No wonder. God wanted Mommy to see that church completed. He had to get it up in 1980. Mommy NEVER missed a meeting, no matter how poorly she felt, from what I remember. Maybe it was somebody else in the family, with Mommy taking care of us, but never Mommy...until 1980 (remember, I was born 1959). I knew something was wrong when she asked to stay home once. And it happened again.
I thought I was the one with health problems and had to leave college for it, but just as I was heading back after a year of discovering my problem, spending time with my parents, improving with proper medication (to say nothing of experiencing a year full of seeing souls saved and lives changed as well--I've only told you about the building, not about the incredible life changes I saw that year)...anyway, as I was about to head back, it seemed Mommy was in bed!
Back in the U.S., I plunged into summer school, trying to catch up on studies I missed during my year's absence. One of the senior leaders pulled me aside and informed me I needed to hear a rumor before it reached me that my mother had been flown to Hawaii and it was discovered she had inoperable cancer. But when I phoned to confirm the facts, Mommy told me altho' it was true, not to interrupt studies. Stay and finish summer school, she said; then come to Hawaii. And when I got there, I discovered she'd spent hours from her hospital bed sending taped letters to Okinawa telling of the incredible peace God gives.
Several weeks later, Mommy was face to face with the One Who gave her that Peace. He'd made sure she saw that church go up; He'd made sure the runt of her litter came home the last year of her life; He'd made sure she was overwhelmed with joy those last few weeks.
"Delight thyself also in the Lord," Ps, 37:4, had been her life verse, and He, she'd said, becomes the Desire of your life.
This last picture? It's our family--Joyce was already at Bob Jones, so Grampa Oshiro "is in her place", I guess. This is one of my last memories of the family on deputation together.
My sister and I used to remark how our parents were so happy they shined in our little church. They really are shining now, and one day we'll join them.
