Ladies Day

October brought with it many opportunities for witnessing God at work. We are so thankful that David was able to return safely to Okinawa after a wonderful trip to West Virginia during the World Mission Offering time. He was able to connect with many churches and speak at the West Virginia Baptist Convention. Many thanks to our Mission Partnership team and to the staff of the WVBC for their continued love and service.

October was also busy here in Okinawa with visits from our colleagues from International Ministries and friends from Tokyo as well as OCSI, at Daiichi Baptist Church and within the Okinawa Baptist Convention.

The Okinawa Baptist Convention ladies had their fall rally called, "Chimu don-don" (Fast Beating Heart) which was not only a wonderful opportunity for the ladies of various churches to meet but also an opportunity to invite their non-Christian friends to enjoy great music and hear the Gospel.

The ladies of Gloria shared a beautiful hymn and another group of ladies who have been working hard on Christian hula dancing shared a lovely dance to the song, "Jerusalem. For those of you wondering about hula in Okinawa, please know that Okinawa and Hawaii share much history. Many Okinawans have made Hawaii their home in the past due to financial hardship and recently the children and grandchildren of these citizens have been returning to Okinawa; many of them to share the Gospel with their extended families here.

Our speaker for the day was pastor Gushiken who is a lively and fun speaker. Wearing a Hawaiian shirt, he shared as many stores in the area are beginning to advertise Christmas, he wanted to speak to the congregation about the way that Mary accepted she would be the mother of the Savior. His talk was one of encouragement about how we can trust in God when we are unsure about the situations in our lives.

As a part of his talk, he also shared about the recent solar eclipse that parts of India, China and Japan experienced. Even though Okinawa wasn't in the area to see 100% of the eclipse, it did get dark enough to feel dusk at 9:00 in the morning. Because of the usual brightness of the sun, it is amazing that anything could possibly blot it out. But during the recent eclipse, we saw that our relatively small moon was able to come between us and the sun and make it disappear. Pastor Gushiken shared that often we are separated from God because of our fixation on our problems and concerns. He compared God to the sun as being so large and bright and bringing light to the universe but because we are only looking at our problems and not trusting God to help us with them, they become like the moon and can completely block God out of our lives.

We pray that each of us may more and more keep our eyes on God as the source of help for our problems and that we can rely on His unchanging care.

Headhunters to Soul Seekers:
A Special Travel Newsletter

Dear Friends and Family;
Just a century-and-a-half ago in the wooded mountains of northeast India, headhunting tribesmen proudly adorned the doors of their lodgings with the skulls of their victims. The most honored among them also wore tattoos and headdresses with carved skull images representing their kills. It was believed that the nape of the neck held the soul, and thus to remove the head would free the soul of the victim, but also prove the bravery of the warrior.

However, our Father in Heaven loved these people, as he loves all of his creation, and he had a plan to rescue them from this darkness. In October of 1868 He sent American Baptist missionaries, Dr. and Mrs. Edwin Clark to a mission outpost at Sibsagar, on the border between Assam and the hills of the Naga headhunters. Arriving in March of 1869 they began their duties of operating the mission printing press that produced Bibles and grammatical materials for the tribes of Assam, among whom the gospel was spreading.

One day, near their bungalow, the Clarks encountered some Naga tribesmen who had come down from the hills in search of food. Like the missionaries before them, the Clarks became burdened for the souls of the Nagas. In a letter to the Home Mission Board in 1871, they wrote, “Tribe upon tribe of Nagas are accessible to the Gospel. It is certainly painful for us at Sibsagar to be unable to lift our eyes without seeing these hills, and thinking of them who have no knowledge of Christ.” 1


The missionaries were not allowed by the British Government to venture into the dangerous hills. However, as they prayed for the Nagas, Dr. Clark was inspired with a creative plan to reach them with the Gospel, while complying with the government restrictions. He sent a trained Assamese evangelist, named Godhula, into the hills!
Would he be beheaded? Would he be any safer than a foreign missionary? A year later, in November of 1872 Godhula returned to Sibsagar for a joyful reunion with the missionaries and his wife, Lucy. He wanted to escort Lucy to the Naga village where he was working.

Godhula related how the tribesmen had been very suspicious at first, but gave him a rude hut on the outskirts of the village. One day they heard him singing hymns, and since music is at the core of the Naga heart, they were drawn to his hut out of curiosity. From that point, Godhula was able to make friends and share the Gospel. When he returned to Sibsagar to get his wife, he brought nine believers from the Naga village with him! Dr. Clark baptized them and thus organized the First Baptist church of Nagaland, on December 23rd, 1872.

Then, Dr. Clark himself went into the hills, and though, for his pale complexion, was under suspicion of being a British spy, he established a community of believers. He trained them to take the message to other tribes, and thus the gospel spread among these former headhunters, transforming them into peace-loving soul seekers for Christ’s Kingdom!

Why is that miracle of long ago the subject of this newsletter, you may ask? Well, it so happens that the Rev. Vesekhoyi (Vee)Tetsuo whom I work with at Dai-ichi Baptist Church in Okinawa City, is from a tribal village among the Naga hills. He invited me to go with him to his home church with two Okinawa Christian leaders and another American to present a seminar on contemporary worship. He explained, “Though Nagaland is about 95 percent believers, many are nominal Christians who need a better understanding of the gospel, and young people are looking for new ways to express their love of Christ in worship. Rev. Vee said, “That’s my role, to teach them how to write and sing new songs from the heart, but the Lord needs you, David to teach the solid biblical foundation of worship.” So, after three days of travel which included a harrowing road trip and thrilling elephant ride (just for fun), Rev. Vee, three other members of the mission team, and I found ourselves still alive and well at Chakesang Baptist Church in Kohima, capital of Nagaland, for a three-day worship conference from February 20-22, 2009.

I led ten participants chronologically through the stories of the Old Covenant, exploring aspects of worship, (particularly blood sacrifices) and how these all pointed to the one-time blood sacrifice of Christ, God’s only Son. One of the participants, a doctoral student who had come from a very remote region, came to me after the presentation and pleaded, “Will you sell me all of your textbooks? They are too costly to have shipped from abroad, and I must have them for my studies and ministry!” I am thankful that my luggage was much lighter on the return trip to Okinawa.
Finally, in this “Naga saga” is a historical note concerning the last day of our visit. From the capital city of Kohima we wended our way for two-and-a-half hours up a rough mountain road to Rev. Vee’s parents’ home village of Thipuzu. Upon arrival in front of the Baptist Church, villagers in full native dress encircled us and then extended warm handshakes and greetings. It was moving to see their smiles and tearful hugs for Rev. Vee, whom many had not seen for years.

The men of the church received us in the village meeting hall, where we sat down to exchange greetings before enjoying a delicious banquet, which must have represented quite a sacrifice on their part during the dry season before the monsoons. The five in our traveling party included two Okinawa church members who had conducted seminars at the conference. When the village elder stood up to speak, he told how some of the older men of the village had not seen a Japanese in their community since WWII. Though Thipuzu village had not suffered terribly at the hands of the soldiers, there had been heavy casualties among the Nagas around the capital city of Kohima.

After the Japanese surrender it had taken weeks for the word of peace to get up into the hills of Nagaland, so the fighting had continued there with great losses. One of the men showed us a little sprig of a plant he had plucked and said, “Before the Japanese came, this plant did not grow around our village. The Japanese soldiers used this as camouflage in their helmets, and thus caused it to take root here. We named it ‘Japon’.
However, in his speech, the old village chieftain said, “Even so, we are happy to welcome these two Japanese here today, the first to set foot in our village since the war, because now in Christ Jesus we are brothers!” “Also, one of our own, Vesekhoyi (Vee) is married to a girl from Okinawa and we are proud to claim him as a missionary to Japan from our village.”

As we all stood in turn to give greetings, our brothers from Okinawa apologized for what their forbearers had done during the war. I was moved because our team members themselves had done no wrong, and Japan had long ago been forgiven, yet, there is something beautiful about expressing sorrow and forgiveness on behalf of a nation or tribe, to further the healing process.


And to commemorate the occasion, we sat at table and ate all manner of dog, frog, fish and snails, and even dragonflies. We nibbled on gooseberries and passion fruit, and enjoyed a king’s table array of vegetables, chicken, and pork. My thoughts went to verse 5 of the twenty-third Psalm. “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” I thought, “Christ, in the hearts of all of us present at this table, brings new meaning to that verse. It is not a table to taunt an enemy. This, rather, is a table of reconciliation where descendents of former enemies, (headhunters and combatants of terrible wars between nations of the world) sit down together with hearts overflowing with Christ’s love for one another. Praise be to our Loving Savior!”

And that overflow includes two Naga missionaries from Rev. Vee’s home church who are serving as missionaries in Nepal alongside the Rev. Iwao Kochihira, a missionary from Okinawa. Truly, we are seeing today the fulfillment of a prophecy spoken by Dr. Edwin Clark when he witnessed the movement of the Holy Spirit among the Naga people and said, “The softening twilight of Christianity is here. Soon the broad daylight with its transforming power will reveal a Christianized people.” 2 Please pray for the churches of Nagaland as they continue to fulfill that prophecy, and that they will continue to obey our Lord’s Great Commission by sending missionaries abroad.
In Christ’s Love,

Nagaland

One blessing of living in Okinawa is the international opportunity of service that seems to be everywhere. Many churches here have outreach in other Asian countries and there are people who settle here from many other countries. In previous blogs, we have shared about Vee Tetsuo, a native of Nagaland, who ministers here with his wife and three sons and who is a native of Nagaland in Northern India. Vee's testimony is one of God's grace and love to a very rebellious young man and of a changed life as Vee turned to God and eventually gave his entire life and work to Him.

As we have ministered with Vee, we have been excited to see how God uses him to bring people of many cultures together in service. We ask for your prayers as David is going to be able to be a part of that service in Nagaland from February 17-26, 2009.

David, Vee and three others (Otani san and Matsuda san of the Okinawa Baptist Convention, and Tracy Daniels, who has worked with Vee in music) will travel to Bangkok, Calcutta and eventually Nagaland to lead a seminar at a church there on the Biblical foundations of worship. They plan on leading this seminar so those in Nagaland will gain skills in how to lead worship in surrounding areas and countries. David will have his focus on the Old Testament, Vee and Tracy will lead in music, Matsuda san (a potter decorated by the Emporer of Japan) will lead in how to use arts to minister, and Otani san will share in how to improve skills in the electronic audio/visual realm. Although Joanna and I will miss David as he leaves for 10 days, we are excited that he will be used as he shares about the foundations of worship in two two-hour sessions. They will also be able to go to Mother Theresa's charity and take a trip to a village in India.

The Chakhesang Baptist Church is very excited and there have been so many wanting to attend from all over Nagaland (over 500) that there has been concern about food and housing.

We ask for your prayers for this trip for God's provision and safety and for those attending the seminar to gain skills they will be able to use to share with those who need to know Jesus.

Here is some information about:
Nagaland: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagaland
Nagaland Baptist: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagaland_Baptist_Church_Council

I will try to post updates as I have them...it appears it may be difficult to contact them but I may be able to receive and send email.

Christmas

There were lots of Christmas activities in the month of December....the Okinawa Prefecture Christmas where Joanna performed with her musical choir, the Okinawa Christian School Elementary program where Joanna danced to "John 3:16", the OCSI high school Christmas program, Daiichi Baptist church and the outdoor concert that Leslie's church choir ladies participated in, Christmas party at the church, and parties for the physically and mentally challenged among other things....it was a busy time!!!

Joanna's class had a party as well and before the party, her teacher Mrs. Loh asked the students to answer the question, " What does Christmas mean to you" Here are some of the responses from the third grade class:

"Christmas is all about Jesus" Kaito
"Christmas is about God's love" Akiko
"Christmas is about Jesus being born and Santa's elves. Santa Clausgiving out presents and really all about God's love" Joseph
"Christmas is about Jesus and presents and Santa Claus. Jesus is a good guy" Yo
"Christmas is about Jesus and the angel said, "Do not be afraid; I bring you good news of great joy. It is for all the people today: in the city of David a Savior has been born" Joanna

We pray that your Christmas was blessed and that you felt the love of the Savior whose birth we remember.

Jo's class party

The elementary Christmas program


Our church family at Daiichi Baptist Church


Members of the children's musical

Members of the Daiichi choir