Child Like

2 August 2020

Dear Phyllis,

The other day the Lord spoke to me in a strange way from a verse that I knew very well. The disciples asked Jesus who would be the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. And Jesus replied, “Except ye be converted and become as little children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.” (Mt. 18:3). Anyone who has been saved more than two or three years should have read this verse four or five times. I have known it for many years and it is strange that I have never heard a message on it. The other day it came to me with fresh light. I was amazed that for 63 years I have been misreading it. Jesus said, “You must be converted”. When I read it, I have always thought that what He was saying was, “You've got to get saved”. When I read converted I always interpreted that as saved. The word converted never crossed my mind. Converted mean changed. If you read it that way, the verse takes on a whole new meaning. If we are going to get converted the question might be raised, from what to what? If we are going to get converted to be children it stands to reason that we are supposed to get changed from being an adult to being a child. That doesn't make much sense. That doesn't sound very Christian. If you are really mad at someone you might say, “When are you going to grow up?”. Or. “Stop acting like a child”. I don't know anyone who thinks the system should go the other way. But that is exactly what Jesus said. If that is the way the system works, and we are supposed to move from being an adult to being like a child, I'm afraid heaven is going to be a lonely place.

I have written about this and it is a chapter in The Inverted Kingdom. In that I said, “Some of the best missionaries I know are the most child-like.” Dave Martin was one. Dave Martin was stupid; he would do anything. One time he stood on his head in a pulpit. There is not one normal pastor in Japan would do that, but Dave was just like a child, and he was one of the best missionaries in the country.

But when I think of child-likeness I always think of John Cathcart. John Cathcart has got to be in the top tier of the greatest missionaries in Japan. And he was one of the stupidest. Some of the dumb stunts he would pull would drive a saint to drink. But John Cathcart stands by himself as a pioneer with few like him. It was his simplicity and child-likeness that made him so tremendously outstanding. He would do things that no one else would think of or dare to do. And the Lord usually blessed him for it.

Tenri City was the spookiest town in Japan. It was the headquarters for the Tenri religion and a city of over 70,000 people. And for 200 years no Christian dared to go into Tenri to proclaim the Gospel. It was one of the few towns in Japan that, if you knew nothing about it, and were passing through on a motor bike, a bad feeling would race up and down on your spine. John Cathcart went into Tenri in 1983 and started the first Christian church – which is thriving today. I have written to you several time about that church.

If you would choose one word to describe John it would have to be pioneer. He was the trail blazer. Gloria has got to stand by herself as one of the greatest missionary wives in the world. They met and married when they were together in Bible school in San Antonio. When John asked Gloria to marry him he told her, “Our first target will be Japan and then our next target will be Russia. That was in 1980 when Russia was still closed.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989 and Russia opened up, John and Gloria began studying Russian with a fine Russian couple that lived in their town. After studying a year and the elderly Russian coupled learned that they were serious about going there, they panicked. The woman cried and pleaded, “Please don't go. They will kill or kidnap your children.” Gloria said she seriously thought about buying a pistol to protect her children. Their youngest son, Johnny had bad Asama. One night he had a serious attack and John had to take him to the doctor in the middle of the night. It was 3:00 AM when they got to the doctor's clinic and Johnny seemed to be settling down a little; so John waited until 7:00 before he rang the door bell. When the doctor learned that they had been there for four hours waiting in the car, he was furious. He sternly told John, “Don't you ever pull a stunt like this again! I don't care what time it is day or night, ring the bell. That boy might have died.” John was greatly chastened by the rebuke by the doctor. He checked on the Asama condition in Vladivostok and found that it was one of the worst places in the world. For a year the devil had some good advice to share with John. Daily, John heard, “If you take that boy to Vladivostok you will be carrying him to his early grave. His blood will be on your hands.” Good advice, but John just kept pushing ahead. They lived in Vladivostok two years and Johnny never had another Asama attack. He was healed.

While John and Gloria were in Russia he pulled a stunt that never has been duplicated. One day he loaded his car with Bibles and tracts and drove 100 km out in the country to a fairly large high school. He walked in the principal's office and announced that he was an American missionary and had come to Russia to share the good news about Jesus. He told the principal that he wanted him to close all classes, get everyone in the auditorium, and he wanted to preach to them for an hour. The room got real quiet. John thought, “Well this is it. I hope someone tells Gloria what happened to me”. After a long pause, the principal raised his head and said, “We have had 70 years of communism. Let's try something different”. He rang the bell, got every in the auditorium, and John preached the Gospel for an hour; he gave an invitation for salvation, did counseling, and then went out to load his car. The principal came out to thank him, and invited him to come back again. Then John got in his car and drove to another school to do it all over again. For weeks and months John reached schools all over that area of the Russian Far East. He got on television and had a weekly one hour prime time TV gospel broadcast. He started many churches and baptized hundreds of believers. Like in Japan, he did many things that nobody in their right mind would think of or dare to try. John was crazy, he was just like a child, but that was what made him great.

He was only in Russia for two years and then came back to Japan for another year. In 1994 it was my great sorrow that he said he was leaving Japan to return to the states to live in Montana. I said, “Brother after you have gotten established and done so much, why in the world are you tossing in the towel and quitting now?” He replied, “I'm not quitting, but I am going home to save my family. My children don't know who they are. They don't know if they are Americans, Japanese, or Russians. After they get sorted out I will be back”. I couldn't argue with that. He was a missionary who put his family first. That was a very good idea. I have seen a number of missionaries who sacrificed their family and lost them.

John went back to rural Montana and started a church called Last Chance Chapel. I thought, that is just like John Carcart to call his church, The Last Chance Chapel, but I was surprised when he told me that was actually the name of the town established by a gold prospector who said, “This is my last chance” and struck gold there. I had the privilege of preaching there ten years ago and found it the best church I have been in in America.

His goal to save his children paid off. Everyone has turned out spectacular. Three came back to Japan as missionaries. Joseph turned out to be better than his dad. He is not as crazy as his father but he has penetrated the culture and has become more one with the Japanese than John was ever able to.

The Lord has not made many like John Cathcart, but John has been a model of what it is to be child-like, and this is the standard for those who want to be in the Kingdom of God. May God help us to be so.

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