KAZUE-NECHAN

"Lord, save this baby boy, and when he grows up, send him to Japan as a missionary."

I've got to hand it to the faith of that missionary on furlough.

There was a missionary to Japan back in Canada for furlough in Brandon, Manitoba in 1920, when he heard that a young Japanese couple had given birth to a little baby boy, so he hurried over to their hospital room. After spending time visiting with them in Japanese, he asked if he could pray for their son. Thinking this man of God would pray for their boy's blessing and success, of course they complied; but were startled to hear the strangest prayer they had ever heard.

"God, save this little boy, and when he gets older, send him to Japan as a missionary."

That child grew up to be a leader and instructor...then informed them one day he would quit teaching. He had become a Christian and wanted to go to Japan as a missionary...they remembered that prayer over 30 years ago!

That boy's name was Roy. He was my father, who came out to Okinawa in 1955, saying, "If I don't tell my relatives about Christ, who will?"

But they did not welcome the Gospel with open arms. In fact, when Daddy went to Glory, only one of his close relatives: a cousin, Seiko--the one he had gone swimming with in the Uken Creek nearby--got saved, while most of the others rejected the Gospel, feeling too strongly entrenched in traditional ways.

There was one other cousin the same age as Daddy and Seiko, however, who respected Daddy's walk, giving him real estate on which to build a house. So, it is this cousin's daughter who lives within a stone's throw from the house. She is the one who, when I went to Okinawa recently for my stepmother's funeral activities, came early to the procedures and stayed after the others were gone.

"You know what I remember about your first mom?" she told me. "She loved plants. She would see a pretty flower by the side of the road, raise it in an eggshell in the backyard at home, bring it a beautiful bloom in a pot one day!"

Only someone like Kazue-Nechan (Japanese for elder sister). Please pray she find God's unconditional love someday soon.