A Dream About Me

A Dream about Me!

Note: This is an email I received in October 2009 from a close acquaintance. When it came I realized there would be a time for it to be shared more widely with friends and ministry partners. I believe this to be the time. For the sake of privacy no names or places are given otherwise it is unedited.

Acts 2:17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: KJV We can see that God used dreams in both the New and Old Testaments. Many times they are not literal and need to be prayerfully considered as to what God may want His children to know and what if any action they are to take as a result of that communication. I will include the dream as it was written to me and then make some personal comments at the end.

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Dan,

I'm writing just to check in and make sure you are ok. I had an awful dream last night. It was really a nightmare in which you were executed by the government over there for your faith. It was incredibly vivid. You were tied down to a table that was built in the shape of a person and you were injected with some kind of lethal poison.

Behind the scenes I got notice of your situation from my Dad but he received word too late for either of us to do anything. However, we did everything we could, battling with international lawyers, etc, right up to the time you were injected.

The place of execution was public--a huge, beautiful, modern atrium that was part shopping mall, part offices. It was a state of the art architectural marvel and your execution was a public warning to anyone who might try to spread religion in that country.

I conducted my battles via email and phone en route--I raced from (my home) to the city where you were. And I arrived, after running through a crowd of utterly disinterested Asian and European faces, too late. I just saw the empty table from which they had just taken away your dead body.

Somehow my father was already there sitting in the center of this giant atrium, the only civilian witness, the only one there who cared. I went to him and he told me it was too late and there was nothing he could do to stop what had happened.

But Dan, just as sad, terrifying and harrowing as your martyrdom was the utter lack of concern around the event. Literally no one cared. They all just continued their shopping.

This dream was obviously incredibly disturbing. But not just in the clear ways--it was disturbing because of the sense I had when I woke up: that all this work, all the preaching, teaching, discipleship and prayer were considered completely irrelevant. The world had turned away from God and anyone talking about him to the point that they literally didn't care.

So, I hope you will let me know that you are ok. But I also hope you know that what you are doing is incredibly relevant, incredibly meaningful, very important. I know that the financial situation has been dire--I've seen your message about that. But God is still in control. And this world needs to hear the Good News.

Yours in Christ,
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My Thoughts

First of all, I don’t have a “martyr complex” or the “gift” of martyrdom! This came five months ago and by God’s Grace I am still alive. There are a couple points that spoke to me and I will list them here.

1. Over the past three years we have been called of God to form a global prayer network. The JPN website alone has reached 108 nations with over 150,000 visitors in less than three years. Over half a million pages of material on the site has been read or downloaded. The aim of the network is to pray primarily for Japan! The true spiritual significance of this network is only known by God alone. We have seen local doors of outreach open more than in the past 30 years. I personally pray daily over maps calling out names of cities and regions of the nation and seeking God for revival among the believers and churches. One simple goal is for every Japanese person to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

2. I am sure we are hated in the spiritual realm. We have no idea if we have even shown up on political radar. Our writing focuses on the Word of God. We do refer to historical issues that impact the preaching of and reception of the Gospel by the people and nation of Japan! The JPN site shows up ahead of millions of other sites with popular search engines with phrases such as “Japan + prayer” or “prayer network” or “Japan + Dan Corbett”. This may account for the world wide coverage of the web site. Nothing special has been done in the technical sense to cause this kind of success in web searches.

3. Apathy. The dream shows a lack of concern on a couple different levels. First of all, the local Japanese people are not very aware of most of what we are doing. The churches in our region, in particular, are very divided along denominational lines. This lack of Christian unity helps prevent widespread spiritual revival. There was a mention of both Asian and European faces. We have little contact or direct support from other Asian believers. Many church leaders we worked with for many years have made no contact. Then finally the European faces literally represent both North America and Europe believers who are tied up or focused either on personal daily life or their local ministry commitments.

4. My friend’s concern was, “Literally no one cared. They all just continued their shopping.” Of course, that troubles me personally, but it may reflect a general sentiment of many believers around the world. We are “croaking for our own pond”. We read the New Testament Church was commissioned to reach Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. I am not sure why Japan slips through the cracks in many denominations and local churches. Could it be the past painful history of war and oppression? Can it be the seemingly prosperous state of living in Japan? Recently, Sharon visited a local church in the USA and an older church member honestly asked her if she “drove there from Japan”? After three years of writing and working to form a global prayer network, I believe we have made significant progress, but the needs are still staggering, both in need for intercession and personal and ministry finances.

5. Significance. The friend closed by stating how important the work is that we are doing. That is hard for any of us to accurately determine. We don’t do it for recognition. I do agree that the world and particularly Japan needs to hear the Good News! We have been doing our very best in that aspect and by God’s Grace with continue to do so.

6. Conclusion. I felt strongly directed by God to share this dream at this time. Interpretation of the dream is up to the individual. You can do with it as you like. We hope many more will take this to heart in some way and begin to intercede for the precious people and nation of Japan. I hope you will begin to pray for us. It may be that some who have never invested finances into this ministry may feel moved of the Holy Spirit to do so. Please just act upon whatever God may tell you to do. It will be the right thing and you will be blessed and His Love will continue to be shared with those who have never heard.

May God bless you richly!

Dan & Sharon Corbett
Fukuoka, Japan
“Reaching One Among Millions”

www.japanprayernetwork.com

Missionary Interview

Note: A minister friend attending seminary sent a request for information from us as missionaries to Japan. I thought some might be interested in reading the answers. The questions are also significant to me. Many of you connect with missionaries on some level. These are questions you should have some knowledge of if you will relate to your own missionary in a meaningful manner.

Research for Missionary to Japan, Dan Corbett
Completed and returned Feb 8, 2010

1. How did you get started? What were your first steps in actually becoming a missionary? When was the first time you ever thought about being a missionary?

I was called by God at a summer church youth camp when I was 15 years old. It was a clear and definite calling. Not done in emotion during a service, but supernatural outside the meeting hall..

2. Why did you choose to go to the place you are now? What was the determining factor? Did you feel called by the place, by the missions board’s immediate needs, or by the needs of a people - group among whom you now work?

We first came to Japan while in the US Army. That gave us a taste of the culture and the desire to share God’s Love with our Japanese friends. Then 10 years later while serving as a local church pastor God made it clear that we were to return to Japan as self-supporting missionaries along with our three children. The mission board at that time wanted us to go to Australia to fill a slot that was open. If they tried to force that we would have refused to go.


3. How did your own background, education, talents, skills, interests, etc. fit into your decision? Into your eventual ministry?

After 40 years of full time ministry, I now strongly believe that God utilizes just about everything in our lives for His Glory at one time or another. I studied two languages in high school and then later on in the US Army I was a Vietnamese linguist. The language experiences helped tremendously. Then little things like the hardships of growing up on a farm helped with physical challenges and hardships on the mission field. The prayer life of my mother probably helped move me in the direction of being a prayer intercessor.

4. Who are the people you work among? Can you describe what makes them unique culturally? What positive things can we in our culture learn from them?

We work among with Japanese. It is hard to explain the uniqueness of this race of people in a small space. Japan was an isolated island nation for centuries which caused their culture to be very homogenous and shut off from outside influences. This also means it is a hard to penetrate society that is very closed to the outside world. Thus Christianity is considered a foreign religion that is outside their comfort circle. There are aspects of unity and community in Japan, that if sanctified, would be good for others to emulate.


5. What are their felt needs? What hopes, fears, struggles, etc. do they have? How did you begin to deal with these issues in a Christian way? What response have they shown to your love for them?

As a primarily Buddhist and Shinto nation, people are bound by idolatry which controls with fear. So the people are generally superstitious and fearful in many areas of life. It is necessary to first present God as the God of Love. There is no love in idolatry. Then we show God’s sovereignty over the devil and all the creation. This helps them move from fear to faith in Jesus Christ. Our love for the Japanese people is best shown and proven through small consistent acts of kindness and that has been well received. There is a need for “power evangelism” to help many get entirely free from idolatry. There is much spiritual warfare here.


6. What barriers did you face in reaching them? How did you penetrate those barriers? What were some of the struggles you personally experienced in doing so?

Language! There are three alphabets. The Japanese Kanji is a derivative of Chinese and there are thousands of complicated characters with many strokes. The society is also difficult to enter. We are called “gaijin” which means outside person. The way of thinking, interpersonal relationships, food, music and etc are all different. At first, much of what we present is rejected on face value before it even has a chance to be fully considered or examined. That can be extremely frustrating when your efforts to help someone are based on genuine love and concern.


7. How do you ‘feel’ toward the people you are serving? How did you grow to love them? Did you have problems with prejudice along the way?

We truly love the Japanese very much. Nearly 40 years of our lives have been dedicated to reaching the people and nation of Japan. That is a life time. One would not make that kind of commitment to people they did not love and care about. Prejudice is something we live with on a daily basis. It comes out in many ways. Sitting on a train with an empty seat beside us. Then the people will select a seat further away almost 100% of the time. Part of that is fear and a lack of confidence that they cannot speak English so it is better to avoid any circumstances that may cause them embarrassment. They don’t realize that the act of avoidance is a form of prejudice. We could write a book on the subject.


8. How could we right here learn to love them? Could you give specific suggestions on what to do?

Firstly, you need to learn more about Japan – the people, history, culture, food and language. Find opportunity to meet and interact with them. Find out about homestays inviting a Japanese High School student to live in with your family. Most of these have very positive results. Plan to visit Japan for a vacation. Use the internet to learn more.


9. How could we become more personally involved with you through meaningful prayer? What should we pray for and why?

Prayer is crucial. It needs to be consistent or even daily. It does not have to be long or protracted. A simple systematic and sincere daily calling out our names, needs and the nation of Japan is a great start. We issue monthly 4 page updates giving the latest news and needs. Personal emails or phone calls can be exchanged where more intimate details and information can be shared.

The cost of living in Japan is among the most expensive in the world. Finances are always a challenge and can be quite discouraging and distracting from the work of the Gospel. We need prayer covering for physical health and emotional well being. There is a need for intercession for the doors of hearts to be opened. There is a need for intercession against spiritual strongholds to be broken and pulled down which hinder people from hearing and receiving the gospel. The churches here are small and weak in many aspects. The pastor’s average age is 60 meaning that a young generation needs to be raised up. The believers still suffer much family and social persecution for their choice to follow Jesus Christ. They are often treated as social outcasts. The list could go on and on…..