Nikka

10 June 2018

Dear Phyllis,

It seems that testimonies are my most popular letters. In view of the fact that I am a poor man with little to talk about I am constrained to writing repeats which is like showing reruns of 1955 I Love Lucy.

In 1983 the Russians shot down the Korean Airline 007 right off the coast of Japan. There wee 40 Japanese on board that were killed. At a subsequent government sponsored ceremony for the victims I was stunned to see the testimony of a lady who was the wife of one of the victims who boldly said on national television that she was a Christian and declined to bow before an idol. But the shocker was that her address was in my immediate neighborhood. Knowing that she was a Christian and a recent widow I had a deep concern to reach out to help her. A girl who had previously worked for me in Karuizawa was now a worker in our neighborhood church. I asked Yumi chan if she knew the lady. Yumi said she didn't but she did know that a widow with a young son had been in church the previous Sunday. I said, “Please introduce me”. The next Sunday Yumi pointed out the lady, so I went over to introduce myself to her and invite her to our house for supper. Tuesday night Nikki showed up. She was the wrong lady but had the most interesting testimony.

Nikki san was the middle girl of a three sister family whose father was a lawyer. She had been happily married for five years but unable to have a child. At last the happy day came when she successfully conceived. Like many Japanese women she returned to her home in Ikoma to be with her mother for the birth of the child. After one month her husband called saying he was coming to pick them up the next day. Nikki told him that she had to go to Osaka for the child's one month check up, and her husband said, “That is even better. I have a thing I want to get checked and will meet you there'”

“Is there anything serious?” “No, but there is something that has been bothering me that I want to have checked.”

Two weeks later they had a call from the hospital saying that they wanted him to come back for further examination. And two weeks later he was dead. What a blow! Poor Nikki had been trying for five years to have a baby and after she finally had one she had only two weeks to live as a family before her husband died.

With her husband dead Nikki returned home to live with her family. But when her younger sister got happily married, that only accentuated her own grief. It wasn't fair. After five years of frustration she only had two weeks to have family life, and now her younger sister got blessed with a happy marriage. Bitterness filled her heart and she refused to speak with her sister.

Nikki's mother took care of Tetsu chan so Nikki could go to work, but then a further tragedy struck the family with the death of her mother. Surprisingly, there was a kind Christian lady that lived in the neighborhood who stepped forward offering to take care of Tetsu chan so Nikki could continue working. The kind neighbor lady identified herself as a Christian and invited Nikki to go to church with her. Nikki had no interest in religion but went once or twice out of obligation.

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The Japanese have a very deep thing in honoring the dead to do ohaka maeri (to visit the grave). At four years, to fulfill her ohaka maeri, Nikki went to Wakayama to visit her husbands grave sight. While down there she spent a night staying with her elder sister and brother-in-law. Her sister told her that they had recently become Christians. Okay. So what? Christianity wasn't a bad religion and if they wanted to be Christians she saw nothing wrong with that.

But the next year was a rocker. When she went to Wakayama to do her ohaka maeri she stayed with her sister again. Her sister's appalling husband had become a marvelous gentleman. What in the world kind of a power had changed that disgusting man into such a gracious husband? Her sister apologetically said they were having Bible study in their home that night. They would be delighted to have her stay but if she didn't care to attend they would understand. She stayed.

Rosemary and I sat in our living room listening to this amazing narration. I asked her, “What kind of a service was it? Who led the meeting?” Nikki said, “I don't know. There didn't seem to be a leader but about a dozen people just sat around in a circle reading the Bible.” “What did they study?” “I don't know. It was some story about a man who had died and Jesus brought him back to life.”

(John 12). Then she went on, “Please don't laugh at me. I know this is crazy, but I had the strangest impression that they were reading about me, and when they came to the point where Jesus said, 'Take away the stone', I thought He was speaking to me. I felt like my heart was a tomb and there was a huge stone in front of it. If I took away the stone life would come out of that tomb.” (That was Johnathon Goforth's great revival message in China in 1905 - “Take ye way the stone”.) After the meeting in Wakayama a man gave her two books. He asked if she had ever gone to church and encouraged her to go to church in Ikoma.

The next Sunday she had the strangest inclination to go to church. She had every reason why she shouldn't but surprised herself when she got there. Tetsu chan had never been in church and was acting up. Because he was so unruly she went out in the foyer to listen to the message. Some gaijin (foreigner) was preaching about a fountain (Zech. 13:1) and she thought in her heart, “I am thirsty. I would like to drink”. She thought the gaijin was the pastor and was surprised that the next week a Japanese was speaking. Then the third week, as she was getting things together to go home, she looked up to see the gaijin speaking to her inviting her to come to his house for a meal. (Me)

When Nikki got to this place in her story Rosemary and I were exploding. Tetsu chan had to go to the bathroom and while Nikki was taking him potty Rosemary said, “We have got to get this girl some literature, and got two Kichijoji books we gave to people. When Nikki came back from the bathroom and saw the books lying on the table, she gasped, “Those are the books I received in Wakayama!” She picked up Hikari yo Are and read in the back a beautiful prayer Gotthold Beck had written for sinners seeking salvation. I asked Nikki, have you prayed that prayer?” She told me, “I thought it was so beautiful I wrote it out in long hand to carry in my purse and say it every day'” I replied, “Congratulations. You are born-again of the Spirit of God”. Nikki burst into tears.

That was in September 1983. Nikki's sister and brother-in-law came up to Ikoma for her baptism and I got a chance to meet them then. Nikki bought herself a comfortable lazy-boy chair to put beside her telephone where she also kept a Bible. For the next few years she had a nightly tradition of sitting in her chair as she fellowshipped with her sister in Wakayama for an hour every night. Nikki went on to be a Sunday school teacher in the Megumi church and was one of the strongest pillars of the church.

Oh my goodness, that was 35 years ago. I haven't seen Nikki or heard of her in many years. I have no idea what ever happened to her but one thing I am certain of is that she is still a shining light for Jesus. There are some people who are just flat unusual and Nikki is in that category of rare saints. I was just a small link in the chain that Jesus used to bring her to Himself and it is strange that the whole reason I was involved was because of that Russian shooting down KAL 007.

How strange are His ways.

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