Kaneko san in last stage cancer

14 February 2010

Dear Phyllis,

 

Scott and I go to the Chiang Mai Women’s Prison every Wednesday. Somehow Scott got me set up to teach Japanese to the ladies in there. The group we are teaching are women that want to learn Thai massage, and they have a few Japanese clients. For the past three years, Scott always tries to have me give some testimony, or strong evangelistic word, as a profitable witness to these women at the end of each class. Last Wednesday he asked me, “Please tell the story about the family in Japan that had problems but when they threw away their idols the Lord healed them”. At first I wondered who that was, and then I thought, “Oh, that is the Kosugis”.

In 1982 we had just moved to Ikoma, and were working with Jim Blocksom doing dendo (evangelism). Jim had gone down to the eki (train station) in Ikoma and passed out pamphlets advertising cheap English. Mr. Kosugi got one of those pamphlets, and thought he would like to learn English for such a cheap price. The next Sunday he came to the meeting in our house, but looked like he has stepped into a nest of rattle snakes. He didn’t realize it was a trap to get him to a Christian meeting. Man howdy, we had 40 new people who showed up that night. I saw poor Kosugi walking around with this distressed look on his face, and went up to speak to him. I said, “Let me show you around. This is my house. I built it myself.” Kosugi was deeply impressed, and said he would rather learn carpentry than English. I told him, “Okay, you come every Saturday and I will teach you carpentry.” That started our relationship.

In the mean time his wife, Michi, started going to Barbra Blocksoms cooking classes, and she was soon saved. Pretty soon they started going regularly to the Japanese church in our neighborhood. Michi was clear in her conversion, but I couldn’t tell if he was saved or not. He looked pretty good, but about a year later, they were having a special dendo meeting at the church, and Mr. Kosugi raised his hand for salvation. He was born of the Spirit of God that night.

Three hours after Mr. Kosugi got saved, disaster struck their family. Their little daughter, Nao chan, came down with rheumatic fever. She almost died. She was in the hospital and had to have a lot of X-rays. Being a little girl she wouldn’t sit still, so her mother had to sit in the X-ray room to hold her. Michi didn’t realize it, but she was two months pregnant at that time, and the excessive X-rays cause her to start to bleed. When they discovered she was pregnant, the doctors advised that she must have an abortion. After all those X-rays there was no way she could have a normal child.

Of course they refused. The doctors told them, in that case, the only other alternative was for her to have three months hospitalization. Kosugi san had been saved two weeks, and now both his wife and daughter were in the hospital for three months.

 One night I stopped by the hospital to see Michi, and told her the story about Kaneko Miyazawa.

In 1981 we had just gotten back from the states when I was asked to build a church in Tobu, near Karuizawa. A lady living in Tokyo had been saved and donated some money to build a church in her hometown of Tobu for a witness there. Her brother and sister-in-law were members of the Sokagaku-kai – a very militant sect of Buddhism – and lived close to where I was building the church. They were very friendly people, and Toshiko made arrangements for me to have my noon meals with them everyday. I enjoyed the meals and the fellowship, but I had to eat in front of their butsudan (a large box where they worshiped their idols). Everyday when I would quietly say table grace I would pray, “Lord, burn that butsudan”.

After I finished that church, we moved on down to Ikoma. About that time Kaneko san came down with brain tumor. Through her illness she got saved; and even her hateful husband came to Christ. She had surgery and was in and out of the hospital for about a year fighting a losing battle with brain cancer. Finally there was nothing more that medical science could do for her, so they sent her home to die.

 About that time I was back up in Karuizawa for a few weeks building a missionary house. The Miyazawas heard that I was in the area, and sent a message saying they wanted to see me. One Sunday afternoon I went to see Kaneko san in their home. She was in last stage cancer, and about two weeks out of entering the gate to heaven. Her hair was gone, her head was swollen, and her brain was like tofu. But she was exceptionally good the day I saw her. We had wonderful fellowship in Christ and rejoiced that she had been saved since the last time I saw her.

On the way out, I saw they had closed up their butsudan and weren’t worshiping idols any more. I asked her husband, “What are you going to do with that butsudan?”

“Oh, we’ll throw it away.”

“I have come in a truck. If you like, I can haul it away for you.”

“Onegai shimasu (please do it). Let me help you with this junk.”

The next day I joyfully burned the butsudan at the job sight where I was working.

 Six months later I saw another friend from Karuizawa and asked when Kaneko san had gone to be with the Lord. After we burned the butsudan, she was miraculously healed, and was going back to church.

The Kosugis had never worshipped idols but after they had become Christians his father had hired a carpenter to put in a kamidana (god shelf) in Kosugi’s house. His father was a member of Mahikari, a very high voltage Japanese sect that could do amazing miracles and healing. Kosugi didn’t want to offend his dad by having that kamidana taken out of the house. But after I told Michi the story of Kaneko Miyazawa, she panicked. Early the next morning she called her husband and pleaded, “Please call Bill, and have him tear that kamidana out of our house.” At 7:00AM Kosugi called me and asked if I could come over to do that job. Oh, that was fun! I tore the last nail out of the house and burned that kamidana in my barbeque.

Then Kosugi’s father came to the hospital and wanted to pray for Nao chan and Michi. Kosugi took a strong stand and refused to have his father touch either his daughter or wife.

 That was 27 years ago. That fetus that was supposed to be aborted turned out to be a healthy little boy. Hajime kun in now 26. Nao chan, who nearly died, is 30. I believe she is serving the Lord with music in Okinawa. Kosugi and Michi have been rock solid Christians for 27 years. He is one of the top elders in their church. And the last I heard was that his father was going to church with them.

I had a really good time sharing that story with the ladies in the prison last Wednesday. There seemed to be unusual conviction written on the faces of several as I told them about what Jesus did for the Kosugi family.

Perhaps I should apologize to the devil, as I wasn’t very respectful when I told the ladies how two Christian families burned their idols and the Lord marvelously blessed them.

 Taking a strong stand for Jesus is no guarantee that you won’t have problems. The Miyazawas didn’t have much choice. It was a simple matter of life or death for them. Kaneko san and her husband could have either chosen to follow the devil and gone to hell, or to turn to Jesus and have eternal life. And when they turned, of course, the butsudan was out. But with Kosugi, it was a matter of taking a strong stand against his father, and refuse to compromise on any issue. As a result his whole family has been saved and his father is being brought into the Kingdom.

For people in western cultures it usually isn’t a matter of literal idolatry, but we all face decisions of compromise. Regardless of what the issue is, there is no question but what the safest answer is to stand with Jesus. Sometimes the battle maybe a tough one; it could get costly. But one thing is certain – at the end of the day there will be no regrets. We pray that some of these ladies in the Chiang Mai Women’s Prison may make that choice and see what a benefit it is to follow Christ.

When you see Jesus, you might mention to Him that we need His blessing there to see some of these ladies come out of darkness into His amazing light.

Arigato gozaimasu (thank you), bill