I attribute it all to the grace of God

When I was growing up, our denomination in New Zealand had a constant stream of furloughing missionaries reporting and exhorting (mobilising) in our churches.

My wife, Connie, and I came to Japan to do church-planting in 1960. Since that time, we have had 10 workers who attended Bible school (seminary). Now one of our church members, Nanbu Sakae, is training to be a missionary outside Japan, and another is labouring in a Muslim country.

Among the 10, one family of four all trained formally. The father of this family had never been to school, having contracted polio and becoming crippled at age three. The mother of the family, Yukiko, had been led to the Lord by our senior missionary, Stuart Caldwell, and she married this man to help him preach the gospel. She pickabacked him for 50 years! She told the Lord she would serve him as a nurse, but the Lord mobilised her using John 15:13: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (author’s paraphrase). She’s still alive!

After Connie and I pioneered in Sapporo for a year or two, we asked this family to mind our house while we furloughed. They stayed on and helped to make our first church plant into one of the biggest churches in Japan north of Tokyo!

We have tried to provide training and discipleship in normal ministry, including having the saints join us in massive tract distribution and gospel meetings. This gave the saints priceless experience as workers. The crux of service is dedication rather than graduation. The Lord’s mobilisation method is self-sacrifice, demonstrated by Yukiko.

Each time the saints seemed ready, we moved to pioneer elsewhere but my mobilisation ideals have failed regarding massive distribution and constant crusades. I keep wondering why we have been able to mobilise up to 20 new groups/churches in Japan. Was it the prayers of 250 New Zealand churches? Was it fasting, or tracting, or preaching? But I’ve been forced to attribute all to the grace of God. Don’t laugh; I actually grew in grace before I was born! Grace is my dear mother’s name!

I realise that better mobilisation might have produced better results all round. But up to 20 churches and groups keep me happily busy in prayer and care. Praise God!

An easy part of my daily prayers is this one that the Lord Jesus urged us to pray: “The harvest indeed is plenteous, but the labourers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He mobilise labourers into His harvest” (Luke 10:2, author’s paraphrase).