Senior ministry by a senior

It seems odd to me to be writing about senior ministry when, at 74, I am 10 years older than my father was when the Lord called him home. However, there are plenty of people in Japan older than I am! I feel the most important thing to remember in ministry of all sorts is that we are placed on earth to discover and to develop a right relationship with our Creator. Everyone’s time on earth is limited, and older people are generally more aware of that than younger people. They might have outlived their parents, as I have, or they may simply be experiencing the gradual loss of childhood friends to death and realize they are in line as well. It’s my experience that older people are seldom offended by being told that there is more to existence than physical life.

People I’ve ministered to

I have baptized a man literally on his deathbed, just two days before his physical heart stopped, and he and his Christian daughter were deeply grateful. He had been a soldier in WWII, and a personal acquaintance of the first tokkōtai member, commonly called kamikaze. That pilot had been told, because he had tuberculosis and wouldn’t have lived much longer anyway, to commit suicide by flying his plane into an American ship. His friend, the man I baptized, was deeply aware of the emptiness of that kind of death, and it opened his heart to the gospel.

I have also baptized a man (77), who had been a prefectural government employee. His son had become a Christian years before, and when the son started coming to our church, he gave a testimony in which he said his parents were “beyond reach.” The parents’ home was over an hour away by car, but the mother had medical issues that required her, once a month, to come to Nagasaki Medical Center, a national hospital very close to our church. Having heard about us from their son, one day as they were leaving the hospital, the father said, “We’re going to go by the church.” The mother was surprised but didn’t argue. She had brought their very senior dog with them because she was afraid they would get home to find him dead. I happened to be at the church at the time, and both were deeply touched when I welcomed the dog, he instantly accepted me, and I prayed for the dog.

In a matter of months, they announced at the Buddhist temple where they were registered that they were leaving, and a few months after that, I had the privilege of baptizing them both. I will never forget his testimony at that time: “I feel like I have been living in a fog. What on earth have I done with my life up to this point?” He was a very joyful believer. Less than a year later, he had a heart attack in his bathtub and slipped under the water. His memorial service was attended mostly by relatives, some of whom had been very upset when he became a Christian (one is a Buddhist priest). After the memorial service, more than one said to his widow, “Now we understand—he was drawn by the love.”

That widow is currently in her eighties, living in a senior care center. We had hoped, and were actively planning, to build a senior care center ourselves right next to the church, but the Lord closed that door.

We are also currently ministering to a 97-year-old lady who was married to a British man for many years and lived in Britain for about 30 years. She became our friend because she wanted friends that she could freely speak English with. She’s not close to her only living relatives, and she insists that we are the only people who genuinely care about her. She’s not yet been baptized, but we certainly haven’t given up hope.

Language of love

This brings us back to the issue of communicating the gospel to the Japanese, who seem uniquely resistant to it. And no one is more Japanese than the elderly! You may not be able to understand their hōgen, their local dialect, but everyone understands the language of love. I have the advantage of having been born and raised in Japan (Fukuoka), but my wife, Cathy, with her imperfect Japanese, is a far more effective minister to the elderly than I am because she speaks fluent “love.” You are well aware that hugging is not a natural part of Japanese culture, so it is very moving to see my wife being greeted joyously and hugged by older Japanese women, initiated by them!

Remember that older people are just as valuable in God’s eyes as active young people, and let God’s love draw them to him through you.