On September 19 when my last stent was removed from my kidney, I assumed I’d take it a little easy for a week and then do fall housecleaning. That didn’t happen! I had underestimated how long it would take me to recover from a kidney stone/kidney infection, two procedures in less than a month, and a month of physical inactivity. Most days I was so exhausted by noon that I had to lie down for several hours or take a nap before I felt up to doing anything.
As the days passed, I became concerned because we had scheduled a trip to Japan at the end of October, our first since our return to the U.S. in 2011. We planned to return to OMS Japan in Tokyo for ten days, the mission organization that we’d worked with in the past. From past experience, I knew the trip to Japan was a killer even when I was in tiptop condition. What would it be like in my weakened state? I wanted God to endow me with super energy so I’d be sure I could handle the trip and the busy schedule we’d have. Instead, I sensed He was asking me to trust that His grace would be sufficient for me regardless of how unprepared I felt physically. So I did what I could, continuing to make plans in Japan, taking care of myself and packing.
I was also concerned about Donn because he hadn’t handled the flights to and from Japan well for quite some time, withdrawing emotionally and barely eating the entire long trip. When we came home from Japan in 2011, I didn’t know if he’d ever be willing to go again. But my yearning to reconnect with our former students had become so strong that I had told him if he didn’t want to go, I would go alone. Although he’d made up his mind to go, I didn’t know how he’d respond to the long flight. Would it have the same affect on him as it had before? But again I sensed the Lord asking me to trust Him.
As it turned out, from start to finish this trip was all about God’s amazing grace. On the 12 to 13 hour flight to and from Japan, I never experienced the exhaustion that I had before and Donn was his normal cheerful “at home” self for both trips. Extended layovers in Detroit on our way home were usually my worst nightmare because of my extreme weariness, but this time, when I had every reason to feel that way, I didn’t.
I didn’t lie down to rest at all in Japan because it’s imperative for me to stay awake to get my body adjusted to the fourteen-hour time difference between PA and Japan, but in spite of that, the only day I was tired was our last Sunday there following an extremely busy week. Since we were only going to be there eight days, there were many people to see in that short time span.
God’s Providential Hand
God’s providential hand was so evident that I couldn’t doubt that this trip had been His plan. Here are a few examples.
1) Before we went to Japan, one of the missionaries had contacted me to ask if I would do chapel time for one of my former English classes. As I looked through my book praying about what to share, I saw the devotional I’d written about our friend, Yuko, whom we had led to the Lord in 2002. It occurred to me that Yuko (who was coming to visit us from Nara for a few days) would be with us at this English Class and that it might be a powerful thing to share her story of how we’d met and how she’d come to Christ as our chapel time. I emailed to ask her permission, which she gladly gave. I shared her story and afterward during lunch, the pastor’s wife asked her many questions about her testimony in Japanese so the beginner’s in the class were also able to understand. It was an awesome time. Many seeds planted for the Kingdom. Please pray for the many non-Christians in the Kodaira English classes to come to Jesus and for Yuko to continue to grow in her faith.
2) On our first Sunday, we had lunch at the cafeteria with the Seminary Church, and a young woman I’d met in 2009 sought me out to ask if I remembered her. She had an eating disorder and I remembered her well because her name had been on my prayer list ever since. Her eating disorder is better but I was able to pray with her about other issues. She doesn’t get to church there often, so it was providential that she “happened” to be there the same Sunday we were. Please pray for A to find healing.
3) We held an Open House for our former Seminary students who’d attended our English classes, and I learned that the husband of one of my former students has an aggressive form of cancer. He had just come home from a lengthy hospital stay─they are missionaries and live on the TBS Campus near where our Open House was held. I went with a group of students, now pastors or pastor’s wives, who gathered round him at his house and laid hands on him to pray. It was truly God’s timing that allowed him to be home from the hospital at just the right time. Please pray for Ito Sensei’s healing and for peace for Megumi, his wife who battled cancer seven years ago, and their 11-year-old son.
4) Another ministry we’d had in Japan was an Alpha course, which later grew into an English Bible Study. We had a potluck open house for our former students and one woman came who had completely dropped out of involvement in any OMS Japan ministries. She told me she had become a hikikomori (a person who doesn’t leave their house) and wasn’t involved in anything. Later, she said she thought my coming to Japan was God’s way of giving her a hint that He wants her to become like she was before, not isolating herself from everyone. She added, “I want to buy your book and maybe it will change my life.” Please pray for R, as her life has many challenges, and for her, Y, and F to come to Jesus.
I am still in awe of the energy and stamina that God provided for me throughout this trip from start to finish. It was good for me to know that unless He came through, I wouldn’t be able to accomplish what He’d sent us to do. So while at times, He reminds us to “let up on the throttle,” at other times, He asks us to lean on Him for the endurance and strength to do what we could otherwise never accomplish!
Father, thank you for the reminder that nothing is too difficult for you. May we truly believe as the Apostle Paul did that “when I am weak, then He is strong.” Amen.
