In January 1988, Tae
and I got married and we left YWAM (Youth With A Mission) to form Grace Ministries to reach out to the
Japanese people. Soon we learned that
Japan is a spiritually hard ground to break and is best left to the Japanese themselves. However, an opportunity came in 1995 when we built Grace Garden Chapel in
Koriyama, Fukushima. My wife sold some
of her properties and donated US$350,000
towards the building funds. My younger brother Daniel who was the lead engineer
together with 5 US carpenters and my wife and I physically and tirelessly built
the church from scratch; in the cold bitter winter of early 1995 for six
punishing months and of all the places
in the world: Koriyama, Fukushima. Japan.
In March 2011, an earthquake measuring 9.1 magnitude hit Japan killing
17000 Japanese. The church was only 60 kilometer away from nuclear power
reactors that were badly damaged by the earthquake. Grace Garden Chapel is still standing today
with some minor cracks here a there. Pastor Sanga and his wife Toyomi and the
team there are doing a great job holding
the church together. Despite the
nuclear radiation threats and more earthquakes and frequent aftershocks, they
are still standing their ground. I asked
pastor Toyomi soon after the devastating earthquake, ”don’t you want to leave
Koriyama with your family to Hiroshima for a while until the situation
stabiles?” ”No, we stay put.” ”Okay, I respect your decision.”
GRACE GARDEN CHAPEL is our
home church and my wife Tae and I stand our ground as well. After all, we built the church. There is no
’where else can we go’. There are a lot of places on earth we can run to but
what’s the point? I am a die hard typical Singaporean. But Japanese are much more die hard than
me. More about that some other
time. I live in Japan for donkey years.
I have a lot of stories to tell.
Begining 2000, we started focusing our ministry towards South East Asia where there are million of underprivileged people. First, we reach out to the poor refugees in the Thai
Burma borders in Thailand. As of April
2012, we have built two homes right inside the refugees’ camp. From
our own financial resources; our own piggy bank my wife and I personally
went to global house superstore in Kanchanaburi
and bought the building materials
and we designed and built the homes our selves.
My wife and I are well versed in US and Japanese 2 x 4 construction
technique. There were no problem and if there is, I would fix it immediately.
Friends ask me, ”how
do you reach out to them.”
I said, ”go live
with them. Sleep where they sleep. Eat what they eat. And wash ourselves in the
river or lake.” ”are you not afraid of crocodile.” ”I like to swim in the
night, crocodile or no crocodile.” ”what about malaria.” ”use newspaper or the
zapper made in china for 90 baht; that will do the job.” ”no post office?”
”only a small hospital used to do malaria research but now is taking care of
injured refugees from Burma.” What about elephants and tigers? They are friendly animals. We are
happy to reach out to the refugees and now with Burma opening up, there will be
plenty of opportunities for Christian
ministries in the longer term. We will
move into Burma cautiously taking one step at a time bearing in mind that Burma
is still fundamentally a Buddhist nation and the diversity of ethnic minorities
is a constant source of headache for the central government and any wrong
gesture could be potentially dangerous, like the recent Rohingyas and Arakanese
conflicts in north west Burma. Having
said that, I have very close friends from both sides. See video, ”darkie.” in YouTube.
Someone asked me why
I teach Japanese karate to the children they saw in Youtube. Why not? To protect themselves against
bullies and Burmese soldiers from kidnapping them and use them against their
will; and also rape them whether boy or girl and then killing them right after.
Chuck Norris is a friend of mine. He is a devout Christian. And he is seven
times world karate champion and he teaches karate for a living. He has fought in the film ”Way Of The Dragon”
with another friend of mine: Bruce Lee.
Go, ask Chuck Norris. I’m sure he
has better answer than me.
My Youtube channel
is "ajangjoeyii" or in Youtube or Google type "New Karate Kids
From Burma" or "Escape From Burma". Enjoy!