Despite the two-month delay in planting strawberry seedlings, we were able to harvest strawberries one and a half times as much as last year. Our daughter Erin enjoyed strawberry picking very much after discharge from the hospital. We give thanks for God’s special grace!!

However, our relief at the end of the move was short-lived. 

On April 5, our third daughter, Erin, suddenly developed a high fever and severe convulsions in the middle of the night, and was rushed to the hospital by ambulance. When she convulsed violently at home for several minutes, we were horrified and could only pray desperately that the convulsions would stop. When the ambulance arrived at our house, the convulsions finally stopped and she was admitted to the hospital, where she remained with a high fever for several days. The pediatrician did blood and urine tests, but could not find out the cause of the fever. However, God answered the prayers of many of my fellow believers, and after a few days, my daughter's high fever returned to normal and her body recovered. She was able to leave the hospital a week later, feeling fine as usual.

Witness to a Friend

A few days after my daughter was discharged from the hospital, I received a call from a friend who lives nearby. He has a lot of work experience and is always kind enough to teach me how to work on our farm and how to fix up our house. However, he is not a Christian, but a traditional Japanese Buddhist, and he also believes in superstitions, fortune-telling, and feng shui. So I have been asking God for a long time to give me the opportunity to tell him about the real God.

When he found out that my daughter was in the hospital, he told me that the reason for her high fever and convulsions was because the house we had moved into had been infested with evil spirits. He also told me that the location of the bathroom in my house, which is located in the northeast, has long been said in Japan to be a place where demons come and go, and he recommended that I place salt there to ward off evil spirits and that I should call a monk to drive them out.

I immediately refuted him and told him clearly that the devil can enter from anywhere, regardless of direction, that salt cannot repel him, and that only the true God can overcome the devil. I could also tell him in detail that the devil used to be an angel, and that by his own choice, he had fallen away from God and become a deceiver. He just listened to me quietly, as if he was surprised to hear all this for the first time.

I have wanted to tell him this so many times before and was so grateful that I was able to do so. Many people in Japan are not receptive or willing to listen from the start when we start talking about Christianity.

Witness to a Neighbor

A few days later, this time a Buddhist grandmother who lived nearby visited my house. Her husband had suddenly lost consciousness a few days earlier and was in the hospital, and she was exhausted from going to the hospital every day to nurse him. She was also a farm worker, and since she could not do anything while her husband was in the hospital, she came to ask me to take care of the farm for her.

When my daughter was in the hospital, I was also a daily hospital visitor, and I knew how hard it was, and I could guess that it would be even harder for her, especially in her old age. So I asked her if she would pray with me to the Almighty God in Heaven, in whom I believe. She immediately pleaded with me with tears in her eyes to pray for her husband, and we both got down on our knees to pray. I told her that we believe in God our Father in Heaven and Jesus is the one who will surely answer our prayers.

She asked me earnestly, one question after another, with a heart as pure as a little child's, asking me to write down on a piece of paper how she should pray from now on, and at what time and where she should pray, and whether she could put her hands together when she prayed, and so on. I explained each one carefully and told her that my family prayed for her and her husband every day after that.

Please pray for her and her husband.

God's Witness to Us

I knew that through the move we were forced to make, which was not part of our plan, and through my daughter's hospitalization, which I did not want, I was given the opportunity to share what we truly believe about God with our friends in Tsushima, who did not know the gospel. It was a hard and painful experience but ultimately gave me the opportunity and courage to share the gospel I had hoped for.

I have experienced over and over again that Christian evangelism is really difficult in Tsushima, where most of the people are Buddhists. However, I have experienced that God is always at work in such situations, giving us the strength and courage to share the gospel and to guide us.

We are also taught that sometimes difficult situations arise that we do not want, but in the end, God uses and benefits from even them.

There are still many people around me who do not know the gospel. Please pray that their hearts will be opened and that I will be able to share the gospel powerfully with them.

Please continue to pray and support us for the evangelistic work in Tsushima. I also pray that the Lord's blessing will be abundant on all those who read this report.