Matsuyama Church, Japan

Pastor Lee OneHo (The Second Batch)

Chiba is about 1,000 kilometers from Matsuyama, but Pastor Suzuki was more than willing to drive all the way here to encourage the PMM missionaries.  There is no trace of exhaustion on his face.  He says that driving a short distance seems to take longer when he has to see someone that he doesn’t feel like meeting, but traveling a long distance takes surprisingly little time when he is going to meet someone that he misses.  This makes us realize his great love toward PMM missionaries.

Pastor Suzuki loves PMM missionaries abundantly.  He says, “I have never met more wonderful youth pastors than PMM pastors.”  He is always proud of them and commends them as if they were his sons.  PMM pastors and their wives are all sons and daughters to him.

It’s been a year and three months since I arrived in Matsuyama.  Pastor Suzuki has visited here four times already.  One time he came by night bus, another time by plane, and twice by car.  This means that he has traveled 8,000 kilometers going to and from Matsuyama.  I can’t imagine how many kilometers he has traveled, considering the distance he has covered in order to visit PMM missionaries all over Japan, in places like Kyushu, Okinawa, and so on.  Despite those long travels, this elderly pastor, who’s going on eighty, is still full of health and vigor.  When I ask him if he has any trouble, he replies, “There is no time for sickness or trouble.”  It shows how dearly he loves PMM pastors.  His love toward them is like a volcano about to erupt.  He looks like a young man falling deep in love.  Everyone in Japan is like a next-door neighbor to him.  Indeed, love is such an awesome power!  It transcends time and distance.

It was two days ago, Friday.  I was planning to take Pastor Suzuki and his wife to some tourist spots by a tourist train called “Bochan”.  I told them about the day’s schedule after breakfast.  But his reply made such a deep impression on me.  He said he didn’t feel like sightseeing, nor was he willing to enjoy it.  He just wanted to see the people he was missing.  He told me that many of his fellow pastors had died during the war.  That’s why he didn’t want to do anything strictly for pleasure for the rest of his life.  He was truly a man of noble character.

The image of Pastor Suzuki praying for PMM missionaries seven times a day reminds me of Moses, who prayed with his hands held up in the fierce battle with the Amalekites.  It is my sincere prayer that I may hold up Pastor Suzuki’s hands, as Aaron did for Moses, as he prays for the PMM missionaries fighting their fierce spiritual battle.