Kurume is exactly 30 minutes by train from Fukuoka and has about 250,000 residents. It’s a pleasant city with three large parks, two major concert halls, an art gallery and a large river snaking around the North end of town. Pleasant, that is, on the surface. The rest of the story isn’t pretty at all.
It’s the West Japan headquarters for several mafia groups that are constantly recruiting young people. There’s a whole section of town near the expressway onramp for seedy hourly hotels they call “love hotels,” and the red light district just behind the city hall stretches for blocks.
Kurume is flanked on all four compass points by a significant Buddhist temple or Shinto shrine. The shrine on the mountain to the East was built in the 5th century, and rebuilt in 1600. To the north is the temple for the river god. It is the head temple for all the water deities in Japan. The view to the South of town is dominated by a big white statue of the “Kannon” deity. It’s a woman holding a baby – the symbol of an ancient religion that has its roots in the 10th chapter of Genesis – and is 62 meters tall. (That’s 203 feet!) . And the temple to the West is so big the town is named after it; “Daizenji” – the great temple of Zen. The middle of town has a row of about 15 temples called, not so originally, “Temple Town”, and just in case there might be a crack in the spiritual bondage, there is a small alter with a stone idol on the street corner for every 50 homes or so.
That’s on the outside. Inside most homes there are two shrines. One Buddhist to worship the ancestors, and one Shinto. Then there are the protection cards that the priests have inserted a “spirit” into. People buy these at the temple, put them in their cars, and tie them to their children’s school bags, so everyone has at least three or four of them on their person at all times.
In the midst of all this spiritual bondage, there are only four evangelical churches that average about 40 members each. Do the math. Thinking generously, that makes just barely 1/10 of 1% of the population Christian, or one in every 1000 people a born again believer.
It’s in this environment that Kurume Bible Church struggles to let its light shine. We are a small church with the same doctrine, and most of the same practices as a small independent country church in the US. We have hand-built a small three story structure with a sanctuary that seats 60, and there are usually about 30 adults in the morning service.
Satan is powerful here, but God is more powerful, and we see small indications of His victory in the believers’ lives nearly every week, but the progress is slow. We rejoice when we have a year with two or three decisions for Christ. If only we could see our Great God break through the barriers and chains that have the people bound, and those two or three decisions would increase to monthly or even weekly! If only we could see the miracle of our Risen Lord working to change the hearts and lives of the believers in a big way, instead of small!
We need you to get involved in order for this to happen. We have just a few people in the US who have agreed to pray for us on a regular basis, but God is already working in ways we could never have dared imagine just a few short weeks ago. Just think what great things could happen if you were to join us, and commit to pray for the church, and perhaps choose one member or family to lift up in prayer on a daily basis! There would be Japanese people in heaven walk up to you and say “Were it not for you, I wouldn’t be here. Thank you.” Will you join us?