Comments on: Sounds of Silence in Japan

By: Brett

Brett — Fri, 21 Dec 2018 15:14:00 +0000

Mr. Yancey,

This story has impacted me deeply, ever since I learned about Shusaku Endo from your book, Soul Survivor. Since the movie, I have been working my way through many of Endo’s works, and it is fueling my heart, with a desire to finish the second half of my life strong as I seek to serve among the persecuted. Thank you for all you done for the church, and for numerous ‘ragamuffins’, like myself.

By: Rodney Otto

Rodney Otto — Wed, 29 Aug 2018 01:21:51 +0000

Once again as in so much of your writing, you have touched the inner recesses of my soul, so I will not be content to retire in pleasure, but try as much as the USA can provide to suffer with the “least of these” and if an opening occurs in my family life I will look for new places to be Jesus’ hands and feet among the “poorest of the poor.” I year to return to the garbage dump ministry “Servant’s Heart” in Zona sierte in Guatemala City, or some place in the east and south where more strident and stark poverty hangs over billions. Thank God for those who have sacrificed and are serving among the forgotten people of the world!

By: Ken Min

Ken Min — Fri, 24 Aug 2018 08:58:18 +0000

I was moved by your experiences in Japan.
I am confessing a following faith. I am one of fireigners and strangers on earth but I want to see and enter a heavenly country/city that our Lord has prepared for me and us. Many thanks and blessings

By: Gayle M

Gayle M — Thu, 26 Apr 2018 03:27:17 +0000

Ouch! What a painfully beautiful sharing of hidden history. I am with you Andy Newell…. I fear how I might handle such torture. I constantly have to remind myself that God will empower me when that time comes, but it is hard to imagine enduring that kind of brutality.

By: Michele Gyselinck

Michele Gyselinck — Mon, 02 Apr 2018 18:43:32 +0000

I started reading this last night and had to stop when I came across the descriptions of tortures to which Japanese Christians were subjected because I have to be careful about what I read or watch just before bedtime. I finished reading the blog today in broad daylight.
Shortly after the series based on James Clavell’s novel Shogun (1980s), I romanticized Japanese culture and tried to live vicariously through the characters, although, of course, that doesn’t work, and eventually, I gave it up and moved on to other things that were actually happening in my own life and completely forgot about this.

Someone mentioned a distorted Jesus in American culture. The comedian Bill Maher refers to that character as “Supply Side Jesus” the idol of some in the Republican Party, who have a hard time relating to the real Jesus that makes demands on Christians that they find difficult to relate to their pro-business stance. Perhaps that’s the sort of distorted Jesus she had in mind? I don’t know what to say about the sufferings that Japanese Christians had to endure for centuries, so rather than making a trite statement I’ll leave it at that. As to the suffering the Lord had to bear, whether mental or physical, we all know we cannot possibly imagine its intensity or depth but must accept that we owe him everything. And even that is easier said than done.

By: Jackson Garrott

Jackson Garrott — Mon, 02 Apr 2018 10:21:59 +0000

I am the youngest child of missionaries to Japan (my father came in 1934, my mother in 1935, they married in Japan, and are buried here) and I have been an independent self-supporting (tent-making) missionary myself since 1981. Actually, I minister in Omura, Nagasaki Prefecture. Lord Sumitada Omura was the first Christian daimyo, and many of the hidden Christians were from Omura fief. Our church has been given the vision of Omura again being the foremost Christian city in the nation, but the spiritual opposition is intense. I’m sorry I missed you. (Nagasaki Airport is in Omura.) any and all prayer is greatly appreciated.

By: Colleen

Colleen — Sat, 31 Mar 2018 21:00:01 +0000

Joe Johnson, at least for you it is just vicarious trauma. Pray for Christians in countries where they are actually being persecuted.

By: Wolfgang Fernandez

Wolfgang Fernandez — Sat, 31 Mar 2018 15:03:38 +0000

Dear Philip, I treavelled extensively through Japan in the late 90’s and got to meet many local Christians and no one mentioned any of this important history. It wasn’t until Silence that I learned about all this. Thank you for recount of this painful history of our shared humanity. In the US we are now experiencing the outcomes of a distorted Jesus and we see discriminations and killings of others simply because our society has yet to be transformed by the Gospel these Japanese believers so dearly cherished. On this Easter week, their testimony is a challenge to our “Christian” culture where some are more equal than others.

By: Philip Yancey

Philip Yancey — Sat, 31 Mar 2018 13:32:33 +0000

In reply to Vicki Anderholt. No events scheduled just now in LA, though anything that comes up will be posted on my Facebook page. I remember your bunny rescue program--meanwhile, I try to keep them from eating my plants!

By: Vicki Anderholt

Vicki Anderholt — Sat, 31 Mar 2018 05:30:21 +0000

Amazing. There is so much we don’t know in America about Christian persecution. You should write a book, one like Soul Survivor..... each chapter a different country and their stories of Christian persecution! So Americans can really hear what goes on while we sit here in seeker sensitive churches complaining about one thing or another we don’t like. When will you be back out in Los Angeles? Any conferences you’ll be speaking at out here? I’d be happy to give you a tour of my bunny rescue that God have me as a very special gift. Vicki bunnygroomer@gmail.com bunnygroomer.com/mystory Adoptabunnyrabbit.org