Bethel's New Location: "Miya-Cho", or "Temple City"

Bethel Baptist in Old Location

Before my sister left for furlough, Bethel Baptist Church was in the middle of a church move.

For quite awhile, we had been looking at places to move to, but one by one they had fallen through: the landlord did not want to rent to Christians, we were outbid in an auction.  It seemed we wouldn't be able to go anywhere.

But then, God led us to an ideal piece of property and building.  The asking price seemed exorbitantly high however, much too high for our small church to hope to attain.  Banks would not give loans to a church--they didn't know what churches were or if they could be trusted to repay loans (perhaps this will give you an idea of how few churches there are in Japan).   Yet it seemed so much to be God's leading...what would we do?

"Give us this mountain," we prayed, and  Christians loaned/pledged loans, etc...., so that in one month, the entire cost had been taken care of!  No doubt, this provision was of God.


Kai & Timmy working tirelessly

God gave additional provisions: two young men to help give manpower in the actual move.  Kai Akagi and Timmy Sugimoto came from the U.S. to help out with the church work in the summer.  The church folk banded together to work for the move, and these two added to the effort, scraping, lifting, and carrying things.  By the beginning of July, Bethel Baptist Church was moved in to the new meeting place: Miya-Cho  (yes, near that river mentioned in the Mar. 1, '12 post).

pic: At the time we had made plans for Kai and Timmy to come to Japan, we did not know we would need them to help us move!  Thanks, Kai.  Thanks, Timmy.

The neighborhood people seemed to be a little leery about a church moving in.  Who were these newcomers?  Many Japanese have grown wary of religious groups other than Buddists or Shintoists, for the havoc and tragedy cultists have caused.  I was eager to teach English Conversation at the church building...maybe the neighbors would feel less uneasy about a group of people who came with something to contribute--even as simple as English Conversation lessons?  But then God had another hurdle to overcome, I thought.  The church had moved 35 minutes' walk away from our home, so English classes had to be taught at the apartment, not at the church building!

"God, You know I need to move closer to the present church location," I prayed.

Those swastika-like symbols all indicate Temple grounds!

The past few months, the Lord had opened and closed doors to state-sponsored housing possibilities--another long story.  But in August, He answered the above prayer by providing another apartment a mere 8 minutes' walk from the church.  And, the icing on the cake:

God used the government to finance the move!  The city wanted to do some road construction by our old home and paid most of the cost of our move plus offered to help with a few years of our rent in the new place.  When my sister returns from furlough, she will have to move out of the house also.

pic: Here's a map of the area surrounding our new home.  Yellow circles stand for schools and parks; Iwatsuki Commercial High (岩槻商業高校）if you want to find it, the school my son attends, is only 7 minutes' walk/run away!

Hisa-Izu Shrine

God didn't spare any of the trimmings when He gifted us with this place:  we've moved into a three-bedroom place; I can walk to bank, post office, grocery store, pharmacy, convenience stores, 100 yen shop, dentist, bookstore, clothing store, community swimming pool, in 5 minutes or less.

I forgot to mention the fire station ( 消防中央分署）is 3 minutes away; but hopefully, we won't need to make use of it.  And there's an entrance to a shrine between our apartment and church, but hopefully, I won't need to make use of it either!

pic: I wonder how many people have prayed to move closer to a shrine.  But I asked God to help me move closer to the House of God (Beth-El), around the corner and two minutes down the street.