Dear Phyllis,
Two
hundred years ago there were two capitals in Japan. The main capital
was called Kyoto, but 500 km to the east there was another capital
called Tokyo, the east capital. There were two connecting
routes between these two capitals. One ran along the coast called the
Tokaido sen, and the other ran inland through the mountains called the
Cho sen. For those going the central route, it was a three day trek
across the Kanto plains from Edo, the city where
the east capital was located, to Yokokawa at the base of the mountains.
From there it was a 30 km hike up a 1,000 meter mountain pass to a
small farming village called Karuizawa. The only thing of significance
there was a way station inn for the travelers.
At the turn of the last century a British missionary, Robert Shaw, was
doing evangelism in that area and shared with his friends what a
delightful climate it was in Karuizawa. By 1907 such a large gathering
of missionaries, escaping the suffocating hot weather
in Tokyo, gathered in Karuizawa that they built a large tabernacle
there to hold summer conferences. This became the conference center of
Japan.
In
1967, I was the director of the Karuizawa Japanese Language School and
on the board of the Karuizawa Union church, that ran the summer
missionary church in the historic tabernacle. We had
had on our agenda a plan to build a chapel, multi-purpose. building for
youth activities and a place for the winter church for missionaries
living year round in Karuizawa - mostly language school. students But
for five years a fund raising thermometer chart
hung near zero. At a committee meeting one day I suggested, “I believe I
could put up that building”. We wanted a high ceiling for recreational
activities that made truss construction out of consideration. The
fellows on the committee asked, “How would you
do it?” “I would make wooden arch laminated beams.” The men on the
committee that year were crazy and said, “If Bill thinks he can do it,
lets let him try”.
Glue
lams (laminated beams) were common in America and Europe but unknown in
Japan. It had been my major in college, and I wrote to the research
center in Madison, Wisconsin asking advice.
The man there answered my letter politely, and suggested I contact a
sister organization in the Japanese government, but warned that such a
technical job of making glue lams, shade-tree (at home), was impossible.
I went to Tokyo to talk to the research center
men who were very helpful, but, again, warned that what I had in mind
was impossible. They were shocked to meet a foreigner who spoke their
language and knew enough about this field to ask the questions I had.
Glue lams was a new field in Japan and they were
concerned that it not get a bad reputation. There were only three
factories in Japan that could make then and one had had a serious
failure in making big wooden arches for an Olympic restaurant that had
come unglued. They were so concerned when they learned
I was serious they would have called the police, but there was no law
in Japan covering a case like that. In desperation, they adopted the
attitude, if they couldn't stop me they would join me.. The top
authorities in both countries said I was impossible to
build a form that would withstand the tremendous amount of pressure
involved in mending that much lumber to make a curved arch. Beyond that
there were a number of technical difficulties that made it prohibitive
without a major investment in manufacturing facilities.
Or in other words, it can't be done.
What
happened after that was; there were more major miracles than at any
time in my life. The design of curved aches is extremely difficult that
only a few high level engineers are capable
of doing. One day I sat down with a pencil and paper, asked the Lord to
show me how to design one, and started drawing sketches. Finally I got
one that looked about right. I took my drawing to a Swedish missionary
who had been an engineer in Sweden and worked
with glue lam arches. He said my drawings looked about right.
The
first thing I needed was a shop in which to make the beams. The summer
tabernacle was perfect but I had to heat it. The day I spent Y10,000
($25) out of my own pocket for insulation a
totally unprecedented gift of Y10,000 came in from Kyushu.. I needed
lumber. I could get that custom sown but that had to be dried to 12%
moisture content. I knew of no dry kilns in Japan but one day, driving
though Nagano, I saw plant that looked like it
had a dry kiln. We called over there and they did have a kiln and would
dry our lumber.
Three
weeks later we had a call one afternoon saying our lumber was dried and
ready to pick up. I looked outside and the sky was black. I had a
horrible vision of our dried lumber sitting
outside getting wet and commandeered my co-worker Koji, and another man
with a truck to go get the lumber. We got there right at 5:00, closing
time, and they had the lumber where it couldn't be loaded with a
forklift That meant we had to load everything by
hand, one stick at a time. We were frankly loading the truck when the
rain started to come down. An old man stood there watching us and
remarked, “You better tarp what you you've got and go home”. I said, “We
can't, We've got to get this all tonight.” “But
you are getting wet.”. I had been praying desperately and rebuking the
devil. When the old man said, “You are getting wet”: I roared back,
“Tonde mo nai (Impossible)! This is our Father's work and He isn't going
to soak us.”. When I said that, suddenly a peace
came over me and I knew were were safe. I hollered at Koji and Yoshi
and told them, “Let's not kill ourselves. Let's take a break”. For the
next hour we loaded in our leisure and not a drop fell on our lumber. We
threw a tarp over the load and got wet tying
it down. For an hour we drove through heavy rain going home but the
rain stopped 10km before we got to Karuizawa. We off loaded the lumber
in the summer tabernacle and I got home at midnight. Before going to
bed, as I was thanking the Lord for the miracle,
it started to come down and rained all night. But our lumber was safe.
The
number of major miracles that happened for the next three months are
too numerous to mention, but when June came six beautiful curved arch
glue lams had been completed. Now we had to put
up the building. I got half a dozen missionaries to help us erect the
chapel. The weather was fine on Saturday as we got the foundation
finished. Sunday it clouded up a little and when I got up at 5:00 Monday
morning,it was raining. I asked the Lord why the
rain. Then I thought, “What would be better; to have a nice sunny day,
or to have horrible weather, and then suddenly miraculously the sky
clear up?” Oh Hallelujah!!! Lord, let it rain. I was euphoric. I went to
work at 7:00 and Koji had a rain coat on. I
rebuked him for unbelief. At 7:30 my secretary, Lavina, called from
Yokohama saying she was worried and had been praying for good weather. I
assured her, “It's pouring blessing at the moment but I promise you at
9:00 o'clock suddenly it will quit.” Nine came
and it was still raining, but we still had a little preparation to do. I
promised all the workers, “When we carry these beams outside not a drop
will hit them.” By 9:15 I couldn't stall any longer. Six men picked up
one beam and started out the door. I said,
“Lord Jesus, here we come. Turn off the water.” It kept coming down. We
carried the first beam 30 meters to the job sight in heavy rain.
Someone gave me a rain jacket and I furiously threw it down in the mud
roaring, “I don't care if I drown. By my faith and
by my word it won't rain!” It did - until we went inside for lunch.
Suddenly it quit. One of my language teachers ran up to me and excitedly
said, “Sensei, it quit raining just like you said”. It did until we
went outside again to keep working. It didn't rain,
it poured every cotten-picken minute we were outside working on that
building. At 8:00 o'clock that night, when we finished, the rain
stopped. Everyone was jubilant. What a miracle! Six gorgeous beams and
all the frame was standing, and nothing was damaged;
except my pride. That got washed away.
But
the Lord had one more lesson to teach us. The first day all the frame
was put up, and the second day we had to put the roof on. It didn't look
good but we made excellent progress until
2:00 in the afternoon, it started to sprinkle. We were putting on a
double roof with glass wool insulation in between. We had the first
layer on and were right at a go or no-go point. We got off the roof and
went in the church to have some prayer asking the
Lord what we should do. Some fellows had some sin to confess and my
heart wasn't right. After 20 or 30 minutes of prayer the consensus was
Jesus had heard our prayer and it was safe to keep going. It was weird.
Standing up on that roof we could see off in
the distance. The sky looked just like a doe nut. It was black 360
degrees all around us but we were in the hole and not a drop came down
until 8:00 that night. Just as we got the last strip of tar paper dry
sheet nailed down, the rain started and we were
wet before we got off that roof. But the roof was on, everything inside
was dry, and it was safe. Of all the miraculous things that happened on
that job the day it rained was probably the mot profitable day. I had
gotten so high on miracles I thought I could
walk on water. It was that day Jesus taught me that He was in charge of
heaven – not me. - and the rain washed away a great deal of haughtiness
from a proud, arrogant man.
On the 6th
of August we had the dedication of the new Karuizawa Youth Chapel debt
free. All the money had come in while we doing the work. That was 1969.
The chapel has been standing
there for 51 years and will probably be there for another 50 years.
This isn't a spiritual testimony. I didn't go to Japan to be a carpenter
but to build the Kingdom of God. But among all the buildings in
Karuizawa it is arguable that more souls have come
to Christ and been saved in that building than any other structure in
town
And
one more blessing came out of that job. The Japanese research center
told me that I was probably the leading foreign authority in the field
of laminated beams in Japan. Pretty good for
a failure, college drop out. Through that project my reputation was
circulated that I was an authority in construction. Over the years I
have seen hundreds of missionaries come and go. Very few stay for the
long haul. But my hammer has kept me on the mission
field for the past 51 years. Five years after the chapel project I was
asked to be the pastor of the Karuizawa Bible church. And for the next
five years I wore three hats. I was the director of the Karuizawa
Language School, the pastor of the Japanese Bible
Church, and the regional branch office head of the Nazareth
Construction Company. Our CEO is a skillful Jewish carpenter.
Thank You Jesus,
bill
PS: Last week I made a beautiful podium for the Living Springs Bible center. It is the prettiest thing I ever made.
