God is already at work in people’s lives, even if they’ve never stepped foot in a church before.
“Hisako-san” is a walking miracle.
Her eyesight had deteriorated to the point of blindness several years ago, and in 2010, she was diagnosed with a terminal illness and given three months to live. When the magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck Northeastern Japan on March 11th, 2011, she opted not to seek cover, resigned to the possibility that this was her time to die.
As she sat at her table while the world shook violently around her, she heard the contents of her cabinets come crashing down, and she felt something land on top of her hand.
It was the medication prescribed to her, to help lessen the pain of her terminal illness.
“I took it as a sign that I was supposed to stay alive,” she’d later recall.
When the tremors subsided, the tsunami alerts began to blare, and Hisako-san resolved to make it to higher ground. However, she was home alone at the time and had no one to help her. She headed for the front door and tried to find her cane, but it must have toppled over or gotten buried, as it was not in its usual spot.
Grasping around, her hand fumbled across a different cane– a friend of hers, who had stopped by for a visit the day before, forgot to take her walking cane home with her when she left, and now, here it was. Hisako-san clutched the cane and made her way outside.
She heard chaos swirling around her: sirens howling, cars whizzing past, children bawling… As Hisako-san tried to figure out which way to start walking, a neighbor saw her standing in the middle of the road and came outside to ask what she needed. Hisako-san told this neighbor that she wanted to go to higher ground. The neighbor, who had not planned on evacuating as their neighborhood was a few meters above sea level, agreed to walk Hisako-san up the hill.
Less than a minute after they began their uphill climb, Hisako-san heard a deafening, extended crunch behind her. “What was that?” she asked her neighbor.
“Our homes just got swept away,” the neighbor soberly replied.
Hisako-san would reflect on how she literally missed death by less than sixty seconds.
“Something big saved me that day,” she shared with us. “Something that I can’t explain… Something bigger than the gods.”
Hisako-san knows that she was spared for a reason– not only did she survive the disaster, she has outlived the expectations of her doctors. Each day, as she heard the sounds of children walking past her temporary housing unit on their way to and from school, her heart broke for the future of her land, and she felt a burden to give hope to the next generation. She began to share her story with young people in the hopes of encouraging them and stopping them from thinking of suicide. (In Japan, suicide is the leading cause of death in men ages 20-44 and in women ages 15-34.)
“You all have much to live for,” she told an audience of college students. “I have nothing left, and yet, I chose life over death that day.”
The volunteer base staff we served with met with Hisako-san regularly and encouraged her to keep sharing her story so that, like Joseph, her struggles might be redeemed in order to save many lives (Gen. 50:20).
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. (Gen. 50:20 NIV)
During one of my last visits to her home, Hisako-san started talking about “The Way.” When we asked her what she meant, she said that she was intrigued by these words and believes that there is a Way in the universe. We began to tell her that in the Bible, followers of Jesus were known as those who belonged to the Way (Acts 9:2).
Our prayer for Hisako-san is that she would continue pursuing The Way– Jesus himself, the One who is “bigger than the gods” and has been at work in her life.
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