Every summer, my husband and I go for a two-day trip with his hometown friends and their wives. He’s had this trip with his friends for more than thirty years since before marriage. The ten families remember their childhood, traveling together around mountains and seas. My husband and his friends grew up together from childhood, and they spent much time together, raising children. So he had made efforts to preach the truth to his friends. Unfortunately, however, the majority of them were not interested in the truth.
This year, we decided to spend our vacation quietly in the hometown. One of his friends, the leader of the gathering, had an operation for cancer; so they decided to support his medical expenses with the money they had saved over a year for the trip. On our way to the hometown, my husband and I resolved to preach the truth of life to his sick friend exhausted from the illness. Though we arrived late, he took care of us despite his illness.
When night came, the sick friend went into his room to rest, and the others had a good time, sharing their childhood stories and eating corns and watermelons. The air in the countryside was clean and fresh, contrary to the city.
“It’s wonderful to be here as there are no mosquitoes and moths.”
I said it thoughtlessly, but all of a sudden, the topic of the conversation became grandiose. They started to talk worriedly about the future, like “It’s because of climate change,” and “The earth is becoming unfit for living creatures.” Meanwhile, my husband started to deliver the truth of the Passover, the way to be saved from disasters.
The next day, we took a stroll to a nearby hill. We had a late breakfast, and sat down in the gazebo to have a chat. My husband thought how to preach to his sick friend. He was worried that other people might not like hearing the message, but he could no longer hesitate and miss the opportunity to preach the Gospel. He took courage and asked to be excused, “Today, I really want to deliver the words of the Bible that will be helpful to our leader.” They must’ve felt his sincerity; the other friends guided the two to have a talk together in the cool village hall. As a result, he was able to calmly preach about the Passover that contains the blessing of the forgiveness of sin and eternal life in a quiet village hall. Unlike before, his friend paid attention to verses in the Bible, and to our surprise, he finally said,
“I should definitely receive this great blessing. You know? I’ve been recently thinking about living a religious life.”
On the day he promised to come to our Church, he arrived on time, neatly dressed up. After studying a few more topics, he received a new life. We heard from him that when one of his villagers tried to take him to a Buddhist temple the day before, he firmly rejected the invitation because he promised to receive God. We were really thankful to God for opening his heart.
Currently, he receives blessings by keeping the Sabbath day regularly, having anticancer therapy after the surgery. I pray that he will recover soon, raising hope for Heaven.