Those of you in our services on Sunday heard that Tom Carr, our missionary in southern Japan, was wrongfully accused of an attack and arrested by the police in their town, even though Tom was the one who called the police to seek their intervention to stop a woman from beating her estranged son. The son has been living with the Carrs, and has trusted Christ. He confirms the true account, but because Tom's accuser is Japanese and he is not, he was judged by the police to be in the wrong. After three days in jail, including a national holiday where no investigation would be done, the family and friends there were informed Tom would be in jail for another ten days for further investigation. The newspaper carried the story on Sunday, basically saying Tom was guilty of the charges but he denies it. Already one invitation to speak to a university has been withdrawn.
However, Paula was able to see Tom briefly Monday night and reports that he is well and generally in good spirits, although he says he gets "down" at times.
Paula asks that we pray for Tom's spirits and for his testimony as he continues in jail, and that he might be released before the ten day period is over. There is a possibility it could go longer. The system in Japan assumes guilt until innocence is established.
The teenage boy, Hiro, is 16 and had been thrown out of his house by his parents, in what has been described to me as a very dysfunctional family. It seems that when Tom called the police, the mother and her friend became frightened and staged an injury so that when they arrived, they could claim Tom had been violent.
This is certainly a case when Tom is having all manner of things said falsely about him because he has acted with the love of Jesus toward this young man. Pray that God's "blessedness" will be his in the coming days.
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