July 5. John and Joseph Cathcart. John and Joe are two American men who had a heart for the Japanese. Seems like these men would do anything to tell people about Jesus. Here is the story.
People need Jesus. Do whatever it takes to reach them.
John breathed in the humid air of Japan’s Nara district and climbed another step. Tonight he would sleep in the two-bedroom house where his missionary grandpa—the one he had barely known—once slept. Below John was Ikoma Bible College, and between rose 120 stairs. John soaked it in. There he was in 1979, 50 years after his grandfather Leonard Coote had established that college. And John was climbing the same steps his grandfather had climbed.
“I will bring honor to your name in every generation. Therefore, the nations will praise you forever and ever” (Psalm 45:17 NLT).
In 1919, when Leonard beat his enormous drum, the curious Japanese gathered around the funny white man.
He told them about Jesus who had come to connect them to God. Before the crowd broke up and went home, Leonard handed out gospel tracts written in their language. There was nothing more meaningful in life—nothing more valuable to Leonard—than sharing the gospel with those who had never heard it.
Then in 1989, John stepped back and surveyed the little white church right in the middle of a rice paddy, and he grinned. The number-one TV show in Japan was Michael Landon’s Little House on the Prairie, and this church in the rice paddy looked like the one in that series.
It was not an everyday thing to build a church in a rice paddy, but God always made a way. The lumber had been imported from America for one-fourth the cost of building materials in Japan, and a friend from the States made good on his promise that if John ever wanted to “build a church” he would do it “for free.” Now white, steepled churches rose from multiple rice paddies. Curiosity about the church that looked like the one on television drew the Japanese. There they learned about Jesus. Nothing gave more lasting meaning—nothing was more valuable to John than bringing the gospel to those who had never heard it.
In 2019, “Japan Joe” aka Joseph Cathcart, age 29—flashed his engaging smile as he handed organic coffee to a Japanese mother in a royal-blue coat. Her baby kicked tiny feet in the stroller at her side, and the mother smiled back as she reached for her cuppa.
Joe’s pop-up coffee shack, named Lumber Joe, was built on a trailer. During Japan’s steamy, hot months, the walls rose to allow a breeze. This time of year, the walls were down, and Joe served through a window. Lumber Joe was found in a variety of places in Gojo, Japan, often next to a skateboard park.
But Joe wasn’t only serving great coffee in Japan’s Nara district. Joe offered Jesus. Jesus was there in Joe’s smile, in his compassion, and in authentic friendship. He was there in the Scriptures written in Japanese on coffee sleeves. He was there in the podcast Joe invited his customers to listen to.
“It’s hard for the Japanese to enter a church,” Joe posted on his blog. “Not only are they chronically overworked, the thought of it seems so un-Japanese that most wouldn’t even consider it.”
So, Joe brought the church to them. Most Japanese men worked 16-hour days, commuting at least an hour one-way. When they bought their coffee, they received a link to Joe’s podcast that talked about who Jesus was and what it meant to follow him. Joe thought about his great-grandfather’s big drum and his father’s steepled churches. His family had shared Jesus with Japan for more than 100 years. Nothing in life was more valuable to Joe than sharing the gospel with someone who had never heard it.
What message do you want the generations after you to share? People need Jesus. Do whatever it takes to reach them.
Based on an interview with John Cathcart.
Cathcart, Joseph. Jesus loves Japan. Joseph and Whitney Cathcart. December 19, 2016. https://jesuslovesjapan.wixsite.com/jesuslovesjapan.
Coote, W. Leonard. Impossibilities Become Challenges. Church Alive Press, 1991.
Story read by: Nathan Walker
Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter
Audio production: Joel Carpenter
Editor: Teresa Crumpton, https://authorspark.org/
Project manager: Blake Mattocks
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