Juji Nakada’s Ministry to One=Eternal Results

Juji Nakada’s ministry to one man led to eternal results.

It wasn’t just one man, of course, and many are in heaven today.

Others still minister on earth 85 years after Nakada’s death.

But, I recently read Rising Son by Brett and Mimi Yoda Eshelman, describing Nakada’s ministry to one man and how that affected the man’s son (and his granddaughter, Mimi).

The book also provides insight into how Nakada and the Oriental Missionary Society’s (OMS) Bible Training Institute (BTI) in Tokyo worked, circa 1915.

A poor man in Tokyo: Toyoshichi Yoda

Rising Son opens with a Japanese man standing on a tower waiting for American planes to bomb Japan in 1942.

A lone watchman, Toyoshichi Yoda was a Christian pastor pressed into service throughout the war.

He spent his 12-hour shifts praying for his country, his people, as well as the men in the planes attacking his country.

He also prayed for his son, a fighter pilot against his will in the Japanese air force.

Yoda had good reason to pray. Fire bombing Japan would destroy many homes and buildings; many people would die.

How did Yoda become a Christian pastor?

Through Juji Nakada’s ministry 27 years earlier.

It began when a Christian man fed a hungry boy.

1912 Japan (Kofu)

The Oriental Missionary Society began in Tokyo in 1901. Co-founder Juji Nakada’s ministry focused on local evangelism. Without his “fiery evangelism,” the OMS efforts would not have reached so many Japanese nationals.

Eleven years later, a starving orphaned Toyoshichi Yoda met a street evangelist handing out tracts while others stood nearby singing.

The evangelist saw the teenage boy needed food and purchased three bread rolls for him.

As Yoda devoured the food, the evangelist explained,

I will give you another, but first I want to tell you about a man that offers you, ‘bread of life.’ . . . there is the one I spoke of who wants to give you a different kind of food, so you will never hunger again.”

Rising Son p 12

He handed Yoda a pamphlet as well as more bread, explaining, “If you want to know more about this bread of life, come to the place on this paper and we’ll tell you much more about a new life for you.”

Yoda took both and watched the “crazy singing people,” walk away.

He shook his head and walked in the opposite direction as it began to rain.

Finding a dry and secure spot under the stairs of a small house, he fell asleep.

Yoda woke to the sound of “crazy people,” singing. He’d sheltered at a small meeting house.

“So you found us,” the man said . . . “You were supposed to go up the stairs, rather than go under them.” (Rising Son p. 15)

They invited him in and fed him. When he tried to slip away, an old lady stopped him, and gave him more food.

He never returned and never saw them again, but their generosity and the love in their eyes remained in his memory. Yoda had not felt wanted in a long time.

Nakada’s ministry to Yoda in 1915

Yoda’s life improved after meeting the Christians.

Three years later, while strolling through Tokyo streets after work, he saw “crazy singing people” again.

This time he followed them and their band all the way to a tent meeting where a handsome short man in a western suit greeted them.

Yoda sat beside a kind man he knew from his job. The crowd sang a song he didn’t know, that included the words, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”

Then the handsome man spoke, “A special thanks to you who have come for the first time. We trust that this will be a life-changing moment for you. For those who do not know me I am Juji Nakada, and I have a message for you.”

Rising Son p. 38

He talked about Jesus, who died and then rose from the dead.

Yoda shook his head, not understanding why people were crying and coming to the altar at Nakada’s invitation. They were “crazing singing people.”

But Nakada’s words captured Yoda’s imagination. The young man returned after work night after night, until the final evening of the revival meeting.

That night, Nakada told the story of Nicodemus meeting Jesus and learning he needed to be born again.

Nakada gave an invitation, “Is there anyone here who has heard the voice of the Savior and would like to be born again?”

Before he knew it, Yoda stood and went directly to the altar.

There, he met the bread of life as his Savior.

Afterward, “Nakada-Sensei,” invited Yoda and several others to dinner.

Yoda soon found his way to the Bible Training Institute and a life in the Nazarene Church of Japan.

Rising Son and the Yoda Family

While Rising Son provides a glimpse into Christianity and Juji Nakada’s ministry in Japan during the first two decades of the 20th century, it’s really the story of Toyoshichi’s son Terry–an earnest Christian caught in the Japanese Imperial Army.

Terry Yoda’s story is fraught with danger, surprises, hardship, and coincidences that saved his life throughout WWII. After the war’s end, Terry attended university and seminary in the US and eventually served as a Nazarene pastor in Japan until his early death in 1973.

His father’s prayers spoken on that watchtower for four years made a difference for Terry and for those who loved him and Terry’s ministry.

But all would have been for naught without Toyoshichi Yoda hearing salvation proclaimed through Juji Nakada’s ministry so many years before.

As Lettie Cowman’s biographer (a co-founder of the Oriental Missionary Society), I read about Nakada’s evangelism skills in many books and articles.

Rising Son, however, first gave me a glimpse of the man in action.

Though, of course, many others were changed as a result of hearing Nakada’s ministry over 35 years.

Take Korea, for example.

Ah, that’s a blog post for another day.

Tweetables

A Japanese man hears Juji Nakada–and lives change. Click to Tweet

Juji Nakada and an altar call’s result. Click to Tweet