Ronin or Samurai?
This letter was written to John's church at the time. (2004) The name of the
church has been changed out of a desire to protect this church's reputation.
I hesitated to share this letter on this site because it
could be seen as critical towards the church mentioned, but anyone who knew John knows that
he did not bear any grudge or bitterness, but simply desired to see them grow in a heart for missions.
The "Eddie" mentioned in the letter did serve with us here in Tokyo for 2 years from spring
2004 to spring 2006 with a wonderful impact on many students, namely Norio who came to Christ,
and John visited this past summer and described in his 07 / 25 / 2006 update.
May 24, 2004
Dear HappyDay Church,
Praise be
to God for all the great things you are doing both here and abroad. I am
writing to bring something up to which I would like a response. Most
people are familiar with the Japanese word, samurai, a Japanese warrior.
Literally, it means servant. What most people are not familiar with is
ronin, which means masterless samurai. He is one who is by nature a
warrior, but has no lord or house under which to serve. I wanted to take
this opportunity to write about a spiritual warrior servant who is about to
leave very soon for Japan as a missionary for at least two years. He has
attended HappyDay ever since he gave his life to Christ roughly six years
ago. He has known no other church and desires to attend no other
church. Eddie could be HappyDay's poster boy. Unchurched for the
majority of his life he grew up in affluent Southern California and got involved
with drugs even at a young age. In light of this some would even view his
acceptance to college as a miracle. It was during his first year in
college that he came face to face with his LORD and Savior. Jesus Christ.
His life has been a series of miracles ever since. The latest one involved
his decision to go to Japan. Eddie was excited to be HappyDay's
representative in Japan because of the positive experiences he's had at the
Church. I encouraged Eddie to apply to HappyDay for financial support
since you have been so generous to me in my missionary pursuits in the
past. Therefore I was quite flummoxed to hear that his request was denied
because of budget cuts. He was encouraged to apply again only to
face the same results. One of the reasons given was that the people of
HappyDay are not interested in Japan as a country. As a former HappyDay missions
board member and missionary to Japan I find that a bit perplexing. We
respect your right to distribute money as you see fit, but I think Eddie could
have received a better response from his own church. Perhaps there were
other reasons for not supporting Eddie that were not directly mentioned to
him. Nevertheless, Eddie no longer needs to raise funds for his mission to
Japan because at a Navigator conference a number of poor college students banded
together to donate Eddie's final $15000 for his mission. It was an amazing
feat that only God could have orchestrated.
This letter is not
intended as a complaint nor as a plea for financial support, but as an
invitation. It is quite evident that God is behind Eddie's missionary
endeavor. Even though HappyDay is unable to support him financially, are
there no other forms of support that are available to him? Could we not
have at least communicated that we care about him as to help him find other ways
to raise support, and not just financially? I know this was not your
intent, but Eddie left those meetings with the missions committee feeling pretty
insignificant and almost abandoned by HappyDay. So what can we do
now? Although Eddie leaves in early June it's still not too late.
Perhaps a small group could adopt him for the two years that he is over there,
or perhaps the church could look for some one or some people who would pray for
him and/or send him notes of encouragement or updated on the church. There
must be something else other than silence. The greatest enemy to a
missionary is Japan is not persecution, but discouragement because of spiritual
apathy. Will you consider sending Eddie with the blessing and spiritual
support that only a church could give? Or will he go to Japan as a ronin,
with no church to call his own except for the Church universal? When
people in Japan ask him about his church at home he will to answer that he has
none, at least none who is supporting him in any way. Eddie is samurai,
warrior servant to the Most High, whether he has any allegiance to a local
church or not. I am honored to be his co-laborer and partner in his
mission there. However, only you have the unique opportunity to be that
church that sends and blesses his mission. Will you accept or forfeit this
great and unique honor and privilege?
Sincerely,
John
Lee