Tomigusuku Church, Japan

Pastor Nam HyoungWoo

Though we have been here for a little while, I think this has been a lonely time for my wife and children.  This morning my wife added plenty of red pepper powder to our black bean paste in preparation for Sabbath lunch, assuming our family would be the only ones there.

My daughter JiIn complained, “Why isn’t there anybody coming to our church?  I don’t want to go to church; it’s boring.”  My children didn’t seem to enjoy family worship, though it’s been barely a month.  I thought it would be a learning time, but that was not really what they wanted.  I started out this particular worship by practicing hymns, trying hard to ignore their bored gestures.  Then I prayed and started studying the quarterly lesson as I had done for the past month.

The order was as follows: 1. Introduction, 2. Questions, 3. Bible answers, and 4. Application. I printed it on an A4 sheet and gave the study in Japanese, which only my wife could understand.  It was then that somebody came into the church.  My wife instinctively dashed to the front door, almost like Carl Lewis.   And what I heard was somebody’s greetings: “Hajime Mashite.” (How do you do?)

I thought to myself, “Did the person say Hajime Mashite?  Who could that be?  She must be a total stranger if she said that.  I wonder who she is if she is one of the people that have promised to come to this church.”

It turned out to be a mother, Uehara Hiroko, and Maiko, her third-grade daughter.  They were the first people to attend our Sabbath worship service since we opened Tomigusuku Church one month ago.  Mrs. Uehara told me that two church members of Yogi Meeting Place near here visited her recently and encouraged her to attend Tomigusuku Church, assuming that she didn’t attend Assembly Church on a regular basis.  She had been trying unsuccessfully to find this church, and finally came here with her daughter when she saw its signboard last week.  Then I thought, “God grants me joy out of the blue!  He encourages me with the souls He has already prepared, even when I kneel down, thinking my prayers are not sufficient enough.”

That’s how the worship service of thanksgiving was offered to God by three adults and three children today.  JiIn, HyeIn and Maiko ran around in the church and made such noise after the worship service, but they were forgiven just for today.  But there was nothing to forgive because it was God-given excitement.

Mrs. Uehara has attended worship service every Sabbath and studied the Bible on Tuesdays for nine months, which led her to get baptized at Sansan Beach in southern Okinawa on April 20 with the blessings of 30 church members from Tomigusuku Church.  That day was very special for her, not only because she was born again spiritually, but also because she had been born again physically a year ago when her older sister Uehara Youko (deaconess of Yogi Meeting Place) donated her kidney to her.  She is now asking God for wisdom to reach out to her beloved husband, who is an aircraft mechanic.  She is doing her very best to share the new life God has given her with others.  What’s more, her fourth-grade daughter, Maiko, has led two of her friends to church and revitalized our kids’ Sabbath school.

The baptismal service of Uehara Hiroko