Dear Friends,
On July 8th, something unthinkable happened in Japan which sent shock waves throughout the country. Former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, was assassinated by a man using a homemade firearm as he spoke at an election rally in Nara. The 41-year-old man who murdered Abe told police he killed Abe because of his connection to the Unification Church, which had financially ruined his family.
The Unification Church is a religious cult which was established in South Korea by Sun Myung Moon in 1954. It claims to believe in the God of the Bible, but its teachings are a mixture of Christianity, Shamanism and Confucianism. This cult is known for pressuring followers into donating large amounts of money by saying that this is the only way to relieve the suffering of their loved ones in the afterlife. The mother of Abe’s killer had evidently donated about 100 million yen (almost $700,000) to the Unification Church, which resulted in her family going bankrupt.
Abe was not a member of the Unification Church but, like other world leaders, appeared at Unification Church-related events as a paid speaker. Shortly before he was assassinated, Abe had sent a congratulatory message to a group affiliated with the Unification Church. In the wake of Abe’s assassination, it has become clear that the ties between the members of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Unification Church are quite extensive. LDP politicians have accepted help from the Unification Church to get out the vote and have utilized unpaid volunteers it provides for assistance in campaigning.
The media attention on the ties between the Unification Church and politicians, plus its high pressure methods to solicit exorbitant donations, have brought about three results: (1) a call for the government to revoke the certification of the Unification Church as a non-profit religious organization; (2) the decision by the LDP to no longer have any ties with the UC or its front organizations; and (3) a renewed apprehension & concern about the Unification Church in Japanese society.
What does all this have to do with preaching the gospel in Japan? It has caused many people in Japan to be suspicious about and cautious toward all churches in Japan. How so? In Japanese, the word for church is kyoukai, so the Unification Church in Japanese would be Touitsu (unification) Kyoukai (church). The fact that the UC is called kyoukai (church) leads many people to mistakenly believe it is a denomination of Christianity which pressures people to give large sums of money to the church. Thankfully, the media does not refer to the UC as a Christian organization, but there are many in Japan who are unable to make a distinction between cults (like the UC) and biblical Christianity and, as a result, are very skeptical when approached with the gospel. Japan has always been a difficult place to share the gospel, but this media attention on the Unification Church in the wake of Abe’s assassination has made it even more difficult.
Let’s go back now and review some of the highlights of the past few months. We were greatly shocked and deeply saddened in February over the sudden death of Yoshino church member, Toshiko Iimure (71). Her husband (also a member of the Yoshino church) found her unconscious in the bath. She was rushed to the hospital by ambulance but died of a brain hemorrhage. I conducted her funeral on February 8th. We miss her wonderful smile and kind spirit.
Mrs. Iimure’s Funeral Service—February 8th
Early Easter Sunday morning, April 17th, members of the Yoshino church gathered at our mausoleum, located on a hill overlooking Yoshino, for a memorial service for those who have gone to be with the Lord. Following that service, Mary and I drove over to Kokubu for Easter Worship there (8:00) and then back to Yoshino, where I preached for the 10:30 Easter service.
Easter Sunrise Service at the Yoshino Church Mausoleum—April 17th
May 27th, I went to the downtown Kagoshima Christian Center to speak for the 7:00 a.m. prayer breakfast, which is attended by Christians from various churches in the city. That afternoon, I drove to the Kagoshima prison for a Bible study there. Brother Karakawa, minister of the Kagoshima Church of Christ, who is just beginning to serve as a prison chaplain, accompanied me so he could learn firsthand what is involved in prison ministry. All the way to and from the prison, one hour each way, I shared with him everything I thought would be helpful to him as he begins a new aspect of his ministry in Kagoshima.
June 18th, I flew to Boston to spend time with Shelley and Trent and their families and take part in one-year memorial events for our grandson, Lynus, who was killed in a traffic accident last June. The evening of June 22nd, we gathered with a group of Lynus’s friends & classmates at his favorite Japanese noodle shop in Boston (where he also worked part-time) to eat a bowl of his favorite noodles and share memories about Lynus. This informal memorial time was followed by a more formal service on Sunday afternoon (June 26th) at Lynus’s grave, which was conducted by the minister of the Trinity Church, where Shelley and her family attend.
My two-week visit passed quickly, but it did allow me to spend some long overdue family time with Shelley and her family in Boston and with Trent and his family in Conway. It had been five years since I had been in the States. I am grateful for this time we were able to have together.
With our grandkids: Astrid & Asmund Erickson (left), Amory & Henry Maxey (rt.)
Shortly after returning to Kagoshima, one of the oldest members of the Yoshino church, Mrs. Reiko Hidaka, passed away at the age of ninety. She and her husband had been key members of the Yoshino church for over 30 years. I conducted her funeral on July 12th. Mrs. Hidaka was always full of life and had a wonderful sense of humor, but she also had a very strong faith and a well used/marked up Bible. She will be missed.
September 16th-17th, we, the Christian churches of Kagoshima Prefecture, were able to host the 71st All Japan Church of Christ Convention, which we had been scheduled to host in 2020 (but were unable to do so because of COVID restrictions). It was a great relief to finally be able to welcome our brothers and sisters in Christ from all over Japan after a hiatus of three years following the last convention in 2019.
The convention was held at a seaside hotel in Miyazaki, about a two-hour drive from Kagoshima. The convention program began on Friday afternoon (9/16) and was supposed to close with a Sunday worship service on the 18th, but an approaching super typhoon forced us to move up the Sunday part of the program to Saturday morning (9/17). This allowed everyone to leave on Saturday while public transportation was still moving.
The theme for this convention was “Pass It On”. We wanted to emphasize the need to seriously consider why and how we need to share the gospel and raise up church leaders to ensure the continuation of our present churches and the establishment of new churches in the future.The aging of our congregations and ministers and the lack of new recruits for the ministry underscore the crises we are facing in Japan. Some are predicting that by 2030 the number of churches in Japan will decrease by half.
In my message for the closing service of the convention, I spoke from Luke 5:1-11 about the need to “Launch Out Into the Deep” and let down our nets—just as Jesus called on Peter to do. I pointed out that Jesus was asking Peter to do something he had not done before and that did not seem likely to succeed, but Peter did it because Jesus told him to do so. My point was that for the gospel to spread in Japan and for the church to continue to exist, we need to boldly try things we have never done before in ways we have never tried and in places we have never been before. We can do it with confidence that, just as Jesus was with Peter and blessed his efforts, He will do the same for us.
I closed my message with the encouraging words from 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”
The All Japan Church of Christ Convention in Miyazaki—Sept 17th
With our many thanks for your prayers and support.
In Him,
Walter & Mary