Yomitan Church, Japan

Pastor Kim KwangSung 

 

My mission field is a small island called Okinawa, located in the southernmost part of Japan.  Not many people seem to know where Okinawa is, but it’s easy to locate if you remember that it is the Japanese island that is beside Taiwan.

Okinawa is famous for attracting the biggest number of tourists in Japan with its beautiful sea, coral, beaches and subtropical climate.  However, it also has a sad history.  Now it belongs to Japan, but 30 years ago it was the territory of the United States.  After Japan was defeated in World War II, Okinawa, a Japanese colony, was transferred to the United States and became its territory for the next 30 years.  But now it belongs to Japan because it was returned.  There are quite a few U.S. military bases in Okinawa even now.  Seventy-five percent of Yomitan, Kadena, and Chatan, my mission fields, consist of U.S. military bases.  But they look quite different from the ones in Korea.

I’m doing my pioneer mission in these places.  There have been a lot of things going on, but God’s leading hand is still on me.   I encounter many kinds of conflict because those living here have little understanding of PMM.  God’s help alone kept me doing mission work despite problems among church members, miscommunication with the local conference, and various shocks in the process of adjusting myself to this society.

God has been good to me, especially in allowing me to meet good people.  They are such precious gifts from God that I could never imagine myself doing this mission work without them.  One of them had gone astray from the faith for a long time, but came back to church after hearing that a pastor from Korea was starting it back up in Yomitan.  At her own expense, she has been arranging flowers in church every week for around two years.  Not only that, but she is also really into reading the Bible and praying to God because she is so happy to have faith anew.  She is leading a sincere religious life and plays an important role in every church project.  I think I can work with enthusiasm in a pioneer church if I can work with two or three others like her.

Another seeker after truth is Sasaki Tazae, who is studying the Bible.  I got to know her in the Korean language class, and she began to attend church through the evangelistic meeting last year.  She had wanted nothing to do with church.  She came simply to learn Korean.  Led by the gospel, however, she not only attends church now, but is also actively involved in several church projects.  Her hobby is gardening, so she also takes good care of the flower bed outside the church.  I guess those that love flowers have tender hearts.  Her greatest obstacle to being baptized seems to be her husband.  However, I believe God will make sure that she is neither worried nor disappointed.  I also told her to give that particular problem to God in prayer, and I am encouraging her by saying that God also wants her husband and children to be saved.

I can imagine her whole family being led to salvation when I see her.  I observe with my spiritual eyes the progress of one that had no relationship with God getting to know Him and leading her whole family to God.  I’m sure God will save Sasaki Tazae and her family.

There are some other good people I have met besides the two mentioned above.  God has graced me with converts from a Protestant church, with people from other churches that want to help the mission, and with new seekers after truth.  I’m sure God will bring those He has determined to save.

전도회모습.jpg

          During the evangelistic meeting