Missions-related Trivia

[Joseph Ricohermoso]

Note: The following information is available in English and Japanese at:
http://kennyjoseph.com/ann.htm
It has been posted here from the original message sent out by JEMA.

**** FOUR JAPAN CHRISTIAN ANNIVERSARIES IN 2009 ****

Tokyo....Japan will celebrate the 150-year anniversary of the first Protestants to Yokohama in l859 during all of 2009-2010. In this anniversary year, according to Evangelist Kenny Joseph's manager, it is also likened to 'ido no kawazu, taikai shirazu' (a frog in the well has limited vision of the sky).

Evangelist Kenny Joseph, who loves proverbs, has already launched his anniversary celebrations of Christians coming to Japan in 199 AD.

199 AD - The first Christian missionaries from the Middle East (Assyria) came to Japan via India, China and Korea - 1800th anniversary
l459 - Portuguese Jesuits arrived - 450th anniversary
l859 - American missionaries landed - 150th anniversary
l949 - Post-war missionaries re-entered - 60th anniversary

Rev. Joseph has already held anniversary special presentations at youth meetings, schools and churches in Ebisu, Fuchu, Kyoritsu, Higashi Kurume, Asaka, Oizumi, Yugawara and Azabu. He uses l50 PowerPoint illustrations or just the book, "Japan's Jizo and Jesus" (which will be re-published as "Japan's Christian Roots") and also "The Country of the Erased Cross: Japan" and "The Country of the Erased Bible: Japan," published by Tokuma Publishers.

In smaller meetings he finds it more convenient to just use the bi-lingual, illustrated book and have everybody "please turn to page 79," etc, where they see the picture and the English and Japanese translations.

Beginning his 58th year in Japan, he was the p.r. director for Japan's 100th anniversary in l959. They got four full pages of history in the Japan Times, the Asahi Evening News, the Yomiuri and Mainichi newspapers in English, and held nation-wide anniversary campaigns.

Moses started his ministry at 80 and Joseph says, "I have a motto: 'Don't resign; re-sign.'" And so he is re-invigorated to carry on this year-long Christian anniversary celebration.

Instead of putting the books at the back table and signing them as usual, he gives everybody attending a copy--one for the wife and one for the husband. They are asked to do one of four things before they leave: 1. buy it, 2. return it, 3. take it home and pay for it later through postal transfer, or 4. steal it! Just like the Gideon Bible in your hotel room drawer.

Joseph is the only full-blooded Assyrian evangelist in Japan and this may be your last chance to hear him. Retired Evangelist Billy Graham is l0 years older and almost blind, but his famous soloist, George Beverly Shea, (who pulled Joseph's coat when, as a teen-ager, he gave his first testimony at Youth For Christ Chicago's Orchestra Hall and said, "a testimony; not a sermon") is still singing at 100. Former Japan missionary Phil Foxwel is still using magic in preaching at 94 as he has re-signed in America.

To schedule a meeting in your area or telephone interviews, please contact his manager by:
Email: [e-mail]
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Mail: 7-39-6 Higashi Oizumi, Nerima-ku Tokyo 178-0063

Unlike other managers such as xpro, which sends speakers out for 250,000 yen and takes a 40% commission, Joseph has always depended only on a free will offering, plus round-trip transportation and lodging.

These all end up as evangelistic message with the 5 'Ks:' Kesshin (decision), Kenshin (consecration), Kenkin (offering), Kenpin (offering materials), Kenro (volunteer activities). Also, a 50 meter scroll of murdered Christians with family names and hankos (seals) of Buddhist thugs, priests and yakuza, 450 years old, is unfurled around the room as Heb. 12 is read at the climax, celebrating the martyrs and their blood calling out from Japan's bloodied soil.