All We Have to do is Follow

"Vancouver? Would you by any chance know anybody by the name of 'Roy Oshiro'?" I asked. "That's my Dad. He was a missionary to Okinawa, Japan. He left Vancouver...but that was back in 1955."

"No; I'm sorry; I don't know any 'Roy Oshiro'," Katie Sisco replied; "But would he have known a 'Margaret Ridgeway'? She knew a lot of Japanese Canadians."



"Margaret Ridgeway?" I nearly flew out of my chair. That was such a familiar name. She was the person most influential in getting Daddy to become a missionary. In fact, she was the one who founded the mission board he joined. "Yes; Daddy knew Margaret Ridgeway!"

"That was my Aunt.", Katie said, smiling.

No wonder. When I first viewed the Musashino Christian Chapel

website and felt its

strange attraction, I had not known why the
Lord would want me to go
there. There had been an
irresistible tug to attend its
prayer meeting that night. It
had been irrational and
inexplicable. After all, I
didn't know anybody there. It was just another church in Tokyo with an English Department.

Little did I know that this fellowship was headed up by Ron and Katie Sisco, missionaries to Japan, who had retired in 2000 but returned last year--so actually were active missionaries again--to help the English Department of this church. And less had I known that Katie's aunt was the founder of the mission board under which Daddy came out to Okinawa.

But God had known. And no doubt, Daddy and Margaret Ridgeway must've both been smiling as they peered over the battlements of Heaven and watched us meet. As Daddy knew on earth and even better now: we are just His sheep. All we have to do is follow as our Shepherd leads us from pasture to pasture.

Early Mornings with the Heavenly Father

Bethel Baptist Church

I had spent so many sweet, sweet hours at the sanctuary...I looked out at the empty room. I'd come early mornings alone, prayed aloud--and sang out too, and basically, because no one else was there to hear, it was time I had free for "just me and my Heavenly Daddy"...and then I'd curled up on one of the chairs near the windows to read my Bible and write in my journal.

There was that morning I saw a tiny spider on one of the chairs and resisted the urge to squash it. I remember thinking to myself, there would be no way I could love--I mean, really love--a creature like a...spider. And absolutely no way I would let my child suffer a cruel, torturous death at the hands of hordes of spiders for the sake of saving them! UGH! ...And that's just the difference between me and a spider? And the God of Heaven, the Creator of the Universe, did that for me?! I'd found that hard to fathom.


Jesus, when He was 12--His parents had frantically searched for Him--had found Himself naturally gravitating to His Father's House. He must've felt a tugging at His heart to go where He could be with the One He loved most, wanted to pray to most. And He must've been fond of those men He talked with too--they were his friends, friends who longed with starry-eyed wonder after truth strangely elusive of them. And the place that Jesus felt so drawn to and loved He ended up cleansing twice; then turning His back to it, He looked only to His Heavenly Father to guide Him the remainder of his earthly ministry.

Father, no matter how lovely the people You put in my life, no matter how blessed the places You choose for me; help me, as Jesus did, to always seek Your Face first and foremost.