Niki

11 October 2015

Dear Phyllis,

There is a teacher working at the Netlahong Kindergarten where I teach that has attracted my attention ever since I first met her. She has the saddest most pained look on her face. I have always thought, “That poor soul has a great deal of sorrow and pain in her life.” Last week Sangha told me that she was recently divorced from a very violent, heavy drinker, husband. Her mother died two years ago at 54 and her father is in bad shape with TB. That explained much to me. Since then I have had a heavy burden for Pak that she finds the Lord and be filled with the joy of Jesus. She reminds me of Niki san. I have told you about Niki before but her testimony is so unusual it bears repeating.

On September 1^st 1983, a Russian fighter shot down Korean KAL 007 passenger plane just off the coast of Hokkaido. Of the 269 passengers on board there was a man who lived in our neighborhood in Ikoma and His wife distinguished herself as a Christian. Further more, I learned that her children occasionally went to the Sunday school at the Japanese church where we attended. I had a deep burden to meet this lady to support her during this time of intense loss. I asked a close friend who was working with the children in our church to introduce me to the mother. Shortly after that I was preaching in the church one Sunday. The next Sunday I was to a different church but the third Sunday Yumi chan told me that a widow had been in church the week I preached and pointed her out to me. After the service I approached the lady and invited her to come to our home for supper Tuesday night. What a night! It turned out we had the wrong person and I never did meet the woman who lost her husband. But Niki had one of the most amazing testimonies I ever heard.

Niki was born into a normal, slightly upper-middle class, family of three sisters. She had been blessed with a happy marriage except they had been married for many years before she was finally able to conceive. Like a number of Japanese women, she choose to go home to be with her mother for the birth of the child which turned out to be a healthy little boy.

A month after the child was born her husband called from Wakayama saying the next day he was coming to pick up Niki and Ta chan. Niki said she had to go to Osaka that day for the one month check for the baby. Her husband said, “That is even better. I have something I want to get checked and I will meet you at the hospital”. Two weeks later the hospital notified them that there was a concern about the test they had taken on her husband that required further examination. He went back to the hospital and two weeks later he was dead.

Niki's world collapsed. She had been happily married for ten years. At last they finally had a baby. She had two weeks of family life and her husband was dead. Of necessity she returned home to Ikoma to live with her parents so her mother could take care of the child while she went to work. Two years later the second tragedy struck when her mother died of cancer. Unbeknown to her there was a Christian woman who lived in that neighborhood who stepped forward offering to take care of Ta chan so Niki could continue going to work. She was grateful to the lady and politely listened to her tell her about Christianity but that was not a subject she had any interest in, other than Christianity was probably a kind religion.

Ohaka maeri is a pretty serious ceremony for Japanese where the relatives are supposed to visit the grave sites of loved one showing their respect and regards to the departed dead spirits. Her husband's grave was in Wakayama that was about 50 km from Ikoma. Niki had an older sister that lived in Wakayama that she could stay with when she went down there for the annual ohaka maeri. On the fourth year her sister surprised her by saying that she and her husband had become Christians. Niki thought that was okay for them. Kirisuto kyo (Christianity) wasn't a bad religion but that had nothing to do with her. But the next year was a shock. When she went to Wakayama she was stunned by the radical transformation of her sister and brother-in-law. She thought, “What in the world changed this disgusting man into such a pleasant gentleman?” Her sister explained that they were having some kind of a Bible study in their home that night and she was welcomed to join them if she cared. Niki said she had never been in anything like that in her life. About a dozen people just sat in the living room reading and talking about the Bible. I asked her, “What were they studying?” She said it was about some man who died and then Jesus brought him back from the dead (Jn. 11). But then she added, “It was the strangest thing. I thought they were talking about me and when Jesus said, 'Take away the stone', I thought He was talking to me.” After disaster had struck Niki so hard, her younger sister got married and had a blissful married life. Niki was bitter. She had it so rough and her sister had such a wonderful life – it wasn't fair. Bitterness had filled her heart and it had been two years since she had spoken to her sister. She felt her heart was a grave, and if she took the stone away, life would come out of the grave of her heart. Niki said after the meeting that night the folk there had given her a couple of books to read, and encouraged her to go to church in Ikoma.

The next Sunday she had no plans to go to church but surprised herself when she showed up there. Ta chan was acting up so she went out to the foyer of the church and listened to the message from there. Some gaijin (foreigner) was preaching about a fountain. Niki thought in her heart, “I am thirsty. I would like to drink”. She thought the gaijin was the pastor but the next week a Japanese pastor was speaking. But the third week, after the service, the man who had spoken two weeks previously spoke to her inviting her to come to their home for supper.

Rosemary and I were sitting on the edge of our seats listening to this amazing story for over an hour. Ta chan had to go to the bathroom and Rosemary was exploding. She said, “We have got to get this woman saved!” We had a stack of Kichijoji, Hihari Yo Are, books that we were giving out. Rosemary got one and placed it on the table. When Niki came back from the bathroom she gasped, “That is the same book I got in Wakayama!”. She had read it with rapted interest and added, “There was a beautiful prayer written at the back – 'Lord Jesus I confess I am a sinner. Please come in my heart to be my savior'.”. I asked, “Did you pray it?” She replied, “I thought that prayer was so good I wrote it out in my own hand and carry it in my purse. I pray it every day.” I said, “Congratulations. You are born-again.” Niki burst into tears.

Niki was one of the most joyous Christians I ever met. She bought a good chair and placed it right beside the telephone with her Bible and spent an hour every night fellow-shipping with her sister in Wakayama. That was 32 years ago. She went on to be a rock solid follower of Jesus.

That is what Pak needs. I told Sangha to tell her that we want her to come to our house for supper. You might join me in praying that Pak find the same Jesus that filled Niki's heart and she too will be a joyous fountain of life in that school.

Arigato (thanks), bill