Last Wish 2

Last Wish 2

They had three wishes for their going to be martyred. They were,"We wish the execution would be stayed until Friday the same day as Jesus Christ." (It was planned on Wednesday, February 2nd.)

Last Wish 1

Last Wish 1

Since it was Christian town which they were supposed to go through from Togitsu to Nishizaka, officials let them walk as much as they could. Then, they had a break at a small hospital for leprosy in Urakami.

Gethemane

     It was around 11:00 at night. Togitsu was a Christian town. Escort officers were afraid if these martyrs might be grabbed, and took precautions.  Then they didn’t permit twenty-six martyrs even to get on the beach. Keeping to have their hands tied behind their back, they crouched down and spent night in uncomfortable boats.  It is considered that martyrs awaited the dawn without being able to sleep. This night became their last one on the earth. This night was certainly a Gethemane for them.

     Standing in the port of Togitsu and praying with watching the bay, I feel as if I were hearing their breathing. The 800 km journey was about to end on the next day after almost one month. It was true that their flesh got all weakened. But, they had love to the Lord Jesus and their assured hope toward heaven. Their faith in their Lord were burning not vanishing even at a frosty night.

     At dawn on the next day, February 2nd, they left for the hill of Nishizaka, where they would be martyred.  Eventually, it came the day of their triumphal parading to heaven.  

Tears of Peter Baptist 2

     Once, there were such missionaries in Japan. That’s the missionary who didn’t look after himself, his mother country, or even his family remained there, and who couldn’t help but weep for the missionary work in this Japan, even before the death and even before the martyrdom, 

     Revival absolutely comes to Japan. God remembers teas of Fr. Peter Baptist. He engraves his prayer in His mind. Then, He uses us as His answers to his prayer.

     I have been to Sonogi lots of times. Whenever I visits there, the Lord gives me His utterance. “You are the answer of His weeping.”

     We need to keep it in our mind that the work of big revival in the last days the Lord is going to perform would be the answer of their prayer with tears, too.  We should keep in remembrance that once there were people (missionaries) who came for missionary activities, leaving their mother countries and their own family, and were martyred with gladness. 

     These twenty-six martyrs divided into three little boats without covers, reached Togitsu from Sonogi through a frosty night sea. All of them were bound with ropes around their neck except for foreign priests, and their both hands were bound with those ropes behind their back.

Tears of Peter Baptist 1

Going down steep mountain, they reached the port of Sonogi. It was a little after midday on February 4th. While the prisoners were quietly discussing recent events, gazing at at the peaceful countryside, Fr. Peter Baptist dropped back a few steps, sat on a rock, and began meditating. After for a while, tears uncontrollably started to come out of his eyes.

“I am marching to my death.  I am going to die for preaching Jesus Christ. I was given great joy. Even if missionary activities has only just begun in this country, his brothers in the Lord, who were supposed to succeed, are going to die, too. How is the missionary work going in this nation? The enterprise for which he had sacrificed everything is going to be undone.”

     It was not for his own life or the country he was born and grown up or his family that he wept.

     Yes. for this country, he wept for our country this Japan. He just did looking after future of this Japan our country. He cried watching over all the difficulties Christians in Japan would suffer from.  

Steep Mountain

     My wife and I passed Mihara, Shimonoseki, Hakata, and Yamamoto village where Rudobigo Ibaragi had chosen God. We prayed there and put up at an inn in Karatsu. On the next day, we continued on our journey to Imari, Takeo, and Sonogi being jolted on a single tracked train and bus.

     Twenty-six martyrs were getting tired from a long journey. Before they were about to enter Nagasaki where they were to be martyred, there was a course hard road waiting. The road from Yamamoto to Sonogi was mountainous and a very steep road continued. They hardly saw anyone pass by on that road. Their body got so weak but they proceeded to climb up to the steep road quietly.

     When they went over the mountain and reached to the top, they could get the whole view of Omura Bay. They took a rest there. At their feet, the beautiful scenery of Omura Bay which was like a quiet Ocean spread out. They were touched by the wonderful scenery and felt their tiredness and pains disappear. 

     If there is such wonderful scenery which comforts us on earth, how much greater scenery waits for us when we finish our journey of martyrdom and go back to heaven. Meditating on that, they might have feel joy and praise spring out from their inside.

Family

     God’s love was being poured on their family, the love based on their faith toward the Lord. They respected and loved each other. They were living by faith when they gave their lives and put their family into His hands. Even though they lost their family members, they continued to believe the Lord. Because they knew that they could see each other again in heaven, they continued to love Him. This hope sustained them. They testified that they were aliens and strangers on earth.

     It is an encouraging surprise that such families used to live in Japan. The Lord will be reviving these families again in this country. He is building up these families for the end times and for the era of persecution and martyrdom.