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A Time to Every Purpose
Under Heaven
By Dan Gardner Sr.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.

Four years ago, our son, Dan Jr., received a call
from a pastor in New York. He asked Dan to
prepare a Gospel message in Japanese for a
funeral of one of his members. The husband
had just passed away and was the only Christian
in the family. The wife of this man is a Japanese
lady from Okinawa.

to show that message during the funeral. The
wife listened as the Gospel was preached to
her in Japanese for the first time in her life.

She responded by receiving Jesus Christ as her
Savior. What a wonderful blessing that was!
Even 7,000 miles away we can be effective for
the Lord.

Dan was able to make a video in Japanese and
send it to the church and the pastor was able
After her husband’s homegoing, the wife
decided to return to Okinawa. She then started
Dan & Terri Gardner
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Baptism of the two
middle children
attending our church, Shinko Baptist Church.

Her mother and father and sister still live in
Okinawa so she had relatives she could rely on.

She and her husband had met while he was in
the military and stationed on Okinawa. They
have four children. As we started teaching her
the Bible, she realized that she had been saved
but needed to be baptized.

Three of her children have been saved and
baptized. The oldest daughter, Sakura, was
baptized on the anniversary of her father‘s
death in April 2021. The next two have recently
been baptized. There is one younger child who
is not yet a believer. We are praying for her
salvation and then baptism.

They all faithfully serve in our church and have
been a great blessing from the Lord. Sometimes
we do not understand why things happen a
certain way. But God knows the reason and
it always works out best because of Him, as
that verse says, a time to every purpose under
heaven. Had the husband not passed into
heaven the family might not have been saved.

We are praying for the wife’s parents and family
to be saved in the near future. Please pray for
her because she has a great responsibility to
raise four children without a husband.

There are many, many Japanese who have
never heard a clear presentation of the Gospel
of Christ. Please pray that we will be able to
preach without fear and favor and that others
might know the truth and come to the Savior.

Japan is a nation in the 1040 Window. It is a
country with a reputation of being one of the
unreached people groups of the world. Only
1/2 of one percent of the population of Japan
claims to be Christian. It is the second most
difficult nation in the world to be reached with
the Gospel. It might discourage some, but as
missionaries working in Japan, it encourages
us. There are still many, many to be saved. W
Number 2, 2022
BIMI 13