I recently discovered that Toyohiko Kagawa autographed my father-in-law’s Bible in 1941.
Known as the St. Francis of Japan, the Japanese Ghandi, and other similar monikers, Kagawa was a Japanese theologian, peace activist, evangelist, friend of the poor, and Nobel Peace Prize nominee. Seminarian Joe Davis wrote a thumbnail sketch of his life, as well as a creative “celestial conversation” with him, if you want to know more about this great man, whose life example places him among the likes of Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. So, beyond the personal “wow!” of discovering his signature in my father-in-law’s Bible, I invite the church at large to discover the legacy of Toyohiko Kagawa.
John/Elijah
By Laura Coulter
Every Saturday, by the highway near Wal-Mart,
you see him standing there alone.
Not much to notice about him,
nothing leaps to the eye.
Wiry hair gray as storm clouds.