Missionary Stories of Souls Saved

Thanks to Bob and Su Wei for the encouraging words. I've been praying for the Christians in Sichuan, and I hope others have too.

Because of their encouragement, I got to thinking. Then the other day I was looking through the membership list of our church in Yokohama, and remembered the twins. Here is their story.

The Brothers Find Christ​

Akita Prefecture is a poor place to find Christ in Japan. Throughout its history there have been very few missionaries there, and few enough Japanese churches, even with a population of over 1,200,000. Currently there are only two missionary couples there, both from the Japan Lutheran Brethren Mission. Many towns have no Gospel witness whatsoever.

In the early 1980s, twin brothers Masami and Masashi were driving down an Akita Road when they saw a sign that said something like, “Prepare to Meet Thy God.” They were amazed, not knowing what it was all about, though it purported to be from the Bible, and so they began to think that day about eternal things. However, there were no churches near them, and anyway they didn’t know what that statement meant.

The sign was put there by an unusual family of missionaries in Japan with a single burden: to get some kind of Gospel witness to every city in Japan. So they travel constantly, passing out tracts and putting up signs all over Japan with brief Bible verses or statements such as “Christ Died for Your Sins,” or, “God is the Judge.”

The twins had a hard time finding jobs in Akita, so they decided to head out to the big city of Yokohama, which had almost three times the population of their whole prefecture! There Masami found Christ as Savior at a holiness church. Masashi, who with a speech impediment was much shyer than his older brother, heard the Gospel, too, but wasn’t quite sure what it was all about. He went through the motions, but never was sure about this salvation thing.

For whatever reason, the twins left the holiness church and began coming to our church. There one day I dealt with Masashi about salvation, and that day he received assurance that his sins were forgiven and he was on the way to Heaven!

What a joy it was to have these two brothers in our church! I baptized Masashi, and Masami was later immersed by the interim pastor while we were on furlough, since he had only been sprinkled before. God burdened both men to be soul winners, so Masami with his fluency and Masashi with his stammering both began witnessing for Christ. They passed out over 10,000 tracts in just one year while we were away on our next furlough!

Alas, the lure of the Charismatic movement took these brothers away from us. But for years, once in awhile they would get back in touch with us, and we know that we will see them in Heaven. All because of a little sign with a short Bible verse the twins saw on a country road in Akita!