‘I Want to Kill People’

Lives are being changed through the only Chinese-speaking Adventist church in Japan.

By Andrew McChesney, Adventist Mission

Li Fengyan’s cellphone rang sharply.

“Mom, I am miserable,” said the voice on the other end. It was Fengyan’s daughter-in-law, Yang-yang. She was crying hysterically. “My life is so hard. I don’t know what to do.”

Yang-yang lived with her husband and 8-month-old daughter some distance from Fengyan’s home in Japan’s capital, Tokyo. Fengyan and Yang-yang are both Chinese immigrants who own flourishing businesses in Japan.

Fengyan suggested that Yang-yang confide in someone closer to her home. But Yang-yang grew more upset.

“I only want to talk with you,” she said. “You’re the only Christian I know, and you have a special peace around you.”

Fengyan brought Yang-yang and her granddaughter to her home. After putting the baby to sleep in another room, they sat down to talk. Fengyan grew increasingly worried as the conversation progressed. Yang-yang spoke of hearing voices that ordered her to act violently.

“I want to beat people. I want to kill people,” Yang-yang said. “Hide your knives. If I just see a knife, I will kill someone.”

Fengyan called her pastor from the Tokyo Chinese Seventh-day Adventist Church. Pastor Yu Chuanfu was in the middle of Wednesday night prayer meeting, but he immediately left the church when he heard about the situation.

The pastor prayed with Yang-yang. He read to her from the Bible and prayed some more. Then he left her in the care of her mother-in-law.

Yang-yang stayed with Fengyan for a while. She began to read the Bible regularly. She also read books by Ellen White. The voices stopped, and she started to smile. She accepted an invitation from Fengyan to attend Sabbath services at the Tokyo Chinese church.

Yang-yang’s husband was amazed at the change that had come over his wife. He curiously started accompanying Yang-yang and his mother to church on Sabbath. A year later, Yang-yang and her husband were baptized at the Tokyo Chinese church.

Then Yang-yang’s mother fell ill, and doctors didn’t know how to treat her agonizing pain. Yang-yang asked Tokyo Chinese church members to pray, and she told her mother to throw away the family’s Buddhist idol and trust God instead. As the church members prayed, her mother made a miraculous recovery.

“Before the prayers, her mother did not believe in Jesus,” Fengyan said. “But after the prayers, she believes in God.”

The mother got rid of the idol and, several months later, she and her husband were baptized at the Tokyo Chinese church.

And that’s not all. Yang-yang and Fengyan have been telling relatives back in China about God, and several have started attending Adventist churches there.

Fengyan, 53, credits God and the Tokyo Chinese church for the remarkable transformation of her family.

“Every Sabbath we have a place here to worship,” she said.

Eight people have been baptized into the Tokyo Chinese church because of her influence.

The Tokyo Chinese church is the only Chinese-speaking Adventist church in Japan. It opened with about five members in 2012 though the financial support of a Thirteenth Sabbath Offering. Today, the church has 50 members and is planning to double the size of its hall to make room for the many more people who want to worship every Sabbath.

“We thank you for the Thirteenth Sabbath Offering,” Pastor Yu said. “Pray for us as we grow.”