Matsuyama Church, Japan

Pastor Lee OneHo

I remember picking up a bill in the darkness on the way to a small-group worship service with my mother when I was a kid.  Of course, it was not a large bill.  I’m not sure if it was 100 won or 1,000 won, but one thing was for sure: I was very excited.  My mother worked as a cosmetic saleswoman, so sometimes she was not there to greet me when I got home from school.  But the most joyful days were when she surprised me by being there for me.  This worship service was on one of those days.  That’s probably why I loved small-group worship services and was inherently interested in small group activities.  I could feel the marvelous warmth of those activities.

My family had worshiped alone for over two months in our house since we arrived at Matsuyama.  I was just hoping to have at least one new person for the Sabbath worship service.  Then God sent me several people as time passed.  He was gracious enough to send church members, seekers after truth and good neighbors to me.

I was scheduled to visit Ms. Yamamoto, a Korean language student, on May 17.  She had been coming to church for three weeks.  When I talked with her, I found out that she had good taste in painting.  So did Mrs. Tamai, the first person to get baptized in Matsuyama Church.  She had lots of pictures at home and sent self-painted postcards to her acquaintances.  When I suggested that we get together, they agreed to it.

So Mrs. Tamai, Ms. Yamamoto and my family planned to go to a cherry farm on the coming Sunday afternoon.  We could pick as many cherries as we wanted after paying some money for them.  Some of my most memorable moments were when I went to places with seekers after truth.  I was able to have a good time with them and reach out to them at the same time.  We happened to talk about painting over lunch.  Sending self-painted postcards to acquaintances was popular in Japan back then.  It’s called etegami.  So we purchased basic items for making self-painted postcards at a stationery store on the way back home.

The small-group meeting finally started on May 24.  I felt somewhat nervous.  We studied the Bible first, and then we made self-painted postcards at Mrs. Tamai’s house.  We dealt with the topic of faith as a human instinct when studying the Bible.  We drew leaves since they were the easiest, and Mrs. Tamai helped us.  We laughed together and commended each other as we looked at the weird-looking leaves we drew.  Then we sent them to the Korean language students.  They really loved them.

My prayer is that this small-group meeting may multiply and extend.  A few days ago, Mrs. Tamai replaced the pretty good air conditioner she had used for 20 years with a new one.  She said she urged her husband to do so.  I could see that she was trying hard to make her place better for this small-group meeting.  I was very happy and grateful to her.  God had already prepared such good people, and they were just waiting for me. 

Self-painted invitation postcards as part of the small group activity