Brent Rogers, Kojima Japan

I was recently asked, “How is life there different from here?”

So, I started thinking about it.

One of the first big things I thought of, for us, is not having a car.

Think of all the things you keep in your car. Now if you only have a bicycle, where are going to keep those things?

But also, think of all the money you spend on your car. Your loan, your insurance, your gas, your parking, your repairs, etc.

We can walk to the train station in about 7 minutes. Sandy goes to Okayama for work every Tuesday and Thursday. I go on Thursdays for Japanese class. It is 25 minutes to Okayama. Sandy has another good walk from the station to her school.

A round trip ticket is less than 10 dollars.

It is a 5 minute or less bicycle ride to our English school. Almost everywhere we need to go is about the same distance.

I ride in a car once a week. On Wednesday nights, a student gives me a ride to a class that we have had giong since 1993.

I also ride in a taxi to a company class every Friday. And sometimes, if it rains, I take a taxi to our class at Yamana hospital. In good weather, I ride my bike a little over 10 minutes.

November 16, 2003

Maybe the last kidney update for a while?

Praise God!

After my surgery, the dr. said I had extremely good flow. Then yesterday at my 2 week chek-up, he said I need not come back until February! He does not want to touch the left kidney, so I have to think about consulting another hospital. Thank you, everyone, for your prayers.

As we age, face an increasing danger of getting stuck in a cranky mode, especially if we ahve been sarcastic people all our lives. Ponder on these words from A W Tozer.

Dispositional sins are fully as injurious to the Christian cause as the more overt acts of wickedness. These sins are as many as the various facets of human nature. Just so there may be no misunderstanding let us list a few of them: Sensitiveness, irritability, churlishness, faultfinding, peevishness, temper, resentfulness, cruelty, uncharitable attitudes; and of course there are many more. These kill the spirit of the church and slow down any progress which the gospel may be making in the community. Many persons who had been secretly longing to find Christ have been turned away and embittered by manifestations of ugly dispositional flaws in the lives of the very persons who were trying to win them….

Unsaintly saints are the tragedy of Christianity. People of the world usually pass through the circle of disciples to reach Christ, and if they find those disciples severe and sharp-tongued they can hardly be blamed if they sigh and turn away from Him…. The low state of religion in our day is largely due to the lack of public confidence in religious people. Of God and Men, 84-85.

There are a lot of people trying to get away with the old man. What do I mean by the old man? I mean your pride, your bossiness, your nastiness, your temper, your mean disposition, your lustfulness and your quarrelsomeness. What do I mean, Reverend? I mean your study, your hunting for a bigger church, being dissatisfied with the offering and blaming the superintendent because you cannot get called. The reason you cannot get called is nobody wants you. That is what I mean, Reverend.

Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. –Colossians 3:5

Deacons, what do I mean? I mean sitting around in board meetings wearing your poor pastor out, because you are too stubborn to humble yourself and admit you are wrong.

What do I mean, musicians? I mean that demeanor that makes you hate somebody that can sing a little better than you can. I mean that jealousy that makes you want to play the violin when everybody knows you can’t, especially the choir director. You hate him, wish he were dead, and secretly pray that he would get called to Punxsutawney. That is what I mean. All of this may be under the guise of spirituality and we may have learned to put our head over on one side, fold our hands gently and put on a beatific smile like St. Francis of Assisi, and still be just as carnal as they come. Success and the Christian, 42-44.

http://lmi.gospelcom.net/index.php

This is from Chad in Osaka:

Dear Prayer Warriors!!
I met a really interesting guy named Yoshi during our street outreach on Saturday night. He is Japanese, but grew up in the States from age 3 – 20 in Monterrey, California.
During that time he got heavily into drugs and at age 20 his parents put him on a plane back to Japan to get him away from it all. He came to Japan and got into the drug scene here and was a user for 15 years.
For the last 5 years (he is now 40) he has been clean. He has never met Jesus, but expressed many times that he wished he had met someone like me when he was 20. I shared with him why we were out on the streets – trying to show love and help people and he expressed a real desire to help out. I asked him to help us understand better what is happening down in that area and how we can help people. He seemed excited to think that there was something he could do. We exchanged phone numbers and he had to take off. This is a guy who has so many contacts and relationships. He owns 4 bars in 3 different cities in Japan. If he meets Jesus and is changed, the impact on many others will be huge.
If God can meet and change Paul, he can change Yoshi. When I get back from this meeting, I will try to set up a meeting with him. I could tell that our conversation really caused him to think on Saturday night.

UNFORGIVABLE UNFORGIVENESS

They say we are most like God when we forgive.

There are a lot verses that say we need to
forgive a lot,
forgive repeatedly,
forgive quickly,
forgive lavishly, etc.

If God hates our lack of forgiveness, shouldn’t we? Aren’t we encouraging people to sin if we let them get by with not forgiving?

Isn’t it fun to recount the ways we have forgiven people and the ways they have refused to forgive us.

Can’t we feel our soul rotting? Not always.

A few years ago, I acted in a sincerely wrong manner toward some Christians in Kojima. I tried to follow Matthew 18 and sought ways to talk to them and make it right. They sinned against me by refusing to acknowledge me as someone worth reconciling with. I felt so holy and so wronged!

The various parties always told me to talk to someone else about it.

I have repeatedly over the years sought to restore fellowship. It has never worked. I have carried bitterness in my heart, all the time thinking I was right with God and they were wrong.

Lately I have come to understand what a shallow understanding of forgiveness I have had.

Now, I am seeking to extend to my Christian brothers the full and lavish forgiveness I hope to receive from the One who really matters.

I need to extend this forgiveness unilaterally. My obedience is not contingent on another’s obedience.

Father, forgive me, I so often don’t know what I am doing.

Father, forgive us all, every one!

Dear friends,

HOSPITAL AGAIN
In two hours, I have to head to the hospital. That is half an hour before the Red Sox start Game Six. See “Kidney Report” on www.brentwrogers.com

You can contact me in the hospital on my cell phone at this email address:
,

but it is unlikely that you will be able to read my response.

I am now optimistic. I think I will be out in a week or 8 days.

STEMMLERS ARRIVE!
We have great news to report! The Stemmlers arrived safely and are in great shape and ready to get to work. We hired Karrie to work in LOGOS and Jay will sub for Brent some during treatment and recovery.
We have already had lunch at their house once. Jay cooks as a hobby and even makes his own udon noodles so he is sure to be a hit in Japan!

RAISING SUPPORT Up to this point, we have been receiving about 200 dollars per month from Cloverdale in Searcy, our sponsoring congregation. The rest of our living and ministry is funded by our business, LOGOS English Conversation School,
www.logosenglish.com
and occasional gifts and tithes from various people. We have been supported in our evangelism by the team from Chico. We hope to see thme again next summer.

Now, in view of Brent’s uncertain health situation, and the decline in our business, we are ready to start asking for support from churches and individuals. Our initial goal will be to raise a monthly amount of 800 dollars. This is is approximatley equal to the rent we pay for our residence. iT MAY BE easiest to use the money to pay the rent on the school, which is where we also have our English and Japanese worship and some of our Bible classes.

TO CONTRIBUTE:
Simply send your check to:
Cloverdale Church of Christ
Japan Fund
3000 E. Park Avenue,
Searcy AR 72143

http://www.cloverdalefamily.org/missions.html

In Japan, contact us, and we will give you bank account details.

If you know a church or person looking for a mission to support, please let us know, or pass this email on.

A CALL FROM TIM!
We are thankful for a long phone conversaton with our son, Tim. He has not called in years, and did not ask for money!!!!

PLEASE PRAY!
Please pray for Rumi, who came to Bible class last week for the first time since July.
Heather, in her transition to new work, probably as a teacher at a pretty rough jr. hi in town.
Kaori, a high schol senior. She is not handling the “exam hell” very well. Her cousin committed suicide this January and she took it very hard. Please pray for all high school seniors.
Our friend, Maki, who was paralyzed in a car wreck, can come home when her new house is ready. They finally started on it last week. There is a mze of insurance, lawyers, etc for her and Scott to work through.

Brent and his doctors, that this tube will come out with little damage, and for a quick recovery.
Sandy, who has the harder job when I am in the hospital.

Thank you very much.

Brent and Sandy Rogers in Kojima Japan.