Blogging Our Furlough

We've been back in Japan now for a couple of weeks, and it is so nice to be here. We stopped first of all in a city with an American naval base where there is a military church that supports us. It was great to see the people there again. Then we flew up here to our island of Hokkaido, to our own little four room apartment and our own bed (the one with the too-hard mattress the salesman talked us into buying).

It's been great to see all of our Japanese believers and friends. The people are what being a missionary is all about. There is Mr. Ueno, who trusted Christ when his Christian wife died of cancer. There is Mr. Habazaki, who was saved through one of my tracts and was my evangelism partner for so many years before having a stroke and being put in that home for dementia patients. There is Mrs. Takasugi, our pianist, suffering from cancer. There is Mr. Usuki, our yakuza (Japanese mafia) who trusted Christ as Savior. There is Mrs. Fujii, who is lost but loves Patty and went shopping with her this morning. There is Junko, Patty's other lost Japanese friend who loves her. There are Patty's English students. There is Mr. Hashiba who is still lost but studies the Bible with me on Thursdays. There is Mr. Kodama, the Methodist who wants to be a pastor and takes Greek from me. And many others.

Looking back, this furlough we traveled over 30,000 miles in our faithful 2007 Chevy Impala. I preached my mother's funeral shortly after arriving. I preached in 48 churches in 19 states and passed through or visited people in several other states. In Virginia we were honored for being on the mission field for 30 years with a beautiful jeweled globe inscribed with our names, and in Tennessee I was honored with my 8th degree black rank by the Temple Chinese Boxing Association. I got to speak in a seminary class about being our ministry. All in all, it was a wonderful furlough.

I'll close this post and this blog with the outline of a sermon I preached in many of those churches:

A New Look at the Great Commission
Mark 16:14-18​

INTRO: My Dad and Mom were missionaries and soul winners, and I thank God for their heritage. In the 1940’s they prepared to be missionaries to Tibet under the China Inland Mission, but were told after “boot camp” that my mother was not well enough. That did not stop them from winning souls and planting churches in America. Mom was always witnessing to our friends from school. As a pastor, Dad never built a large church, but always witnessed for Christ. When Mom died, my sister found in her things a little NT used by my father for five years when he pastored in Colorado. In the back were marks for 83 souls led to Christ! Before we went to Japan, my parents told me that I was fulfilling their debt to Asia, where they were not allowed to go.

Transition: Let's take a fresh look at the Great Commission.​

I. The Command is Cooperation—“Go ye”​

A. Did you ever think about the plural here? Missions is a team effort.
B. We reach Japan together in support (Phil. 4:10, 14-19) and prayer (Eph. 6:18-20; 2 Thess. 3:1-2). (2 Cor. 1:11)
C. ILLUS: The way missionaries in Japan tried to help in the triple disaster of March 2011 (earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant failure) was a team effort. Our church sent down NTs and supplies. Miss Shimobo was saved in our church partly because of the disaster.

II. The Command is Comprehensive—“Into all the world”
A. God loves the world (John 3:16).
B. Christ’s command is to “all nations.” (Luke 24:27, Rom. 1:5).
C. 2000 languages, 340,000,000 people with no Bible.
D. ILLUS: God led me to take a missions trip to a Muslim country after lecturing on Islam to our pastors’ fellowship and saying, “If you ever have a chance to witness for Christ to a Muslim, do so, because God loves them.”

III. The Command is Compassionate—“And preach the Gospel”
A. The Gospel is all people need for life (Rom. 1:16).
B. You can't add to it (Gal. 1:6-9). It's perfect for all.
C. ILLUS: The Japanese are easy to admire, hard to love, since they are Gospel resistant. But God loves them so we continue to do our best in Japan.

IV. The Command is Complete—“To every creature.”​

A. God loves every person you meet or see (2 Pe. 3:9), even if they are hard to love: wicked, mocking, sinful people.
B. God is sad when the wicked die (Ez. 18:23, 33:11).
C. ILLUS: Usuki San is a Yakuza member (Japanese mafia) who has been to prison 3 times. But God saved him and he is a member of our church—though we have a hard time loving him because he is still crude and rude, like the Yakuza. But we love him for Christ’s sake.

INVITATION: 1. What unlikely people does God want you to witness to? 2. What more can you do for world evangelism?

 

P. S. Thanks so much to each of you who have followed this thread. I hope you enjoyed my posts. I tried to tell what the human side of furlough is like, rather than reporting all of my sermons and so forth.

 

Glad you enjoyed it, brother, and thanks for the prayers. You can download our prayer card from our website. (It's an older one, but I can't get them to change it.)

 

Glad you enjoyed it. Maybe the young man will come to Japan!! The missions teacher out there is Don Cisk, who was a missionary to Japan for a long time.

 

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Thanks for the prayers! :wavey: