The Japanese program was held in the Mt. Si room. The speaker was Pastor Satoru Nakanishi from Japanese Presbyterian Church. The theme was ‘Taste God’s Words’. He taught that in order to have a correct understanding of the Bible, we need to have ears to hear and keep each passage in context of the entire Bible: Creation, Fall and Covenant, the Cross and completion of Salvation.

During the first session, we saw two interesting videos showing what it means to be able to hear. Through the second to the forth sessions, he summarized the whole Bible from Creation to Glorification with pertinent scripture verses. We also learned Bible content song and sang them at each session. We sang praise in the beginning of every session. Small group discussions followed after each message on Saturday. Sunday started with morning prayer time. During the Sunday service, Pastor Nakanishi gave the message of the fourth session and spoke of the hope that we have in Christ. The Japanese program helped us to see the big picture of the Bible and to treasure God’s words. We also enjoyed all-camp activities, such as dining together and free time activities.

People voiced that they enjoyed Pastor Nakanishi’s messages, fellowship, small group discussions, time to get away from daily affairs and enjoy God’s words, overnight facility (big room with towels) and meals. They voiced some aspects which may need to be improved, as well.

Examples of feedback regarding what we learned from the messages and other activities are shown below.

• I would like to try reading through the Bible.
• I learned that we were created by God and originally His. Believers can have hope.
• I would like to place emphasis on ‘listening’ more.
• I learned the importance of reading the Bible with joy.
• I would like to organize my thoughts and take in what I learned this weekend.
• Everything will be food for the days ahead.
• I had great fun. I give thanks to those who prepared for this conference.

I would like to share a little about my relationship with Christ with you.

My encounter with Jesus was when I was in the first or second grade. A house in my neighborhood held a Bible story time. I went there not because I wanted to learn about the Bible but because I wanted to have the snack that they provided.  At the story time, I heard that Jesus was born from Mary, died on the Cross, and rose again. I had never heard these stories before.  I continued attending the story time for several months without understanding the Bible much.  My parents did not have any interests in religion. When I told my parents that Jesus is God, they just said “I see” but never showed any interest. They were not against it either. Seven or eight years after that, my older sister started learning English from Mr. Brown. He was a missionary from the States and invited her to go to church. My sister did not want to go to church by herself, so she asked me to go with her.  At first, I went to the church rather reluctantly.  I did not go every week but after I went there a couple times, the word ‘sin’ started speaking to my heart. I had been thinking that I was a sinner because I was lying to my parents or taking coins from my mother’s purse and I knew those behaviors were not good.  I assumed that people who could be Christians were sinless perfect people. Even after ten years from that point, I was still thinking that I could not become a sinless perfect person, so I could not be a Christian.  In fact, I became even more sinful. I eventually fell away from church and started to forget about God.

Around that time, I was having severe menstrual cramps but when I went to see a doctor, he only told me to take pain medication and could not figure out the cause.  One day, I had even stronger pain and I thought I would die.  I lost consciousness and when I woke up, it was the next day and my face was covered in my vomit. The strongest pain was gone but I kept having dull pain in my left lower abdomen. I went to the clinic that I always went to but they suggested Igo to a larger hospital. As soon as I was checked in, I had to have surgery. The cause of the pain was endometriosis and there was a tumor in my left ovary. It became too big and had ruptured. The tumor was benign, but after testing other organs, the result showed that I had uterus cancer.  The doctor said if I did not have surgery to remove the cancerous cells right away, I would live less than five years.  I would not even live till I was 30 years old.  It was hard on my body to have another surgery right after the other one, but I had surgery a few weeks after that.  I was told before the surgery that the cancer is at the second stage but it was actually at the beginning of the first stage.  The doctor said some people around my age at that time do not usually find uterus cancer early enough to survive.  If I did not have the first surgery for the uterus, I would not have found this cancer. Many nurses and doctors said I was lucky.

While I was in the hospital, my mother came to see me every day, but my mother, who was known to always be healthy, did not look well, so I suggested her to take a physical exam. It turned out that she also had uterus cancer and her cancer was advanced and there was nothing that the doctors could do.  She was given three to four months to live. I was hopeless and could not understand why my mother had to die while I survived. I wanted to switch places if possible. At that time, I started praying for my mother thinking “I am okay because I believe in Jesus and will go to heaven, but my mother does not know Jesus, so I would like her to be saved.”  I was away from church but the Word from the Bible stayed in my heart. There was not much time left for my mother, so I told her directly that I would like her to believe in Jesus and be saved.  I don’t think she understood much about Jesus, but she replied and said “I would like you to believe in Jesus too.”  Since then, I started reading the Bible very earnestly. A few words stayed in my heart.  Luke 5:20 “When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.””  5:31 “Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.”

I was seven years old when I heard the story in the Bible for the first time.  Eighteen years after that, I felt that the eyes of my heart were finally opened. Jesus came not to invite perfect people but to invite imperfect sinners like me.  I believed that Jesus suffered and died on the Cross, was buried, and rose again in three days and I was baptized. My mother also confessed her faith in Christ and was baptized a few weeks after I was. It took a long time for me to have faith because I thought that I had to become a sinless perfect person.  However, because of my and my mother’s illness, I realized that when we confess our sins, our sins are forgiven because of the cross of Jesus and the best present from God is eternal life. I am like a head of the sinners in the world even now, but I am glad that I am alive and led to this church to fellowship with you.

When I was little, my father shared about his experiences that he remembered from while he was living in China.  I was shocked to hear these stories. After believing Jesus, God put a desire in my heart to go to China and share the love of Christ. It took a while for that path to be available for me, but I met a Christian who did missionary work in China and I was able to join the trip to bring the Bible to a farming village in an inland area. It was about twenty years ago and we went through Hong Kong, but each providence had an inspection check point. If we were found carrying a Bible, the Bible would be taken away. We were so nervous and praying that we would be able to bring the Bible to the community.  God protected our way and we were thankful that we were able to bring the Bible to them.  It was an economically challenged area but some people walked hours to see us.  What we did was such a small thing but they were so happy and some of them shed tears of joy and told us thank-you. They welcomed us, hosted us, and did their very best to serve us.  We were grateful. The brothers and sisters there shared testimonies with us.  Many of them had been arrested and tortured because of sharing the love of Christ. They were asked if they choose Mao Zedong or Jesus while an electroshock wand was held by their neck. If they said Jesus, the government officers turned on the electroshock wand and they flew several meters because of the shock.  Even in this kind of circumstance, they said they would like to share about Jesus to people around them.  When we were leaving their place, we asked them what we could do for them.  They said “we would not be able to go visit you, but please come visit us again.” I went back to Japan and moved to China after a while.  The first place I lived in China was a place near North Korea.  There were many people who crossed the border from North Korea into China. They lived fearfully because if they were captured, they would be sent back to North Korea and might be killed.  Back then, in North Korea, many people were dying because of draught and famine, some of them were eating dead people’s meat, and people sent back from China were severely tortured.  One person from North Korea crossed the border by crossing the river and barely escaped alive, but shared tearfully with us how much she worried about her family left in North Korea.

In China, there are churches called “three-self patriotic churches” which were approved by the government. I don’t know how it is right now but I heard that the government set the limit on what can be preached.  There are also many house churches.  One time when I was still there, there was a conference of the house church attendees and about 100 people attended the conference.   Public security officers sneaked into the conference.  I was going to stay there for three days, so I reserved a hotel nearby.  In the morning of the second day, I had a bad feeling and packed everything and left by the door of my hotel room before leaving the hotel for the conference.  When I arrived at the conference, I was told to run away because the public security officers were coming and if foreigners were arrested, it would be a huge problem.  I grabbed my language and ran away to the designated place that people at the conference suggested.  After we ran away, the public security performed a crackdown and the main believers were arrested.  One of the Korean missionaries I knew was arrested at another conference and he was tortured for several days while his hands and legs were tied to a chair. Because of Chinese believers’ help, I did not get arrested, but I cannot help but praying for those who are persecuted because of their work for the Lord even now.  May God’s grace and mercy be poured out upon those who are persecuted.

New Book for November

 The Real Heaven by Chip Ingram

In our culture, for the last several years, there has been a great deal of interest in the subject of heaven.   There have been movies as well as many books written by those who had a near death experience, went to heaven, and returned to tell their stories.  It is unfortunate that their descriptions are often unbiblical and even contradict one another.   What does the Bible really have to say about heaven?

In this book, the author provides a biblical perspective on the subject of heaven.  He writes in an appendix on his belief in the Bible, “The entire message of this book on Heaven rests on one foundational element: that the Bible is the inspired and infallible Word of God.  Everything written in this book is based on the belief that the Bible is credible, trustworthy, and accurate.”

The author gives three reasons to study Heaven:

1. Our misconceptions are crippling us.
2. We are commanded to think about Heaven.
3. A faulty view of Heaven destines us to a wasted life on earth.

He also discusses such issues as:

• What does the Bible actually say about Heaven?
• What difference does it make?
• What happens the moment after we die?
• What will our relationships be like in Heaven?

After a death of a loved one, the subject of heaven brings great comfort if that person was a follower of Jesus Christ. The subject of heaven also provides great motivation to live our lives for God’s glory and for His purposes.  Anyone interested in a biblical look at heaven will find this book both practical and informative.