Dear Friends, Brothers and Sisters,

  Throughout authoring this book I can feel God tugging at my heart to go back, even if it is for a short term.  I would say it is an urgency to go.  I must ask myself why. And, when I do, I go to the Bible for answers. In John 2:17 it states, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”  In Japan, I saw how God changed countless lives, not just in Okinawa, but all over Japan and Korea, continuing to this day in the United States.  Not just their lives changed, but my life changed as well.  It has always been my desire to return to Japan, to continue the work that God Himself laid upon my heart decades ago.  The phenomenal success of my book, Mezurashi: The Training of a Missionary in The Far East, has far exceeded any expectations that I had.  

When I went to Japan in 1986 and 1988, any doubts I had that God can move in people's lives, especially my own, disappeared, and I remain confident that God does that today.  We all have those doubts that God can actually do what He says.  I have seen those results of support and prayers firsthand decades ago.  The mission to go forth, to return, has this staying power if you will.  The Bible says it again: “But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed?  And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard?  And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim Him?  And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent?  As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!

I am asking for your financial support.  For some it is the very first time.  But in all ways God honors those who honor Him.  Wanting to go to Japan is a great desire.  But being called is a different thing.  The calling never goes away but burns brightly with fire.  If you desire to support me there are several ways: by personal check sent to Jerry Gander, 1421 E 13th Street, The Dalles, OR. 97058, Venmo Jerry Gander@Jerry-Gander, and Zelle directly from your bank to my bank.  I am going to Japan on June 10 th returning on the 22 nd.  Some may ask, Like, that is soon, weeks away.   Time is of the essence, yes. Email did not exist in 1986; nor did Zelle or Venmo. But God created everything for His Glory. As you finish this letter, please ask yourself if this is something you would do. Pray about it. Think about it, if you have questions then contact me by return email: j.gander@rocketmail.com

This is something bigger than all of us. I invite you to share in this bold plan with me, to return to the islands and continue the mission.  As I wrote in my book: “The true heart of a Missionary is to never give up.” I can’t and won’t.

Thankful for you and everything you do,

Jerry Gander

Post Note: I returned from Japan and Okinawa on June 24, 2024. While it would be impossible to write about everything that happened, I will share a few things that DID happen:

It has been barely a week since I returned from Japan! During the 2 weeks I was gone a few amazing things happened that I want to share, but before that, this is how things started out in Tokyo.

The flight over was great, long but great: 17 hours! After getting through customs in Tokyo, when I went to get my luggage, only 1 bag made it. My other suitcase did not arrive. That prompted a search by Japanese custom officials, who did not turn up anything. This prompted me to start speaking in Japanese as no one spoke English. This was one of those time where either you speak the language............or you do not. Fortunately, I did. 

By this time several other airport officials got involved and then the customs department. The Japanese do not lose luggage I was told. When they had taken all the information I gave them, where I was staying in Tokyo, copies of my passport, etc., they said they would notify me when they found my suitcase and I could leave the International Terminal. 

I went outside and caught an airport bus to the Domestic Terminal. By the time I got there, the last bus to the hotel in Tokyo had left for the evening! Now, here I was, in a strange airport where few spoke English, my only transportation to the hotel gone and I was by myself on the curb. I prayed, Lord, what are we going to do? Almost immediately I had an idea. I spoke to one of the airport bus handlers and he suggested I return to the International Terminal and go to a 24-hour currency exchange booth and get some Japanese Yen, which I did. While in that International terminal I then looked around and saw a Japanese policeman. I went to him and asked if he spoke English...which he did! I explained the situation to him, he took some notes after I showed him my passport and suggested I go to the information counter for more help.

When I arrived there, they took information from my passport and told me I should take the subway to my hotel, the least expensive option as a cab would cost almost $200!! Taking a subway ride was very confusing to me with multiple lines and stations. Doing this at 8 pm was already confusing. But they reassured me that this was the best option. I took their suggestion and down I went to the subway platform. 

After many station transfers, I finally came up out of the subway tunnel. It was 10 pm. I asked a stranger on the street if they knew where the hotel was, and they stopped what they were doing and walked a few blocks with me (a normal response from Japanese to foreigners) and pointed out the hotel about 8 blocks up the street. Mecca!!  A light at the end of the tunnel!  I walked up the 8 blocks to the hotel. They were long walks, especially after 2 hours of train riding and it was now 85 outside and 91% humidity! 

When I got to the front desk of the hotel, I told the agent that I had a reservation. He looked at me and said in English, "Are you Mr. Gander?"  When I said yes, he told me that he had gotten several phone calls already from the Japanese Police Department, The Japanese Customs Department and Haneda Airport Information Staff, all of whom were concerned that I might have gotten lost on the subway and were shortly going to have a search of the subway lines to look for me!! I said to the desk agent that I was surprised that he would go to such extreme measures for me, and he looked at me and said, " You are our guest. Since the police alerted us of your situation and your lost luggage, they and we were obligated to look for you. If you had not arrived soon, we would have called the police to look for you!"  Talk about being watched over...this was a great example of God watching over me in the capital city of Tokyo.

It was like this everywhere I went, like someone was watching over me constantly. Modern day Tokyo is now a city of 40.8 million people, THE most populated city in the world! At any given time like 50% of those people are either in subways or on trains and another 30% walking on the streets, all going somewhere. During that first week, I met up with several men I had been praying for, Daichi and Kosuke, but also Pastor Talo from New Hope Tokyo church in Ochenomizu (he is the Talo from my book).  I was also a guest of honor at an international food expo with Nipon Shokken company in Chiba Prefecture. They had been reluctant for me to come at all because no one spoke English but when they found out I spoke Japanese, they welcomed my like I was the President! They picked me up at the train station and I was greeted by multiple officers of the company once on site of their corporate headquarters.

I was given a tour of their manufacturing, production and packaging processes. As we walked along the many displays they had set up, I asked several questions about their products and then one of the guides said to me, in broken English, "It is amazing that you can speak Japanese this well. I am looking for the right word here but in Japanese it is the word Mezurashi."   Of course, that seemed like a perfect time to tell them that I wrote a book called Mezurashi! And I just happened to have a copy of that book in my backpack! When I showed them the book, they marveled at the front cover, looking at it carefully and then asked what my book was about. I then explained that it was my missionary journey in Japan and the Far East 36 years ago, a collection of true stories of what God had done in Japan and Korea. 

They were strangely quiet. We continued our tour.

About 10 minutes later, one of the officials walking with me called me over for a private conversation and said to me, "Two months ago, I gave my life over to Jesus Christ. I am now going to church and read the Bible every day. I have been praying for someone to pray with."  This was an answer to their prayer and mine and they promptly changed their attitude at that point and their face glowed from that point onward. It also gave me an opportunity to create another contact. Japan is all about relationships: business, personal, church and otherwise. I met so many people in Tokyo that just wanted to know more about this foreigner who spoke Japanese to planned meetings by God at train and subway stations, in the hotel, in restaurants and on the sidewalk. 

There were many pictures taken, videos shot and foods to be tasted, but the important thing in Tokyo was simply asking The Lord what my next steps were. Breakfast in the morning was an opportunity to greet the hotel staff and talk to other guests, many of whom desired a longer conversation with. At the post office it was an opportunity to learn new words but also practice using the Japanese language I already knew. That same night my luggage showed up at the hotel. It had been misdirected to San Francisco by mistake and then went to Narita airport in Tokyo. Everyone seemed very apologetic. I simply responded, "Shigataganai," or that's what it is, it cannot be helped, there is nothing anyone could have done. They were again amazed that I had chosen a word that depicted an honorific word for this moment that showed I was not angry. If you don't practice the language, then you can't move forward in communicating. 

A word about food in Japan:  even though you are served generous amounts of food at any restaurant or stall, it is a Japan-sized portion (to get an idea, an extra-large sized soft drink in the states is 32 ounces; in Japan it is 12 ounces!), so I found myself hungry frequently, just a few hours after a meal, but also because I was constantly on the move. You burn up a lot of calories by walking and I walked a lot! So, I learned to ask for a large sized bowl of rice or extra rice with every meal. Along with that came extra daikon pickles, a staple in Japan but to Americans, pickles with rice? It's one of those novelties in Japan. You get used to it...and look forward to it as well. 

After 4 days in Tokyo, I spent a week in Okinawa. I will always say that I dislike the ocean and, yet it surrounds the island where I was living. I was able to spend time with Yoshirou on several occasions and did pray with him, but he is still very weak. What was amazing is that I was speaking to him without someone nearby translating. Being able to pray with him in his own language made a huge difference in our relationship. In fact, I seldom spoke English at all. 

The next day I gave two church messages: one in my Miyazato church and the other in our sister church on Hamahiga island, both in Japanese. That I was understood was evident by note taking, an "amen" here and there and many shaking heads. It was good to see so many of the people that I speak about in my book, including Shinei, Kenyas, Iha, Kazuto, Iwao, Tomoya and many others, relationships that have lasted decades. In fact, it was Iwao who went with me to Tonakijima Island the next day.

It was on a Monday that Iwao and I boarded a ferry to Tonikijima. It was the tail-end of the monsoon season, and it rained a lot! There would be no reason to go to that island in this kind of weather, or in any weather. If you wanted peace and quiet, then this was your place! About 275 year-round residents, the population had grown by 100 in 36 years! Yet, my prayer was that God would lead us to someone who would know about the events 36 years ago when I stepped foot on this island and shared with 26 high school students. I speak about this story in my book.  The Japanese ryokan we stayed in was traditional: tatami mat floors, rice paper walls and an extra-small bathroom; all meals were eaten in another building. But we were there to do some door to door evangelizing as well as see what God was going to do. 

After we arrived and had taken a short nap, Iwao and I prayed for boldness and for the Lord to lead us to someone who might remember what happened 36 years ago. I prayed that this would be a witness to the people we would contact but also to Iwao himself. Strangely, the rain stopped just as we went out to start knocking on doors. The alley-way sized streets were all uniform and there was no distinction between homes to separate them from another. As we walked, I said to Iwao to go to this home, just one in a series on this same street of sorts. We walked up to the home and knocked on the door. A women answered and Iwao proceeded to talk about the reason why we were there. 

As he was speaking, the woman then turned to look at me and said, Jerry sensei, Anatawa obiteimasuka? Or "Jerry teacher, do you remember me?" As she stared at me, I told her I did not remember, but seeing that she knows my name there must be some connection and she said that she was one of the 26 high school students on the beach that day 36 years ago!! Out of all the homes and students that day, it was amazing that this particular home was the one we went to! She posed for a picture with me and then very excited idly wanted me to meet someone. I went with her to a home a few streets away, one I could have never found on my own. She knocked on the door. A man answered the door and greeted us. As she spoke to us, he looked at me in bewilderment and then invited us in. The other woman had to return home. 

It turns out that this man's father was the captain of the ship of the Canadian missionary that arrived on the island 30 years before me (as depicted in the story in my book, lending credibility to the story). As he told the story he was looking at Iwao, who sat there with his mouth open in awe. But then he turned to me and said (in Japanese) "and you are Jerry sensei! I remember you from 36 years ago!"  It turns out he played with the pastor's kids, and it was this pastor, Ikihara sensei, who came with me to Tonakikima 36 years ago. He remembers the pastor talking about me with his kids, who are now both pastors of their own churches on Okinawa. "Finally, after all these years, I get to meet you again. I was just a kid when I saw you last. How have you been?"  The story of the lady I had just met was like a needle in a haystack story; this story of this man was like a speck of dirt on the needle in the haystack story!! This man told us he would contact the pastor's kids on Okinawa and arrange for me to meet up with them later this year as Ikihara sensei spoke about me often. Iwao told me as we left that he was simply amazed that God had answered not just my prayer almost immediately but his prayer for direction and that he would return this Summer with a team to evangelize the island. 

God continued to answer many prayers like this during the week, bringing together many friends that had never met one another but were all people God had used in my book! I gave three other messages at Okuro Baptist Church during the week, including a youth rally on Friday evening. I spoke on Harnessing God's Power, about how to access God's Love and the power of Prayer. There is not enough room to write of all that God did in people's hearts, including my own, or of His future plans for me to return, but I will return. The churches responded enthusiastically of what God did and was doing. I will continue to practice my Japanese language studies and bear down on future plans for my book, which will include a Spanish version due later this Summer, a Japanese version, due, hopefully, sometime late Fall/early Winter, an audio version and work on other books in progress, including The Legend of the Snow Monkey, a 6-part series of children's books aimed at a child's understanding of life from a heavenly perspective. All of this takes time, in addition to a sequel of my book Mezurashi, which shall be called Mezurashi Too. I just ask for your prayers as I press on at my own job while juggling the writing of books, book tours and missions' trips.

Thank you, again, for your support, as you made all this possible. To catch that vision is notable and I thank you from my heart for this. There is a bigger perspective here, though. It is how God will continue to use you in the future. That is my prayer. Everyone contributed in different ways—-financially, prayerfully, encouragement and checking in before and during my trip and after I returned. My prayer now is that God would lead me to the person who will be able to translate this book into Japanese. May this be your prayer, too.

From the get go, The Lord wants me to be obedient. That I went to Japan just a month ago is really awesome! But it is not the last trip. I feel the call to return later in 2024. There will be more details on that soon.