Brother Izawa

1 March 2015

Dear Phyllis,

The biggest news in town continues to be my wife. My goodness she is leading people to Christ on almost a daily basis. In the past two weeks she has led two crippled boys and a blind lady to the Lord. I wrote about Om two or three weeks ago. He came to live with us but after a few days went up to Fang – about 100 km north – and has decided to stay up there.

In almost every letter I report what a marked change I have seen in Pammy. A few months ago there was a kookie couple that I did not care for but Pammy was quite enamored with them. They settled themselves in to take a major part in the leadership of her church. I prayed about that relationship and was surprised when the thing came unglued and she asked them to leave. Praise the Lord!

Pammy has a long history as an ordained pastor of the UPC (United Pentecostal Church) and liked her denomination very much. I told you how I was there for their annual conference three weeks ago and lasted one day. I flat didn't like it but Pammy seemed to enjoy it. There is a brother here who is very sensitive about doctrinal error. He is so sensitive that four years ago he cut me off for being a false prophet. He sent me a couple of articles about UPC proving that they were a false cult. There were a few things about UPC that I don't care for but I am a long ways away from calling them a false cult. And the charges against them were so hair splitting it was hard for me to write them off. But Steve called me the other day to talk about a different issue. Then he asked, “Is your wife there?” “Yes” “Could I speak with her?” I called her and was a little concerned when she got off the phone soon and said he wanted to come over here to talk with her. At that point I was concerned about having someone come to our house to attack my wife. But I was going out for a couple of hours.

Two hours later when I got home I asked if Steve had come. “Yes” “How did you make out?” “Oh, it was wonderful. The Holy Spirit really did a wonderful thing in the way that we were able to talk.” I was stunned. The next day she said, “I really thank the Lord for Steve coming yesterday. The Lord has shown me that I shouldn't get too involved with the UPC.” The thing that Lord spoke to Pammy about was not the doctrinal issue but the man made organizational issue. She wants to be more independent and work with a broader spectrum of Christians. Praise God!

One of the crippled boys that Pammy prayed with for salvation last week is a pretty bad case. He is about 22. When he was three he fell and damaged his brain. I don't know why that affected his legs but he can't walk and it looks like his right arm is more or less paralyzed. More than that he has a speech impediment. When I saw him I thought if this boy goes on with God he could be a Thai version of Izawa sensei.

Izawa sensei was the most unusual evangelist I ever met in my life. Brother Izawa was born around 1905. When he was born he was such a deformed freak that the delivering doctor told the mother, “Let me destroy him.” The unsaved mother said, “No, let him live. God has a purpose for him.” That was how brother Izawa began life. He was just a mass of twisted protien. Usually children like that live only a short time and die but Izawa lived on. When he was 15 he still couldn't walk. He went to a famous Buddhist priest and asked him, “Sensei, why am I born like this?” The priest told him, “It was because you were a very bad person in your former life. Now you come back like this and have to suffer.” Izawa thought, if that is the way the system works, lets spin the wheel again and get on to the next life. Maybe the next time I can come back as a house cat or a bull frog or something different.

He went out and was sitting on the railroad tracks waiting for a train to come along to help him get out of this life to the next when he heard singing in the distance. He crawled off the tracks and got to the place where the music was coming from. Some Christians were having a street meeting. Izawa heard the Gospel of Jesus and was born again of the Spirit of God. He had never gone to school but taught himself to read and write, and ultimately was able to go to Bible school. Four years later he had completed the curriculum but no one wanted a freak for a pastor. He said, “Alright, if man won't ordain me God will”; and he went out to stand on a street corner to preach for two years.

After two years a very outstanding sister in the Bible school went to the principal and said, “Sensei, God has told me that I am supposed to marry Brother Izawa”. The principal replied, “Sister, don't do it. Don't waste your life. Brother Izawa can't live long. You are a very gifted girl with a bright future. Don't throw your life away.” So she married him.

He was such a freak that the police thought he was funny and left him alone during the war. For the ten years of intense persecution he was one of the very few churches in Japan that the police ignored and he was free to preach right through to the end.

Severely deformed people are not supposed to have children but they had eight. Two are PHD university professors, three are pastors, and two are pastors wives. All of them are brilliant.

He had a large church in Chiba and traveled as an evangelist. He had written several well known books in Japan and was a well known man of God. I met him in 1978 when he came to Karuizawa for special dendo (evangelism) meetings. He was still hard to listen to. His speech was stuttering and somewhat guttural. But the message he preached was powerful. Of course his wife was with him who gave the testimony of his life. Oh my goodness I was floored. Lord, give us more Izawas.

What a Savior!

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