Twenty-two years ago, my parents decided with the Lord’s guidance to return to America and finish raising their children. While they were waiting for their house to sell, my dad was given a lot of building materials that had been in the weather a few times, and, with those materials, he built a three-story chapel. The idea was that after we left, someone could come to that village and pioneer and pastor a church, and already have a building. Our house sold and the last few weeks in Japan, our family lived in the freshly built chapel.
i often think about the feelings my dad must have had those few days before he brought his family back to the states. Was he doing the right thing? Did he hear from the Lord correctly? But the day came and we all boarded the plane for America.
The next week my dad got a call from Sam Benedict, a missionary in Japan. “Hey John, I went up to the chapel that you built. Umm, where’s the bathroom in it?” My dad said that it was just past the kitchen. Sam responded “Oh, you mean on the other side of the boulders.” Only a few days after we left it, there was a mudslide and the mountain behind the chapel crashed through the back wall, right where our whole family had been sleeping. What a confirmation of the Will of God!
The chapel didn’t collapse, but it was definitely made unsafe and became an eyesore for the village; so this spring i tore the building down. It’s quite comical and fits with my gloomy humor that while in hopes of planting churches, i was tasked with tearing down one of the few church buildings in the nation! But the Lord has His plans and purposes and calls for our obedience, whether or not it makes us look good. It has been so good to talk with the community while tearing down the building, they seem very appreciative, and i believe it’s opening doors to their hearts. Most of the families have lived there for generations, one family we know has been there three hundred and fifty years!
Thank you for all that you do for us! Our cups are full.
We are praying to the Lord of the Harvest with you, that He will bring souls to Himself. Please pray that He will give us His Words to share in the many budding relationships He has provided.
-joseph&whitney +the Lads
Want to watch 30 seconds of tearing down the chapel? By all means, click!
