March 1, 2026

Sarah moved south of Tokyo in 1919 to Okitsu-machi in Shizuoka Prefecture, with Oiki San and Oiki San’s mother, and established a Bible school and kindergarten. Periodically a Japanese evangelist (Otoshige Fujimori)³ would be invited to conduct a meeting in their home. They made friends with the parents of their students and invited them to the meetings. Their work, which also included benevolence and Bible distribution, resulted in the planting of at least four congregations (in Okitsu, Shemedza, Numazu, and Shizuoka City), which eventually grew into eight.

When World War II broke out, although U.S. citizens (including the McCalebs) were evacuated from Japan, Sarah was determined to stay. She was concerned that if all the missionaries left, the Japanese government would seize property and force the Christians into a government-controlled State Church. She was imprisoned in 1942,⁴ and because of damp conditions and a starvation diet, she contracted tuberculosis and was sent to her home in Numazu, Shizuoka to die.⁵

Seventeen wounded soldiers were brought to Sarah’s house for her to nurse. She was allowed only one cup of rice each day, and at times was so weak she had to crawl between cots. She had to sell her furniture, piece by piece, to buy food. She boiled leaves and cornstalks for nourishment, used seawater for salt, and ate grasshoppers. Neighbourhood children, to whom she had ministered, supplemented her measly diet and helped prolong her life. In July 1945, near the end of the war, the city was bombed while Sarah slept. The entire area was devastated, and the only house left standing was hers.

For nearly three years there was no communication between Sarah and her loved ones in the States. Her sister, Mrs. T. B. (Myrtle) Thompson in Tyler, Texas, regularly invited air force men for Sunday dinner, and she gave each one the last known address for Sarah. Weeks after General Douglas MacArthur entered Tokyo, a Christian soldier and two comrades, with an address Myrtle had provided, drove a Jeep 70 miles to find Sarah weighing only 75 pounds and near death. The soldiers left their emergency rations, returned to Tokyo, and came back with groceries and supplies, saving her life.

Sarah continued working with churches in Japan and opened a rest home for women whose husbands and sons had died in the war. Although she didn’t like leaving the work,⁶ periodic furloughs to the U.S. were necessary because of her poor health. While at home in 1958, only three years before her death, Sarah’s family begged her to stay. She simply replied, “It is as near to heaven from Japan as it is from Tennessee.”

Back in Japan, where she had lived 46 of her 69 years, Sarah Andrews suffered a second stroke and died on the 17th of Sept. 1961. A monument was erected for her by both Christians and non-Christians, inscribed with these words: “She dedicated her whole life to her beloved Japan and Japanese people. She taught and trained many believers in Jesus Christ and gave all the glory to God. When she knew it was her time to leave, she recited Psalm 23 for hours, which moved those attending her death bed to tears.”⁷

Back in the United States, the year before Sarah’s death, a baby girl was born who would grow up to continue the legacy of Sarah Andrews as another outstanding servant of God. Her name was Roberta Edwards, and she will be the subject of the next post.

—Kevin L. Moore

~ Kevin Cleary

February 22, 2026

Sarah Sheppard Andrews was one of at least eight children, born to Mr. and Mrs. Will Andrews on a farm in Dickson, Tennessee in the early 1890s.¹ The family lived about 25 miles from the nearest congregation, so they started the church in their own community. Sarah was baptized at age 14 by their preacher, I. B. Bradley.

Having learned of the missionary endeavours of J. M. and Della McCaleb in Japan, and hearing bro. McCaleb speak in Dickson in 1904 about this work, young Sarah began dreaming of becoming a missionary to Japan. She wrote to bro. McCaleb about her intentions, and he encouraged her to get an education to help prepare for this work. Sarah then earned a certificate in teaching from Dickson’s Normal College and took additional classes at State College in Memphis and David Lipscomb College in Nashville.

In the summer of 1915 Sarah received commendations from McCaleb and Bradley in the Christian Leader. Bro. Bradley observes, “She is enthusiastic over the prospects of going to Japan and to the work. I think she is dependable and will make an earnest, zealous worker. I have … watched her development and noted with delight her zeal and earnestness, as well as her loyalty to the Lord’s revealed will and way” (as quoted in J. M. McCaleb, “Another Worker” 4). Later that month, in a subsequent issue, Sarah writes:

Will say at the outset that I expect, with God’s help, to continue to remain within the bounds of woman’s realm as clearly taught in the New Testament …. If God permit, I expect to care for the sick, give to the poor, help the heavy ladened, weary and oppressed, teach in the school if Bro. McCaleb desires – in fact, do anything by which some may come to the knowledge of the truth. Is there a better way of teaching humanity than by becoming a servant to all? True happiness comes through helping others. In Japan alone there are forty millions who have never heard of Christ as the Saviour of mankind. Hence, there is plenty of work to be accomplished. In many respects woman’s place in the church cannot be filled by a man. (“Sister Andrews” 4)

In her early-20s,² sponsored by no congregation and supported only by her parents, Sarah left alone for Japan on Christmas Day 1915, boarding a ship in San Francisco and arriving in Tokyo in January 1916. For many years she was largely supported by her parents, and later by the Dickson congregation. Initially intending to stay in Japan for 5 to 7 years, she ended up serving there for 46 years.

Sarah started out in Tokyo working with the McCalebs, learning the Japanese language and teaching Bible classes in English. She struggled to acclimate to her new environment and developed a number of health issues. She taught cooking and sewing to neighbourhood women and children, and helped them learn about Jesus. As the years passed the kids became teenagers and were baptized along with some mothers and fathers. Among the early converts were a young girl named Oiki San and her mother. Oiki San (a.k.a. “Bible Woman”) became Sarah’s lifelong friend and coworker.

~ Kevin Cleary

February 15, 2026

I want to consider the story of Hansel and Gretel. You will recall that this old German folk story tells of parents who during a famine lead their children into the woods with the intention (at least on the stepmother’s part) to leave them behind because they are unable to care for them. Initially the children leave a trail of stones to follow home. The second time however the children are unable to gather stones and leave bread crumbs which are eaten by birds leaving them well and truly lost. Eventually the children come across a house made of gingerbread and in the hunger begin to eat. It’s this point in the story I want to focus on. As the reader we immediately feel uncomfortable at this point in the story. Why? Because we know that a house made of food when your starving is just too good to be true. We understand that the children are too immature to come to this conclusion and therefore are in considerable danger. Houses made of gingerbread don’t simply show up in the forest without a reason. In this case the reason is quite sinister. Suppose these children had an adult around to ask where they think the house came from and what purpose they think it had? They would likely answer based on their hunger and say I don’t see anyone around and I think we are just lucky to have stumbled upon this house now please move aside and let me eat. We can understand the impulse but we also know that a sober second thought is in order here. 

This brings us to one of the most popular modern efforts to remove God from his place and supplant the ruler of the universe with ourselves. The apostle Paul describes these people in Romans chapter one. There we read: “they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator.” Even people with very little training can do basic logic. The logic in this case could not be simpler. If the universe came from nothing for no reason, then humans are the top. There is nothing smarter or more capable than us and so we should do what we want and like. What is it that accounts for the raw materials of the universe or the mind which was able to manipulate them so effectively? We are somewhat like Hansel and Gretel; we found the house and are enjoying it we don’t want to think about where it came from. However, a moment’s thought will force us to realize that gingerbread houses don’t appear out of nowhere there must be someone who made it for some reason. This brings us back to Paul and Romans one: “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”

~ Kevin Cleary

February 8, 2026

Assumptions have been the bane of human existence since the first time Adam built a shelter and miscalculated how much wind and rain would really be a problem. Mankind’s unique ability to observe and make predictions is a power which has been a key reason for our ongoing success. With that special ability comes a downside. Sometimes our observations are unable to account for all the relevant data. A native tribe predicts the movement of a herd only to discover that a new food source or flooded river has redirected them away from where they should have been. The bear that ran away the last five times has cubs this time and so attacks. The ability to account for variable and predict outcomes is wonderful but to predict perfectly we need to be able to account for all of the influences. This requires exhaustive knowledge and an exhaustive capacity to process that knowledge. These things are not available to mankind only to God. Man in his finitude is required to simplify variables and make a few unproven assumptions. Even with these flaws in the system some things can be reasonably well predicted. Sunrise times can be known within seconds; the patterns of earths movement make similar predictions possible in regard to the view of the sky at various times through the year. The ancient Egyptians famously gained great benefit from the regular flooding of the Nile. This success is a testament to the wisdom of God’s design. We are right to work hard to learn about the nature of reality and engage in behaviours that take the best advantage of the knowledge we gain.

There are a couple of downsides to this phenomenon. First as noted above sometimes we become overconfident and believe that our knowledge is greater than in fact it is. This leads to overconfidence and often to serious downfalls. We might think of the great depression or more recently the sub-prime mortgage fall. The titanic was believed to be beyond the ability of natural phenomenon to sink. Weather is a great contemporary example, meteorologists have become very good at looking at the Jet-stream, ocean currents, pressure systems and other variable to predict weather accurately within a few days. This is a considerable achievement however when attempts are made to go beyond days into weeks there are simply too many variables to account for and we are unable to predict weather with accuracy. A similar situation occurs in financial markets. Limited conditions can predict outcomes over short periods however planned economies famously fail to account for human behaviour and desire and lead to serious and life-threatening shortages while simultaneously huge wasteful surpluses in unneeded commodities. 

Human pride has led to many troubling situations. None greater than man’s belief that he is good enough smart enough disciplined enough to achieve all that he needs. There is only one hope for us in the world and that is Jesus. 

~ Kevin Cleary

 

February 1, 2026

Last time we looked at examples of Polemics in scripture. We learn that at the very least there is a time and place to go on the attack and expose an idea as simply bad. This is more important than we may think. It’s important because it’s honest. When we engage in discussions of Christian truth, we are not neutral. We specifically want a certain outcome. Just as Jesus didn’t pretend to be open minded to the false teaching and moral failings of the Pharisees and Sadducees, we are not required to pretend we have no vested interest in what someone concludes. In fact, doing so may come off as somewhat dishonest and make us look devious. Related to this we also don’t want to be neutral toward truly bad and harmful ideas. It’s not always enough to say that’s an idea I suggest this is a better one. Rather sometimes it important to say that is a terrible and wrong idea and this is why. 

The examples we have considered also point out that circumstances matter. Jesus doesn’t use a polemic approach against sincere seekers or even honest doubters. Paul doesn’t attack the deceived in the same way that he does the deceiver. This reveals an important truth. There are times when lies must be exposed so that the larger audience can see them for what they are. There are also times when care must be taken to help people slowly work toward a conclusion. Maturity is knowing which is which. 

Personality also matters in these discussions. Some people will be deeply wedded to their conclusions and may only consider abandoning them when shown just how bad they truly are. On the other hand, some people will be capable of doing the math on their own and just by being shown a better way can start to see the weaknesses in their view of something. In other words, some people do need to hear “hey that’s a really dumb idea.” As Christians we are called to do our best to approach people in a way that is most effective for them (Col 4:5). 

As we consider each of these important rhetorical tools, we find that as with most things it’s important to use the best tool for the job. Sometimes that may be Apologetics sometimes it may be Irenics, other times polemics may be important. Often these are best used in co-ordination with one another. We must keep in mind the warnings discussed in these articles so that in doing so we don’t compromise the very truth we are seeking to advance. In all of this we must aways keep in mind that our goal is not to win an argument, demonstrate our intelligence, persuasion ability, or show how foolish someone else is. Rather our goal is always to glorify Christ and point people to Him. With that goal in mind we can and should work hard to demolish arguments and every high minded thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to obey Christ. 

~ Kevin Cleary