CHRIST IS ALL
Summer 2009, (June, July, and August)
Dear Friend in Christ,
Greetings from Japan, in our
Lord and Saviour’s Most High and Holy Name. On Sunday, June 28th,
21,100 of my prayer sheets went out as newspaper stuffers in the newspapers in
the Agatsuma district of this Gunma Prefecture in which I live. Agatsuma is
mostly a rural mountainous area. Likely about 50,000 people saw those prayer
sheets when the sheets came to their houses inside their newspapers. I pray
that many of them will pray the prayers from their hearts and trust in Christ
to save them. Mrs. Seki, a Christian lady, wrote to me upon seeing the prayer
sheet. She told of taking care of family members in poor health. Her husband is
partially paralyzed. I wrote her back, doing my best to comfort and encourage
her in the Lord.
During the 3 summer months,
each month, I preached 1 Saturday afternoon at the Saturday evangelistic
service at the church in the town of Yoshii. An average of 10 or more people
attended each of those services. I also preached there 1 time each month during
their Sunday service. About 25 or more people attended each Sunday service. God
is working powerfully in the hearts of the people in this church. Please pray
for them.
In June and July, one Sunday
afternoon each month, I taught English Bible to 3 to 6 Japanese in the church
in the city of Takasaki. I also preached one Sunday each of those 2 months in
the church in the town of Miyota. And in June, I preached 1 Sunday in the
church in the town of Minakami. In July, I traveled south by Bullet train to
preach 1 Sunday in Brother Jeff Brigham’s church in Anjo, near the large city
of Nagoya. I was in that area 3 days, distributing Christian literature from
door to door each of those 3 days. On the 1st Sunday of August, I
was at Shinonoi Grace Chapel in the city of Nagano. 5 children attended Sunday
School that morning, and I taught them. Then there were 5 adults at the church
service, and I preached to them.
During the summer months,
several days I traveled by train or by car to places somewhat distant from my
house, and then set out walking with a bag of tracts and water bottles (to stay
hydrated in the summer heat). I went into somewhat isolated, mountainous
(scenic) farming areas, and walked up and down steep inclines as I left a tract
at each farmhouse, praying for the salvation of the households. Often the smell
of incense was strong, as these Buddhist and Shintoist Japanese burn it in
their religious customs.
As I walked their mountain
roads, I greeted the locals I saw with a friendly greeting. Some of them
returned a greeting. Some eyed me plenty suspiciously, as a Caucasian is a rare
sight where they live. These “farming people” all have cars, shop at
supermarkets, watch much TV, and such. Still, many of them are largely
unreached with the Gospel. May God touch their hearts thru the Gospel message I
left with them.
I feel like the most blessed
person on the face of the earth, to be out in these somewhat remote mountainous
areas here in the very center of Japan, walking narrow, steep, and curvy roads,
bearing precious Gospel seed. Please pray for The Lord of the Harvest to water
this planting, and to bring forth much fruit from it, all for His Great Glory!
God bless you for your intercessory prayers for these idol worshipping Japanese
I am reaching with the Gospel. I know your prayers are prevailing much. Please
keep up the praying. As for you, who support me financially, thank you so much
for that great help. May our Lord bless you for your generosity, and repay you
many fold over for all you give.
Hopefully 3 pictures will get
loaded onto the end of this letter. The outdoor scene of the rocky river,
railroad and train, and mountain, was taken about 300 yards from my house. When
I walk on errands in town here, I often walk along the narrow road from which I
took the picture. The other 2 pictures are Japanese children I know and whom I
tell about Christ. Please pray for God’s Perfect Will to be done in the lives
of all the Japanese people whom I am reaching with the Gospel.
The 2 books and the 2
booklets that I have written and presently have “on paper,” are available free
to you from Christ Is All, P.O. Box 490, Vernon, Alabama 35592, USA. The names
of the books are: “CREATURE VERSUS CREATOR” and “A LITTLE REVIVING.” The names
of the booklets are: “CONVINCED” and “ENTER THE SWORD.” I would appreciate you
distributing this literature to other people, as the Lord leads you to do so,
and also telling people that my writings are freely available for viewing on
this web site. As God leads you to do so, please spread that word.
This morning, I was reading
Ezekiel chapter 21. “A sword, a sword is sharpened,
and also furbished: It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished
that it may glitter: SHOULD WE THEN MAKE MIRTH?” Fellow Christian, please take a serious, and HONEST, look
around you at what commonly goes on at church; constant eating and
drinking, usually amidst a loud uproar of talk, laughter, games, and such
MIRTH. Often you see food on the floor amidst all that ungodly uproar and
folly. The church people doing this typically call it “Christian fellowship.”
But likely it is little more than worldly partying in Almighty God’s Sight. Pleasure-loving
Christians, rocked to sleep spiritually by all the pleasures of the world, just
fattening themselves for the soon coming slaughter as this deadly sword is
steadily sharpened and furbished by an angry, jealous, wrathful God on High,
and that deadly sword steadily advances to slaughter those living to make mirth.
May God give us believers a heart that is truly compassionate toward
suffering mankind, and may He lead us to the house of mourning. “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the
heart of fools is in the house of mirth.” (Ecclesiastes
7:4) It is your free choice, to choose to be a wise man or to choose to be a
fool. May God help us to truly be wise in His Sight.
I pray for our Lord God to
keep His Mighty Hand upon your family for good, to bless, protect, and keep
you. May He make your way perfect and spiritually prosperous. Please
pray these things for me. May God daily use your Christian life to greatly
glorify our Lord.
Christ’s
unprofitable servant,
Richard
Yerby
