{"id":425,"date":"2011-02-06T09:10:39","date_gmt":"2011-02-06T02:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/great-controversy-movie.com\/blog\/?p=425"},"modified":"2011-02-06T09:10:39","modified_gmt":"2011-02-06T02:10:39","slug":"i-have-seen-the-travail-of-my-soul-and-am-satisfied","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/great-controversy-movie.com\/blog\/i-have-seen-the-travail-of-my-soul-and-am-satisfied\/","title":{"rendered":"i have seen the travail of my soul, and am satisfied"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the biggest experiences in my life was the whole deal with the homeless people and my Seventh-day Adventist church in Osaka Japan in the 1999-2000 timeframe. It affected me deeply to be more unselfish, and also taught what it means to stand tall for the right when the church is urging to make compromises. In a nutshell – I was director of the SDA English language school there, one of the student missionaries started helping the homeless, i was one of 6 or 7 people who joined him, we started inviting them to church after knowing them 6 weeks, they (max 11) came for around 4 weeks to this church which can seat over 300, many of the elderly ladies in the church were very helpful, the church board was dead-set against them, the pastor said he would “keep the harmony of the church”, i was told not to bring any new homeless to church, i told the pastor that between the Bible and him i must choose to follow the Bible, my job was seen by both of us to be incompatible with the church, i quit attending that church which chooses to go directly against the Bible but kept visiting and studying with the homeless outside the church by the river, and still today, 11 years later, have 2 formerly-homeless friends i meet occasionally.<\/p>\n

One thing that has hung over my head about this whole ordeal, was that no matter where i go among SDA circles in Japan, this event precedes me, and i’m basically shunned or at best looked on as a “hot potato” by most church leaders\/members. In 2004 someone in Chiba area wanted me to come and promote the 1858 Great Controversy book at their church there, as they really enjoyed it, but the pastor that was involved with me in this homeless incident had been transferred to that area, and he refused permission. (now that pastor is head over all of Eastern Japan Conference!) Just last month i was informed by a member of the Nara church where i like to go for its simplicity, that a pastor had warned her not to talk much with me. So this thing is always over my head here.<\/p>\n

Then yesterday!<\/p>\n

Sabbath January 29 was my first time in over 5 years to go to the Kobe SDA church. I had been there maybe 3 times before, and remember helping out handing water to neighbors there one afternoon after the big earthquake in 1995. This time, i was treated very warmly by 2 or 3 people, then, the next day when i met the pastor and his wife, i received more warmth \ud83d\ude42 Well, this was very unexpected, but when i found out that 2 of the people who were so nice to me were recent converts from other denominations, i thot “that explains it”.<\/p>\n

But yesterday when i was getting ready to sit on the floor in the tatami room where the legs go under the table by the warm heater (kotatsu), one elderly lady raised her voice and said (in Japanese) “You’re Danny, aren’t you?” Taken aback, i said i have been called Daniel, Danny, Dan, and BigD. She said, “You’re the one who was involved with the homeless at Osaka Center church weren’t you?” “Oh no” i thot, “Here we go again. Just when i was thinking this church might be nice to me, this thing over my head explodes again…” But then imagine my surprise when she said “You did a GREAT thing”, and started clapping for me in front of the other 5 or 6 people in our Sabbath School class! I was too dumbfounded to even get goosebumps. She went on to say how the church had basically split over the issue, and she had left and come to this Kobe church. She said she had talked with some of the anti-homeless members, and couldn’t believe some of their responses like “there might be germs they leave on the dishes”. “Well, wash them with soap like we do everybody else’s” she told them matter-of-factly. She said a couple of more things that just thrilled, and bewildered me, because even among my closest church friends here in Japan, even the ones who support what i did tell me that i should be “more accommodating”.<\/p>\n

When i’ve told about this event with the church and homeless in Japan to Brothers and Sisters in other countries, it has had an impact. I don’t tell it to trumpet myself, but to show how we should not only be studying the Bible, but putting what is written into practice in our daily lives. We MUST live like Jesus. We must treat others like we want to be treated if we expect to have any place in heaven. When i tell about this, i usually say “many of the elderly ladies in the church were happy to see the homeless come and even helped them with sweaters and kind words, but the church board was dead set against them, and the pastor was a harmony-keeper.”<\/p>\n

So i now i know of at least one church member who was very favorably impressed with the actions taken to help the homeless back then, and had the courage to tell those around her that the church’s treatment of them was wrong, and then took action to separate from such a group of people who chose not to follow Jesus. Praise the Lord!<\/p>\n

Lord Jesus, thank you sooooo much for this encouragement received today from this elderly Sister. May you richly bless her. May the Kobe church become a lighthouse for all these 128million in Japan who do not even profess to follow you, and especially to those who are called by your name – the Seventh-day Adventists – to wake up, repent, and redeem the time by living out your life in us, so that when you come, you will see your image reflected in us. Come quickly i pray, amen.
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One of the biggest experiences in my life was the whole deal with the homeless people and my Seventh-day Adventist church in Osaka Japan in the 1999-2000 timeframe. It affected me deeply to be more unselfish, and also taught what it means to stand tall for the right when the church is urging to make …<\/p>\n

i have seen the travail of my soul, and am satisfied<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"","site-content-layout":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-rambliniscings"],"yoast_head":"\ni have seen the travail of my soul, and am satisfied - Great Controversy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/great-controversy-movie.com\/blog\/i-have-seen-the-travail-of-my-soul-and-am-satisfied\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"i have seen the travail of my soul, and am satisfied - Great Controversy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the biggest experiences in my life was the whole deal with the homeless people and my Seventh-day Adventist church in Osaka Japan in the 1999-2000 timeframe. 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