From the Land Down Under to the Rising Sun

Milton:

The only way we could think of to get the new Youth ministry off the ground was to organize a rally. So I rented a hall at the YMCA that was designed to hold 70 people. I figured if we could get that many kids gathered without any padding from church members, we would be close to a miracle.

We printed 1,000 invitation tickets and distributed them around eight or nine high schools. After that, I spent days walking around in a valley of unbelief, wondering why on earth students would want to come to our service if better-organized churches couldn’t attract them? On the Wednesday before the rally, I called in at a high school to talk to a teacher. He said he was amazed at the interest generated in his class about our meeting; a group of some 10 or 11 planned to attend. I wandered home and immediately traded worries. I now figured that if that number was planning to attend from one class in one school, what if other groups in other classes at the other 8 schools all decide to come? What if the whole 1,000 ticket holders turn up? 

A bright Bible College student with experience in youth ministry was helping me. He was unaware of my new fears and so tried to encourage me out of my old ones by telling me of a large rally held in Tokyo. The Youth for Christ group he explained, invited a star cast of outstanding people over to help in a city-wide rally in a stadium. More young people came than the stadium could hold. The ones left out wanted to get inside, after all, they had tickets, he explained. So they started throwing stones at the auditorium.

His exciting success story didn’t help me in my new mood, I could see the glass shattering at the quiet Kobe YMCA under the barrage of stones from angry students outside, while we tried to preach the Gospel of peace inside.

On the Saturday morning of our big adventure, I began to read John’s Gospel chapter 21, following a daily reading plan in my morning devotions. Something in the wording of the passage sparked a thought in my mind. Was the Lord speaking to me? In the passage, it stated that when Peter pulled the net to the shore, he counted out 153 great fish “but even with so many, the net was not torn.”

It occurred to me that this might be a picture of our coming rally. I walked downstairs to June and told her about the verse.  Maybe we could believe that although there would be many great ‘fish’ in our ‘net’ yet the net wouldn’t break. All-day long I tried to hold onto that interpretation of the story and in the evening went along to the YMCA. Students poured into our little hall from all directions. We borrowed seats from the classrooms downstairs and the visitors filled them. Kids packed around the walls and we pushed the speaker’s table back as far as it could go. Then when it was time to start the service, they stopped coming. I was staggered. Crowds of wonderful students filled the room like the fish in Peter’s net and everything was holding together.  But June stood at the back of the Hall and counted heads. She tingled with excitement as she checked and rechecked. She found there were just 153 great ‘fish’ in the place. The promise was literally coming true. Souls found the Savior that night; our youth ministry was off the ground.

June:

It was fairly expensive running these rallies and yet people in Australia and even America were sending money to the Japan Evangelistic Band (JEB) designated for Milton and June. The missionaries in the Japan Evangelistic Band were occupied in church planting for an allied denomination whereas our work in Kobe City was non-denominational specializing in Senior High School Students and putting converts into churches near their homes. Our work required money for hiring halls, printing invitations, etc. We were receiving more allocated money for our work than were the other missionaries in the Japan Evangelistic Band. The JEB leader in Kobe then said that he would prefer for us to be separate from them regarding finances though with them in fellowship. So once again we were completely independent missionaries, but dependent on God.

Mary:

I was surprised in Milton’s story he did not mention the shift in finances that June mentioned. Although he did allude to it (in an earlier post) when he mentioned: “the lonely road we were about to take.” I honestly do not think there were hard feelings as they maintained social contact with some of that group for years to come.

But from this point for the next almost 30 years, June and Milton were “independent” missionaries. Meaning they had to raise support from churches on their own and did not have the backing of a mission. 

Not sure when in this timeline the following funny story occurred but as the world became more “modern” with TV and movies, there was a difference in attitude towards some of these new technologies between the JEB leaders and June and Milton. I was not old enough to remember but it is family lore what transpired. The head of the mission Mr. Bee and his wife, did not approve of televisions. Meanwhile, Mom and Dad must have buckled to the pleas of their children (or actually wanted one themselves) but they bought one. Mr. & Mrs. Bee were coming over for dinner, so Mom & Dad made sure the cabinet doors where the black & white TV was kept remained closed during dinner. At some point one of the children – probably either Dave or Margot – no one remembers for sure – piped up and asked, “why can’t we watch TV?” I’m sure there was an awkward silence that was only broken by yet another child responding, “Ssshhh we aren’t supposed to talk about the TV”. So my parents had no choice but to admit we had a TV. I shiver at the thought of how frosty the rest of the evening might have been. Apparently the leadership also frowned on movies. I remember Dad told me a story years later of spotting one of those mission leaders and his wife walking out of a movie theater – I think Dad just kept walking down the busy street as he didn’t want to embarrass the couple. He chuckled when he told me the story.

June:

One day I was worried about finances. You would think that after all the answers to prayer we had experienced I would have been past worrying about finances. But I worried all the way to the bank and then withdrew what I thought was necessary for a short period. The money was in an envelope in my bag. The return home bus was extremely crowded and although I was holding the long handle of my bag there were people between, and I could not see my handbag. When the bus emptied a little, I found the envelope with the money was gone.

As if that was not enough when I got home there was further bad news. Our house did not have modern sewerage. There was a toilet upstairs but from that upstairs toilet, there was a long shoot leading to the pit under the house. A farmer would come regularly to empty the pit and use the sewerage to fertilize his vegetable gardens. Little David, who was about 2 years of age had picked up my small purse and had dropped it into the toilet. The purse and the money it contained had gone down into the pit. Milton, the hero that he was, donned long rubber boots and went down into this pit and fished around and retrieved the purse with its contents.

I said to the Lord, “What a day! Are you trying to teach me not to worry?” I believe that was the lesson I had to learn. After that I became more relaxed about finances although trying not to waste money, just leaving it to the Lord to provide. And He did.