A Late-in-Life Conversion

When “Sam” found out a few months ago that he had throat cancer, he called for “the preacher” and accepted Christ; his body was “laid to rest” last Tuesday; he was 59.

I often worked during recent years with “Sam,” which is not his real name, at a carpet dye house and sometimes sensed his struggle with “eternal matters.”

As far as I know, he grew up attending a Baptist church in central North Carolina and never accepted the Lord until he, so to speak, “stared Death in the face.”

He’d sometimes attend the church he grew up in and leave if he “got convicted too bad,” someone said. Sam had one daughter by his first marriage, and he once indicated to me that if he “got right,” he was confused about what to do about a woman – let’s call her “Sandy” – he’d been living with for a long time. He wondered if he “made things right with the Lord,” if he’d be expected to go back to his first wife.

I forget if his first wife was re-married or not, but I told him that someone said, “You can’t unscramble an egg.” I advised him to go from where he was in life and respond to Christ.

Sam put off deciding.

Somewhere along the way, Sandy “got saved,” and, as one person put it, told Sam they’d have to get married or quit living together.

They married.

Sam and Sandy come from the Lumbee Tribe. The Lumbees have existed in and around Robeson County, N.C., since the early part of the eighteenth century. In 1885, the State of North Carolina recognized the tribe as “Indian,” but the U.S. government has yet to grant full federal recognition. Some Lumbees attended “Indian schools” until desegregation began in the South. Many Lumbees grew up on small farms that raised tobacco. Some folk who “worked in ’baccer” learned to use it. Sam was one of those people. Perhaps no one can prove Sam’s tobacco chewing caused his throat cancer, but lots of his friends figure it did.

After his talk with “the preacher,” Sam told a friend that he felt he’d wasted a lot of time during his life by not serving Christ. Word got around about Sam accepting Jesus. He gave out a good “witness” as his life came to a close. Sam suffered, underwent chemotherapy and died last Saturday.

I drove 30 miles last Monday night to a “funeral home” in Red Springs, N.C. I entered the crowded building, saw many of Sam’s former co-workers, shook some hands and walked to the casket.

Sam appeared to be resting, taking a nap. “He looks the same,” I thought. “It’s almost as if he could open his eyes and speak.” But Sam was gone, and only his body remained. The “life of the flesh is in the blood,” according to the Bible, and Sam’s blood had stopped flowing. His “flesh” had ceased living, but I believed his spirit had not.

I met Sam’s wife, expressed sympathy and told her of hearing about Sam’s salvation. We'll see him, again,” I said. She seemed appreciative of my words.

After talking with some co-workers, I left Red Springs and drove the long, flat road toward home, thinking about Sam’s late-in-life conversion.

It’s eternally dangerous to wait until “midnight” to “get right.” I recall hearing ministers mention this verse: “And the LORD said, ‘My spirit shall not always strive with man…’” (Genesis 6:3). Those preachers indicated a person could wait until he has no sense of God “drawing” him to accept Christ.

A friend told me about a man who repeatedly resisted the Gospel message. That man grew old and had a heart attack. A preacher visited the hospitalized man and pressed him about accepting Christ. The man said, “Why, if I was to get saved now, people would think I was just getting scared.” The man died a few years later, and my friend doesn’t know if that man ever accepted Jesus Christ or not.

I’m glad Sam wasn’t too proud to finally accept God’s gift of salvation. Sam came to the Lord late in life, but he came.

We have no promise of tomorrow. Come to Jesus while the voice of the Lord still speaks to your heart, while you still hear God calling you.

“…Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

The Japanese People Need Our Prayers

Japan was hit on March 11, 2011, by one of the largest earthquakes on record. A magnitude-9.0 quake caused a tsunami that slammed Japan’s east coast and left thousands dead.

Japan’s population in March 2009 was 127,076,183, making it the tenth most populated country. The Rev. Ron Hutchcraft, in a “Mission Network News” article, said Christians should pray for Japanese Christians. Less than one percent of Japan’s population identifies as “evangelical Christian,” and 70 percent reportedly claim no religion.

“They (Christians) are a remnant in that country,” Hutchcraft says. “(With) the millions of gods of Shintoism – the feeling that Christianity is a western religion – all these things have created great barriers, and my prayer now is for the people of God in Japan, that this could be their moment that they could (share their faith) because of their hope.”

The following information comes from Japan-guide.com, Wikipedia and “the Christian Post”:

Shinto and Buddhism are Japan’s two major religions. Religion does not play a big role in the everyday lives of most Japanese. The average person typically follows religious rituals at ceremonies like birth, weddings and funerals. They may visit a shrine or temple and participate in local festivals (“matsuri”), most of which have religious origins.

Shinto has no founder or sacred scriptures. It is deeply rooted in the Japanese people and traditions. “Shinto gods” are called “kami.” They are thought to be sacred spirits that take the form of things and concepts such as wind, rain, mountains, trees, rivers and fertility. Humans are thought to become kami after they die and are revered by their families as ancestral kami. The kami of extraordinary people are enshrined at some shrines. Some prominent rocks are worshiped as kami.

There are no absolutes in Shinto – no absolute right and wrong, and nobody is perfect. Shinto is an optimistic faith; humans are thought to be fundamentally good; evil spirits cause evil, many believe. The purpose of most Shinto rituals is to keep away evil spirits.

Buddhism began in India in the sixth century BC and consists of the teachings of the Buddha, Gautama Siddhartha. The Mahayana or “Greater Vehicle” Buddhism found its way to Japan. About 90 million Japanese have Buddhists roots. Many households keep a small altar in order to pay respect to their ancestors. Figures that state 84 to 96 percent of Japanese adhere to Shinto and Buddhism are not based on self-identification but come primarily from birth records, following an old practice of officially associating a family line with a local Buddhist temple or Shinto shrine.

Many Japanese Christians live in Western Japan, where Jesuit missionaries were active in the sixteenth century. In 1542, the first Europeans from Portugal landed on Kyushu in Western Japan. Kyushu’s barons welcomed foreign trade that brought new weapons and gunpowder. The main reason for the extinction of Christianity in Japan by 1638 was the government’s move to exert absolute control. This was thought impossible with the interference of an “aggressive and intolerant foreign religion” like Christianity. In 1873, after the “Meiji restoration,” freedom of religion was encouraged. Since World War II, the number of Japanese Christians has slowly increased.

Michelle A. Vu, a “Christian Post Reporter,” notes that one mission leader says the problem of evangelizing Japanese is the Japanese mentality itself.

Japanese people value human relationships more than truth and principle, says Dr. Minoru Okuyama, director of the Missionary Training Center in Japan, during his presentation at the Tokyo 2010 Global Missions Consultations.

“…They are afraid of disturbing human relationships of their families or neighborhood, even though they know that Christianity is the best,” said Okuyama, who previously was Buddhist and a Shintoist. “Thus, Japanese make much of human relationships more than the truth…For Japanese, one of the most important things is harmony; in Japanese ‘Wa’…Those who harm the harmony are bad, whether they are right or not has been beside the question.”

Okuyama noted that Christianity is thriving in neighboring China and Korea because the mentality of the people is to “make more of truth or principle than human relationships.”

Pray for the Japanese people.

Joanne Thompson Tribute

Joanne and Pastor Jimmy Thompson (photo probably from the late 1950s)

“We’re here to celebrate a life that was well lived,” said Dr. Coy Barker, as he “preached the funeral” of Joanne Thompson on Sunday, March 6, 2011, at Faith Temple Church in Taylors, S.C.

Peggy Joanne Thompson (Nov. 19, 1933 – March 3, 2011) of Taylors was a wife, a mother and vice-president and co-founder of Dove Broadcasting, WGGS-TV 16, headquartered in Greenville, S.C.

Barker, founder of Metro World Outreach Center in Stone Mountain, Ga., and longtime friend of Dove Broadcasting, called Joanne “a woman of God.”

Greenvilleonline.com published this statement: “Joanne and her husband, Dr. James H. Thompson, are considered visionaries and pioneers in Christian broadcasting. Since October 1972, Joanne and Jimmy have been devoted to producing high quality, family-oriented Christian programming. Together they have made outstanding contributions to not only South Carolina but to the nation and the world.

“Joanne touched the lives of thousands of people in Appalachia, Romania and Moldova. She also had an ongoing prison ministry and assistance to families in need. She lived her life in service to children and families who were hurting and had no hope. She received many Angel Awards for excellence in media for documentaries featuring her mission outreach projects.”

Joanne is survived by her husband, their three sons (Dante, Duane and Gene Thompson), three grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.

My Uncle Fred Crain, 85, is a charter member of Faith Temple, which was founded in the mid-1950s and first led by Dr. James Thompson. Fred remembers when “Jimmy” pastored Gum Springs P.H. Church and met Joanne Upton who then lived in Greer, S.C., and had a brother, Fred Upton. Their father had alcohol problems, and their lives had not been easy, my uncle says.

“Doyle Zachery was preaching a tent revival and Joanne got saved there,” my Uncle Fred says. “Betty Atkins was playing the organ at that meeting.”

Betty may have invited Joanne to hear Jimmy preach.

“Joanne came up to Gum Springs one night,” Fred says. “Jimmy preached, and he told me he made sure he got to the church door after the service to meet Joanne.”

After Joanne and Jimmy dated a while, Jimmy mentioned marriage.

“They rode to Hendersonville, and he talked serious to her about marriage,” Fred says, “but she said she didn’t think she wanted to marry a preacher. Jimmy told her, ‘So, you’re asking me to choose between you and God?’ Joanne said that really ‘struck’ her.”

Joanne worked at that time at an insurance company and wanted to study nursing. She broke up with Jimmy, but 11 months later, he invited her to go with him “to hear a preacher.” She went, and they resumed dating.

Fred and his wife, Frances, met Joanne when Jimmy brought her to their home, located then in the Mountain View community near Taylors.

“Jimmy brought her to our house,” Fred says. “They were courting, and he wanted me to show her a few things about the guitar. She was a singer and had been wanting to learn to play the guitar. After a few minutes, Joanne said the strings hurt her fingers. She seemed like a real nice, intelligent young lady who was wanting to do something for the Lord.”

Jimmy and Joanne married on April 22, 1955, and helped found Faith Temple Church in 1956-57.

My sister, Shirley Crain Thompson (no relation to Jimmy and Joanne) of Stone Mountain, Ga., says she fondly remembers Joanne as her Sunday school teacher during her childhood and teen years.

“She was always amusing and told us truths I frequently recalled all my life. We would have slumber parties on Friday nights with the girls in my Sunday school class, and Joanne would take her time to attend those functions with us. We considered her our friend as well as our teacher…I knew she would accomplish great things – and she did. I was just fortunate to have her placed in my path by God.”

At Joanne’s funeral, LaVerne Tripp commented on her determination, calling her “a bulldog for people who were hurt.”

Dr. Jerry Goff talked about “Jimmy’s wisdom and Joanne’s zeal.” He said about Joanne, “There was no problem she would not attack…She was on a mission every day…searching for a new way to serve Christ.”