CHRIST IS ALL
Summer
2013 (June, July, August)
Dear Friend in Christ,
Greetings from
August 13 thru 15 is “Obon” here in
My Lord always fills my heart with great joy when I preach and
sing praises to Him out in public among masses of people who adamantly refuse
to come to church. What a glorious privilege to do that. I want to highly
encourage you to do so also.
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Twice a month, I travel about 35 minutes by car to Takako’s house
in the town of
In July, I told the 3 girls of a short, summer Bible camp near the
Miyota church. All 3 girls wanted to attend. Praise God their parents agreed to
let them go. (Often the parents here will not let their children attend such
Christian activities.) Because the girls had other things scheduled (Japanese
are typically MOST busy, even the children being heavily scheduled), Mayu
attended camp only 1 night and day. Takako and Risa attended 2 days and nights.
Until then, I was practically the only Christian they had ever met and had come
to know. It was beneficial to them to be around other Japanese Christians and
missionaries. I thank God for that. Pray for these growing souls.
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When I am not “on the road”, I normally preach in the Miyota
church one Sunday a month. In the past, I have told you of a precious girl in
that church named Mari. She is 9 years old now (I think). When she was 7, she
would ask me to take her out walking on Sunday afternoon after I preached, to
distribute Christian literature from house to house. Her older brother, Naoki,
often went with us. During those blessed times as we walked together, Mari
would pour out to me things that burdened and saddened her little, sensitive
and lonely heart. “I can’t remember my Dad’s face. I can’t recall what he looks
like.”
Her parents separated when Mari was about 2 and half years old.
Mari hasn’t seen her dad since, and just about has no
memory of him. (Also, her mom, sister, and brother have not seen him since the
parents separated over 6 years ago.) Mari, now 9, has a brother, Naoki (about
14), and a sister, Yuri (about 16). They live with their Christian mother near
the Miyota church and these 4 attend church together there. In the past, the “man
of the house” (a professing Christian) was harshly abusive to his wife and the
2 older children. (Mari was still tiny at that time.) Fearing for their
physical safety, the Mom removed herself and her 3 children from her husband’s
presence. He now lives in
Between 1 & 2 years ago, as precious little Mari occasionally
poured out her heart to me, I prayed earnestly for the family, and talked to
the mother. “I believe Mari should be allowed to meet
her father. No matter how imperfect he is, he is still her dad. There is a
great void in little Mari’s heart because she doesn’t
know him. If, for example, he were dead, she would just have to put that in the
past and get on with life. But that is not the case. He is only 80-90 miles
away. If you don’t let Mari meet him soon, as she grows she
will gain the ability to “run to him” on her own. (Kids here can travel
so freely on the extensive train system.) Please send a message to your husband
that Mari wants to meet him. If he agrees, I will be glad to take Mari on the
train to meet him, spend 2-3 hours with him, and then I will bring Mari back
home. I will take care of Mari and look out for her safety.”
As I spoke such to Mari’s mom, she would not agree to it. “I just
don’t think it is time yet,” she would say. I just kept praying. Thank you who
have prayed for this family as I have asked you to do in previous newsletters.
On Sunday, August 18th, I taught adult Sunday School and preached in the morning worship service at the
Miyota church. After it, Mari’s mom told me that in early August she had taken
the 3 children and they 4 had gone to meet with her husband (their father). I
rejoiced to hear that!
It was an awkward time for all 5 of these family members with a
far range of mixed feelings for all, the negative outweighing the positive. The
teenage daughter and son (Yuri and Naoki) each have painful memories of dad’s
abuse when they were little. Both have adamantly declared repeatedly during the
past 6 years of separation that they never wanted to see him again. Precious
little Mari, with no memory of her dad, sort of had a dream world image of a
perfect dad (a Prince Charming), being that was what she desired in her mind
for him to be. That image was shattered when she met a dad who was far from
being perfect. The mom related all this to me. I told her, “It’s good that the
kids saw their dad, especially little Mari. Now she knows his face. Let’s keep
praying.” You all also please keep praying with me for
Mari and her family.
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O, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, what a multitude of
hurting, agonizing, suffering souls around each of us! May our Sweet Lord Jesus fill each of our hearts to running over
with His Love, Compassion, and Concern for them! May we do everything that
avails with His Unlimited Help and Power, to be of aid and comfort to them all,
all the while pointing them to the Saviour of the world! “Is there not a cause?” (I
Samuel 17:29)
Brother and Sister in Christ, as you look in agony upon the
horribly messed up lives of some of your family members, loved ones, friends,
and of many of the souls around you in general, always bear in mind that as
Christians we are not to be given over to despair. Rather we are to
always, constantly be given over to prayer. “Pray without ceasing.”
It is a Scriptural Truth that Almighty God not only desires each
human soul to be perfect, but also even commands perfection of each soul
(Matthew 5:48). No doubt but what Jehovah greatly marvels as He observes
Christians spending little or no time storming Heaven in intercession for the
souls around them who are severely suffering due to their many imperfections. “And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no
intercessor.” (Isaiah 59:16a)
From the bottom of my little shallow heart, thank you so much for
praying for me and for these Japanese souls for whom I ask prayer. Thank you
for your offerings and all you give and do to help me. “When The Roll Is Called
Up Yonder” and we gather together around God’s Majestic Throne of Glory, we
will rejoice to the utmost upon seeing the full extent of the wonderful things
God wrought in souls around us during the time we trod on this earthly pilgrim
journey daily drawing so nigh to that Celestial City. Glory!
Christ’s unprofitable
servant, (Luke 17:10)
Richard Yerby