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.

JUST A MINUTE; I'M COMING!

I wasn't sure about posting this one. I posted a similar one a few days ago.

I started drawing this picture, but after I got done with the hardest part--my stepmother's portrait, I was exhausted. I colored it in, showed my sisters, and they thought I could leave it and see how I felt. It was fine by itself, they felt.

But the longer I left it alone, as they say in Japanese, やっぱり I had to finish it...so this is the rest of it.

My sister Joyce lived on F1 of the house in Okinawa my Dad built. When my stepmother was well enough to live at home, she often phoned her from F2. Joyce ran up those stairs in the picture to tend to her needs. The picture I drew suggests that her next meeting with our stepmother will be a little higher than at the room at the top of the stairs. The lilies? We found a placard our stepmother kept on her study desk as a reminder to pray for a Bible Study in mainland Japan (Marunouchi) she led in 1970, called the "Sayuri Kai" (Lilies). Yes, she now has a resurrected body by given to her by the Lord Himself.

I wonder what it's like.

"Satoko, Satoko" (Joyce's Japanese Name)