When...
When the clear, lingering bells rang from the top of the church and echoed in the believers' ears, they all began to pray of their own accord.
"Our Father who loves us and dwells in the highest heaven! You are the True God who created the universe and all things. We long for your forgiveness, so that we may enter Heaven..."
Thousands of believers of every skin color and race gathered inside and outside the church.
Some clasped their hands and prayed with their eyes closed. Some made the sign of the cross over their chests in devout prayer. Others held their daughters' hands in their rough ones as they prayed fervently, hoping to ascend to Heaven and enjoy its blessings on this sacred day of the Lord's birth.
They had suffered too much in this world, which felt like a sea of misery.
Low houses, filthy streets, water pipes that often forced them to fetch water from outside, and power lines that regularly failed in summer and winter.
This was the slum of Polis, the home they had lived in for more than a decade without seeing any improvement.
It was precisely because their lives were so hard that they were drawn to the Heaven Osaka Masayoshi described in his altered version of the Bible.
They longed to drink endless milk and honey in Heaven, enjoy every pleasure the mortal world had to offer, and be served by 108 beautiful women or handsome men.
"Mom, am I going to Heaven soon?" The little Black girl held her mother's hand and looked at the adults coming and going with wide, innocent eyes full of longing.
"Yes, we're going to Heaven very soon." The sturdy woman, who was also Black, looked at the believers around her with expectation and utter