Give Your Enemies Your Underwear

This is why I should always read a text in Japanese before I have a non-Christian student read it out loud to the class during a chapel time. Last Tuesday we were talking about Luke chapter 6 when Jesus says to love your enemies. I had done my prep in English and had not read the Japanese version of the text before class. One of my students was reading the passage in Japanese and suddenly burst out laughing and said that she could not do this. I did not understand until I read the passage in Japanese.

Luke 6:29b-If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic.

And in Japanese: 上着を奪い取る者には、下着も拒んではいけません。

下着 means underwear. So where in English it says to give your enemy your tunic, in Japanese it literally says to give your enemies your underwear. That may be a little different than what Jesus had in mind. Me giving my enemies my dirty underwear would probably not help expand the kingdom of God, but it would be pretty funny.

Church was good this week. We had a buddy of mine from a nearby university come for worship. 5 people were there, making it our largest gathering to date. And 3 of the 5 were men, also the first time we have had more men that women. Average age… 24. Please pray that God would raise up a vibrant church of young people here in Okuchi