I feel that my life has been led by God.
However, it took me a long time to believe in God as my Lord, but through an event that took place in 2022, I was able to believe in and accept God. I am truly grateful for that.
I married my Christian husband from Taiwan in 1972 in the United States. My husband’s mother and four sisters were all Christians. So I started attending a Taiwanese church in Queens every week, as my husband’s relatives gathered at church. However, my husband never once told me to become a Christian myself. I think that was a good thing for me. If he had told me that, I would have run away.
If I had not believed it myself, I would not have wanted to be baptized.
God has invited me many times through many events. In 1984, an American woman took the trouble to order a Japanese Bible and gave it to me as a gift.
Then, in 1989, when the pastor of the Japanese church in Maywood was still Rev. Masaki, my husband was working in real estate at that time, and I met a Japanese Christian at that time, and he and his wife invited me to come to the New Jersey Japanese Christian Church for the first time, and then I started listening to Bible stories in Japanese.
Then, in 1992, my mother-in-law, who had been really good to me, passed away, and I made a promise to her at that time that I would be baptized someday.
But for the life of me, I couldn’t really feel God.
Then one thing happened in December 2022. I was on a trip at that time. But on the way back, I had a real problem at the airport. A woman saw my situation and approached me. She told me that she was a doctor and that she had to help me as soon as she saw my situation. Then, after hearing my story, the woman reached out to me with her time and what she had at her convenience. At that moment, I felt God’s hand in giving me that person’s presence. The person’s name was Nancy. When I heard her name, I remembered that my friend who gave me a Japanese Bible as a gift 38 years ago was also named Nancy. With a strange feeling, I came home and was relieved when I received a video from a Japanese friend. It was a video called “Love Letter from Heavenly Father” made by a Christian, and it was edited in such a way that words and stories from the Bible were spoken directly to me from God. It ended with the message, “I am waiting for your return.” As I watched the video over and over again, I realized that God was now calling me through each of these things. And I wanted to believe in Him.
Four months later. In the study of preparation for baptism, I have learned again about God’s love, my sins, and Jesus who went to the cross to forgive them, and I want to follow him as my Lord.