One Step at a Time

I'm home now!

“Home...” That word rings in my ears – it sounds so wonderful! It's an idea I've longed to experience for three months – looking forward to the day when I could hear with my own ears, “Welcome home!”

Well, now it's a reality. I landed at Portland International Airport on Saturday, November 14, at 7:30am, greeted by friends and family. At church Sunday morning, I was overwhelmed by the love and kindness demonstrated to me by my family in Christ. And so, “I'm home.”

...But am I ready for this?

I would describe my emotions as “bittersweet.” It's a bright, new season in my life... but I keep dwelling in the past. There's so much for me here in America. Yet I poured my heart into my work in Japan and then left it... My experiences were so incredible! I would re-live them if I could!

But I can't.

This year can't be like last year. Everything is going to be different. I might see the same faces, but I know that people's hearts have been changed; I know that I'VE been changed. And so, I must move forward, not knowing exactly where the next step might take me...

Right now, I'm easing back into daily life here -- picking up last year's piano students, planning my college career, and getting a job and an internship. But most importantly, taking the time to just be and to soak in God's love and His grace. It's definitely a different season in my life, but as always, I know that the Almighty, Sovereign King is reigning, and He gently leads me each step of the way. Just as Isaiah 30:21 says, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, 'This is the way; walk in it.'” God promises to guide me. He just asks me to patiently follow Him as He guides me...

...One step at a time...

Rachel  <><

Sophia's Helper

For the past three months, I have been helping my student, Sophia, transition into her fourth grade class at the Christian Academy in Japan. For the first three years of her life, Sophia was completely deaf. This is symbolic of all of us before salvation -- we are all spiritually deaf. When Sophia was three years old, she had a cochlear implant -- it took surgery to transmit audio stimuli to her brain. To give an idea of the hearing impairment Sophia is challenged with at this time, think of it this way: A normal hearing person has 32,000 points of stimuli with both ears combined; Sophia has but a mere 22!

Yet Sophia's implant has given her a wonderful gift -- her brain is now able to have sound waves transmitted to it! This has not been easy, however; Sophia was deaf for the first three years of her life, so to have sounds suddenly transmitted to her brain took getting used to. For a new Christian, there are also adjustments.

She has had to learn how to distinguish sounds, and now, all these years later, she has been learning how to block out the other classroom noise and focus on the task at hand. As Christians, we too have to learn to focus and to block out all the other distractions.

Dealing with deafness has its share of grief. Both Sophia and her parents have experienced pain and devastation. However, spiritual deafness is far worse! The repercussions will last for eternity. For months, I was praying that Sophia would see with her eyes, hear with her ears, understand with her heart, and turn and be healed spiritually (Isaiah 6:10).

We all need spiritual healing. We need for God to work a miracle in each of our lives so that we will not be deaf to the truth. And that was exactly what God did for Sophia! God worked everything out in His perfect timing so that she could hear His words over those three months, then hear them again directly, repent from her sins, and decide to trust Christ as her Savior before I left!  He didn't need to allow me to see Sophia come to know Him, but in His grace He blessed me with that privilege, giving me such awesome peace and closure for coming home.

The best part of this is that Sophia is now secure in Christ! I had been worried about what would happen to her once I left... who would help her? But in His wisdom, God provided her with the best help she could ever have: the Holy Spirit dwelling in her! 

One step at a time...

Rachel  <><

The Privilege

In response to the missionary challenge of General Douglas MacArthur, my mother’s grandparents – Joe and Margaret Meeko – were called to Japan. Leaving their comforts behind, they prepared for a life in a foreign country in which they would be surrounded by suffering: sickness, hunger, homelessness. 

Disease was widespread in Japan – cholera, typhoid, smallpox, scarlet fever, and polio, among others. In 1947, over 146,000 people died of TB alone. The Meekos sold their home and used the money for outgoing expenses and thousands of dollars-worth of medicine to be distributed.


Everyone was hungry. Although the government’s standard for necessary calorie intake was 2200 calories per day, rations in 1947 only supplied 1/3-1/4 of that. People who bought food on the black market were prosecuted.


Thousands were homeless. Even homes in major cities lay in ash. In Nagoya, 89% of homes were destroyed by fire.


Suffering was widespread, yet it was a time of incredible opportunity. The very country that had severely persecuted Christians was now wide open – and my great grandparents leapt at the opportunity.


My great grandfather was a man of vision. When he first came to Yamagata, he climbed the mountains above the Yamagata basin and looked out over the city; from there, he was moved to exclaim, “Millions of unsaved Japanese souls and not a single church!” That's when God gave him the vision to plant churches in Yamagata. By the second year in Yamagata, a beautiful church was being built on one of the best pieces of real estate in the whole prefecture – the first of 14 churches that they planted in Japan. 

Overlooking the Yamagata Basin 

Yamagata First Baptist Church as it looks today


In 1949, my great grandmother became the founder and the first principal of Higashi-Hara Kindergarten. At first the kindergarten had nothing but a building, but it eventually became the most sought-after school in the entire prefecture. (The Japanese consider the school that you attend [even in kindergarten] to be extremely important – it even determines the level of your job potential as an adult.)

 

Students from Higashi-Hara Kindergarten!

Current principal of Higashi-Hara Kindergarten.

My great grandparents demonstrated Christ’s love to the Japanese. My Great Uncle Andy has expressed it well: “They loved enough to give up their lives, their possessions, their families, and homeland. Everything. It was a staggering sacrifice. But in all my years growing up in our home I never sensed that they considered it a sacrifice. Rather, I would say they considered it a privilege – the greatest privilege of all. The privilege to give one’s entire life up for a Savior who Himself had given up all – even His life’s blood. That’s the kind of love that turns enemies of the war into family for Heaven.”

I had a really meaningful weekend in Yamagata, seeing with my own eyes the result of my great grandparents' devotion and vision. It is extremely rare to witness individuals who radically give up their lives, very unusual to see the cross so eagerly taken up. Yet, making sacrifices for God is the greatest privilege of all – a privilege with a time limit. May I catch a glimpse of my grandparent's vision, eagerly take up my cross, and leap at each opportunity to serve my Great Redeemer.

One step at a time...
Rachel  <><

The First Stepping Stone

Discouragements. Doubts. Fears. They raged through my mind.

I had resolved to share the Gospel message with my English class of fourth grade Japanese girls. I had been planning it for weeks. Then last week, God made other plans – the class was shut down because of Swine Flu. That only left this past week...

So, now here I was, coming to my final opportunity to share. But I was tormented by doubts. Only two girls had said that they would attend class this week (the others were celebrating Halloween). They would have a hard time understanding English, and I can't speak Japanese. They would probably just smile politely in their Japanese way and leave – unfeeling, unmoved. Maybe it wasn't worth all the effort...

As I left my house for class, I began to earnestly, desperately pray. God filled me with great hope and joy as I sought His face. He reassured me that no matter who was there, He would be faithful in drawing us all closer to Himself. In fact, He gave the the peace of knowing that a small class would be beneficial in that I could talk more one-on-one with each girl.

My heart less heavy, I rejoiced the entire hour-long commute, also knowing that this class had been bathed in prayer. For weeks, I had requested peoples' prayers for this class. Many people prayed – my host family, CAJ staff, HiBA, the Senior Six, church family at Southwest Hills, many missionaries here, and other supporters... This class was completely in God's hands, and I rested in that knowledge.

Upon arriving at class, I found three students plus my cousin all eager and ready to have class. We played games and “learned” English for the first half hour or so. Then I began review of the Bible stories I had told them in previous weeks. All three students had attended class consistently every week and remembered the stories of Creation, the Fall, and the Flood. This week, I delved into Salvation.

As I began describing how each of us were sinners, how we were separated from God, how when we die we'll either go to Heaven or to Hell, how nothing we can do can save us, how Jesus took our punishment on himself by dying on the cross, and how Jesus is the ONLY way to God – the girls all nodded their heads, one girl even got tears in her eyes. I know that it was all God who worked in their hearts and spoke His words directly to them because when I asked them, “Do you believe that Jesus saved you?” they replied, “Yes” in English before it could be translated!

Thinking they couldn't possibly have heard the message, understood, and believed that quickly, I repeated the message again quickly. When I asked again, they all emphatically replied, “Yes!” Then I asked them, “Do you want to pray?” Again, they all nodded their heads, yes. Since their first language is Japanese, I asked them to pray one at a time in Japanese. I told them to just talk to God – telling Him that they believed in Him, saying that they were sorry for the wrong things they'd done, and thanking Him for saving them. I told them that He is eager to visit with them – they could tell Him anything. Then I knelt on the floor with them, amazed, as uncoached, each girl prayed in her own way. Misuzu. Yuuka. Yuri. All three girls just unashamedly talked to God.

When they all finished praying, they exclaimed “Yea!” and began to clap! I just knelt there, overwhelmed by God and His power displayed right there before my eyes!

"We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us.  We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.  God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.  As God's fellow workers, we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain.  For He says, 'In the time of My favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.'  I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation."

--2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2

That was the first step in their new life in Christ. In His grace, God has provided Christian friends involved in their lives to follow up with each of them and their families every single day, despite the fact that I am leaving. More than likely, I will never see those girls again this side of Heaven, but God allowed me to be a part of their life and to help them make the leap to that first stepping stone.

One step at a time...

Rachel <><

Sisters in Christ: Yuri, Misuzu, Yuuka, me, and Serene!