looked more like 100 to me. They were mostly pastors. I was surprised that they brought us right up front to sit in celebrity seats. Pammy spoke at the afternoon session and I was supposed to bring a message in the evening. At first I said, “I have nothing to say”. But then I thought, “I have a wonderful message”; and was really looking forward to speaking. But Pammy spoke first and burned up all the oxygen. There was no time left for me to speak. But as I sat there thinking about my message, the Lord spoke to me one of the most important messages I have ever heard.

Five weeks ago Pammy came home one night all excited saying, “I met a man who can 100% guarantee to cure you of cancer in one month”. But then she slid it back to, maybe, two months. The next day Dr. Sau came to see me. I thought, “Oh boy, this is a real snake oil salesmen. What is he selling?” (He is not a real medical doctor.) Dr. Sau put me on a special diet of no meat, no eggs, no milk, no coffee, etc. And he had some special medicine that I was supposed to take one drop a day under my tongue. I thought, “Okay, I will play your game for two months, and if I'm not cured, I will go back to eating Mac burgers and pizza.”.

It appeared that this conference last week, was a Dr. Sau conference, and he was using me as his pony at a dog and pony show. Dr. Sau was telling the Lahu pastors about a new medicine that would cure anything, and he was teaching them about how to grow the plants. The plants are Marijuana. Oh boy, this is great! And the medicine that they make from these plant leaves is REALLY expensive (5 cm is $300). He gave away one tiny bottle (one eye dropper full) that was worth $80. The guy that won it sold it to Pammy for $35.

The message that I wanted to give to the pastors was about my recent experience with cancer. I was going to tell them that two months ago, I went to the hospital to hear the results of the biopsy on my eye. When the doctor told me, “Sir, I want to be honest with you. This is an aggressive cancer”; I laughed. “Man, that is good news!” The doctor didn't think so. I explained, “Look, I am 83 years old. That is long enough to stay here. I want to get on to heaven.”. The doctor told me that surgery to remove my eye would cost $3000. I replied, “You have no guarantee with your surgery. The best you can say is that it might improve my chance to live a few years longer. I could pay you $3000 for surgery with no guarantee, or have a very nice funeral for $100, and know that I have eternal life in heaven. Which do you think is the better deal?”.

Since then the Lord has said many things to me. I have been in a fog not knowing what to believe. Many people have prayed for my healing and at times I believed that the Lord has heard their prayer and I will be healed. And at other times, I thinks the statistics on this are overwhelming against healing. Even among Christians, healing is very unusual. I wasn't aware that Jesus had told me anything as to what He has in mind. But a couple of weeks ago He told me very clearly, “Don't worry.” Okay, I'll buy that. Whatever He has in mind is good – either way. Jesus told me that this is not dangerous. He has it on a leash. This cancer can go no further than He will allow it to go. Of course that is a fact. That took all the concern out of it.

But as I thought about what my position should be I honestly was deadlocked. I thought of what Paul said in Phil. 1:21-23. “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain”. That sounds like dying is the best thing. And then he said he was stuck in the middle and didn't know which to choose. If he stayed here he could continue his ministry but “to depart to be with Christ was far better”. That sounds like a second vote for death.

As I sat there Friday night thinking about my message, I thought, Dr. Sau probably wouldn't appreciate this kind of a message at a conference where he was promoting a miracle new drug that would cure anything. But then as I sat there mulling my position I saw in my mind a table with two pills on it. One would cure you and the other one wouldn't. Which pill would be the right one to choose? And then I thought “Suicide is wrong”. Why is suicide wrong? Suicide is destroying something that God has made in His own image. And then a second thought came to me, God loves me. He loved me enough that He sent His Son to die for me. If God loves me, I better love me too, and take good care of me. Then the cap stone of the evening came, Suddenly the Words came clearly to my mind, “Behold I have set before you LIFE and DEATH … CHOOSE LIFE, that both you and your seed may live.' (Deut. 30:15,19). That was as clear as anything the Holy Spirit has ever said to me. Examined under every perspective that stands up. That settles it. I choose life and I believe this is not terminal.

When I spoke with Sangha about this, I was further amazed that he told me that the latest hot item in hospitals all over Thailand is the promising results they are getting using Cannabis (Marijuana) oil. He said the government is trying to get the hill tribe people to grow Marijuana for medical purpose. He told me I could get a license from a hospital to grow six plants for my own use. That is exactly what Dr. Sau was talking about. That adds considerable credibility to this conference.

Two weeks ago, riding my Honda to church, was the most frightening experience I have ever had on a bike. I felt weird. I lost a tremendous amount of spatial orientation. At times I didn't know where I was, and then I would be startled that I was on my bike going to town. Cars were all around me, but it was like they weren't there. I thought this must be a stroke or some bad neurological phenomenon. It was so frightened I almost went straight home. I thought, if this gets worse I don't know how I am going to get home. But three hours later I was fine. While at the conference the same thing happened. Sangha told me, he read that you are supposed to take one drop a day, More than that will make you drunk. Wednesday Pammy gave me my medicine at 7;00 while I was having devotions. At 8:30 when I started to go to school I was so dizzy I couldn't walk. I just wanted to sleep. I knew it was impossible to go to school so I just laid down. When I opened my eyes it was four hours later - 12:15. In all three case the cause was Pammy just gave me too much medicine. This has graphically demonstrated to me that this stuff is really potent. But it certainly isn't addictive.

I don't know what is happening. I'm getting tired of my no-meat, no-eggs, no-nothing diet, but it does look like the tumor is getting a tad smaller. I am not raising a flag or taking victory laps, but my attitude has radically changed. I would be very surprised now if this thing is terminal. Jesus told me CHOOSE LIFE and I have. And I suspect He will do the rest. I consider this cancer a gift that the Lord has given me to teach me new things and possibly get glory to His great Name. The diet and Cannabis oil might help, but if it does it is only because Jesus has set this before me. John said, “In Him was life” (Jn. 1:4). That is a fact. Eternal life does not begin when we go to heaven but when we are born-again, and Jesus comes to live in our hearts. Thank God I will never die, and it looks like I am getting slid back in line to wait a little longer for heaven. I have said for many years, “For me to live is Christ” but the second part of dying looks like it is getting postponed.

My only prayer is that I might be able to say with Paul, “According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death” (Phil, 1:20).

.

Lord You are wonderful and all that You do is wonderful Thank You.

                                         bill

Jarai Tribe

18 August 2019

Dear Phyllis,

Last week I wrote you about our trip to the Angkor Wat in Sien Reap, Cambodia. In it I mentioned that visit was made while on a Bible run into Ratana kiri. That in itself was an epic venture.

I believe the hallmark of a successful life is measured in a person's children. In 1960 I knew a Baptist missionary in Tokyo by the name of Dale Crowley. Forty years later in met his son, JD Crowley in Ratana kiri. The man I met in this isolated portion of Cambodia eclipsed anything that his father accomplished in Japan.

Ratana kiri is one of the most inaccessible areas of Cambodia, being located right on the Vietnam border close to Laos. It is most famous for being the headquarters for Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge for ten years before they commenced their campaign to take Cambodia. It was the one place where Pol Pot was safe and Prince Sihanouk couldn't catch him. I knew that the famous Ho Chi Ming trail was near there. When I was with JD, I asked him where the Ho Chi Ming trail was. located. He replied, “The main street in town.”. Ratana kiri was a major stop on the Ho Chi Ming trail.

Many minority ethnic groups live in the mountains and jungle area of that part of SEA (Southeast Asia). The Jarai people are located slightly east in Vietnam. The Jarai are famous for being largely a Christian group and the Vietnamese government was giving them a very hard time, arresting and killing many Jarai. As a result of that persecution, hundreds of Jarai had fled westward into Cambodia. The Cambodia government was closely allied with Hanoi and were hunting them in the jungles like animals.

By way of divergence, there are many conflicting stories you hear about persecution in China, Vietnam, and Laos. It has been said, any story you hear about China is true. There are places where Christianity is wide open. It is no more different than being in Texas. And there are places where Christians are imprisoned and tortured, and churches are being torn down. It just varies from what area you are in. There are places that experienced such a moving of the Holy Spirit and the crime rate fell so dramatically that the police were encouraging evangelism. The last time I was in Saigon, I was stunned by how open they were. But there was such persecution among the Jarai that a flood of people had fled into Cambodia. The Cambodian government was giving them a bad time by placing a bounty on the head of any Jarai to be sent back to Vietnam.

I have no idea why, but for some reason Roald Lidal had printed 18,000 Jarai Bibles on the NLL presses in Hatoyama,. Japan. These Bibles were sent to us in Chiang Mai and we were in the process of taking them to the persecuted believers in Cambodia. For the first shipment, Mark, Chris, and I were loaded with stuffed backpacks full of Jarai Bibles and went to Phenom Penh. When we got there we had a very unwelcomed reception. We went to the C&MA headquarters and talked with their field chairman, Dave Manford. He told us that the Jarai were the hottest problem in Cambodia at that time. He said that the police had been to his house in Phenom Penh the previous week to check whether or not they were hiding any Jarai. Dave warned us, “Please don't go to Ratana kiri. That is the hottest spot in the country.” We gave all our Bibles to Dave to keep in the C$MA headquarters. But before we headed back to Thailand, JD Crowley heard we were there with a shipment of Jarai Bibles, and contacted us pleading, “Please get here immediately. We are desperate!”. With that plea, we took back most of the Bibles we had given to the C&MA; got on a plane, and flew to Ratana kiri. The flight wasn't long, but was over some of the most inaccessible area of SEA. As we were landing I was amazed to see there was no runway. It looked like were were landing in a field. That was the first time I had been in a commercial airport that had a grass runway. The terminal looked more like a 7-11 store.

JD Crowley was waiting beside the field when we got off the plane. It was Sunday morning, and he took us straight to the church there in town. We had a chance to attend the service that morning and had lunch with the pastor. JD took our Bibles straight to his house. There was a runner who would carry them out to the believers who were hiding in the jungles. Then JD brought a few Bibles when he came to church. That was a rare privilege to be able to directly hand a Bible to a receiver, that it would be their first Bible. They were so grateful that they said we looked more like angels who had floated down from heaven. JD Crowley told me that five Jarai Christians had been to his house that week asking if he had any Bibles. He told them, “Please wait”; and it was a special blessing to be able to send Bibles to them so soon.

Six months later, during the dry season, I took a group of Mennonite boys on a second run overland. This time we went in through Laos and down the Mekong River to Stung Treng. There we hired a taxi to take us 180 km east to Ratana kiri. Going over that road in the dry season, I could see why it was impassable during the rainy.. The road was basically a dirt trail through the jungle and some of the dips were so deep that you would almost be submerged when it rained. Again JD was thrilled for another resupply of Bibles to give to the Christians hiding in that area.

He told me that he had been called down to Phenom Penh to talk to the vise-Prime Minister of Cambodia. The #2 man in Cambodia  

slid a piece of paper across the desk and told him to sign it promising that he would never assist any Jarai refugees.. JD looked him straight in the eyes and frankly said him, “Sir, I am a Christian, and my Bible tells me that I should never shut my door on anyone in need.” Then he went on, “And I believe that is the teaching of your Buddhist religion also, isn't it?”. The mans eyes went down towards the desk. King Sihanouk had made public statements that the Cambodian's should help the refugees. JD went on to press the vise-Prime Minister asking, “Is your government going to take a stand in opposition to the wishes of your King?” JD had him pinned to the wall. When he told me that I shouted, “Go for him, man!” JD said that was as far as I dared to go. “Had I pushed him further I would have been in jail or out of the country”. But he won the day. JD told me that later he was talking to the governor of Ratana kiri province, and told him, “Maybe the reason you are having so much problem with the Jarai here, is because you don't have enough missionaries.” The governor fired back, “If that is the, case please get more missionaries.”

Dave Manford told me, JD Crowley was the best non-C&MA/C&MA missionary they had in the country. JD was Baptist but was working so closely with the C&MA people that he was the best man they had.

Oh me, what a trip that was.! That took me back 40 years when I first went to Japan and met that Baptist brother in Tokyo banging away for Jesus. Little did I realize that 40 years later I would be taking Bibles to his son, who was a giant of a man, standing for the Gospel in the Pol Pot headquarters of Cambodia. I asked JD if he knew Ron Blough. He said he had met him but had gone to school with the Blough children. We were both based out of Greenville, SC and members of the Bob Jones University gang. I had admired Dale Crowley for the work the was doing in Tokyo, but all that he was able to accomplish in Japan was not to be compared to the tremendous impact his son was having in Cambodia. There is a gold medalist in heaven. Not for what he was able to accomplished, but for what he produced in his son who took the torch one step higher.

Oh, thank You Lord! Thank You, thank You, thank You for the privilege of being able to see so much of Your hand here on earth, before we are all gathered before Your Throne in heaven.

Arigato gozaimasu, bill

The Church in Japan-Why?

Poster's Note: This is not a PB Letter, but I'm including it here because I think it introduces a very important question.  Why with all these great evangelist Bill writes about, do less then 1% of Japanese people consider themselves Christian and the majority have no religious affiliation at all?--Gary Pope

15 August 2019

Gary,

You ol' horse thief! Man howdy, it was good to hear from you! It has been forever. I haven't checked the PBletter blog in a long time, but assumed you were still posting the weekly letters. If so; multi- repetitions of khapun kahap. Five months ago I got stuck in Sankhapen and stopped by your house to see you. No luck – you weren't home.

Really, I would love to see you and have another Big Mac, but that isn't likely. You may know that there is a problem with my left eye. Two months ago a biopsy report that there was a malignancy there. After I heard it was cancer I decided to not go any further down the medical road. If it had been benign, and surgery would correct the dropping eye lid problem, I probably would have gone for surgery. But if it's cancer then I will just leave it to a much better Physician Doctor Jesus. Having committed this to my Physician, I feel a whole lot better and am more or less neglecting it – with one exception. My wife has me on a special anti-cancer diet and meat is off the approved list. I don't know what is going on other than there doesn't seem to be any change - good or bad - in the past four months or more. Otherwise, I am in excellent health. I'll bet I am healthier than you. This diet is supposed to be for two months, and if there isn't significant change at the end of this trial I hope to get back to potato chips, Mac burgers, and pizza. I don’t know; maybe this thing might work after all. Maybe I will die of not eating my favorite food before cancer can kill me.

You asked for my opinion about why Japan is immune to the Gospel. I don't know if that was a suggestion for a PB letter or a personal question. Maybe I should write about it sometime, but today I will try to make a stab at it to you personally.

Many years ago I was in Florida helping a friend burn a field on his farm. We lit one match and got a bunch of weeds burning. I was impressed that 20 minutes later there was a solid wall of fire going across that field burning everything clean. I thought, “How did this happen?” Obviously every stalk ignited the stalk next to it. I thought, “We have thousands of fire going on all over Japan and nothing is burning. Japan just doesn't self-ignite. The whole country is fire proof.

And then I saw Kichijoji. For the first time ever I saw the Gospel work just like it is supposed to. That is the only place I know of in Japan, in the past 100 years, where sheep were having lambs. What does Kichijoji have that no one else have? I have been around too long to stick my neck out on that. There are a few good churches in Japan that grow, and occasionally there are some works that reproduce other churches. But I know of nothing that has exploded like Kichijoji. And it wasn't just their expansion that was impressive, but the testimonies of individual Christians were astounding. Many had the finger print of the Holy Spirit all over it like you seldom see. Miracles there were common. I talked a little bit about this in the four letter series on Gothold Beck.

Japan has had its share of really good (maybe great) pastors, evangelists, missionaries. I know many of them. The grass is green around them but not much hay outside their circle. There are probably well over a thousand churches that operate exactly like Kichijoji. Basically that is the Plymouth Brethren style, but they are just as dead as the main line churches. You might have two hot plate stoves hooked up with a frying pan of eggs on each burner. But one burner is hooked up to a gas line and the other one is not. They both look the same, but the eggs sure are different. The difference is one has the fire and the other one has no flame. The main point of any church can be expressed in one word – LIFE. Some churches have life and others just have form.

There are a number of things that speculators point to to explain Japan's barrenness. One is the national characteristic of the people. Very definitely Japanese are unusual people. They proved that during the war and the recovery after. That is one reason why they aren't more responsive. You can't blame it on religion. Buddhism and Shinto are the national religion. Those two are different and yet there seems to be no conflict. You ask a Japanese what he believes and he will always reply, “I'm Japanese. Of course I am a Buddhist.” Then you ask, “Do you really believe that?”. “well no... but I am Japanese.”

Basically Japanese don't believe in any religion.

One factor might be the language. There is no word in Nihongo (Japanese) for sin. Tragically, 150 years ago missionaries chose the word tsumi for sin. But tsumi is not sin. It is a civil crime. Nation wide, Japanese have an astounding lack of consciousness of sin. To call a Japanese a tsumi bito (sinner) is an honest affront. They know they have a clean police record and can't make the connection why they should be called a criminal. I seldom use that word in dealing with people. I ask, “Do you have a clean heart?” Invariably they will reply, “Well no... but let's not talk about that.”

After I went Kichijoji full time and looked at the Japanese church from outside it, looked obvious to me that we had sold them a bill of goods giving them religion rather than Jesus. Kichijoji was able to separate the two and that seemed to be a singular selling point. Kirisuto kyo (Christianity) is a rough road. You have got to be really tough to hang in there for the long haul. Very few have that kind of stamina. Mostly a few old ladies. But very few young people, and virtually no working men, want to get locked in to that kind of meat grinder. A Japanese friend of mine was the church treasurer and was taking to another missionary. When they parted my friend excused himself by saying, “I'm sorry but I have to go count the tax (zeikin) money.” The missionary laughed and said, “You mean the offering (kenkin)”. The Japanese looked at him soberly and replied, “No, this is tax”. He was petty close to the truth. The offering is not much different than a pole tax. I don't know... the whole system in Japan looks like plastic Christianity to me.

We could rightly shrug our shoulders, and say, “That is Japan”. But Gothold proved that the Japanese are no different than anyone else and can be easily won for Christ. More than that they are self-igniting. What is the answer? I suspect that a big problem is 2 Chron. 16:9. God is looking for a special type of a man – a man whose heart is right before Him – but there aren't that many around. Maybe if we had a few more Gothold Becks and a few less Seneis (pastor), maybe we could see a better harvest in Japan.

Just a few thoughts.

It was great to hear from you Gary, bill

Timothy

11 August 2019

Dear Phyllis,

Gomen nasai for the flood of 4 letters last week, but that was a story that I wanted to keep intact. It's done.

It was around 2001 that I had, perhaps the most profitable trip I was ever on. Mark and I, and another young man, were over to Cambodia taking Bibles to the Jarai people who were being hunted in the jungle like animals. After our Bible drop I told Mark, “We have got to go to the Angkor Wat in Siem Reap”. If I was a tourist going to the Orient and had only one place to go, it would be the Angkor Wat. Nine hundred years ago Angkor was the capital of an enormous section of SEA. And they built a city that is one of the wonders of the ancient world. It rivals the pyramids in Egypt.

The Angkor Wat is the #1 tourist attraction in Cambodia with three million visitors each year. The problem is, there is a swarm of local children selling trinkets to tourist. They are like the frogs in Egypt or the mosquitoes in Siberia. They really are a nuisance. One little 8 year old girl was begging me to buy her postcards. I wanted to be Christian so I reached down and said, “I love you”. She looked up at me with those big, beautiful, brown eyes and said, “You say you love me, but you won't buy my cards.” - and started to weep. I bought the cards. Then everybody swarmed around me saying, “You bought hers but you won't buy my xxxx”. Now how do you get out of that?

Five o'clock came and the park was closing. We had a 30 minute wait for the bus going into town and the kids were all around us. Work was over and we were having a big time playing with the children. I saw my little 8 year old girl; I reached down to pick her up, and give her a big hug. You have never seen anything like what happened next. Thirty kids lined up demanding, “I want a hug”. Then they would run around to the back of the line to get another one. Thirty minutes later, when we got on that bus, those kids had flat torn the heart right out of me. I vowed, “If there is anything I do in this life, I must come back here to tell those children about Jesus.”

The next day we were in the war museum and met a guide who said he had shrapnel in his eye and was going blind. He said an operation would cost $100, which was totally out of his reach. That touched Mark's heart. Three months later Mark gave me $100 and told me to go back to Siem Reap and take that man to a hospital.

It was summer, I tried in vain to locate a missionary or pastor in Siem Reap and went back blind. I found the man in the war museum and told him I had come to get his eye fixed. I asked him if he knew of any church in that city. He said, “My daughter is a Christian”. I begged him, “Please introduce me to your daughter.” He took me home to meet his 17 year old daughter, but she had zero English. I asked her, “What kind of a church do you go to?” “BP” “What is BP?” “BP.” “Please take me there.” We got on a couple of motor bikes and she took me through a maze of rice paddies, finally, coming to a shack that looked like a chicken coup. A young pastor and his wife, who spoke amazingly good English, came out to speak to me. I asked them if they would go with me out to the Angkor Wat to tell the children about Jesus. I never dreamed of what would happen the next day. The three of us went out to the Angkor Wat and got all the children together. I sat there in tears as I watched that fantastic girl, tell 30 children sitting around us all about Jesus. Sang lai is as good as they come. I mean to tell you that girl (26) is a real high quality Christian worker.

Her husband, Timothy, was a poor boy from Sihanoukville by the coast of Cambodia. As a high school student he lived in a Buddhist temple but used to walk past a Bible school with a boarding house, on his way to school. They invited him to live there. Of course he got saved. After completing high school he continued on in the Bible school. But after four years of Bible school he was left standing as various mission scooped up all the sharp boys, but nobody wanted an unimpressive loser like him. With no place to go he stayed on for one more year of Bible school. During that year he met and married Sang lai. When no one wanted him again he purposed, “If no one wants me I will go to Siem Reap on my own”. They had been there for about two years, struggling, when I met them.

When I got back to Chiang Mai and told Mark about Timothy, I said, “You've got to meet this guy”. Mark went back there and was equally impressed. He had some extra funds coming in and gave it to Timothy to hire a bus to haul the kids from Angkor 12 km to his church. That worked fine for a while, but the children were so unruly and tore up the bus so bad, the owner refused to haul the kids anymore. Confronted with that problem, Mark had some more funds and gave it to Timothy to buy a bus. During the week Timothy could use that bus for tourists. Now money was no problem.

Then there was a problem with the kids parents. To settle that problem Timothy started visiting the children's homes. The result was that family after family started getting saved. These people couldn't get to church, so Timothy started having services in areas around these homes. As a result of that small incident of giving that little girl a hug, a number of the children were saved, many families came to Christ, and five churches sprang up in Siem Reap.

A couple years later Timothy received a most unusual letter from his home village, asking him to come down and tell them the Gospel. I have only heard of something like that happening in two or three other places. Timothy contacted Mark asking if he could come to help him with that dendo (evangelism). Mark had a team from the Faroe Islands coming to Chiang Mai and took them with him to go with Timothy to his village. What happened that week beats any story I have ever heard of in missions. I can't begin to tell it here, but it reads like the Book of Acts.

These guys from the Faroe Islands were very unusual. They were very conservative Lutherans and reasonably well saved.. The Faroe Islands are some islands in the North Sea north of Scotland that belongs to Denmark. They are very isolated people and how they wound up in the Orient I have no idea. What they saw that week in that village in Cambodia was like they had stepped on a different planet. That was almost as big a revelation to them as it was for Luther to come out of Rome. There was one brother who had been very wealthy living the high life and then lost everything. In his despondency he decided to join the Christian team headed for the Orient. What he saw in Cambodia blew him away. He stayed on to work with Timothy. Today he is living in a bamboo hut with his Cambodian wife serving Jesus and is the happiest man in Cambodia. Rarely have I ever seen such a man overflowing with joy.

It has been several years since the last time I was in Siem Reap, but the last time I saw Timothy he was a walking miracle. He was a poor homeless boy that went to Bible school who no one wanted. Rejected by men, he and his wife struck out alone to serve the Lord in Siem Reap. Today he is well funded from the Faroe Islands. He has built a beautiful new church. He has started a string of churches around that area. It seems that he is the head of every major Christian organizations in that town. What he has accomplished in 15 years has eclipsed the total production of all the graduates from his Bible school. I don't know another man who could stand beside him. If I ever saw a case of God choosing foolish things, rejected by men, to lay His hand on to do an amazing work it is Timothy and Sang lai. That Bible run to Cambodia 18 years ago was one of the most profitable moments of my life.

Lord Jesus, thank you for this great privilege, bill

Gotbeck Beck- Part 4

I started out this series as a response to a brother who asked me about Gothold Beck. This is the 4^th and the last of that series. All Christians, which includes all great men, have clay feet. This letter will not be pretty, but in the interest of honesty, I want to tell it like it is. What was supposed to be a brief biographical sketch of Gothold Beck has been more of a testimony of the Kichijoji movement. The reason for this is that Kichijoji is Gothold Beck. This is what he produced. And yet Kichijoji was more than one man. It was so massive and so unusual that it has got to be more than the product of one man. All I know is that it was Christ. What started out as a small assembly in the city of Kichijoji, in west Tokyo, has gone all over the world in 50 years. In 30 years they had covered Japan from the northern tip of Hokkaido to Okinawa. More than that, I don't know how many more assemblies they have world wide. I know there are several in Europe, at least one in LA, I know of one in Bangkok, and wherever Kichijoji believers have gone they have started Kichijoji assemblies. I had one Japanese brother living in Toronto, Canada, who was converted by reading Hikari Yo Are. He had never been in a Christian church but somehow read one of my PB letters where I mentioned Gothold Beck. He wrote me asking for permission to translate my PB letters to send them to Japan.

One of the greatest nights of my life was when a Pentecostal pastor called me asking if he could see me to talk about Kichijoji. I was living with Hirotas at the time, and asked Miyuki to have him for supper. I was terrified when she told me she had asked Yamashina to come over for the meeting. Kichijoji is ultra anti-Pentecostal. Anyone who speaks in tongues has got to be demonized. Oh boy, this will be fun. What I saw that night was one of the most beautiful Christian scenes I ever witnessed. Those three men sat there for three hours fellowshipping in Christ sharing some of the most wonderful testimonies you will ever hear. I was stunned. Then at 10:00 PM the Pentecostal pastor hit the highest note I have ever heard. He said, “I acknowledge what you have is the Holy Spirit. Could you tell me how can I get more of Christ?” That's it folks! I never heard anything to top that.

How did this happen? I really don't know. Gothold was terrific. He came as close to being the perfect man as any one I have ever met. And yet he had some fatal flaws. I said Joe Carroll was a very secretive person, and never had a close intimate friend that stuck. Gothold seemed to be somewhat similar. At one time we were as close as any friend I ever had. He was completely open. But I have noticed that there have been breakups with everyone who was in his true inner-circle. I saw ruptures that bewildered me. There were many good men that were very close to him – and I still admire them - but Gothold talked like they were demonized. I have never been able to figure out the reason for the breakups. The last one that I heard of was his son-in-law. Sinji was as devoted a lieutenant as any man ever had. I thought he was the natural successor to Gothold. I have no idea what the issue was but I do know Sinji is out and there has been a complete separation.

My own story is tragic. In 1987 I said, “That is the end for Kiriuto-kyo for me. From now on I am going totally Kichijoji”. I was working for a Christian construction company at the time, and, indirectly through me, Architect Japan won a contract, that amounted to millions of dollars, to build an enormous center for Kichijoji in Karuizawa, Both sides were ridiculous. Nakajima, the CEO of Architect Japan, had been half saved through the John Cathcart project. He saw the miracles that could be done with US 2X4 construction and started his company with Wirt Edmonds. He also saw how the Lord had honored John Cathcart's faith and he thought he could walk on water. Wirt came with his son, Robbi, and one other US carpenter and the four of us were building several major projects. When we were up in Sendai building a Bible School campus. Nakajima started dealing under the table by using money paid upfront to build the present project. Rather than closing the gap he was losing money on every project and, sooner or later, someone is going to be left holding the bag. I called Gothold and told him Nakajima was using his money to build the Sendai Bible School. Gothold stopped advanced payments. At a meting in Karuizawa, with Gothold, Wirt, and I, Gothold asked Wirt if he could do the Karuizawa project and cut Nakajima out of the picture. Wirt said he would do it but needed Nakajima to handle Japanese end of things.

Shortly after that I went to the states for six months and when I came back Wirt told me that the contract had gone to Nakama.. Or in other words., Gothold broke his promise to Wirt. There were many unbelievable BAD THINGS that happened on that project that I can't discuss here. But between Sendai and Karuizawa we were building another Bible school in Ikoma. While we were working on that, Wirt told me of the crooked things that were going on with Nakajima. Gothold had a man in his church who was in cahoots with Nakajima taking an enormous amount of money under the table. I told Gothold about it and warned him to have another man check the books with Murata. Gothold told me, “That is impossible. Murata is a fine Christian man”. “Please check on him.” “I can't. I don't have any other business man like him to do that work.”

Some time later my friends, the Hirotas, were down in Kyushu attending a meeting and heard that Bill Cook was the devil's man accusing a Christian brother (Rev. 12:10). A year later some other men noticed that there were huge discrepancies in the cost of things.. They figured that Murata had stolen well over $1,000,000 from them. They confronted him. He broke down and confessed what he had done. Then he wrote them a rubber check (that bounced) to repay them for what he had stolen and disappeared. Two years after that Nakajima went belly up, going bankrupt for a $1,000,000. Wirt lost over $250,000 of personal money to pay for material that was purchased in his name but never paid. That went exactly the way I thought it would and warned them. Gothold broke his promise to Wirt and got burned by having a crook handle the funds. Unfortunately no one ever apologized to me, and the last time I was in a Kichjoji meeting I had a very unpleasant exchange with Sinji who warned me if I didn't straighten up I would no longer be welcomed.

From 1995 on I have had no contact with Gothold or Kichijoji. I still have friends who are still in the fellowship and I have tried to keep up on news. Sometime around 2oo8 I heard that Gothold had leukemia. I thought that would be the end of the story but apparently he held on for a considerable time still actively engaged in the ministry. He was never a man who allowed illness to slow him down. One time I saw him when he was in Ikoma, with a fever, for a weekend of meetings. I asked, “If you are that sick why are you here?” He replied, “I only operate by the will of God. It was the will of God that I come, so the sickness is not a factor.”. I am not sure of the date but I heard that about four years ago Gothold left to take his place on the winners platform in heaven.

That was Gothold Beck. He was truly a rare man of God indeed. He accomplished a work in Japan like no one else has seen in post-war Japan history. He was a man of incredible integrity, but, like all men, had clay feet..

If you want to emulate him and do a work like Kichijoji by using his method – forget it! It won't work. Successful missions are not accomplished by following someone else's method.. You have to have his spirit.

“The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole world (looking) to shew Himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards Him” (2Chron. 16:9). Thank God He found one such man in Gothold Beck.

Father, thank You for Gothold Beck,

                                                     bill

Gothold Beck-Part 3

Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness ____ perfumed___ with all the powders of the merchants? Song of Sol 3:6

This is the only verse I know in the Bible that is a snapshot of Church history. The Bible speaks much about spiritual fragrance and S. of S. deals more with that subject than any other book in the Bible. Spiritual fragrance can be summarized by one word – atmosphere. It is that detectable atmosphere that characterizes every person you meet, and every meeting you are in. S. of S. 3:6 says that the perfume is the powders of merchants. Merchants are people who buy and sell. Salvation is free, but a good testimony or a successful ministry comes with a price. Gothold Beck was more sold out to Christ than any man I ever met. The law of reproduction is that everything reproduces after its own kind (Gen. 1:21). Gothold Beck reproduced hundreds of believers that were just like himself in total abandonment for Christ.

There was an incident where a Christian in Shikoku had died, and the family called the headquarters in Kichijoji asking that 200 Bibles be sent down to give to the people who would come to the funeral. There wasn't a way in the world where they could ship 200 Bibles to Shikoku and get them there in time for the funeral. Two believers heard of this problem; they walked off their jobs, bought 200 Bibles out of their own pockets, then got on a plane to fly the Bibles to Shikoku to be on time. I have never heard of such unimaginable sacrifice in Japan.

Any assembly of this kind of dedicated, sacrificial, believers will produce an atmosphere in meetings. And I was privileged to experience that in some of the most blessed moments of my life. For two millenniums of Church history, all revivals, and Christ-filled meetings, have been characterize by one singular unique atmosphere– an overwhelming sense of the presence of Christ. If you are in a meeting with 10 people, who are singing Issac Watts hymns, with no instrumental accompaniment, and four out of ten have tears coursing down their face, you know that Jesus is there.

Sunday wasn't just a day when you went to church. Every Sunday was like children waiting for Christmas. I was riding in a car with some friend one day and one lady said to another, “How did we ever live before we had Sunday?” It would start at 9:00 AM at the meeting and go until midnight continuing to fellowship in homes all over town. Getting two Kichijoji believers apart was like trying to get two teenagers, who are in love, to go home. They just craved fellowship.

I was at a home meeting in Niki one night, and the wife of the home was sharing her testimony. Both she and her husband had gone to Bible school and had faithfully served the Lord ever since being married. They were active members in a conservative church. But she said, “I was just wore out. I told the pastor that I couldn't go on carrying the load in the church.”. The pastor replied, “Sister, if you back out the church will collapsed”. She added, “And I was an awful wife”. Then she heard about a Kichijoji ladies mid-week meeting. She felt guilty going to a different church ladies meeting but in desperation gave it a shot. Jesus was there. She eventually was able to pull her husband away from their regular church to attend Kichijoji meetings in Kobe. She said it was just like getting saved all over again. Life flowed back into them and they fell in love with Jesus and with each other anew. She wept as she gave that testimony. After the meeting I was talking with her and said, “Sister, that was terrific! I know hundreds of Christians all over Japan who are just like you were. They are just wore out serving religion. But it is not yarikata (way of doing things); it is Jesus.” She nearly shouted at me, “Yes, yes, yes!”. Many people think that it is yarikata (format of service), but there are dozens of Plymouth Brethren assemblies scattered all over Japan that operate exactly like Kichijoji, but they are as dead as a door nail. The difference is Jesus.

Gothold is not a proselytizer. He prefers not taking believers out of other churches, but there is a stamped of starving Christians all over Japan. He is draining churches with wore-out, famished, believers who are pouring into Kichijoji shukais.

It would fill a small library to tell of all the amazing testimonies of Kichijoji meetings and Christians. I have never seen anything like it. Gothold wrote several books but his first one was the testimony of his third daughter, Heidi, who died of cancer. In addition to that, Kichijoji produced a series of books called Hikari Yo Are (Let there be light). These were a collections of Kihijoji Christian's testimonies. In Japan, a best seller Christian book might run 5,000 copies. Kichijoji books were self-produced, but out-sold all other Christian books in the country by a factor of three or four times. These books have had an impact on Japan of producing untold numbers of conversions – as well they should. They are fantastic!

There are more Mercedes Benzes parked outside Kichijpji meetings than any other place in Japan. Some of the highest strata in the country fellowship with some of the lowest. One brother is a nationally famous designer and is a millionaire. They have a modest home, but his wife has 70 college age kids home for lunch every Sunday. He told me, “All I want is a closest size room where I can get a little rest. The kids can have the rest of the house” There are many top level doctors, lawyers, college professors, alcoholics, drug addicts – you name it – they have them all.

The wife of, perhaps the number one TV news commentator in Japan, had a Christian friend who invited her to the Wednesday morning ladies meeting in Kichijoji. Sachiko attended the meetings for two or three weeks before she spoke to Gothold telling him that she was the wife of Chiyaki Ozawa. (This story is true but I am not sure the name is right). She told him that her husband was in the hospital with cancer. Gothold said, “I will go see him immediately.”. His wife panicked and said, “Oh, please don't. My husband is extremely well traveled and he is very anti-Christian”. Gothold replied, “That's fine I will go see him anyway”. Sachiko was terrified. Chiyaki met him at the hospital door and his opening remark was “Kirisuto-kyo is mecheck cha (a mess).” “Yes, I agree.” “Aren't you a missionary?” “Yes I am, but I am not promoting Kirisuto-kyo”. “What are you selling?” “I'm promoting Jesus Christ.” “Oh, that is different.” And Gothold led him to Christ. Sometime later I was talking to my friend, Takako, and asked how Chiyaki was doing. She said, “He's fantastic. I was in their home the other night and he was wonderful. Physically he doesn't have long to live with his cancer, but he is rejoicing and on fire for Christ”. When he was in the hospital with his last bout with cancer, many national TV and news organizations wanted to see him. He refused to see any news people, but if it was a Christian - any brother or sister from Kichijoji - “Please come in”. His funeral was probably the most televised Christian funeral in Japan's history. NHK, Juji TV, and others had it on prime time all over Japan – including much of Gothold's message. That was probably the biggest fish Gothold ever caught.

I started out this letter quoting a verse from Song of Sol. that I said was a snapshot of Church history. From a secular stand point, and to look at much of Christianity world wide today, Christianity is not a real pretty picture. But neither are the Seven Churches in Rev. 2 & 3. What you have is the real Church mixed in with the plastic version. The Kichijpji meetings I attended were what the Methodist meetings must have been like in the days of Wesley. And any time or place there has been a genuine moving of the Holy Spirit they have all been characterized by a tremendous sense of the presence of Christ. Oh, the fragrance of that is wonderful. And that comes when you have merchants who have sold all to buy the Pearl of Great Price (Mt. 13:44-46). Gothold did and he got it.

To be continued by one more letter. bill

Gothold Beck- Part 2

In my previous letter I suggested that the #1 problem with the Gospel in Japan was Kirisuto kyo (Christianity). There probably is no one single factor, but I firmly believe Kirisuto kyo is perhaps the biggest retardant to the spread of the Gospel. In my first article I mentioned an incident when my dear friends, the Hirotos stopped by our house one afternoon and told me they didn't go to Kobe for Sunday morning worship that day; and said the reason was that a sister had collapsed in her home the night before, so they decided to take church to her that day. I saw in a flash that that would be utterly IMPOSSIBLE in any other church in Japan. Kirisuto kyo is built around the pastor and the rank and file believers are relegated to a subservient position of passivity. No believer in Japan would dare sneeze without checking with their pastor first to see if it was okay. Individual responsibility and activity was absolutely unthought of. The church in Japan was totally bokushi (pastor) centered. One of Gothold brilliant strategies was that Kihijoji had no pastors.

After Kichijoji exploded from being one rapidly expanding church (assembly) to a national phenomenon I was talking with Gothold one day and asked what he attributed his success to. He replied, “After I quit doing dendo - having one week of special dendo meetings each month - the Lord took over.”. He went on, “Before I had one special speaker come each month for meetings, now I have 400 evangelists. full time” Everybody in the church is an evangelist sharing Christ with their neighbors. I asked him, “How many shukais (churches) do you have in Tokyo?” He said, “I don't know. Every week I hear of a new one just starting up. But I do know that I have 70 brothers who are preaching.” Very few, if any, denominations in Japan have that many pastors. Every Kichijoji believer is an evangelist. They don't know anything but individual responsibility – and that is intensely frowned upon in all traditional Japanese churches. That is the bokushi's (pastors job) and no one would dare do it.

I believe Watchman Nee was perhaps the greatest Christian of the 20^th century. I believe he had the greatest impact on China. Wathman Nee was basically Plymouth Brethren. Little Flock in China was technically not Plymouth Brethren but basically organized and operated along the same guide lines. And Gothold Beck's, Kichijoji, was basically the same.

They are intensely scriptural. And in this they are distinguished as different than 98% of all major denominations.. Firstly they believed we should obey what the Word of God tells us about women being silent in church (1 Cor. 14:34,35). Women absolutely do not mouth off in church and have no part in leading or preaching a service. But I know of no denomination in Japan that are seeing more women leading others to Christ than in Kichijoji. My good friend Takako Yamamoto was one of the top speakers for Ladies Luncheons nation wide. Someone asked her if it wasn't difficult after she left Karuizawa to go to Kichijoji where she couldn't speak. She replied, “When I was in Karuizawa I was leading one soul a month to Christ. Now it is every week.”. Shortly after moving to Kichijoji she got on the women for bad-mouthing their husbands and not praying for their salvation. She organized a ladies prayer meeting especially for unsaved husbands. The first month they had seven husbands saved. It is almost a given in Kichijoji if you ask a man how he got saved and suggested, “Was it through you wife?”. Invariably he would come back, “Of course.”. Probably 90% of the men are won to Christ through their wives.

Secondly, there is no organizational structure and absolutely NO PASTORS. But the Kichijoji shukais are the finest structured churches I have ever been in. They believe in the plurality of elders There are certain men who have different gifts. It is not by appointment but every man naturally functions within his God-given gift. There are no pastors but you don't have to be there long before you know who the pastor is. It is obvious. Some men have that gift and function accordingly, but they are not there by appointment. And, they certainly, do not act like a Japanese bokushi (pastor). Some men have a gift of preaching and they preach regularly. Many men are all over the country preaching every week. Some men have the gift of helps, some men have administration, some are better soul winners, etc. It is beautiful to see godly men function within their gift, and it is not by appointment. A bokushi in Japan is a man on a pedestal, but in Kichijoji he is just an ordinary humble brother doing his God given job. And in Kichijoji there are no senseis (pastor, teacher, leader). No one is called Sensei. Oh I love that! Jesus warned in Matt. 23:8, “Be not called Sensei” (Japanese Bible), but every cotton picken pastor in Japan is a Sensei. And in most cases it is sickening. Gothold has fractured Japanese etiquette by using first names. No one in Japan goes by their first name, but in Kichijoji everyone is on a first name basis or called “brother”.

All women have a head covering. The Mennonites do this. They are not legalistic about that but a woman would feel very much out of place without her head being covered.

They have communion every Sunday. The communion is central to the worship. They have two services. The first is a worship service with no leader. No one is up front. The men are allowed to do one of three things: they can call for a hymn out of the hymn book (traditional), they can read a verse from the Bible, or they can say a prayer. Every thing is spontaneous. That's it. Then they have communion. That lasts one hour. Then they have a 10-15 minute coffee break, flowed by a fairly traditional message by one of the preaching brothers. It sounds dull, but, oh my goodness, you should be in some of those meetings. Jesus is there. Tears are common. Sometime the Word sounds like thunder. The prayers are hungry Christians talking to their Father. I have been in very few services, any where, so intensely marked by the presences of the Holy Spirit as those in Kobe.

Kichijoji shukais (churches) are very strong on home meetings. An enormous number of families have home meetings that are very well attended. And,,man howdy, do they have CAMPS! There are Christian camps all over the country every month. If an average church of 30 in Japan has a camp, and 15 attend, that would be a high number. If a Kichijoji shukai (church) of 20 has a camp it would be common to have 50 or 60 show up. These are major times of salvation for hundreds of Kichijoji believers.

The church is in the Beck's home and he has expanded it three times. Today it is maxed out and is a scene like no other place in Japan. Max capacity might be 200, but every Sunday there are well over 400 jammed in that building occupying every available inch. The auditorium is packed beyond capacity with people standing in every corner. The stairway is crowded. Forget about going to the toilet. There are five people standing in there. And there is a small crowd of people standing outside holding umbrellas on rainy days who can't get in the building. Gothold has a Wednesday morning ladies Bible study that regularly sees over 200 women gather each week. There are hundreds of taped messages that are widely circulated all over the country.

Gomen nasai (I'm sorry). This is supposed to be a series on Gothold Beck, and all I have talked about is his followers, who are a national phenomenon known as Kichijoji. The reason I have written so extensively about this is because, what Gothold has produced is without a comparable movement in post-war Japan. While nearly all denominations are stagnant or shrinking, his work with Kichijoji is expanding exponentially. What I am trying to say is that Gothold Beck is a phenomenon without a peer in Japan.

That's it for today. I will continue with part 3 in my next letter.

Arigato gozaimasu (thank you), bill