Seto Church, Japan

Pastor Song EulSub

During the church board meeting on the second Sabbath afternoon after I arrived at Seto in March, I suggested holding an evangelistic meeting in June.  The young people from SDA Language School Japanese Church in Korea wanted to join it.  In fact, in its church board meeting, this church decided before I even arrived here to go to Seto.  They were very sorry to tell me that they could be here for only four days because they had to adjust their schedule to that of their language institute.  But several people here were quite concerned about it because a four-day evangelistic meeting in Japan is such a long one.  I was bewildered because I was planning on having a week-long evangelistic meeting in September.  What’s more, they were worried about the large number of people when I told them 18 people from the SDA Japanese Language Institute Church were going to come here.

From then on, I began to convince them with my poor Japanese about the validity of a four-day evangelistic meeting.  I also assured them they didn’t need to worry about those young people from Korea because they could sleep and eat on their own.

But as I learned more about Japan, I realized that their real concern was related to the way guests are received in Japanese culture.  Japanese people don’t usually let guests into their houses, but they treat them much better than Koreans do once they determine to do so.  No wonder they didn’t feel comfortable having 18 guests.  It would be hard to provide lodging and food for them.

However, all the church members fully understood my intentions and decided to give it a try after three hours of discussing the evangelistic meeting.  Then they started preparing for it.  They spent busy days making evangelistic pamphlets, distributing them in pairs every Sabbath afternoon, preparing blankets for the guests that were coming from Korea and setting up the program.

Then the evangelistic meeting started in June, as planned.  But something amazing happened.  We were blessed to have three baptisms.  In fact, there were four baptisms in total because one of the evangelistic team members was also baptized.  It was the first baptismal service in Seto Church in 11 years.

All the church members were very much delighted.  They began to think that the church could make it if they were determined.  The family that led one of candidates to Jesus shed tears as they watched him get baptized.

Indeed, it was God that gave the wonderful feast and called me to Japan.  Everything was prepared for me. I did nothing but attend the feast.  I was privileged that day to see the power of my amazing God.

The first baptismal service of Seto Church in 11 years

Cooking class