CHRIST IS ALL
Summer
2025 (June, July, August)
Dear Friend in Christ,
“Mighty
thru God to the pulling down of strongholds.”
June
Please
storm Heaven with me, interceding for the salvation & perfecting of body,
soul, and spirit of 24-year-old Japanese guy, Mr. K, and his Japanese
sweetheart, Miss M. I’ve known Mr. K for more than 4 years now, him studying
English under me, & helping me much in many ways necessary
for a Japanese person to do, as opposed to me (a foreigner)
attempting to do, in this tightly closed Japanese society, that tends to shut
out foreigners.
Last
year, he was most desirous to travel to U.S.A. So, Pastor Campbell & family
in Alabama agreed to host him in their home. So, in April this year, Mr.
K spent about 16 days in their house, attending their church regularly. He
freely told them how that he & his sweetheart had started living together
in Japan a few days before he traveled to Alabama, and that they planned to get
married in the future. But soon after he arrived in Alabama, Miss M became
deeply depressed and suicidal, and had to be hospitalized
on Suicide Watch. On April 21st, Mr. K arrived back in Japan from Alabama, and has been with Miss M most of the time since,
sort of on Suicide Watch. They SO need your prayers, that they be saved to the
utmost!
From
4 years ago, I have witnessed Salvation in Christ to Mr. K. He has willingly
gone to 2 different churches with me on 2 different Sundays. And he would have
gone many more times, except that Sunday has been a big play day
for him, with many fun activities scheduled. On top of putting that fun before
God, he recently began to cohabit outside of marital bonds. I perceive a
Righteous Creator now giving him and Miss M a painful spanking for their sins.
(An expensive, extravagant wedding is an important milestone in
the lives of these proud Japanese who marry. Upon falling in love &
deciding to marry, it takes time for them to save up money for such a wedding. So,
they simply start cohabiting while saving mammon, planning to get married “someday”.
For some of them, “someday” never comes. Tragic, sinful mess!)
Pray
for Perfect Guidance for me, as I call on Mr. K & Miss M to do right.
I’ve never met her. I haven’t seen him in person since he returned here on
April 21st. By phone, I talk to him. I begged him to open my
Japanese language web site to my book of prayers, Vanity of Vanities,
& to read those prayers aloud to her, as much time daily, as she will put
up with them going into her ears and soul. Please pray that they will allow me
to come visit them.
As
you and I intercede in prayer for God to pull down strongholds that hold
captive lost, Hell-bound sinners, let’s be strong in faith! “And all
things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall
receive.” (Matt. 21:22) “Abba Father, we ask, believing, that
Thy Perfect Will be done in Mr. K’s and Miss M’s life on earth. Please show rich
mercy! Help Thou, our unbelief.”
Sunday 1 June, At the
10:30 AM worship service at Missionary Pastor Dan Roberts church in Saku City,
Nagano Prefecture, I preached the sermon. About 8 others were in attendance. I
also preached there at that time the following Sunday June 8th. Only
4 others were present. At each of these Sunday services, 2 of the people
present were Pastor’s wife and adult daughter. Pastor Dan was flying the skies
between Japan, U.S.A, and Europe, round-trip. More than 15 years ago, about 20
Japanese attended Sunday morning service in this church. Now, some
Sundays, it’s down to 2 Japanese. Since the 1960s, church attendance and new
conversions in Japan have steadily declined, many small churches disappearing.
On Sunday morning, 15
June, I preached at the church in Isesaki City,
Japanese Pastor Tamura also preaching. About 25 Japanese were present. These
zealous Japanese Christians do much outdoor evangelism and Fishing for Men,
bringing forth fruit, slowly but steadily.
July
During
all of June and July, I have opened the Rescue Mission in Karuizawa, up to 6
days a week (fewer days some weeks when other business calls). I have talked of
Christ personally to a few souls who would listen. A very outgoing Japanese
lady about 40 years old who came in, remarked to me that she felt God’s
Presence in this place. Glory to God! She told how that she had previously lived a few years in New York City, there getting entrapped
into the Jehovah Witnesses, and what a terrible nightmare it was; the JW rulers
demanding that underlings like her constantly go out endeavoring
to entrap additional souls in their damnable heresy.
Previously,
I have written of Karuizawa Town resident, Mr. R; a German man with typical
Teutonic, strong, commanding physical features; stands straight up, strong physique,
over 6 feet 4 inches tall, thick shock of hair on his head, even now at about
90 years of age (though now completely gray hair), grand blue eyes, a
commanding appearance. Had he been 15 years or so older, Hitler would have
rejoiced to draft him to kill or be killed in WWII. As a German Nazi foot
soldier, he would have been a grand asset to Murderer Hitler. I gather that he
came to Japan as a young businessman. When I first met him more than 30 years
ago, he was a thriving (rich) businessman, living in Tokyo (I’m quite sure).
And similar to Mr. T, Mr. R had a Japanese wife &
a resort house here in Karuizawa. Upon retiring, Mr. R also started living in
his Karuizawa resort house full time. As best I know
his business was importing strong liquors from Europe, mainly from Germany
& mainly high-quality vodkas.
Likely he was his own best customer at buying
& downing strong drink. That large man could consume large amounts of
strong drink at one sitting, spending many evenings in here in Karuizawa town
bars. His wife accompanied him, to be the sober
driver as they returned home. I regularly saw them each half-year as I
ministered in Karuizawa. He enjoyed ribbing my street evangelism. “Well, are
you saving lots of souls?” Such as that would be his words to me, when he
walked past me on the street. I don’t think I saw him at all last year (2024),
causing me to think that likely he had pickled his innards to death with vodka,
he being about 89 years old last year.
But
this year, I bumped into him in the supermarket. Surprise! He was alone, tho in the past, he & his wife were always together in
public. Thus, I concluded that likely she died (or possibly was in a care
facility), & that’s why I never see him drinking in the bars now; apparently,
he lost his designated driver. (Later, talking to him in person as he walked by
the Rescue Mission, he said his wife is still at home with him, but can hardly
walk now.) Please pray with me for mercy upon them both, at about the age of
90.
August
“…that
we despaired even of life…but God...”
On Tuesday July 8th, 2 young
Japanese ladies from the nearby city of Ueda came into the Rescue Mission. One
talked like a Christian. I asked if she attended church. She said that there
was no church near her. I told her of Pastor Dan Roberts church, some distance
away, also saying that I would like to come hold a Sunday afternoon
evangelistic meeting in her neighborhood, any Sundays during the half year I’m
in this area. I gave her my phone number. May our Lord work His Will concerning
them.
The
same day, a Chinese couple with another Chinese mother came in with a total of
5 Chinese children of theirs. I didn’t bother to ask “who’s
whose?”. They looked at just about everything in the mission, one of the
daughters reading aloud in Chinese, my poster prayer written in Chinese. I was
thrilled. I asked them to let me teach them of Christ, in English and Japanese.
Draw them to Thee, Lord, for Thy Glory!
Summer
1986: I first start street selling on
the most crowded street in this tourist town, holding forth the word of life while
doing so. A highly popular movie star opens a small
curry shop here (that year was the first year for it, I think). His
business boomed. He is never present there. (He
doesn’t stoop that low.) But many young’uns who
worship him, line up along the edge of the sidewalk in
front of the next-door store, waiting to get a seat to eat a bowl of his
simple, instant curry. Thus, the local elderly Japanese lady next-door
selling novelty items sold almost nothing, because the line of young’uns blocks
her entrance. Come Autumn, sadly she took her own life.
Suicide
is a tragic death to behold. I’ve beheld it several
times in this resort town, Karuizawa. Saturday PM, September 6th, 2003,
I’m reading Scripture aloud in front of Karuizawa Church when Japanese 30-year-old
Chika hears me as she is walking past, &
immediately walks up close to squat on the street & listen. She traveled
from her residence in Kyoto to commit suicide amid this lovely mountain
scenery.
Her
dad regularly beat her as she was growing up, once
cracking a bone in her wrist that never healed properly and pains her now. “I
live to hate my father!!” I clearly tell her
of hope, salvation & healing of heart misery in Jesus Christ, I send her
down the street to Karuizawa Bible House, call them from a pay phone to advise
them she is on the way. They counsel her. She returns
there the following Wednesday for Japanese Christians & I to again call on
her to come to Christ for Perfect Eternal Help. That is the last we saw of her.
Interceding earnestly for her, I wait a week to call
her cell phone to encourage her in the Lord. “This phone number is no
longer in service,” the recording proclaimed. Likely reason was, that Miss Chika had departed this life.
You please
intercede with me for our Saviour to draw suicidal souls in this area unto Him,
by causing their paths to cross with any soulwinner in this area.
Pray that I’ll be alert to any who come within my reach, and
give them the exact words their Creator God has for them, Spiritual words that
will deliver them from death, if they will only obey those words. Thank you for
praying! May our Lord shield and protect your family in these perilous times.
Christ’s
servant in Japan, Richard Yerby