Do Something for Japan


James Hudson Taylor was founder of the China Inland Mission in 1865. Now known as Overseas Missionary Fellowship (www.omf.org), OMF is an outstanding missionary organization. Taylor would be pleased to see OMF today.

One of Taylor’s primary concerns was that Christians around the world – and this would include affluent Chinese Christians – share any abundance they might have with those less fortunate, the poor. Although J.H. Taylor is renown in church circles as a missionary spokesman who spent his life in China, the truth is that he made frequent return trips to England to impress upon people his worthy cause, to raise money. He needed funds! As someone (not Taylor) once said, “Prayer is what turns the wheels of the church, but money is the grease.”

Okay, here is what I am driving at in this week’s column: would you consider giving a special gift to help Japan? Almost overnight many Japanese lost everything. They lost loved ones, their home, their job9 and their possessions. I mean everything.

When Taylor would return to England and address the need to give in the churches, he would use Psalm 41:1 – “Blessed is he that considers the poor; the LORD will deliver him in the time of trouble.” Taylor would then proceed to tell people that the one who is blessed is not the one who quiets his own conscience by gifts that cost no self-denial. Rather, the blessing that God promises is for those who “consider the poor” – those who think about their plight and what it must be like. The blessing is for those who ponder what spending a week in the shoes of the poor would be like. The blessing is for the one who decides that he, materially well off, could do without a few (or many) things and redirect his spending to make sure the very basic needs of the poor are met and their misery is lessened. The one who is blessed is the one who sacrifices in order to provide for the poor. In some supernatural and wonderful way, God in Heaven will make certain that such a one is blessed himself. Taylor would then remind his audience that Jesus spent a great deal of His time ministering among the poor and afflicted, seeing that their basic needs were met. He would conclude his exhortation by telling his audience that such giving, to assist the poor in their desperation, is Christ like.

As I write this, reports are that another earthquake has shaken northern Japan, and a tsunami may follow. If ever you have wanted to help people, now is the time and Japan is the place. The evangelical churches and mission societies in Japan have come together in an effort called CRASH Japan, and your donation through either OMF or The Evangelical Alliance Mission (TEAM) will go to that fund. Our church recently sent funds to TEAM, P.O. Box 969, Wheaton, IL 60187 and designated those funds for the Japan Earthquake Relief Fund. Or you may donate online by going to either the TEAM or OMF web site (TEAM’s web site is www.teamworld.org). I found the TEAM web site easier to navigate.

Now is the time to…

Do something for Japan.