Mino Mission and Betty Whewell

12 January 2014

Dear Phyllis,

The other day I was talking to Dave Moore about Mino Mission stories, and remarked someone should write a book about that. As I thought about my remark, I decided that I am the one who should write the book. To do some research, I looked up Mino Mission on Google, and was shocked that all they had listed was written by Bill Cook. I was stunned to discover a PB letter that I wrote 4 years ago. That was exactly what I was going to write this week. If you want to read that letter you can find it by typing in www.billcookpbletter.blogspot.com. That letter that I wrote in 2010 was excellent, but that will probably be as close to a book that will ever be written.

I have said that most Christian biographies are not honest. What they say is true, but they do not mention the complete picture. Every person, and every organization, has two sides – the good side and the bad side. It is rare that you see both sides in a book. It is not encouraging to tell the down side, and so, in most cases, we only tell the good stuff. But in life we all must endure the dark side of any person we work with. For new Christians this can be very confusing. In my early years, my admiration for Joe Carroll boarded on worship. I thought he was absolute flawless. Along with being worlds greatest preacher, I intensely felt he was the greatest Christian I had ever met. Years later I saw all the warts that brought him down to sit with the rest of us as one having serious blind-spots.

Betty Whewell was a character. She was Mino Mission. But she was the most controversial person I ever met. Unfortunately, in my book of recollection, most of the pages are really bad stories. The reason I am sharing some of these stories is to illustrate the fact that God uses very imperfect people. In our minds, we feel that the most outstanding vessels in God's hands are the most flawless. There may be a few Daniels and Josephs of whom the scripture has nothing negative to say, but David's stunt of murdering a very loyal man to cover his own dalliance with adultery is one of the darkest moments in the Bible. He was still mightily used and a man after God's own heart (Act 13:22).

Betty Whewell was – on a scale of 1 to 10 – about a 12 as an extremist. Her good points distinguished her as one of the greatest missionaries in Japan, and her bad points were equally shocking.

When I was associated with the Mino Mission, in the early 1960s, I felt their churches were the finest in Japan. The church in Yokkaichi was the largest and the best church in Mie-ken (prefecture). And I don't know where you could find its equivalent in all the country. The basic reason for its high quality was Betty's extremism. You talk about something Bible centered; man howdy, you couldn't get more Bible centered than that church was. The thing that made it so unusual is that, to be a Mino Mission believer, you had to say goodbye to your nationality – or even your citizenship in this planet – and become a citizen of a new country – heaven. The Bible talks about dying to self and the things of this world – that was it. I have never been in a fellowship where that was more genuine. Every person in that church had died to self, and lived exclusively for the Lord. There was no self-interest, no personal rights, and nothing else on the board except to live for Jesus. They were all under rigid authority. There was a tyrant at the helm who snapped the whip, and everyone did exactly as told.

Joe Carroll used to tell of his introduction. When he first came to Japan in 1954 the first place his ship docked was in Yokkaichi. Somehow, Betty had heard of him, and sent a delegation to the port to Shanghai him. As the ship was going to be in port for a few days, he dutifully accepted the invitation to go to the mission for some special meetings. He had never heard of Mino Mission, and was greatly impressed to find this outstanding group of Christian with their strong mission leader. He was up on the platform preaching and Betty was sitting beside him at her table interpreting for him. After preaching the Gospel, he gave and invitation for salvation, and no one came forward. When there was no response, Betty stood up and walked back in the crowd. She laid hands on the quiet fellow sitting the third on the right and ordered, “You have been here long enough. You get up there and get saved!” Then she walked on ordering various other ones to go forward. Joe was stunned. He stood there wondering, “Who does that woman think she is – the Holy Spirit? Who is she to dictate who, when, or where someone gets saved?” But to Joe's utter astonishment, the ones who dutifully went forward got saved and stuck. As Jesus was the incarnate Christ in the flesh, Betty Whewell was virtually the incarnate Holy Spirit in the flesh. She was the physical representation of the Holy Spirit. But the strange thing was, the flesh the Holy Spirit was in, was Betty Whewell's flesh. There was zero tolerance for anyone one else's flesh in that place, but her flesh was intensely prominent.

That zero tolerance for personal ambition produced some fantastic Christians. They had given up everything, and Jesus was their life. He was all they lived for. They had a complete break with Japanese culture. The slightest ting of idolatry was totally absent. They were uncompromising to the extreme. Buying ANYTHING on Sunday was strictly forbidden. One morning a mother was bringing a five year old son to church who threw a fit going past a candy store. The wicked mother stopped to buy 5 yen worth of candy to calm the kid down. When she got to church, and it was known she had just bought that candy, there was an uproar like you would not believe. She had to tearfully repent, and stand before the entire church to confess her sin. That was the worst incident of church discipline of dealing with gross sin that month. One Sunday I picked up the news paper laying on the table, and Betty snapped, “Bill, you put that down! We don't read the news paper on Sunday. The only thing we read is the Bible. I don't want any Christian seeing you looking at it.” “Yes, ma'am”

Fraternization between male and female was unthinkable. Men sat on one side of the church and women sat on the other. Husbands and wives were not allowed to sit together. One time there was a funeral where the church was filled. The lady's side was packed and some women were sitting on the men's side. I was sitting on a bench by myself listening to the message when a lady came in and sat on the other end of the bench. I didn't notice her. Betty stood up and sternly told me, “Bill, you get up and move. I don't want you sitting with that lady.” “Yes, ma'am.” One year at the mission conference, the speaker wanted to sing a special, and asked me to interpret, so he could speak with the organist. That noon Betty learned that I had interpreted for the speaker, and burned my ears. I protested saying, “I only interpreted for him in a crowd of 120 people.” “Bill Cook, I told you never to speak with those girls!!!” “Yes, ma'am.”

The only thing permitted in anyone's life was the Bible and prayer. Oh my goodness did those believers know the Bible! One year an American pastor was the speaker at the annual conference. Every time he would mention a Bible verse Betty would have the entire congregation quote that verse from memory. There wasn't another church on this planet that knew the Bible as well as Mino Mission Christians.

Recreation was street preaching. If a person was saved, it was assumed you had to go to street meetings and give your testimony. Mino Mission Christians didn't know that there were Christians in Japan who didn't go to street meetings. The only time we didn't have a street meeting was when it was raining; and then you did hospital evangelism. I folded tracts, and knew from personal count, that in one years there were 250,000 tracts passed out. You can't do dendo (evangelism) more intensely than Mino Mission.

The spiritual atmosphere was terrific. You can't get more intense, pure, believers than they had at Mino Mission. Jesus was held up as high as you could get Him. Every one in that church was totally sold out to Christ. There simply was no middle ground. That was the only place I have ever been where I felt sorry for the devil. He took lumps there that would make him long for hell. I often said there was no place where my spirit was more blessed and my flesh was more challenged. Being around Betty was maddening. The only way I stayed in the land of the sane was by a life of intense personal devotions. I would get up every morning at 4 AM and spend 5 or 6 hours in deep Bible study and prayer. Without that I would have gone crazy.

She was as neurotic a woman as was ever allowed to walk the streets. One time she was riding in a car with Joe Carroll, and started hysterically screaming. Her outburst frightened the Carroll children, and they started crying. Joe stopped the car and said, “The next sound out of anyone, and we are going straight home.” They had never had a refrigerator until Ron Blough got them a good American refrigerator. Betty was unbelievably pyrophobic. She knew if they left the refrigerator plugged in at night, they certainly would wake up with the house in flames. She insisted that Jane Smith unplug the refrigerator every night. It lasted one year before the compressor went. The horror stories I could tell about Betty Whewell are legion. Pastor Ishiguro and I used to go up to the mountains to the Ichinoseis every Friday night for a Bible study/home meeting. One time Pastor Ishiguro couldn't go, and Betty was concerned what to do. The answer was to send two other brothers with me, and read the CI Scofield Bible notes. The next morning Betty called me to ask how we made put the night before. “Oh, we had a great time.” “Did you read the CI Scofield notes as I told you?” “Yes ma'am. We read those notes, and then had a good discussion about the Bible.” “No you didn't. Those Christians are too young to have an unstructured discussion about the Bible.” “Okay, we didn't have a discussion about the Bible.” You couldn't blow your nose at Mino Mission without asking for permission. Absolutely everything was done according to Betty Whewell's flesh. Individuality was strictly forbidden.

I lasted one year, and, fortunately, got sick, and had to return to the states for a medical furlough. That saved me. When I went back to Japan, I returned to Karuizawa for more language study, and remained there for the next 15 years. By keeping things at arms length I was able to stay in good fellowship with Mino Mission. But in 1988 I got trapped into speaking there one Sunday. It was awful! It was like preaching to a room full of zombies. Every thing was totally plastic. The smiles, the “joy of the Lord”, the testimonies – everything was utterly synthetic. A huge number of the original believers had left, and the new ones were doing as told. That was one of the worst times of my life.

Five years later I was at the Ikoma Bible school, and met a boy who said his favorite translation was the Bungo tai Bible. I said. “The only place I know in Japan that uses the Bungo tai is Mino Mission.” “Yes, that is my home church.” I was stunned. I asked, “Were you there in 1988?” Then he looked at me and exclaimed, “Were you the man who spoke on Micah 7:18?” I couldn't believe it! He said that was the best service they had that year. My message was like it had been recorded on a CD in his heart. He said there had only been two guest speakers that year, and he remembered both messages. I told him that was me, and what he recalled as two messages were actually the one I spoke.

Betty is with the Lord. Ishiguro sensei can no longer preach. His son, John, has stepped forward, and brought new life. It looks like Mino Mission is on its way up again.

Praise the Lord,

                                          bill