Mino MIssion

7 November 2010

Dear Phyllis,

 Last week I shared with you a couple of the testimonies of Mino Mission. I said, “That is a book that should be written but never will be. There is no way anyone could document all that went on there. That place was absolutely unique in Japan.

When Joe Carroll first came to Japan in 1954, his ship docked first at Yokkaichi. They had never met before, but Miss Whewell had heard about Joe. He was not planning on getting off the ship but Betty went to the dock to meet him, and dragged him off to Tomida Hama to preach. Joe was up on the platform thundering away the Gospel, and gave an invitation for salvation. No one moved. Betty got down off the platform where she was interpreting, and started going around the crowd. She would grab someone by the ear and demand, “You get up there! You have been here long enough. It is high time you got saved tonight.” Joe was dumbfounded. He thought, “Who does that woman think she is – the Holy Spirit?” Astoundingly, the ones that she would hail forward would dutifully stand up, go forward, and get saved. And stayed saved! Betty Whewell may not have been the Holy Spirit but she came close to thinking she was the fourth member of the Trinity.

When I was there in the 1960s Mino Mission was one of the finest missions in Japan. There was an intense sense of the presence of God in the place. The believers were some of the best Christians in the country and their testimonies were like flames of fire. The meetings were tremendous. To be a believer at Mino Mission you had to make a complete break with Japanese culture. Like the Mennonites, they were a strong sub-culture. You had to virtually renounce your Japanese citizenship. But for those who did, they knew that their citizenship was in heaven; “for they desired a better country, that is an heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them a city” (Heb. 11:16). There wasn’t one Japanese name for children among the believers. Every child in the mission had Bible names. Pastor Ishiguro’s sons were Isaac, John, and David. His daughter was Ruth. Everything at Mino Mission was intensely black and white. There was no gray whatsoever in the place. They knew if they were solidly on Jesus’ side, He would be solidly on their side. But if they were half-and-half, they knew it was pointless to expect Jesus to take much of a stand with them. And, man howdy, Jesus stood up for them!

Brother Sato was the ships mate on a famous ocean freighter. He was second to the captain. This was a tremendous position for any Japanese in 1954. But like all Japanese ships there was an idol in the control cabin. He took a strong stand against that idol and told the captain, “Either take that idol out or take me out”. The idol stayed. His parents were furious! That was about as stupid as it gets; to sacrifice such a lucrative job for such a small issue as working in the same room with an idol. But the next time that ship went to sea, the Lord sank that ship to the bottom of the Marianna trench (the deepest place on earth). There was one survivor – brother Sato standing on the dock. Every man on board perished. Brother Sato’s parents had deep respect for his God after that.

In September 1959 Ise-wan typhoon came straight up Nagoya bay and devastated the city. Tomida Hama was right on the beach and took the full brunt of that historic typhoon. A month later I was down in that area flying low level in my F-86 fighter. At 1,500 feet I saw a ship sitting in a rice field so far from the bay that I couldn’t see the coast. The testimonies of what happened then were legion. In Nagoya there were over 5,000 people killed, but for a 1 km radius around Mino Mission not one person perished.

There was a hard-head 90 year old idolatrous obaa chan (grandmother) who lived across the street from the church.  When the ocean came up and 12 feet of water covered that entire area that obaa chan floated on a tatami mat all night. She called on the name of the God of Mino Mission and miraculous was saved. The next morning when the water went down she was a firm believer in Jesus and burned all her idols. Obaa chan was at every meeting for the next ten years.

 Two small children who attended the mission Sunday School class were stuck in the middle of a rice paddy 20 km from the mission. It was pitch black, the wind was howling, and the water was rising all around them. The little 8 year old girl and her 5 year old brother knelt and asked Jesus to help them. Suddenly a man in a white garment appeared and led them through a maze of rice paddy paths to a village on higher ground. Then he disappeared. When the children told their story to the villagers, everyone said, “Weren’t you afraid?” They replied, “No. he made us feel good.”

When I was with the mission in 1964 we passed out a quarter of a million tracts. One night Fuji san was standing in front of the church passing out tracts to people passing by. A 19 year old girl was riding her bicycle pass him on her way to commit suicide. Fuji san stepped in front of her to stop her, and gave her a tract. Rather than committing suicide, Nakanishi san went into the church and was saved that night. That had happened two years before I was there, but every time Nakanishi san would give her testimony, it would bring tears to your eyes. I hadn’t been to the mission for 25 years, but two years ago, when I was in Japan, I stopped by for a brief visit. When I got to the mission a radiant, white hair, Bible-woman, obaa chan screamed, “Cook san!”, when she saw me. I looked at her and asked, “Are you Nakanishi san?” It was. She is still burning with fire with love for Jesus.

One of the Bible-women had tongue cancer. The doctor said the only thing that would save her life would be surgery to remove her tongue. Betty Whewell put her foot down. She said, “God gave you that tongue to praise Him, and we are not going to allow any Buddhist doctor cut it out”. Poor Hirono san certainly didn’t want the surgery, but if that was the only thing to save her life, she was in favor of it. When Miss Whewell refused to allow her to have the surgery, she resignedly said, “Shigata ga nai. Shinoo.” (Nothing can be done. I’ll die). Miraculously, they were able to get her in the Tokyo Cancer Center, which was the best hospital in the country. There was one other option, but a tough one. They could stick 12 large radio active darning needles in her jaw, converging on the cancer at the base of her tongue. It was very painful with a low prognosis of success. For one week Hirono san had the needles struck in her jaw but said it wasn’t that bad. She was up everyday cheerfully praying, reading her Bible. A week later they pulled the needles out of her jaw and she was clean of cancer. She lived for another 30 years faithfully serving the Lord.

 One time a fine brother came to me and asked if I would help him speak to a family about marrying their daughter. I knew this was nuclear and turned it over to Pastor Ishiguro and Miss Whewell. Everyone was delighted. Two weeks later Betty talked to Harada san and told him the Itois were pleased to have him as a son-in-law. Tragically he replied, “Yes, I know. I have spoken to her father.” Boom! A mushroom cloud went up. Betty Whewell’s flesh had been offended by his going directly to the father without going through her. It was a gigantic problem in the church and we all had to pray that the Itois and Harada san would repent of their deep sin. I thought she was the one who should repent. It was so bad that both parties had to quit the church. Three weeks later I was by the mission one day and Betty came floating out of the house like a school girl. She said, “Praise the Lord! A miracle has happened! Mrs. Itoi has repented of her deep sin”. Then Mrs. Itoi came weeping out of the house to apologize to me for her sin against Miss Whewell. I couldn’t believe it! It was genuine repentance. The Holy Spirit stood with Betty Whewell's flesh and broke the Itois. The couple got married.

The Lord honored Betty Whewell’s total commitment to Christ like few people I have ever known. But her tyrannical dominating spirit was deadly. Over the years 50 believers left the church to go to another church in Yokkaichi. In 1988 I was invited to speak there for a Sunday morning service. It was the first time in many years that I had been to the mission. It was terrible. The atmosphere was radically different. The believers sat there like manikins with waxy forced smiles and plastic joy. It was like preaching to the dead in a morgue. After that I said, “Never again.”  Five years later I met a boy in the Ikoma Pentecostal Bible School who turned out to be a believer from Tomida Hama. He said, “Were you the man who preached on Micah 7:18?” I was stunned he could remember the message. I told him what a bad time that was that Sunday. He replied, “No, that was one of the best services of the year.”

Over the years I have watched the transition of many churches. Nothing is static. I saw Mino Mission when it was one of the finest churches in Japan and when it was one of the worst. A militant stand for Jesus brought blessing and tyrannical legalism brought death. Two years ago I was in the area and really didn’t want to go there, but I thought I should stop by. I was delighted to see that Pastor Ishiguro’s son, Isaac, is now the pastor. At one time he had to break the death grip and go on following the Lord against the fierce opposition of Miss Whewell and his father. His father later apologized to him and said, “You were right.” Dear Isaac is 50 years old today and is a real man of God. The Lord is again visiting Mino Mission.

Praise God!   bill

Praise God!

                                    bill