John Cathcart

12 July 2015

Dear Phyllis,

Of the hundreds of missionaries I have known over the years I would rate John Cathcart in the top 5%. John is the most child-like man I have ever met. Child-likeness is not a high priority attribute to put on resume for a job application but in the Kingdom of God it is a mark of greatness. All three synoptic gospels record the incident of the disciples disputing among themselves who was the greatest. To end that dispute, Jesus took a child set him before them. In Mathew 18:3,4 it is recorded that Jesus said, “Except ye be converted and become like little children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven. Whosoever shall humble himself as this little child, the same shall be the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.” In God's sight child-likeness is greatness.

Tenri City is probably the spookiest city in Japan. It is the headquarters of Tenri Kyo which is the third largest religion in Japan. Until 1982 no one had the courage to go in there with the Gospel. John Cathcart was the first one to raise the flag for Jesus. After getting put out of two or three places John decided his only hope was to build a church. Like an idiot he started walking around asking farmers to rent him a rice field to build a church on it. Amazingly in 1986 Kami no Ai (The Love of God) church was built. It has never become a mega church but it has been there for nearly 30 years and from it five other churches have sprung up. And John's faith was the example that encouraged Nagai sensei to build and establish the Gospel Town Bible School in Sendai.

After serving the Lord for ten years in Japan John felt the Lord would have him go to Russia. He was there for only a little over a year but did astounding things. One of the craziest was to go into the public school system. John would get in his car, drive to a large school there in Siberia, and walk into the principal's office unannounced. He would say to the principal, “I want you to cancel all your classes, get everyone in the auditorium, and let me preach the Gospel to them.” If that isn't insane I don't know what is. The first time John tried that, it got real quiet in the room. He thought to himself, “Oh oh, this is where I disappear and wind up in a Siberian prison”. After a long silence, the principal would raise his head and say, “We have had 70 years of communism. Let's try something else.” The principal would then ring the bell, cancel all the classes, and assemble everyone in the auditorium. John would get up on the stage, preach the Gospel for an hour, and give an invitation for salvation. After praying with dozens who came forward for salvation, John would pass out Bibles to everyone in the school. As he packed his car the principal would thank him for coming and invite him to come back. Then John would drive to another school and do it all over again. That beats any stunt I have ever heard of in reaching souls for Jesus. Nobody in their right mind would dream of doing something like that.

Vanya was one of the best books to come out of Russia during the cold war. It was the testimony of courageous young Russian soldier who was tortured to death for his faith. John read it first in 1987 and loaned it to me. In 1994 I was with John doing dendo (evangelism) in Siberia. The situation varied considerably depending on where you were. Where I was in Chernigovka the mayor was wonderful. But where John was 200 km further north the police were giving them a real hard time. But John said there was a Baptist pastor in that town that was fearless and refused to back down. After the meeting that night the pastor invited John to come home and stay with him. As they were drinking tea the pastor said, “I would like to tell you about my son.” He got part way into the testimony when suddenly it struck John that this was Vanya's father. John said that was the greatest night of his life.

Monday Pammy and I were going into Chiang Mai in our car. We were sitting at a red light when suddenly smoke poured out from under our hood. We suspected something might be wrong. Pammy turned right, went 100 meters, and pulled into a Shell gas station. It turned out that this was not just a gas station but also a garage where many people brought their cars for repair. A mechanic looked under our hood and discovered that an electric motor that cools the radiator had come loose and burned up. Amazingly they said they could get a new motor and fix it at that garage. They had a very nice waiting room with nice chairs, TV, and free coffee. There was another man sitting in there waiting to get his car fixed. Compulsively, Pammy never draws a breath that she isn't witnessing telling someone about Jesus. Predictably, we hadn't been there five minutes until she was sharing the Gospel with this man. She is so aggressive she embarrasses me. I usually wind up praying for the other person that they won't be offended. She had a Gospel of John and a tract that she was showing him. Then she called me over and said, “Please pray for him.” Why not? So I dutifully prayed in English and then Pammy prayed for an hour (slightly evangelistic, but it was a long time) for him. I was amazed. It seemed to be an extremely positive witness. The man seemed to be genuinely interested and thanked Pammy before he left.

Our car was going to take a little longer, so we decided to take a song tau (pickup truck bus) home and get the car later. Later that afternoon Pammy went back to the garage to get our car. Two hours later she came home with a lady she had just led to Christ. This gal had ridden her bicycle to town and left it next to the garage. Along with everyone else in sight Pammy witnessed to her, prayed with her for salvation, and brought her home to introduce her to me. She also had several pictures she had taken with her Samsung Galaxy of all the workers at the gas station holding up tracts she had given them. The car repair cost us $75 but it thought that was a bargain to see someone saved. The next day Pammy asked me, “Who can we witness to today?” I said, “I don't know unless maybe we could have a flat tire some place.”

I admire her zeal but I looks to me like she has a couple of loose screws. Normal people can't witness like that. You have to be a little bit crazy. The only problem with loose screws is that it is important that Jesus loosened them. People with missing parts are dangerous.

Lord Jesus, loosen our frozen tongues.

                                                                                bill