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| Hiroko Koso |
"How willing am I...really?" I asked at the end of my "on the way back from the interview" post (Feb. 11, 20013).
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| Hiroko at Evangelistic Service |
Hiroko Koso came to Bethel Baptist's special evangelistic services last year, studied the Bible with the missionary wife here, accepted Christ, and began coming faithfully to church. She helped pass out tracts--even on rainy days--and gladly did anything from cleaning the church to caring for children during our young mothers' outreaches. Sharing with Koso-san was always refreshing; she soaked up what was talked about, saying with wonder and joy she just couldn't take it all in. She looked forward to getting baptized later in the year. But one thing always saddened her. Her husband.
He is a good man, she would say, but will NEVER become a Christian. He has zero interest in spiritual things.
Did Hiroko ask God to do whatever was necessary to bring her husband to Himself?
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| Hiroko's Husband |
Because several months later, she found herself hospitalized, dying of cancer. The Mitas approached her husband, asking him if he wouldn't want to know what his wife believed before she passed away. He agreed, had a few Bible studies with the missionaries, and...God had prepared his heart to accept Christ for himself! Everything happened so quickly and so smoothly, Hiroko was
sure he had made an external decision just for her; he could not really be saved. But her husband persisted and continued to show fruit of genuine salvation. He set up Skype at the church so they could view worship service together at the hospital. He continued to have Bible Studies with the missionaries. And one day, he said he wanted to get baptized--his wife thought she would be the first one to get baptized at Bethel's present location in Miya-cho, but cancer had prevented that from materializing...he would be that first one!
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| Kosos at Burial |
Hiroko had a clear testimony with unsaved relatives who came to see her in the hospital, then Aug. 19, the Lord took her Home while I was still in Okinawa. Relatives who came to the funeral heard the Gospel again.
Mr. Koso was baptized on Sept. 22, the first Sunday after I returned to Iwatsuki. I had some things to take care of at the hospital that morning, but the Lord made sure I got to the church afterwards in time for most of the worship service as well as all activities that followed! Several relatives--including two sons and their families--came to see the baptism and hear his wife's recorded testimony. That afternoon, there was a burial ceremony at the Lazarus Cemetery, the only Christian cemetery in Southeastern Japan.
Those two sons were approached and asked if they didn't want to know more about what their parents believed; as a result, they too, began Bible studies.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." (John 12:24)
