My CEO is a Jewish Carpenter

7 March 2010

 

Dear Phyllis,

I am presently building a house for a friend here in Chiang Mai. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say,”overseeing” as we have two Burmese workers doing all the grunt work. Fifty two years ago when I set out serving the Lord in Japan, construction was one thing that was not on my mind. In my early years my ambition was to be a preacher of the Gospel and a Bible teacher. The Lord has been gracious in giving me a little opening to preach over the years, but the thing I am best known for is a carpenter.

I should be grateful for this as my hammer has been my salvation. Had it not been for my ministry in construction, I certainly would not be here today. I am not the kind of guy that can pass out a few tracts, have two meetings a week, preach to a small congregation on Sunday and teach English. For many years I was able to do all of that, but to fill in the time Monday through Saturday the Lord has been good in allowing me to build a large number of churches, houses, and cabinets for His servants.

When I first went to Karuizawa in 1962 I noticed that nearly all the missionaries were frustrated over a lot of minor physical things that could be easily fixed, but no one had any tools. Simply as a community service, I began to buy a few basic tools to loan and to personally use to do minor jobs.

Then in 1969 the big break came. I was the director of the Japanese language school and on the Union Church committee. We had been trying in vain for two years to erect a multi-purpose chapel/recreation building. Because we wanted to use it for recreation, that demanded it must have a high ceiling. The only way we could build that kind of a building was by steel construction. But the price of that was prohibitive. At a committee one day I suggested, “I believe I could put that building up.” They asked how I would do it, and I replied, “By making glue lambs.” (Large laminated beams of curved arches.) We had a most unusual gang of brothers on the committee that were crazy enough to try anything. They said, “If Bill can do it, let’s let him try.”

My major in college was Wood technology – a very unusual field of wood engineering. I had studied the technical field of laminated beams and knew enough to ask an intelligent question. I first wrote to the US government center for Forest Products Research in Madison, Wis. I had visited there as a student in 1955. The man who answered my letter gave me some helpful information and suggested that I contact their sister organization in the Japanese government. My co-worker, Koji, was able to find a phone number for the research center in Tokyo, and made an appointment for us to go down there to talk with them.  

That was a momentous day for all of us. The top authorities at the research center were surprised to meet this strange gaijin (foreigner) who spoke Nihongo (Japanese) and asked the most technical questions about laminated beams in Japan. I was delighted to discover they knew exactly what I was talking about and answered all my questions. They were very polite, but pleaded, “Please don’t do it.” Laminated beams were a very new thing I Japanese construction. Very few people had ever heard of them. The architect who got our building permit had never heard of them and I had to explain to him what they were. There were only three factories in Japan that were making glue lambs at the time and they had had some serious failures. The men at the research center were anxious to introduce this beautiful type of construction in Japan and didn’t want another discouraging failure.

 

The top authorities in both countries told me that to make curved arches “shade-tree” (DIY in a garage) was utterly impossible. To make them required very sophisticated expensive equipment, and for an armature to do it at home was unthinkable. If there had been a law, the Japanese research center certainly would have called the police and stopped me; but, legally, there was nothing they could do. They were genuinely alarmed when they learned I was seriously plunging ahead, and adopted the attitude, if the couldn’t stop me they would join me. They insisted I borrow their equipment and came to Karuizawa to take pictures every time I drove a nail.

That project was one of the major miracles of my life. I had no idea how to design a laminated arch but sat down with a pencil and paper, asked the Lord to show me, and started drawing sketches. The mathematical calculation for design is extremely advanced mathematics that very few men are capable of doing. But I drew designs until I felt the shape was about right. After the building was completed, the men at the research center I later had one of their mathematicians do the calculation,m and assured me that my design was very good. I counted the direct miracles we experienced in putting up the Language School Chapel was well over 30.

One was, I had to have a shop where I could make the beams. The summer conference Union Church was the logical place but it had to be heated. We had been trying in vain for two years to raise money and the budget was close to zero. The first day I spent Y10, 000 out of my own pocket to buy insulation to heat the Union Church we had a gift come in from a missionary in Kyushu for Y10, 000 who knew nothing of our need. The funds were liked that all the way through. In August we dedicated the building complete debt free.

There are tons of pressure involved in bending those boards and the top authorities told me that it was impossible to build a jig that would withstand all that pressure. I found a huge wooden  beam laying behind the Union Church. The Lord showed me an unusual design to make a jig using that beam as a base to hold the pressure. It worked perfectly.

Dry lumber was a critical issue. I knew of no dry kilns in Japan, but while driving down the road one day in Nagano I went by a flooring mill that had what looked like a dry kiln. Koji called there, and – sure enough – they had one. At first they refused, but later miraculously consented to dry our lumber. A week later they called over one afternoon at 3:00 PM saying our lumber was dry and we could pick it up. I looked out the window and the sky was black with rain clouds. Koji called a friend, and we commandeered a lovely man and his truck to go with us to pick up the lumber.

 We got there just as they were closing down at 5:00 o’clock. The lumber was in a place where we couldn’t get to it with a fork lift and had to load it one board at a time. We were frantically loading the lumber when the rain started to come down on us. An old man was standing there watching us, who I later learned was the company CEO. He said, “You had better quit. Tarp what you have and go home.” I had been furiously praying, asking the Lord to turn off the water. When the old man suggested we quit I roared, “Ton de mo nai! (Never happen).This is our Father’s work and He isn’t going to soak us.” At that instant suddenly the rain quit and I had a deep peace came over my heart that we were safe. For the next hour we loaded at our leisure and not a drop hit a board until we finished and threw a trap over our load. It poured while we were tying down the load.

 We drove through heavy rain for two hours coming back to Karuizawa, but when we got to the Union Church the rain had quit. I got home at midnight and was thanking God for the incredible miracle we had in getting dried lumber, safely in the Union Church, when the heavens opened and it poured all night. Our lumber was safe.

It was just liked that at every stage of the project. It would take a good size booklet to enumerate all the miracles the Lord did for us on that job. That was 41 years ago. The chapel is still there in as good shape as the day we dedicated it to the Lord for His use. The Lord alone knows the number of souls who have come to Christ in that building.

The men at the research center in Tokyo told me that I was probably the leading gaijin authority in that field in Japan. Soon the phone began to ring as different missionaries called me asking for advice or help on their projects. It was through that that I backed into construction.

For the next ten years I wore three hats as I was the director of the Japanese language school, pastoring a Japanese church and doing a great deal of construction at the same time.

 In 1980 I left the Language school. Then in 1982 Neil Verwey invited us to come down to Osaka to work with the Japan Mission. My main goal was evangelism but for the next 18 years the vast bulk of my time was spent building churches and homes for pastors and missionaries. One goal that Rosemary and I had agreed on before we were married was that we wanted to have an  open home. It is to Rosemary’s credit that she was very good at that and we had innumerable amount of house guest who came for a few hours to staying for two years or more.

In 1998 when I first came to SEA to work on Bible logistics, I had no expectation that I would be doing construction Thailand. But here I am. In Japan I called myself Nazareth Construction Co. Our CEO is a Jewish carpenter. Jesus is in the process of building His church. It has been my great privilege to be somewhat involved in placing a few living stones in that great structure. I would give up my hammer tomorrow if the Lord would open for me more of a preaching ministry. That looks highly unlikely.

I have told the Lord I am willing to clean the barn for the horses of the Lord’s servants. Building houses and churches is a higher calling than that. But regardless where we stand in the ladder of the Lord’s service; anything we do for Jesus is a privilege. Even driving nails.

See you next week,    bill