CHRIST IS ALL
Winter (December 202l, January and February 2022)
Dear Friend in Christ,
First,
I want to catch up with additional news from Summer and Autumn of 2021. On 27
July, 3 lady “missionaries” from Italy (living and ministering in Japan) came
into the Rescue Mission, took much printed literature, including copies of Vanity
of Vanities (the prayer book) to send into a prison in Ibaraki Prefecture,
Japan. They are not allowed to go inside the prison to minister
in person. But I am most thankful they have obtained permission to send in
literature. Pray with me, that God will spread my literature widely in prisons
in Japan, resulting in them asking for more from me. Call on God to stir up
prisoners to earnestly pray those prayers. Several of you have prayed as I
requested, for an opening to prisons. Thank you for praying, and the Gospel
literature going in, is a definite answer to your prayers, I do
believe.
As
I regularly preach in public in Japan, seldom does anyone stop to question me or to listen. So, I am most pleased the few,
rare times this happens. Saturday night 7 August, after closing the Rescue
Mission, I was singing hymns at the edge of a supermarket parking lot where I
regularly refurbish my grubstake. A sullen face guy about 20 years old walking
past me stops and asks me what I was doing (his attitude precisely
neutral between rude and friendly). ‘I’m singing praise to your
Creator God.’ I was surprised that he then “parked” himself beside me to
listen. I soon gave him my calling card, asking him to view the prayers on my
web site. I told him he’ll exist forever, and the most important thing for him to
do while on earth is to trust in Christ, to avoid Hell and to enter Heaven. He
listened silently, soon went into the supermarket, came back out in 5 minutes
or so, to again “park” beside me (praise God for drawing him) to listen to more
of my singing. I picked the next song accordingly and spoke briefly to him
between verses. He soon left in silence. As best I recall, he spoke nothing
after his initial question. ‘Save
him, Lord, we all plead in agreement.!’.
Since
Summer 2014, God has enabled me to rent a “Summer Rescue Mission” store space
in Karuizawa. A few days after I first opened in 2014, a Japanese mother
came in with her 3 children, 2 girls (the oldest was 5) and a tiny baby boy.
They live in Tokyo but spend weeks of hot summers here in cool Karuizawa, in
the Mother’s parents’ large house, I think. The Mother
is quiet and soft spoken, but her 3 children are the opposite. The 5-year-old
girl talked to me bossy-like. They have come faithfully each
year, to buy the dirt-cheap used trinkets & such. The 3 kids commonly speak
to me in a most rude manner, and are prone to mess
with most everything in the small store space, their quiet mother almost never
rebuking their rudeness. I steadily became stricter with them, rebuking them
for rudeness. I spoke of Christ and salvation. I have become increasingly stern
with them, thinking it will cause them to stay away, but they like my prices.
The saving Gospel flows into their ears from my mouth, cassette tapes, and CDs.
Each
summer, they faithfully show up to “vex” me with their rudeness (similar to bulls in a china shop). For the past 3 summers or
so, their aunt and her 3 polite children (cousins of the rude
ones) have come with them. One cousin is a boy now about 14 years old. He is
most polite, looks carefully over the Gospel in print and often takes 1 book,
tract, or placard prayer or such, each time. Pray for our Lord to save him, and
all this extended family.
On
Sunday 22 August, I preached to the 5 souls attending the church in Takasaki
City (3 of them being the pastor’s family). Please pray with me for our
Lord to revive the pastor and the members, and bring
in more souls to attend on Sundays.
Thru
out summer this year (2021), Covid steadily increased in Japan. Far above
average rainfall steadily fell on much of this tiny nation, causing death,
injury & loss of dwelling & possessions. Lack of sunshine & too
much rain decreased crop yields. Lost Japanese around me are gloomy, fearful of
death, but most of them are still just as stubbornly set against God
their Creator. I strive more than ever to make my daily preaching in public more straight and pointed: ‘Come to the
Saviour to be eternally saved & blessed. Refuse Christ & you will burn
in Hell fire forever without remedy or release.’ Please
intercede with me for their salvation.
On
24 August, a Buddhist monk came into the Rescue Mission, greeting me most
friendly and telling me right off that he was a Buddhist monk. Most all
Buddhist monks that walk past the rescue mission fiercely avoid it with a
passion, upon seeing the wonderful prayer on the large billboard
overhead the doorway. I was kind to him. He looked at my Christian literature
and such and took a tape of Gospel singing in Japanese. He chose the tape of
songs to his liking & soon left. ‘Lord
Jesus, Mercy upon him please, to save him out the devil’s religion!’
This autumn (2021), a quiet Japanese man (appears to be in
mid-twenties) has come into the Rescue Mission 2 or more times. He takes his
time looking thru the Christian literature, audio & Bibles. Then he selects
1 or 2 items from those, to take with him. The 2nd or 3rd
time he came, I spoke to him of the necessity and simplicity of eternal
salvation in Jesus Christ, also saying that I believe that the end of the world
is near, and that perils of life will steadily keep increasing till Christ
raptures out believers. He listened well. I asked him where he
lived and invited him to come hear me preach at the church I preach in, closest
to his house. I do not know his name. So, please pray for the quiet young
man to yield to his Creator & do His Will.
Of the few passersby brave enough to step into the rescue mission;
most do so to buy from the “wares” I have for sale. I have a sign posted out
front, “please bring me your unneeded items”. Affluent Japanese around here
bring much, mainly clothes, chinaware (dishes of all kinds), various
other home appliances, stationery items & writing materials, and toys and
other children’s items. I price them from 10 cents on up, the price I put on
most items being less than 10% of what the item cost new.
My friend reading this, some folks who hate Christ, but just can’t
resist such a bargain price, just about grit their teeth, as they force
themselves to come in to get the bargain. Some who are walking by with a few
friends, will pass their coins to a friend as they stand in the street in front
of my place, tell the friend what to buy, have the brave (actually less of a Christ-hater) friend come in,
quickly make the purchase, flee my presence, and pass the goods on to the
Christ-hater out front who paid for them. O Sinful rebels.
Most of the few people who come inside will not
tolerate much speech from me. Thus I keep my speech
short and “meaty”. One day, a mother came in looking at ladies’ clothes. Her
daughter with her (appeared to be 15 years-old or so) had no real interest in
anything here, but to pass time waiting for her mom, she went to my broad Christian
literature display, picked up a tract & began looking at it. Glory!
I was about 7 feet from her. I knew not to approach her because my
presence was likely to be disgusting to her. So from
that distance, in a quiet (non-pushy) voice, I said ‘You are
welcome to take any of the literature with you, for free’. My speech caused her
to put down the tract in a flash, and not pick up any more
literature. In most cases, any friendly words from me have such a negative
effect instead of the positive effect I so desired. The devil has their souls
in such a rebellious mess.
‘Lord, save these precious proud souls, I plead.’ You praying friends who intercede for
their eternal welfare, thanks so much.
By
God’s Great Grace, I manned the rescue mission in Karuizawa thru November 3rd,
and then closed down for the winter, as
planned. I had presented salvation in Jesus Christ to a wide
variety of souls. May the Holy Spirit convict. May our Lord save many. More
poor folks are coming in to buy used, dirt-cheap chinaware, clothes,
etc., as their purse strings tighten due to Covid & such. May they trust in
Christ Jesus!
You
well know that sin-loving, money-loving people turn the loveliest
spots of creation into exceedingly sinful places for people who flock there for
FUN. I first came to Karuizawa in March 1975 to study Japanese in the
missionary language school here. Elderly Brother Suzuki was one of my teachers
in that school. Years before I arrived, he had successfully petitioned town
hall to not allow bars, pachinko parlors and “love
hotels” to operate in this town. Even before he died in his mid nineties,
back about the turn of the century, already town hall and mammon loving
merchants were increasingly ignoring those town rules (that were more or less laws), and the number of bars was steadily
increasing till now this town is drowning in strong drink.
The
most active “hub” area of this tourist town has much foot traffic, as is common
of tourist traps. Now, “front window” service of a small hut bar is a common
site, pedestrians not going 2 steps off their paths to order a “shot”, down it,
and walk on more drunken than before. Delivery vans are made into mobile bars.
The owner drives his mobile liquor store and parks it where sales are
promising. “Lord God, stop it!”
That
mobile bartender and a planet full of rebellious sinners are soon to be most
shocked when death overtakes each of them, and they find themselves engulfed in
the flames of Hell, desiring (as the rich man in Luke 16) just one drop of water
to cool their tongues “for I am tormented
in this flame”. Never, forever,
will they get that one-drop of water. How gravely it behooves us
who know that truth to do all we possibly can, in warning them not to go to
Hell.
Upon closing the mission for this year, from 4 November on, again,
I was most blessed to do much outdoor evangelism amidst lovely rural autumn
scenery in Gunma Prefecture, where I live. I walked from door-to-door, leaving
the saving Gospel in print. I stood singing praise to our God, most anywhere
souls were within hearing. “the humble shall hear…and be glad.” (Psalms 34:2.) The result was, that it
didn’t surprise me at all that there were ever so few humble souls among the
many around me. God bless you for supporting me to be here to exault Christ thus wise..
On Sunday 10 October, my friend (Missionary Pastor Dan) let me
preach in his church in Saku City, Nagano Prefecture,
20 miles or so from my rescue mission in Karuizawa. Dan and family 1st
arrived in Japan in 1984 Brother Dan’s faithfulness on this hard and plenty
barren mission field is a blessing to me, and I strive to be a blessing and
encouragement to his family. He rented an old house 20 years or so ago,
renovated it, making it into an old fashioned looking, cozy little church. Peak
attendance reached up to more than 30 people attending Sunday morning church
years ago. But then Satan entered in the form of newcomers and tore up church, regretfully.
This Sunday I preached in October 2021, three Japanese believers attended,
along with Pastor Dan, wife, and their 1 daughter living in their house. (They
have 5 adult children, 3 now living in USA and 2 in Japan.) I preached my heart
out to those 6 souls and our Lord made it a blessing to us all. Pray for our
Lord’s blessings on Brother Dan’s Missionary Family.
Thus far, I have shared news
of summer and autumn of 2021. Now comes my news of the winter of 2021-2022.
On
Saturday December 4, 2021, I traveled by train from my main house in Gunma
Prefecture to Mino Mission in Mie Prefecture and the next day preached in 3 churches
in that area at 10:30 AM, 1:30 PM & 7 PM. It was glorious!
The following Wednesday night I taught Bible at the 7:30 PM service at
Tomidahama Bible Church where I was lodging. The following night, I taught
Bible at the Oogaki Bible Church.
On
Saturday afternoon, December 11, I attended the Tomidahama church’s Christmas
service for children. A good number of neighborhood children (who do not attend
any church regularly) came. A few unsaved, unchurched mothers came with their
child or children. Christmas season presents extra opportunities to preach of
the Saviour to people who come at no other time.
And
on Sunday December 12, I preached at the 10:30 AM and 7 PM services at the
Tomidahama church and departed for my place in southern Japan on Tuesday the 14th.
During the 8 days I was there, I walked many crowded residential streets,
putting that postcard size prayer into about 3,000 mailboxes. Please pray for
those families to pray that wonderful prayer from their hearts to be
saved.
About
one year ago, in my news, I wrote of the Chinese lady living in this area who
stopped and talked to me as I sang out front of Gifu Train Station. She came to
Pastor Jeff’s church upon my invitation to hear me preach. She confesses to be
a Christian. She attended Jeff’s church about 2 more times after I left that
area in early March last year. When I returned there this past December, she
agreed to meet me outside the train station near her house. We talked together
and I prayed for her and for her family. She is in very poor health. Please
pray for our Lord to heal her and to perfect her every way.
Upon
arriving at my southern place in Ibusuki City,
Kagoshima Prefecture on December 14th, till 26 February, daily I broadcast the Saving Gospel of Jesus Christ just about to the fullest
extent of my ability. I rejoiced to see that some hearts are warming up
to Truth. I know your prayers for these lost Japanese are bringing Holy
Ghost Power & Conviction down upon those who hear. God bless you for
praying. I plead with you to keep it up. There in Ibusuki
City, if any person of any age shows any interest in
hearing about Jesus Christ, immense pressure comes down upon them from
friends, classmates at school, school teachers, fellow
workers, neighbors, and any other local Japanese the interested
person is in touch with. Prayer Warrior, please pray for the Holy Ghost
to draw souls to Christ & to give them boldness to stand against all
persons and devils that fight to keep that person from trusting in the
Saviour of all the earth.
Thank
you for caring, for praying, for interceding, and for giving to help me. May
our Lord richly bless you for it all.
Christ’s
servant in Japan,
Richard
Yerby