Bringing a friend to Kamagasaki
[Adventures in Faith: Japan; 1991] Word got out. Tom and I were living in Kamagasaki. Our friends were curious. Some asked if they could come see the place where we lived.
When our friends and acquaintances learned we were living in Kamagasaki, they were very surprised.
Everybody’s first question was “What is Kamagasaki?” After all, very few people in Japan sought out such a place as Kamagasaki.
Then after we shared some details about Kamagasaki, they seemed alarmed. They asked, “Why are you living in such a place?”
These were people we knew from our former Wayfinders missionary group, as well as people we knew from the International Baptist Church.
A few people asked if they could come to see where we were living.
Over the course of time, several friends came to Kamagasaki.
We met them at Shin Imamiya train station. From there, we led them on a walking tour.
Some people were wide-eyed with fascination and excitement. It was an exotic place, after all.
Other people, especially the older ones, seemed really afraid. It was the most dangerous place in the nation, after all.
One of the people who came to Kamagasaki was a student from the WOLF Club.
The WOLF club was started by an Evangelical missionary with the Wayfinder group. As a foreign missionary with the Wayfinder group, I had served the WOLF club for two years.
I walked him from Shin-Imamiya station into Kamagasaki. Soon, we spied a homeless man.
The homeless man was sitting on the sidewalk, leaning against a building. He was no more than 100 yards from the train station.
He had little piles of things on the sidewalk around him. He was going to sleep right there in the sidewalk, that very night.
My student friend stopped. He beheld the scene. It was something he had never beheld in his whole life.
Most people would have been frightened. A few would have treated it like some novelty to take photos of.
But not this young man. Tears welled up in his eyes. They flowed down his cheeks. They weren’t the tears of sorrow.
They were tears of joy.
He walked over to a respectful distance. He politely asked the homeless man for permission to come near. The homeless man granted permission.
My student friend walked gently to the homeless man, and knelt before him in the seiza position, which is the Japanese seated posture of high respect.
He spoke with the language of respect and love. It was like I was overhearing the son of the Emperor speak to his father.
My student friend was granted an audience with the most important person in the world.
As their conversation came to a close, he gave the homeless man some gifts. He parted with a deep bow of respect to the homeless man, and returned to my side.
This was the first time he had ever met a homeless person in his whole life.
Yet I had never witnessed anyone having more compassion for a homeless person.
What was this? Who was he? How did he have such godly reflexes? What gave him his godly compassion?
It turns out he was Catholic.
All his life, his heroes had been the heroes of the Catholic Church: the saints. His heroes the saints loved Jesus Christ, and they loved poor people and homeless people.
It was his Catholic faith that filled him with love for the unlovable. Being Catholic transformed my student friend into a saint and a hero.
As time went on, I began to see that all in the Christians I met in Kamagasaki. All the professing Christians I met were Catholics.
I observed that Evangelicals and Pentecostals wouldn’t come near the place. But Catholics showed up all the time. They were unafraid of the poor and homeless.
They seemed filled with more joy than other types of Christians I’d met previously.
Their Catholic faith was producing the best fruitfulness of all the Christians I’d met.
I recalled the words of Jesus Christ about the Final Judgment.
My student friend was living out that parable in all its beauty and majesty.
He was not doing it out of fear. He was not trying to earn his way to heaven. It was simply a way of life for him.
Here is that parable:
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’ ”
Matthew 25:31-40, NIV translation
Later, my student friend returned to Kamagasaki.
He didn’t come to meet the homeless. He wasn’t looking for a tour.
Instead, he came to meet me. He had some gifts for me.
His gifts were books. The first book was, “Blessed Are You” by Mother Theresa of Calcutta. She writes about the call of the Lord Jesus Christ to love the people who are unlovable.
The second book was called “The Little Flowers of Saint Francis.” It told of the love of Francis for preaching Jesus Christ, for being poor, and for poor people themselves.
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