Kinshicho Church, Japan

Pastor Kim YongHun

On the Sabbath of March 18, 2006, Kinshicho Church held its second baptism in the baptismal tank of Nishisugamo Church.  The one that got baptized was Okubo Takako, the mother of a three-year-old named Anna.  I was ordained at San-iku Gakuin College (Adventist College in Japan) on March 4, two weeks before she got baptized.  In other words, the first baptism I gave after my ordination was in Japanese to a Japanese woman.  I was privileged to experience much of God’s guidance during the one-year process of leading Ms. Okubo to church.

My wife ran into Ms. Okubo on the street and talked to her not long after we moved to Tokyo.  Pointing to our church housing, my wife told her to drop by.  But she didn’t really expect her to visit just because of a short encounter in the street, especially in Japan, where people have little fellowship with each other and visiting others’ houses is considered very impolite.  Nevertheless, she came after a week.

We were so happy to have fellowship with her, but we realized that there was an unexpected problem.  Anna, her two-year-old daughter, was so rude and talked without thinking.  We had seen all kinds of kids while doing our ministry, but Anna was the worst kid ever because she kept yelling, swearing and hitting her mother.  What’s more, our son GangHan also became wild and learned bad words from her as she snatched things from him.  My wife, who is very good with kids, tried to calm her down, but she wouldn’t listen to her at all.  We took her outside when she got out of control, and she would yell in anger and throw herself down in the street or park.  When we gave her a ride to the shopping mall, hoping that she might behave better, she yelled again in the car for quite some time.  We just didn’t know what to do.

But then I realized she was trying to see how I would respond to her.  Not only that, but she seemed to obey my words as if she were fond of me.  Half in doubt, I tested her in various ways, and it did turn out true.  So I was assured that it was definitely God’s help.  After taking serious counsel with Ms. Okubo, I determined to cure Anna of her bad habits.

Even though it was not easy to educate another person’s child, I started to train her strictly after concluding that this fellowship would never continue if I kept appeasing her.  And yet I was afraid that Ms. Okubo would stop coming to church because of me.  I spanked Anna some of the times.  Strangely, however, she obeyed me all the more, as though she might be scared of me.  My training bore so much fruit that she became better behaved than my son and kept quiet in church.

Ms. Okubo was pleased with it and eventually started studying the Bible on her own after having counseling sessions and conversations with me, as well as attending the Bible school, worship services and seven evangelistic meetings.  After four months of studying the Bible with me three times a week for two hours, she was finally baptized.

It was my greatest delight to lead my first soul to Christ through family evangelism and baptize her in Japan.  I am grateful to God for this delight and pray that He may grant me more and more souls like her.

 The baptismal service of Okubo Takako