O
Our climbing group, ready to ascend the mountain
Our climbing group, ready to ascend the mountain(Bernie, on left; Cheryl, in red jacket, in the middle)
According to a Japanese saying, everyone should climb Mt. Fuji once, but only a fool ascends a second time.
On July 30, as I struggled to conquer Japan’s signature mountain a sixth time, I was fairly sure that indeed I was a fool. During the last hour to the summit, lightning struck repeatedly and so near by that I felt the earth tremble. By the time Bernie and I got to the top of the 12,388-foot mountain, we were completely soaked to the skin by rain and sleet that turned to snow while our group attempted unsuccessfully to stop shivering and dry out before beginning our descent. Eleven hours after we stumbled back into the fifth station, where we’d begun our adventure at 4:30 that morning, my legs wobbled, my strength was depleted, and I was sure this was my final Mt. Fuji climb. (Bernie says he’s still game—just not this year.)
Amazingly, despite the difficult conditions, I reached the apex two hours faster than my earlier Mt. Fuji ascent three years before. Surely fear of the storm from which we could not hide pushed us ahead without resting. We weren’t fast, but we persevered and keep going, step by step. Five and a half hours later, we successfully reached the top.
Perseverance. This is what Isaiah was talking about when he wrote, “Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:30-31).
Five days after Mt. Fuji, I sat in a women’s meeting where a Japanese missionary shared about the formidable challenge of reaching Tibetan Buddhists for Christ. There are reportedly about 1,000 evangelical and 2,000 Catholic Christians among the world’s 5 million Tibetans, a people group that is one of the least reached and most resistant to the message of Christ anywhere. Her story was both exciting and challenging.
After eight years of ministry to Tibetans, her husband has baptized three young men, one of whom is now attending Bible school. The most recent convert is using his artistic talent for Christ, but sadly, the second one has returned to his Tibetan Buddhist roots. In addition to discipling these young men, the missionary couple has developed relationships with a handful of other Tibetans. Theirs is a ministry of seed-planting for a harvest they pray and believe will come one day.
Listening to my Japanese colleague, I contemplated both the importance of persevering and my own recent Mt. Fuji experience. Just as I slogged along slowly—sometimes even painfully—until finally reaching the summit, this missionary couple is persevering against all odds in ministry to Tibetans, one step at a time. Usually their work is neither glamorous nor exciting, for if one is looking for quick ministry results, their particular mission field is not the place to go. But it is where God has called them.
How well we understand the call to faithfulness in an unresponsive mission field. Despite Christianity’s introduction to Japan in 1549 by Francis Xavier, a Jesuit priest, and Protestant roots reaching back about 150 years, roughly only one percent of Japanese are Christians today. Nevertheless, we continue to pray and believe that one day Japan will be a Christian nation.
In the meantime, we are determined to persevere. We and our missionary coworkers in difficult lands will “walk and not faint.” We WILL reach the top of the mountain because God, who is faithful, strengthens, enables, and is our constant hope.
