1
00:00:01,528 --> 00:00:03,018
Good afternoon.

2
00:00:03,978 --> 00:00:05,500
I think maybe I'm double micing.

3
00:00:05,500 --> 00:00:06,260
I?

4
00:00:06,620 --> 00:00:07,500
Okay.

5
00:00:07,861 --> 00:00:08,858
Making sure.

6
00:00:08,858 --> 00:00:10,682
I'm not used to this body mic.

7
00:00:11,942 --> 00:00:13,003
All right.

8
00:00:14,003 --> 00:00:20,346
So as you all know, my wife and I recently made a missionary survey trip out to Japan.

9
00:00:20,446 --> 00:00:23,807
And that is what we are going to be talking about this evening.

10
00:00:24,187 --> 00:00:27,269
Some of the things that we discovered there were good.

11
00:00:27,269 --> 00:00:30,350
And some of the things we discovered there were very bad as well.

12
00:00:31,130 --> 00:00:42,417
It's a nation that is crippled by false beliefs and false deities, but also full of a
people that are hungry for the Word of God.

13
00:00:42,758 --> 00:00:48,341
The ones that know it and believe it are literally begging for more missionaries to come
over.

14
00:00:48,562 --> 00:00:49,462
But...

15
00:00:49,742 --> 00:00:54,902
Japan as a whole is a wonderful country, one I've always wanted to visit as a young child.

16
00:00:54,902 --> 00:01:04,342
And as I grew up, I noticed that there is more use to going there than what I had
originally perceived being young, that being the spread of God's word.

17
00:01:04,442 --> 00:01:07,362
Japan itself is a country on the other side of the planet.

18
00:01:07,362 --> 00:01:11,602
For us getting there, it was about 16 hours total flight.

19
00:01:11,602 --> 00:01:18,902
So we flew out from Memphis out to Chicago, and it took a 12 hour flight from Chicago all
the way to Japan.

20
00:01:19,746 --> 00:01:23,557
the North, the Great Circle route, I believe it is, over the top.

21
00:01:23,557 --> 00:01:26,208
And we landed at about 6 p.m.

22
00:01:26,208 --> 00:01:30,139
in the evening and didn't make it to our hotel until about 11.

23
00:01:30,139 --> 00:01:37,961
The population of Japan, as it is right now, is about 124.5 million people.

24
00:01:38,041 --> 00:01:41,882
That is a lot of people as of the last survey that was taken.

25
00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:56,330
It is one of the most populated countries in the entire world and it is home to Tokyo, the
largest city in the world, which the city itself houses 47 million of the people of all

26
00:01:56,330 --> 00:01:57,380
Japan.

27
00:01:58,501 --> 00:02:07,708
These people, if you've ever seen photos of Japan, you see, especially photos of Tokyo,
lots of high rise buildings, apartment complexes and the such like.

28
00:02:07,708 --> 00:02:11,130
There are a lot of people in a very small...

29
00:02:12,927 --> 00:02:18,809
The entire country itself is only slightly larger than California as I show here on the
map.

30
00:02:18,809 --> 00:02:27,402
I actually found out before coming tonight that there's a program I could use to overlay
it with several states and so I overlaid it over top of California to give you a nice

31
00:02:27,402 --> 00:02:30,734
visual representation of what it looks like.

32
00:02:30,806 --> 00:02:35,907
We have so many missionaries and churches going to all over the United States.

33
00:02:35,907 --> 00:02:43,409
There's plenty out in California, and yet the lack of them that are in Japan itself is
stifling.

34
00:02:44,250 --> 00:02:47,170
It's also known as the tech capital of the world.

35
00:02:47,170 --> 00:02:53,132
And yes, for the young folks, I did take the opportunity to stick a photo of a Gundam in
there, because why not?

36
00:02:53,132 --> 00:02:57,973
They're cool mechs from Japanese anime and animation.

37
00:02:59,474 --> 00:03:00,934
Now here's the bad.

38
00:03:01,270 --> 00:03:12,958
less than 0.5%, half of a percent of the entire nation identifies as Christian in general,
let alone biblically accurate Christians.

39
00:03:12,958 --> 00:03:14,979
They're even fewer than that.

40
00:03:16,521 --> 00:03:27,508
As far as I've heard from now Fukushima, Shinozaki-san out in Shizuoka and Ikawa-san out
in Ochanomizu, I know these are hard to pronounce names.

41
00:03:27,809 --> 00:03:29,890
It took some practice to get used to it.

42
00:03:30,382 --> 00:03:35,122
I only heard of less than 10 missionaries in the entire country.

43
00:03:36,182 --> 00:03:38,162
And yet how many do we have in the US?

44
00:03:38,162 --> 00:03:43,182
How many do we have in Africa, Europe, Asia?

45
00:03:43,182 --> 00:03:49,322
There's lots around, but less than 10 that I've heard of by name in Japan alone.

46
00:03:49,802 --> 00:03:57,522
50 % of the Christians that do attend church in Japan, only half of them attend regularly.

47
00:03:58,068 --> 00:04:02,059
most consider it more of a convenience or a once a month thing.

48
00:04:02,059 --> 00:04:04,120
They're not going all the time.

49
00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:16,363
Thankfully, the church that we stayed at in a place just northwest of Tokyo called
Tachikawa, the Tachikawa church has members there that thankfully attend all the time.

50
00:04:16,363 --> 00:04:19,924
Same for the churches, the other churches that we visited while we were there.

51
00:04:20,084 --> 00:04:27,104
Unfortunately, Japan is a nation where the beliefs and religions of Shintoism and Buddhism

52
00:04:27,104 --> 00:04:28,815
are very prevalent.

53
00:04:28,895 --> 00:04:32,336
Now Shintoism is something we don't typically hear about.

54
00:04:32,336 --> 00:04:38,239
Mostly we hear about Buddhism and we think of, you know, the fat Buddha statue you see at
the Chinese restaurants.

55
00:04:38,239 --> 00:04:43,622
I used to jokingly walk past it and I'd rub his belly for good luck and didn't mean
anything.

56
00:04:43,622 --> 00:04:48,384
We know that the Bible says that our Lord is more than just rock and gold.

57
00:04:48,384 --> 00:04:50,344
He's the only living God.

58
00:04:50,345 --> 00:04:52,316
But they don't see it this way.

59
00:04:52,316 --> 00:04:53,406
We got to think...

60
00:04:53,998 --> 00:04:59,000
Christianity has only been in Japan for roughly the past two to three hundred years.

61
00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:01,001
It has not been there very long at all.

62
00:05:01,001 --> 00:05:04,903
Their technological advances came very very quickly to them.

63
00:05:04,903 --> 00:05:09,205
Before that you had the end of the Edo period, which was like the end of the samurai.

64
00:05:09,205 --> 00:05:14,667
You had great wars happening where the different shogunate classes would fight each other.

65
00:05:14,667 --> 00:05:20,429
And now even their emperors, kind of like the Queen of England, he's only the emperor in
name alone.

66
00:05:20,609 --> 00:05:22,430
But what is Shintoism?

67
00:05:22,562 --> 00:05:28,766
Shintoism is a belief structure that believes in many gods, or the Japanese word kami.

68
00:05:28,766 --> 00:05:34,228
Kami are demons and spirits and gods of all natures and sizes.

69
00:05:34,689 --> 00:05:43,374
These reside in nature, in the rocks, in the streams, in the trees, within yourself even.

70
00:05:43,374 --> 00:05:49,317
Shintoism is a very odd thought process for us to come into terms with.

71
00:05:49,397 --> 00:05:51,618
It has emphasis on purity,

72
00:05:52,195 --> 00:05:54,976
and reverence.

73
00:05:56,618 --> 00:05:59,700
I think that lends itself to why Japan is so clean.

74
00:06:00,081 --> 00:06:05,786
You go down the streets and even their subways are cleaner than some of our streets that
we have throughout Memphis.

75
00:06:05,786 --> 00:06:07,847
They're incredibly beautiful.

76
00:06:07,928 --> 00:06:12,151
But it's a big portion due to Shintoism.

77
00:06:12,652 --> 00:06:17,936
Shintoism even pushes forth the idea of worshipping one's ancestors.

78
00:06:17,936 --> 00:06:20,428
They have this thought process that

79
00:06:20,622 --> 00:06:25,242
Whoever the oldest in your family is deserves the most honor.

80
00:06:25,242 --> 00:06:36,022
And we give honor to our elders, like the Bible teaches us to, those that are older, more
experienced from us, but they take it to an extreme, to where the further back that they

81
00:06:36,022 --> 00:06:43,222
can trace their lineage, the more honor their family holds.

82
00:06:45,206 --> 00:06:53,213
Another crazy part about Shintoism is there's no scripture, there's no proof, there's no
book of prophecies or anything like that.

83
00:06:53,213 --> 00:07:01,079
This is simply a religion that has been passed down from generation to generation to
generation, all by word of mouth.

84
00:07:01,220 --> 00:07:08,916
You'll find lots of books about Shintoism, but you will not find anything that would even
slightly compare to our Bible.

85
00:07:09,344 --> 00:07:16,896
It's not like some of the other religions where they say, prophet came from the mountains
and wrote this scripture and now this is what we believe in.

86
00:07:18,530 --> 00:07:25,095
Shintoism has first, and we're going to address all of these, Shintoism first has a belief
in many gods or kami.

87
00:07:25,696 --> 00:07:32,122
But the Bible says in Isaiah 45 and verse 5, am the Lord and there is none else.

88
00:07:32,362 --> 00:07:35,104
There is no God beside me.

89
00:07:36,486 --> 00:07:42,211
In Deuteronomy 6 and verse 4, we hear Him say, hear O Israel, the Lord is our God.

90
00:07:42,331 --> 00:07:45,806
The Lord our God is one Lord, not many.

91
00:07:45,806 --> 00:07:53,840
There's not one in the rock, there's not one in the stream, there's not one in the trees,
there's not one within me and you, there's not a self-preserving God, there's only one

92
00:07:53,840 --> 00:07:54,811
God.

93
00:07:55,551 --> 00:08:04,937
But this is something that has, I almost want to use the word indoctrinated them, or
brainwashed, but it's something that they've been raised with for generations and

94
00:08:04,937 --> 00:08:08,979
generations to believe that there's gods everywhere.

95
00:08:08,979 --> 00:08:14,786
You can walk down the streets of Tokyo and even in the back alleys find these little
shrines

96
00:08:14,786 --> 00:08:18,969
with a torii gate, the big red gates that you see in the pictures.

97
00:08:18,969 --> 00:08:23,812
And they'll go up and put some incense and bow and rub their hands together.

98
00:08:24,273 --> 00:08:29,676
Now in modern Japan, it's not all necessarily religious either.

99
00:08:29,676 --> 00:08:39,503
Just like we would go to the local fair or we say that, you know, a cat crosses your path,
a black cat, it's bad luck.

100
00:08:39,503 --> 00:08:41,284
It's kind of superstition.

101
00:08:41,664 --> 00:08:44,306
Some of the religious practices they do

102
00:08:44,310 --> 00:08:47,591
especially when going up to the temples, are more of like a cultural thing.

103
00:08:47,591 --> 00:08:52,574
It's not even that they're thinking about the underlying question of, I actually
worshiping this deity?

104
00:08:52,574 --> 00:08:58,936
It's just, my father did it, my grandfather did it, my great-grandfather did it, and so I
need to do it as well.

105
00:08:58,936 --> 00:09:09,801
So they'll come up every appointed day that the shrine priestesses, the shrine maidens
would say, they'll pay their money by the good luck charm, write their prayer on it, hang

106
00:09:09,801 --> 00:09:12,142
it on a tree, and we'll show that a little later.

107
00:09:12,142 --> 00:09:19,682
and then they'll ring the little bell at the beginning of the temple, bow their head, pray
to the little god, and go right back to a sinful life.

108
00:09:20,542 --> 00:09:25,482
A lot of Shintoism and Buddhism, in fact, doesn't even have the concept of sin.

109
00:09:25,722 --> 00:09:29,802
And so this is a whole new concept that we have to bring and have to teach them here.

110
00:09:29,802 --> 00:09:34,202
This is actually one of the shrines here, speaking of kami and multiple gods.

111
00:09:34,422 --> 00:09:42,282
We took the opportunity to visit a shrine that's actually the beginning of a long running
line of belief in kami.

112
00:09:42,306 --> 00:09:45,008
here within the Tokyo province.

113
00:09:45,048 --> 00:09:48,390
So on the outskirts of Tokyo, you'll find this shrine.

114
00:09:48,511 --> 00:09:58,838
And have you all ever seen, you go into the little Chinese restaurant, you see the little
white cat that holds the coin and he's got his little arm doing the thing?

115
00:09:59,118 --> 00:10:03,181
That's actually originates from this shrine.

116
00:10:03,181 --> 00:10:05,983
And he's known as the Mononeki Neko.

117
00:10:06,804 --> 00:10:09,986
They build these large shrines and buildings.

118
00:10:10,094 --> 00:10:12,674
Hundreds of thousands of man hours go into these.

119
00:10:12,674 --> 00:10:17,154
They're beautiful structures, but they're all in worship to false gods.

120
00:10:17,454 --> 00:10:26,313
Here you can actually see one of the small areas that they would come in, very similar to
a funeral plot, which I'll show you later as well, where you have spots for the incense,

121
00:10:26,313 --> 00:10:33,454
and you can see those, yeah, you can see those here, the little incense sticks.

122
00:10:33,454 --> 00:10:35,574
This is a purifying ritual right here.

123
00:10:35,574 --> 00:10:37,058
You would take some of the water.

124
00:10:37,058 --> 00:10:41,022
You would pour it over your hands and wash your hands before you would worship.

125
00:10:41,423 --> 00:10:43,284
And then you have all the cats.

126
00:10:43,465 --> 00:10:48,670
Now this one in particular does not hold the good luck coin, but this is where it all
started.

127
00:10:50,754 --> 00:10:52,514
And they have a lot of them.

128
00:10:53,055 --> 00:10:55,455
Can you guess what they do with a lot of them?

129
00:10:56,176 --> 00:10:57,576
They sell them.

130
00:10:58,336 --> 00:11:00,087
See, they're not stupid.

131
00:11:00,087 --> 00:11:05,478
They know what they're doing over there, especially the shrine priestesses and those
working in the shrine.

132
00:11:05,618 --> 00:11:09,759
Now, I will say, we may have seen the Mononeke Neko.

133
00:11:09,879 --> 00:11:17,641
While we were at the shrine, we caught a glimpse of a cat drinking out of a pool of what
seemed to be dirty water at the base of the shrine.

134
00:11:18,122 --> 00:11:20,042
I can't prove it or not, but.

135
00:11:20,802 --> 00:11:22,183
I'm guessing it wasn't.

136
00:11:22,802 --> 00:11:24,385
It's most likely a straight.

137
00:11:24,725 --> 00:11:30,590
Here we see a good example of some of the cheaper prayers and wishes that you can get
granted.

138
00:11:30,590 --> 00:11:39,588
If you go up to the shrine and approach one of the shrine priestesses, you can buy these
little slips of paper that have been handwritten by the shrine priestesses and will give

139
00:11:39,588 --> 00:11:41,059
you good luck and fortune.

140
00:11:41,059 --> 00:11:42,100
You can see them here.

141
00:11:42,100 --> 00:11:49,646
You tie them in a specific knot, tie them on the tree there, and as they wilt and fall
off, they're supposed to grant you whatever...

142
00:11:49,974 --> 00:11:59,914
It was that you asked for, for a low price of 200 yen, which is roughly, I think, $1.50 in
the United States currency.

143
00:12:00,016 --> 00:12:01,758
But they're selling slips of paper.

144
00:12:03,382 --> 00:12:13,406
If you have more yen and you want to spend about a thousand yen, which is equivalent to a
little about six USD, you can buy these, which are these really nice wooden tablets.

145
00:12:13,406 --> 00:12:17,007
And I actually have one in my backpack right now that we were able to bring back.

146
00:12:17,007 --> 00:12:18,568
I forgot to bring it up here.

147
00:12:18,568 --> 00:12:20,989
But it actually, she's actually pulling it out.

148
00:12:20,989 --> 00:12:23,660
It has the Mononeki Neko on there.

149
00:12:26,690 --> 00:12:34,538
Which is weird because he's sitting in front of the Buddha of all things and it's got a
little bell to make you feel, I don't know, pure or what not.

150
00:12:34,538 --> 00:12:37,774
But you would go to the back and write your wish and...

151
00:12:39,490 --> 00:12:41,291
You wonder what happens to them.

152
00:12:41,292 --> 00:12:44,253
They can't sit up there on the tree indefinitely.

153
00:12:44,474 --> 00:12:49,658
I have the personal belief, and I can't prove this, that these get washed and reused and
resold.

154
00:12:50,819 --> 00:12:54,322
It's a great way to make money, especially if you're at a temple.

155
00:12:55,063 --> 00:12:58,745
Unfortunately, that's one of the facts about Shintoism.

156
00:12:59,847 --> 00:13:01,808
People aren't thinking.

157
00:13:02,149 --> 00:13:04,911
They're going along with passed down tradition.

158
00:13:04,911 --> 00:13:09,174
If it was good enough for mom and grandma and great grandma, it was good enough for me.

159
00:13:09,452 --> 00:13:14,786
But every now and again we run into the Japanese that are willing to listen and willing to
learn.

160
00:13:14,987 --> 00:13:19,961
Evangelism is what I've found so far in Japan doesn't work like it does here in the US.

161
00:13:19,961 --> 00:13:27,437
While we use things like apologetics and we can think through things, they're very much
tradition oriented.

162
00:13:27,578 --> 00:13:30,280
We call it friendship evangelism.

163
00:13:30,280 --> 00:13:37,216
You have to be able to make friends in Japan and get to know them and work in the local
food eateries or

164
00:13:37,216 --> 00:13:44,272
donate your time to local services that help those who in need, because they have to earn
your trust.

165
00:13:44,353 --> 00:13:54,061
Once you earn their trust, then they'll start listening to you and may inquire about God
and the Bible and why you act differently from everyone else.

166
00:13:54,061 --> 00:13:59,425
So, evangelism, while different, still works there, but it is fairly slow at the moment.

167
00:14:00,167 --> 00:14:04,270
Shintoism also worships creation in and of itself.

168
00:14:04,462 --> 00:14:08,182
not just the spirits in the rocks, but even the rocks themselves.

169
00:14:08,182 --> 00:14:30,922
But we know that Romans 1 and verse 25 says, Genesis 1 says, Why would we worship a
creation and not the Creator?

170
00:14:31,582 --> 00:14:34,582
And yet they do all over the nation.

171
00:14:35,278 --> 00:14:40,798
Shintoism, as I said earlier, lacks the concept of sin as rebellion to God.

172
00:14:40,798 --> 00:14:46,658
And yet we know in Romans 3 and verse 23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God.

173
00:14:47,578 --> 00:14:56,218
1 John 1 and verse 9 says, we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our
sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

174
00:14:56,218 --> 00:14:59,118
They have lots of purification rituals in Japan.

175
00:14:59,578 --> 00:15:05,178
Even so that you have to purify your hands before even offering the incense.

176
00:15:06,156 --> 00:15:08,988
and yet they have no concept of sin.

177
00:15:09,249 --> 00:15:13,693
If you ask them what they're purifying, they would say, well, my body.

178
00:15:13,974 --> 00:15:19,049
They wouldn't say sin, they wouldn't say evil spirits residing in me.

179
00:15:19,049 --> 00:15:21,120
They have no concept.

180
00:15:22,041 --> 00:15:27,627
Shintoism also emphasizes honoring ancestors and, believe it not, seeking their guidance.

181
00:15:27,808 --> 00:15:30,760
I'm sure most of us in here have seen the movie Mulan.

182
00:15:31,266 --> 00:15:41,932
This is very reminiscent of Mulan where she goes into the room with all of her ancestors
and prays to her ancestors, not to the created God, but to her family members who lived

183
00:15:41,932 --> 00:15:44,553
before her and died as human beings.

184
00:15:44,693 --> 00:15:53,458
And then of course in the film, they all gather and try to, they end up sending the little
dragon Mushu and he comes down and gives, it's nonsense.

185
00:15:54,359 --> 00:15:55,679
But who is our mediator?

186
00:15:55,679 --> 00:15:57,180
Who should we be seeking for guidance?

187
00:15:57,180 --> 00:16:00,738
The Bible tells us very plainly in 1 Timothy 2 and verse 5.

188
00:16:00,738 --> 00:16:06,730
For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.

189
00:16:06,730 --> 00:16:14,062
He's the one that we should be looking at for support, for mediation, for guidance.

190
00:16:14,062 --> 00:16:16,302
My computer has turned itself off.

191
00:16:17,623 --> 00:16:21,844
And then we'll also look at Deuteronomy 18 verses 10 through 2.

192
00:16:21,844 --> 00:16:27,645
Thou shalt not be found among you anyone that maketh her son or daughter to pass through
the fire.

193
00:16:28,185 --> 00:16:30,656
Now that would be child sacrifices and things.

194
00:16:30,656 --> 00:16:40,149
or uses demination, or an observer of the times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a
charmer, or a consultor with familiar spirits.

195
00:16:40,149 --> 00:16:42,049
There's the commie right there.

196
00:16:42,049 --> 00:16:43,780
Or a wizard, or a necromancer.

197
00:16:43,780 --> 00:16:53,832
For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord, and because of these
abominations, the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.

198
00:16:54,112 --> 00:17:00,854
And yet all the things listed in Deuteronomy chapter eight, verses 10 through 12 is being
practiced

199
00:17:01,300 --> 00:17:03,231
Shintoism and Buddhism.

200
00:17:04,452 --> 00:17:08,033
It also has no clear answer about life after death.

201
00:17:08,794 --> 00:17:10,454
They don't know what happens.

202
00:17:10,795 --> 00:17:13,796
In fact, they don't really even have stories about what happens.

203
00:17:14,136 --> 00:17:25,462
We know, John 3 and verse 36 says, "...he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life,
and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on

204
00:17:25,462 --> 00:17:26,132
him."

205
00:17:27,906 --> 00:17:31,127
Moving on, we've talked about Shintoism and defined that.

206
00:17:31,307 --> 00:17:34,248
No clear motive, belief in many, many gods.

207
00:17:35,009 --> 00:17:36,920
Even looking to ancestors for guidance.

208
00:17:36,920 --> 00:17:38,370
But what about Buddhism?

209
00:17:38,370 --> 00:17:44,612
I always thought Buddhism was actually just worshipping the idol, the little fat guy that
I saw in the Chinese restaurant.

210
00:17:44,933 --> 00:17:57,568
But it was actually founded, and I'm going to butcher this name, founded by Siddhartha
Gautama, also known as the Buddha, which was just a normal man.

211
00:17:57,760 --> 00:17:59,851
in the fifth and fourth century.

212
00:17:59,972 --> 00:18:02,493
I messed that up, it should have been fourth and fifth, but...

213
00:18:03,874 --> 00:18:10,718
Buddhism teaches what they call the Four Noble Truths, and this is the foundation of
Buddhism, this is the core beliefs.

214
00:18:10,859 --> 00:18:21,266
Number one is that life itself is suffering, not a gift of God, not something that we
should be happy about, but that life is suffering, or as they call dukkha.

215
00:18:21,746 --> 00:18:27,502
Life suffering is also caused by desire, good desires, bad desires.

216
00:18:27,502 --> 00:18:29,307
They're what cause our suffering.

217
00:18:30,174 --> 00:18:33,365
Suffering ends when desire is eliminated.

218
00:18:35,436 --> 00:18:39,148
And the eightfold path leads to the end of suffering.

219
00:18:39,408 --> 00:18:42,530
It's path, something they call the eightfold path.

220
00:18:42,610 --> 00:18:44,291
The eightfold path would be karma.

221
00:18:44,291 --> 00:18:46,502
I'm sure we've all heard of that.

222
00:18:46,502 --> 00:18:47,613
Do something good.

223
00:18:47,613 --> 00:18:49,514
Something good will happen to you.

224
00:18:50,194 --> 00:18:57,759
The idea of reincarnation, when you die, you don't face judgment like the Bible says, what
Christ told us about.

225
00:18:57,759 --> 00:19:03,822
But instead you're reborn into a different body, maybe in a different nation and you live
your life again.

226
00:19:04,908 --> 00:19:11,983
And then the fact that Buddhism teaches that there's no personal God, rather
self-liberation and enlightenment.

227
00:19:12,964 --> 00:19:18,489
This is one of the most well-known Buddhist temples in downtown central Tokyo.

228
00:19:18,890 --> 00:19:21,611
I would tell you the name, but I can't remember the pronunciation.

229
00:19:21,852 --> 00:19:23,073
It's massive.

230
00:19:23,473 --> 00:19:26,495
Millions of visitors visit this every single year.

231
00:19:27,237 --> 00:19:34,110
In fact, when we walked, before you walk up to the shrine, and this is just the entrance
gate, beyond this you'll have vendor stalls.

232
00:19:34,110 --> 00:19:45,293
on each side lined with people, wonderful foods, full of good luck charms, promises for
wealth and prosperity if you'll just spend a little bit again.

233
00:19:46,514 --> 00:19:57,817
Here was the closest shot that I could get of the temple because we still try to honor
their customs and we try to obey the laws and they had posted no photos beyond this point.

234
00:19:57,817 --> 00:20:02,828
So I stood right at that point and stretched my arms out and tried to take the picture as
much as I can.

235
00:20:02,828 --> 00:20:08,402
But here you have a room, I'd say about half the size of the one that we're in now.

236
00:20:09,483 --> 00:20:14,346
And in the center of it, the centerpiece was a golden idol statue of Buddha.

237
00:20:14,366 --> 00:20:21,631
And all around him were gold and jewels and antiquities and things of great, great value.

238
00:20:21,631 --> 00:20:25,313
And they were behind metal bars and glass.

239
00:20:25,474 --> 00:20:31,574
but if you wanted to throw your coin in the water and get some good luck, they had this
nice tray set out.

240
00:20:31,574 --> 00:20:33,945
and you dump your coin and never see it again.

241
00:20:33,945 --> 00:20:37,478
And it would slide down towards the inside of the room where you couldn't get it.

242
00:20:39,598 --> 00:20:41,640
They spend a lot of money on these things.

243
00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:48,566
Multi-story building complexes, all for the worship of something that I don't believe they
truly believe in.

244
00:20:49,007 --> 00:20:50,649
They don't think about it.

245
00:20:50,649 --> 00:20:52,250
They don't think through it.

246
00:20:53,838 --> 00:20:56,118
So, Buddhism says there is no God.

247
00:20:56,338 --> 00:20:58,758
Genesis 1, 1 says the opposite.

248
00:20:58,878 --> 00:21:01,478
There's one God and He created the heavens and the earth.

249
00:21:01,818 --> 00:21:06,118
Isaiah 45 in verse 5 says, am the Lord and there is none else.

250
00:21:06,138 --> 00:21:08,978
There is no God beside me.

251
00:21:08,978 --> 00:21:11,118
Not Buddha, not Kami.

252
00:21:11,838 --> 00:21:15,618
It teaches that suffering, not sin, is the problem.

253
00:21:16,338 --> 00:21:19,358
My suffering is the problem in life, not sin.

254
00:21:19,458 --> 00:21:23,998
Last time I checked, the Bible taught us that sin is what caused suffering.

255
00:21:24,014 --> 00:21:25,854
all the suffering of the world.

256
00:21:25,854 --> 00:21:29,854
And sin by definition being the transgression of God's law.

257
00:21:30,534 --> 00:21:41,494
When God first told Adam, do not eat of this fruit, and then Adam and Eve did, they broke
that law, transgressing it, causing sin, and from it we now all suffer.

258
00:21:41,754 --> 00:21:45,894
Because of that, sin is the problem, not suffering, and yet this is what they teach.

259
00:21:45,894 --> 00:21:49,874
Romans 3, 23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

260
00:21:49,874 --> 00:21:53,794
Romans 6, 23, the wages of sin is death.

261
00:21:55,064 --> 00:21:59,026
But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

262
00:22:00,910 --> 00:22:02,510
There's a lot of negatives.

263
00:22:03,852 --> 00:22:09,714
We have got to get on our feet and bring them the positives of what Christ teaches.

264
00:22:10,735 --> 00:22:14,557
Because if you go off of Shintoism and Buddhism, they don't know what happens after death.

265
00:22:14,557 --> 00:22:18,129
They think life itself is suffering and is what's causing the problem.

266
00:22:18,129 --> 00:22:20,320
What a sad state to be in.

267
00:22:20,461 --> 00:22:26,043
It breaks my heart to think about worshiping that way and seeing them do that.

268
00:22:27,344 --> 00:22:30,454
When we were there at the...

269
00:22:30,454 --> 00:22:35,855
the Necco shrine, there was an old lady probably in her 80s.

270
00:22:36,256 --> 00:22:43,117
And she came up and she walked up to the front of the temple and this one had a large room
as well, but it was mostly empty.

271
00:22:43,197 --> 00:22:46,478
And she cracked open her little coin purse and emptied it out.

272
00:22:46,617 --> 00:22:50,179
And she went up and put her little hands together and prayed.

273
00:22:50,599 --> 00:22:55,741
It broke my heart because she doesn't know who Christ is.

274
00:22:56,321 --> 00:23:00,662
No one's gotten to know her well enough to earn her trust for her to listen.

275
00:23:01,070 --> 00:23:02,473
to who Christ is.

276
00:23:02,917 --> 00:23:07,893
She doesn't know where to go, so she's praying to a cat of all things.

277
00:23:09,880 --> 00:23:15,815
Buddhism teaches enlightenment instead of salvation through Christ, thinking that we can
do it ourselves.

278
00:23:15,815 --> 00:23:18,977
But Ephesians 2, verse 8 through 9 says,

279
00:23:31,106 --> 00:23:37,448
The Catholics back in the day used to teach that you could get absolved of your sins if
you just paid a little bit of money.

280
00:23:38,129 --> 00:23:40,770
It's not too much different in Japan even now.

281
00:23:40,770 --> 00:23:48,772
We like to think that these things happened in antiquity, that it was a long time ago in a
far off place that won't reach us.

282
00:23:49,093 --> 00:23:53,194
But if we don't actively combat it, it could very easily make its way here.

283
00:23:55,982 --> 00:23:57,290
They need Christ.

284
00:23:58,926 --> 00:24:01,826
It teaches reincarnation and not resurrection.

285
00:24:02,886 --> 00:24:10,986
Hebrews 9 and verse 27 says, and is appointed for men once to die, but after this, the
judgment.

286
00:24:11,426 --> 00:24:13,506
They have no proof of reincarnation.

287
00:24:13,506 --> 00:24:16,206
You don't keep your memories from your last life.

288
00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:26,997
John 5 and verse 28, Marvel not at this for the hour is coming in which all that are in
their graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth.

289
00:24:27,458 --> 00:24:29,659
That doesn't sound like reincarnation.

290
00:24:29,900 --> 00:24:31,921
Sounds like resurrection, doesn't it?

291
00:24:32,502 --> 00:24:38,176
They that have done good under the resurrection of life, they that have done evil under
the resurrection of damnation.

292
00:24:41,134 --> 00:24:44,254
But how can we teach this when they don't even have a concept of sin?

293
00:24:44,954 --> 00:24:47,474
We have to teach them what sin is.

294
00:24:49,462 --> 00:24:56,535
Next we're going to go through a little bit of a history of Japan and how Christianity
came to be.

295
00:24:56,535 --> 00:25:01,022
The little kanji that you see up there in the middle actually is the word for history.

296
00:25:02,830 --> 00:25:07,590
One of the first missionaries to come to Japan was a man named John Moody McCaleb.

297
00:25:07,590 --> 00:25:10,290
Don't ask me why he's called Moody, I'm not sure.

298
00:25:10,630 --> 00:25:15,650
I couldn't find that online, but he lived from 1961 to 1953.

299
00:25:15,650 --> 00:25:21,670
Now put this into perspective, Christianity has not been in this nation for a very long
time.

300
00:25:22,750 --> 00:25:31,342
If one of the first missionaries came in 1861, 1819, 20, less than 300 years total.

301
00:25:31,342 --> 00:25:33,285
because we're not at 2061 yet.

302
00:25:33,285 --> 00:25:35,708
And that's if he started directly in that year.

303
00:25:35,750 --> 00:25:37,413
He was one of the first to the Japan.

304
00:25:37,413 --> 00:25:40,758
Born in Tennessee, he studied at Mars Hill Academy.

305
00:25:40,758 --> 00:25:43,502
So he's actually from this state.

306
00:25:43,802 --> 00:25:45,886
I really wish this would stop turning off.

307
00:25:48,600 --> 00:25:49,510
There we go.

308
00:25:51,468 --> 00:25:52,839
He studied under T.B.

309
00:25:52,839 --> 00:25:56,442
Larimore, a well-known preacher of the Churches of Christ at the time.

310
00:25:56,442 --> 00:26:03,387
He was inspired by evangelistic spirit of the Restoration Movement, and he felt a strong
calling for mission work.

311
00:26:03,388 --> 00:26:09,693
So, in 1892, without any centralized mission board, he decided to go to Japan.

312
00:26:09,693 --> 00:26:14,897
Now, at this point, he couldn't hop on the plane and be there in 16 hours.

313
00:26:15,018 --> 00:26:20,758
I complained about that 16-hour flight because I almost got no sleep, babies were crying.

314
00:26:20,758 --> 00:26:23,700
Megan had to get up repeatedly and walk the aisles.

315
00:26:24,182 --> 00:26:33,300
Now granted, we got three meals, but I mean, we're talking the size of the little
children's lunch, dinner things, the mighty meals or whatever they called.

316
00:26:34,936 --> 00:26:38,988
He sailed to Japan, which at this point would have taken around three months.

317
00:26:39,188 --> 00:26:43,251
That's quite a commitment to go teach complete strangers the gospel.

318
00:26:43,251 --> 00:26:44,551
And yet he did it.

319
00:26:44,752 --> 00:26:47,773
He wound up settling in Tokyo in Yokohama.

320
00:26:47,813 --> 00:26:52,295
His centralized house was in Tokyo, and we're going to take a look at that in a minute.

321
00:26:52,556 --> 00:26:57,698
The song we just sang before this was written by John McCaleb.

322
00:26:57,719 --> 00:26:59,679
The gospel is for all.

323
00:26:59,840 --> 00:27:00,930
And he firmly believed it.

324
00:27:00,930 --> 00:27:04,054
wasn't just for citizens in the US.

325
00:27:04,054 --> 00:27:06,841
or the UK, but everybody.

326
00:27:07,987 --> 00:27:10,573
He's been called the father of mission work.

327
00:27:12,172 --> 00:27:15,985
And he produced several books in both English and Japanese.

328
00:27:16,286 --> 00:27:19,087
He did a lot of translating during his time there.

329
00:27:19,328 --> 00:27:24,152
Here we actually see a photo of John McAleib's house that we took while we were in Tokyo.

330
00:27:24,152 --> 00:27:30,978
Now this is kind of on the outskirts of Tokyo, but it's a nice two-story regular western
house.

331
00:27:30,978 --> 00:27:37,864
And let me tell you, when they tell you that you walk down the street there and it'll be
on your left, you can't miss it.

332
00:27:37,864 --> 00:27:41,140
I promise you can't miss it because all the other architecture.

333
00:27:41,140 --> 00:27:47,933
is strictly Japanese and then you just see a western house with a little bit of land just
sticking out of the thicket.

334
00:27:48,174 --> 00:27:58,970
It's all by itself, wooden floors and actually you probably can't see it but at the base
here at the foot you can see these little dots.

335
00:27:58,970 --> 00:28:01,961
I know I didn't zoom in close enough but those are all slippers.

336
00:28:02,022 --> 00:28:10,488
So we would still, even though this was turned into a museum, you still had to take your
shoes off, put on the guest slippers before you entered the house.

337
00:28:10,488 --> 00:28:14,000
This is standard practice throughout all Japan, in all homes.

338
00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:22,143
You don't have to do it at the local Denny's or when you're out shopping, but anytime you
go into somewhere of any significance, you have to show honor to that place by taking off

339
00:28:22,143 --> 00:28:24,104
your shoes and putting on the slippers.

340
00:28:24,224 --> 00:28:30,306
Now his house has actually been there so long they've actually turned it into the
Missionary Museum.

341
00:28:30,327 --> 00:28:36,189
And after worship I have a handout that you're welcome to look at on the back table.

342
00:28:36,189 --> 00:28:38,050
I was only able to get one.

343
00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:45,275
I know you won't be able to read it because it is in Japanese, but it has more photos of
the layout of the house and more details about it.

344
00:28:45,275 --> 00:28:48,737
And if you take your phone, you can translate it using Google Translate.

345
00:28:48,737 --> 00:28:51,600
Here's the inside of the house, one of the rooms that were used.

346
00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:53,451
A standard westernized type bed.

347
00:28:53,451 --> 00:28:55,583
You still had the wood furnace to go there.

348
00:28:55,583 --> 00:29:00,546
But he actually taught Sunday school classes and preached from his house for many years.

349
00:29:00,546 --> 00:29:01,647
Here's the middle.

350
00:29:01,647 --> 00:29:03,388
The piano was not in there originally.

351
00:29:03,388 --> 00:29:05,930
They added that when they turned it into a museum.

352
00:29:05,996 --> 00:29:10,648
because McCaleb was strictly against instrumental music use in the church.

353
00:29:11,548 --> 00:29:22,273
Here's an early model that they actually have on the upper floor in one of the bedrooms of
how the complex looked before it was turned into a museum and before Tokyo kind of

354
00:29:22,273 --> 00:29:23,393
overtook.

355
00:29:23,793 --> 00:29:28,635
So what you have is the main house here where you had your farming plot.

356
00:29:28,995 --> 00:29:33,757
While he did get support from local churches back in the U.S., he did not rely on that.

357
00:29:33,757 --> 00:29:35,656
He actually started his own.

358
00:29:35,656 --> 00:29:40,519
Homestead would farm and bring forth his own money working with the Japanese people.

359
00:29:40,519 --> 00:29:51,045
He had the idea and the belief that working together with them would help make them more
self-sufficient instead of just sending them money, telling them to set up a church, and

360
00:29:51,045 --> 00:29:55,478
then moving on to the next place, which happens far too often today.

361
00:29:55,478 --> 00:30:02,560
Now this area over here where we see the buildings on the left, right now those are just
apartment complexes.

362
00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:08,115
Where we entered was actually a small street that ran right about here to the house.

363
00:30:08,115 --> 00:30:14,760
And then going diagonal, you had about five city blocks of graveyard.

364
00:30:15,281 --> 00:30:17,122
And so he had to compete with this.

365
00:30:17,182 --> 00:30:20,325
The graveyard I'm sure wasn't as expansive as what it is now.

366
00:30:20,325 --> 00:30:22,607
But you can see the grave plots.

367
00:30:22,607 --> 00:30:31,992
Each grave plot, instead of just having a standard tombstone like we have in the U.S.,
they not only have the tombstone, but at every single base you have a spot for washing,

368
00:30:31,992 --> 00:30:35,324
Cleansing, incense, and worship.

369
00:30:35,825 --> 00:30:39,188
Didn't see a single grave that didn't have it the whole time there.

370
00:30:39,188 --> 00:30:46,644
And we walked through probably four city blocks of promoting, again, the Shintoism and the
Buddhism in the area.

371
00:30:48,206 --> 00:30:56,346
Someone that worked a little past him a little later was a woman named Sarah Andrews, one
that won the hearts of the Japanese people.

372
00:30:57,446 --> 00:31:01,326
She lived from 1892 to 1961.

373
00:31:01,326 --> 00:31:05,566
She worked briefly with John McHale before he returned back to the US.

374
00:31:05,566 --> 00:31:13,246
John McHale never came back to the US, but Sarah Andrews eventually died in Japan, giving
her entire life to the Japanese people.

375
00:31:13,406 --> 00:31:16,326
She started mission work at only 24 years old.

376
00:31:17,260 --> 00:31:20,952
And she was well known for telling her mother something really cool.

377
00:31:21,052 --> 00:31:26,655
So the story goes in her autobiography, which I was given by brother now Fukushima-san.

378
00:31:26,655 --> 00:31:33,479
He gave me her biography and when reading it you can see that her mother didn't want her
to go to Japan.

379
00:31:33,779 --> 00:31:36,241
She said, Japan wasn't a place for Christians.

380
00:31:36,241 --> 00:31:37,841
It's not somewhere where you should be going.

381
00:31:37,841 --> 00:31:38,722
It's too far away.

382
00:31:38,722 --> 00:31:40,063
Please stay at home.

383
00:31:40,063 --> 00:31:46,506
And yet she's known for having told her mother heaven is just as close from Japan as it is
here.

384
00:31:46,894 --> 00:31:48,317
And what a true statement.

385
00:31:50,264 --> 00:31:54,316
During her time in Japan, she planted five churches in Shizuoka.

386
00:31:54,856 --> 00:31:58,137
Now know Shizuoka doesn't mean much to you, so I pulled up a map.

387
00:31:58,398 --> 00:32:00,859
So here we have the greater Tokyo area.

388
00:32:01,079 --> 00:32:05,721
We landed our plane in Haneda Airport, which is there at Kamakura.

389
00:32:05,721 --> 00:32:12,544
We took our train up north and over towards Saitama, and so that upper area is where the
Tachikawa Church of Christ is.

390
00:32:12,825 --> 00:32:16,526
Tokyo, there's the main city, and you can see how large this city is.

391
00:32:17,612 --> 00:32:20,771
But Shizuoka is the red prefecture down here.

392
00:32:20,771 --> 00:32:26,945
Her church is right off the coast there, maybe a 10 minute walk from the beach.

393
00:32:29,624 --> 00:32:32,036
but she established five of these congregations.

394
00:32:32,036 --> 00:32:39,082
The one we were able to visit was the Okitsu Church of Christ, and that's where we met our
brother in Christ, Shinozaki-san.

395
00:32:39,163 --> 00:32:46,829
Shinozaki walked us through and told us about the history of Sarah Andrews, the early
church, and how it was founded in Japan.

396
00:32:48,211 --> 00:32:51,604
And of all the strange things, I say strange, but...

397
00:32:53,952 --> 00:33:06,205
At the end of our visit, he told me he looks forward to seeing me again and he'll pray
daily that we can work together to spread the gospel in Japan.

398
00:33:06,886 --> 00:33:11,647
He was borderline begging to see more missionaries come, not just me, but others.

399
00:33:12,027 --> 00:33:20,879
He told me of another couple that was planning on moving there eventually later this
upcoming year and said that he was so excited, the members were excited.

400
00:33:20,879 --> 00:33:23,750
Now granted, there are only five members in this church building.

401
00:33:24,300 --> 00:33:29,393
A little further north, about an hour north of here, there's one called Oewa Church of
Christ.

402
00:33:29,393 --> 00:33:32,375
As of last November, their last member actually died.

403
00:33:32,375 --> 00:33:38,578
She was a 93-year-old woman, and yet she still went to the building every Sunday for
worship to her God.

404
00:33:39,579 --> 00:33:41,339
Now the building sits empty.

405
00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:46,502
But this is the Okitsu Church of Christ, and this is the sign up on the front.

406
00:33:47,143 --> 00:33:48,643
Easy to read, right?

407
00:33:49,164 --> 00:33:51,125
Google Translate helps with that.

408
00:33:51,125 --> 00:33:52,866
Okitsu Church of Christ.

409
00:33:53,506 --> 00:33:55,477
founded by missionary Sarah S.

410
00:33:55,477 --> 00:33:56,387
Andrews.

411
00:33:56,387 --> 00:33:58,487
Yeah, her birth and death date.

412
00:33:58,487 --> 00:34:04,469
It was dedicated in 1926 by the Okitsu Mission First Memorial Church.

413
00:34:04,749 --> 00:34:12,331
So now not only is it a place for worship, but it's now, what's the word?

414
00:34:13,031 --> 00:34:16,532
It's a piece of history there that the city will never break down.

415
00:34:16,652 --> 00:34:22,754
They're going to keep it there, similar to the missionary museum that we saw from John
Caleb, John McAleib.

416
00:34:22,754 --> 00:34:23,834
John Moody.

417
00:34:24,135 --> 00:34:25,735
Here we see a photo of her.

418
00:34:25,735 --> 00:34:27,256
I did have it circled.

419
00:34:28,036 --> 00:34:31,398
I had him circle one of the last pictures because I didn't think it had it circled.

420
00:34:31,398 --> 00:34:35,199
Here you see in the white hat is Sarah Andrews.

421
00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:40,021
And there's her Sunday congregation, all of them wearing kimono.

422
00:34:40,962 --> 00:34:47,684
At the time, they were coming out of the Edo period and technology was on the rise.

423
00:34:47,805 --> 00:34:51,596
For the longest time, Japan has been very much open to foreigners.

424
00:34:51,757 --> 00:34:53,258
They've been begging for it.

425
00:34:53,400 --> 00:34:56,717
This was when Shizuoka was at its strongest.

426
00:34:56,717 --> 00:35:02,513
It had lots of families, lots of children, all growing up in the nurture and admonition of
our Lord Jesus Christ.

427
00:35:03,115 --> 00:35:05,218
And today we're down to five members.

428
00:35:07,810 --> 00:35:19,257
When you walk through Shizuoka, if you mention Sarah Andrews' name to anyone, their eyes
will light up, a smile will come across their face, and they want to talk to you about

429
00:35:19,257 --> 00:35:20,577
Sarah Andrews.

430
00:35:21,038 --> 00:35:24,981
What a great end to talk about the Gospel and Christ.

431
00:35:24,981 --> 00:35:27,261
We experienced that while we were there.

432
00:35:28,082 --> 00:35:32,185
Sarah Andrews had a heart for mission work and a heart for the Japanese people.

433
00:35:32,185 --> 00:35:34,426
Moreover, she had a heart for Christ.

434
00:35:35,606 --> 00:35:38,406
She chose to stay during World War II.

435
00:35:41,378 --> 00:35:54,361
When the police came to get her, to have her evacuate because Japan had decided to side
with the other side and fight against, this was pre-Pearl Harbor, she told the police,

436
00:35:54,361 --> 00:35:58,402
have no home but Japan, and decided to stay.

437
00:35:58,923 --> 00:36:00,243
They arrested her.

438
00:36:00,483 --> 00:36:07,265
They placed her in a prison camp, and she faced male nutrition for the following few
years.

439
00:36:07,925 --> 00:36:11,374
From what I was told by Brother Shinozaki, she sat there,

440
00:36:11,374 --> 00:36:14,134
and she was given one cup of rice.

441
00:36:14,174 --> 00:36:16,634
It was rice meal every single day.

442
00:36:16,634 --> 00:36:17,514
And it had been boiled.

443
00:36:17,514 --> 00:36:21,614
was the bottom of the pot for the local military in the area.

444
00:36:21,614 --> 00:36:25,634
And so it would have been an equivalent to gruel but worse.

445
00:36:27,512 --> 00:36:29,383
She was rescued eventually.

446
00:36:30,423 --> 00:36:35,565
After we had dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we eventually put ground troops
in.

447
00:36:35,585 --> 00:36:45,750
The ground troops came and one of the members in the Army Battalion that was in that
ground troop was actually a member of the Church of Christ back in the US.

448
00:36:45,750 --> 00:36:49,792
He had heard of Sarah Andrews and he went and looked for her and found her.

449
00:36:49,792 --> 00:36:52,412
He gave her his military rations.

450
00:36:52,533 --> 00:36:55,724
She slowly started to get well enough to walk.

451
00:36:55,842 --> 00:36:57,922
They took her back to the US.

452
00:36:59,694 --> 00:37:02,754
After she went back to the U.S., she recovered.

453
00:37:03,354 --> 00:37:06,274
And the moment she was able to, she went right back to Japan.

454
00:37:06,434 --> 00:37:08,314
She was not taking no for an answer.

455
00:37:08,314 --> 00:37:13,614
She went back and helped with the reclamation and the rebuilding process after the bombs
were dropped.

456
00:37:13,614 --> 00:37:17,774
She taught for 45 years and eventually died in Japan in 1961.

457
00:37:18,454 --> 00:37:21,154
A close friend of hers was Hedy Lee Ewing.

458
00:37:22,354 --> 00:37:26,094
Sister Ewing lived from 1896 to 1986.

459
00:37:26,734 --> 00:37:29,774
She set sail for Japan in 1926.

460
00:37:30,350 --> 00:37:33,190
and I already said she was a close friend of Sarah Andrews.

461
00:37:33,190 --> 00:37:36,150
She started Sunday schools and Bible classes in Okitsu.

462
00:37:36,470 --> 00:37:39,390
Okitsu was just a hop, skip, and a jump.

463
00:37:39,390 --> 00:37:43,470
So there we have Tokyo, and Okitsu is down at the bottom there.

464
00:37:43,870 --> 00:37:49,570
Now we have a land bridge for one of the Shinkansen trains that goes across the bay.

465
00:37:49,750 --> 00:37:52,690
So you can get to Okitsu in just a few short hours.

466
00:37:54,882 --> 00:37:55,942
She left Japan in 1941.

467
00:37:55,942 --> 00:38:02,105
Now to put this into perspective, the bomb was dropped on August 9th, 1945.

468
00:38:02,105 --> 00:38:08,888
So she left just a little before while her friend decided to stay.

469
00:38:09,048 --> 00:38:13,209
She returned in 1947 to aid in rebuilding despite the hardship.

470
00:38:13,950 --> 00:38:16,110
We think hardships are tough here.

471
00:38:16,131 --> 00:38:21,493
I can't imagine what it would feel like to have a missionary come after a bomb had been
dropped on my main city.

472
00:38:22,053 --> 00:38:24,564
And yet they came anyway to help them.

473
00:38:25,496 --> 00:38:29,996
She worked there for 40 years before returning to Texas in 1974.

474
00:38:32,076 --> 00:38:36,548
Now, we're going to get into where we stayed and the people we met.

475
00:38:37,508 --> 00:38:38,629
This is Tachikawa.

476
00:38:38,629 --> 00:38:42,690
I said it was a little north, I guess it's a little southwest of Tokyo, now that I'm
thinking about it.

477
00:38:42,690 --> 00:38:44,851
But there's Tokyo proper and Tachikawa.

478
00:38:44,851 --> 00:38:47,332
We stayed at the Tachikawa Church of Christ.

479
00:38:47,332 --> 00:38:49,193
And I guess these got out of order.

480
00:38:49,273 --> 00:38:51,934
I did get to blame you for one of the slides after all.

481
00:38:53,215 --> 00:38:55,495
This is our Christian family in Japan.

482
00:38:55,996 --> 00:38:59,137
And the kanji down there means family.

483
00:38:59,137 --> 00:39:02,198
It's a super fancy version of saying family, but it is.

484
00:39:02,296 --> 00:39:04,328
This is the church building where we stayed.

485
00:39:04,328 --> 00:39:12,854
Our brother and sister in Christ, Brother Nao Fukushima and his wife Noriko are to my
right in the photo there, to the left on the actual picture.

486
00:39:13,195 --> 00:39:16,277
He's been the preacher there for quite a while now.

487
00:39:16,658 --> 00:39:18,760
Nao actually came to the US.

488
00:39:18,760 --> 00:39:26,526
He speaks very great English and he graduated from the Sunset Church of Preach, School of
Preaching out in Texas.

489
00:39:26,526 --> 00:39:32,030
So he went to Sunset, got his degree, came back to Japan and opened up.

490
00:39:33,083 --> 00:39:33,613
the church.

491
00:39:33,613 --> 00:39:42,427
Now the church is kind of neat because if you look on the left side of the picture you can
kind of see the monorail sticking out over here.

492
00:39:42,548 --> 00:39:54,214
The church used to be a one-story building that was a bit wider with more land but as the
city grew they decided they needed to put a monorail there and so the city actually bought

493
00:39:54,214 --> 00:40:01,696
half the land from the church at a great price being a country as small as essentially
California is now.

494
00:40:01,696 --> 00:40:05,008
land is in very short supply, especially in the Tokyo area.

495
00:40:05,008 --> 00:40:14,283
So it actually wound up being a great blessing for the church because they had started
having water leaks, they didn't have air conditioning, a bunch of other things were going

496
00:40:14,283 --> 00:40:23,438
wrong, but because of the money that they were given from the government, yeah, they've
got the rail system right across the street, but now the building is shaped kind of like a

497
00:40:23,438 --> 00:40:30,930
triangle, but they were actually able to build on two more floors and build this building
and still have money left over to support.

498
00:40:30,930 --> 00:40:36,094
and start the Japan School of Evangelism, which actually is housed in this building.

499
00:40:36,114 --> 00:40:40,237
They don't have any current students, but they're always looking for more.

500
00:40:40,898 --> 00:40:45,382
Moving forward, this is the inside of the church here.

501
00:40:45,863 --> 00:40:48,284
Again, of course, everything's in Japanese.

502
00:40:48,625 --> 00:40:56,351
This church has about 10 to 15 members, 20 on a good day, so not too many.

503
00:40:56,351 --> 00:41:00,204
I was actually privileged by now, very honored in fact.

504
00:41:00,606 --> 00:41:06,728
I was able to give a small devotional about the Lord's Supper before we all took the
Lord's Supper together.

505
00:41:06,748 --> 00:41:15,010
So I went up there and talked and I would say one to two sentences and then now would
translate them into Japanese for everyone to hear.

506
00:41:15,691 --> 00:41:22,252
Here we have the little kids sing that happens before worship and so we have two young
ones.

507
00:41:22,773 --> 00:41:24,883
One is, do you remember the ages?

508
00:41:24,883 --> 00:41:27,244
I think it was five and three.

509
00:41:27,866 --> 00:41:33,889
They are being raised able to speak Japanese and English at the same time.

510
00:41:33,889 --> 00:41:38,150
And so we got to lead this little Christian light of mine.

511
00:41:38,150 --> 00:41:43,752
And so they got to hold their little fingers up and do the Christian light just like we do
at Vacation Bible School.

512
00:41:44,393 --> 00:41:50,555
Afterwards, we sat down for lunch with the congregation and got to know them.

513
00:41:50,576 --> 00:41:52,336
Lots of fantastic foods.

514
00:41:52,336 --> 00:41:56,738
Many foods that I'm sure many of us in here probably wouldn't try.

515
00:41:57,026 --> 00:41:58,768
But we tried just about all of them.

516
00:41:58,768 --> 00:42:00,609
It very good home cooking.

517
00:42:01,370 --> 00:42:09,777
From there, we traveled around the Tokyo area to see the different temples, learn and
research more into the Shintoism and Buddhism.

518
00:42:09,777 --> 00:42:15,021
And then we made our way over to Ochanamizu to meet with Aikawa-san.

519
00:42:15,021 --> 00:42:20,166
I believe I've got Ochanamizu there, up northwest of Tokyo.

520
00:42:20,166 --> 00:42:25,570
Ochanamizu is home of the largest congregation in all of Japan.

521
00:42:25,792 --> 00:42:29,865
It has about 120 members and four elders.

522
00:42:29,866 --> 00:42:36,150
It is also the only Church of Christ in all of Japan, the entire nation, that even has an
eldership.

523
00:42:36,992 --> 00:42:38,363
They just don't have the people there.

524
00:42:38,363 --> 00:42:46,359
Aikawa-san is what I like to call the Church Historian there at Ochanomizu.

525
00:42:46,359 --> 00:42:54,656
He keeps the library and things, but he also teaches a history class on biblical history
every Sunday.

526
00:42:54,966 --> 00:43:04,770
He not only agreed to meet with us kind of last minute, we had sent him several emails
months prior to going and never heard back.

527
00:43:05,190 --> 00:43:10,393
One call now messaged him the day before and he said, I missed the emails.

528
00:43:10,393 --> 00:43:12,493
I'm sorry, I'll meet with you tomorrow.

529
00:43:12,493 --> 00:43:24,038
And so not only did he meet, this man had a full one hour PowerPoint presentation ready to
teach us about the history of Japan, about John McAlib Moody, about Sarah.

530
00:43:24,084 --> 00:43:27,775
Andrews, Hetty Ewing, and many, many others.

531
00:43:27,775 --> 00:43:30,516
And so he went through and showed us all that.

532
00:43:30,516 --> 00:43:39,838
Of the things that we were given by both Ikawa-san and now's wife Noriko was a list of
congregations of the Church of Christ in Japan.

533
00:43:39,838 --> 00:43:44,119
And you can see each of the ones that are registered here on the map.

534
00:43:44,800 --> 00:43:49,701
In an entire nation, we have 44 congregations.

535
00:43:50,921 --> 00:43:53,472
How many churches do you think we have in California?

536
00:43:54,542 --> 00:43:56,866
How many churches do we have in Memphis?

537
00:43:57,188 --> 00:43:59,614
Not saying strictly sound congregations.

538
00:43:59,614 --> 00:44:03,180
Unfortunately, not all 44 of these are sound.

539
00:44:03,943 --> 00:44:05,716
So there's even fewer than that.

540
00:44:08,078 --> 00:44:08,952
See you all right?

541
00:44:12,556 --> 00:44:13,549
Is he okay?

542
00:44:13,997 --> 00:44:15,795
Okay, just wanted to make sure.

543
00:44:19,118 --> 00:44:21,298
Alright, just wanted to make sure first.

544
00:44:22,499 --> 00:44:29,841
So we have less than 44 congregations that are sound churches of Christ all throughout
Japan.

545
00:44:30,561 --> 00:44:32,642
This is Brother Shinozaki-san.

546
00:44:33,102 --> 00:44:38,843
He offered to meet us down in Shizuoka, which was about a three hour train ride from
Tokyo.

547
00:44:39,143 --> 00:44:40,184
Wonderful man.

548
00:44:40,184 --> 00:44:48,876
He's currently preaching at the same congregation that you saw earlier that we went to
that was built by Sister Andrews.

549
00:44:49,294 --> 00:44:52,075
So he's maintaining that building.

550
00:44:52,075 --> 00:45:02,120
He's teaching the five people there and he's actively trying to evangelize now, but he
doesn't have much help, unfortunately.

551
00:45:02,120 --> 00:45:04,661
He sat with us over a meal.

552
00:45:04,661 --> 00:45:07,922
We went out to eat wonderful food again.

553
00:45:07,922 --> 00:45:14,175
Of the things that he brought to my attention were a couple of books about evangelism in
Japan and things like that.

554
00:45:14,175 --> 00:45:16,490
So he showed me the books and went through.

555
00:45:16,490 --> 00:45:21,794
And he showed me the photo of Sarah Andrews and all of the people there.

556
00:45:22,015 --> 00:45:23,496
Now, I don't have notes on these.

557
00:45:23,496 --> 00:45:26,469
I did originally, but they're not on my computer.

558
00:45:26,469 --> 00:45:28,361
They're actually left on my iPad.

559
00:45:28,361 --> 00:45:31,824
But he had pointed out some of the historical figures were there.

560
00:45:31,824 --> 00:45:38,570
So this man here, I don't have his name, unfortunately, but he was actually the mayor of
the town of Shizuoka.

561
00:45:38,570 --> 00:45:40,012
We'll call it a town.

562
00:45:40,012 --> 00:45:42,113
They have a different name for it over there.

563
00:45:42,892 --> 00:45:55,093
but he actually not only attended and was a member at the time that Sarah was there, she
would teach the gospel, but when a man became a Christian, she would let him kind of take

564
00:45:55,093 --> 00:45:55,323
over.

565
00:45:55,323 --> 00:45:57,374
Like she wasn't the preacher.

566
00:45:57,422 --> 00:45:59,267
I want to make sure I state that.

567
00:45:59,267 --> 00:46:03,821
She still sat exactly where she should be, but he actually became a preacher.

568
00:46:03,821 --> 00:46:10,156
And if I'm not mistaken, he became an elder as well at Shizuoka at the time when they were
large enough to have elders.

569
00:46:11,339 --> 00:46:13,550
Lots of missionaries come through Japan.

570
00:46:13,830 --> 00:46:19,152
It's a nation that is both beautiful and tragic all at the same time.

571
00:46:19,152 --> 00:46:28,016
Beautiful in the sense of what its people offers, the ideals and thought processes of the
people and how hungry they are for the Word of God.

572
00:46:28,096 --> 00:46:39,341
Tragic in the fact that we don't have many churches there, not many teachers, and things
have grown in the entire nation from Shintoism and Buddhism to simply worshipping the

573
00:46:39,341 --> 00:46:40,551
American dollar.

574
00:46:41,962 --> 00:46:51,157
how lucky we are to be able to have the Bible and access to sound churches of Christ like
we do here in the United States.

575
00:46:52,298 --> 00:46:59,662
Tonight I want us to think about how privileged we are to have the opportunity that we are
afforded here in the U.S.

576
00:46:59,762 --> 00:47:03,064
to learn the Gospel, to obey Christ's Word.

577
00:47:03,885 --> 00:47:10,408
We don't live our lives perfectly, but we can spend our time in the Bible and learn how to
be better.

578
00:47:10,762 --> 00:47:13,634
We can learn of the hope that Jesus Christ offers us.

579
00:47:14,815 --> 00:47:19,158
John Caleb wrote the song, The Gospel is for All.

580
00:47:19,318 --> 00:47:21,419
It's more than just for us.

581
00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:23,961
It's for everyone all over the world.

582
00:47:24,462 --> 00:47:32,567
When was the last time we even spoke around the water cooler at work to our friends about
Christ?

583
00:47:32,988 --> 00:47:38,762
Tried to earn their trust, whether it's apologetics or friendship evangelism.

584
00:47:39,094 --> 00:47:46,066
We need to learn how to spread the gospel, not just in Japan, not just here in the States,
but to everyone we meet.

585
00:47:47,987 --> 00:47:54,388
When we were heading over there, we even met a lady who saw me have my Bible open and we
were talking.

586
00:47:54,868 --> 00:48:03,651
And she asked for prayers on the plane for her uncle, I believe, that was sick with cancer
in the Tokyo hospital.

587
00:48:03,651 --> 00:48:07,832
She told me that he was studying his Bible, didn't have a teacher.

588
00:48:08,044 --> 00:48:13,968
but he was sitting there studying it and he was considering baptism of all things.

589
00:48:14,129 --> 00:48:20,413
I gave her my information, I messaged the boys at the school, and we all sat down and
prayed for her.

590
00:48:20,413 --> 00:48:24,556
I prayed for her on the plane right there and let it in front of everyone so that they
could see.

591
00:48:26,282 --> 00:48:31,776
Sometimes we don't think about evangelizing as much as we should.

592
00:48:32,737 --> 00:48:41,384
Sometimes we get caught up with the Almighty Dollar, the TV shows we watch, the sports
games that are coming on.

593
00:48:42,185 --> 00:48:49,150
We've got to try to realign our thoughts to focus on our God and our Savior Christ.

594
00:48:49,511 --> 00:48:55,946
If tonight you realize that you haven't been living the way that you should and need to
repent of your sins.

595
00:48:56,426 --> 00:49:05,601
If you need us to pray for you for any way, if you need us to pray for one of your
friends, or maybe even start a Bible study, whatever the need is, if you have a need,

596
00:49:05,601 --> 00:49:10,834
please come forward and let it be known tonight because we're ready and willing to help
you do that.

597
00:49:13,780 --> 00:49:15,781
Our God is an amazing God.

598
00:49:15,902 --> 00:49:17,843
He loves each and every one of us.

599
00:49:18,545 --> 00:49:22,248
And He's here for you tonight if you need to come forward as we stand and as we sing.