I was ordained as pastor in September 2009, and got married in February 2010 in answer to my prayer. About a month later, a lady contacted our church to ask for advice about the important decision in life she was about to make. I’d like to share with you about the amazing results which I have witnessed in my first year as a pastor.
A Sudden Telephone Call
Toward the end of April 2010, a Japanese lady (from now on, referred to as sister A.) , living in New York, called me and told me that she was thinking of divorce. However, she further said that before she made a final decision she had been asked to call the church by her Christian friend. As I was hearing her about the problems she had had, I got depressed with her because they sounded so difficult, and didn’t know how to respond and how to encourage her. It was my first experience as pastor of somebody seeking advice and I was at a loss for words. Then the word from the Bible came to my mind: Commit to the Lord whatever you do (Proverbs 16:3), which I believe the Holy Spirit quickened me. First off, I introduced Jesus Christ to her and led her to believe Him; she accepted Him by praying acceptance prayer with me. Then I frankly told her that she should not divorce. I said that because I was reminded of the scripture: a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate (Mark 10:7-9).
The following Sunday sister A. came over to our church for the first time. She told me that everybody around her had advised her to divorce, but, to her surprise, her father who also had told her to divorce changed his mind after she called me a couple of days ago. I praised the Lord for that.
Voluntary bankruptcy was the only possible solution?
The more I heard about her situation in detail, the more I got to know the problems she had had were more difficult than I imagined. There was a sure reason why so many people around her recommended her to divorce. Sister A.’s husband had the debt of child support that he owed to his ex-wife, and the lawyer sister A. hired strongly advised them of divorce and voluntary bankruptcy.
Sister A.’s mother also resentfully told her to get divorce and have her husband file a voluntary bankruptcy by himself, because the voluntary bankruptcy would affect the future of her own children. Besides, her husband had a large amount of the debt his deceased father had left. On top of those, he hadn’t graduated from a medical intern for the past ten years and hadn’t had enough income. Hearing that from sister A., my wife and I just prayed to God, giving thanks for each problem permitted in the life of her family. As we took the time to pray for her family every night, I was given a thought if the lawyer in charge of her case was appropriate. We told her about the concern about the lawyer. Soon it was discovered that the lawyer, teamed up with the tax accountant, had performed the unjust management of the property of her husband, and also, the lawyer was trying to win the case in court, not complying with her wishes of a negotiated settlement. Therefore, sister A. switched to another lawyer and fortunately had some developments with him. One thing is that it was found out that his ex-wife had been married, which gave them a peace of mind that she had not been alone raising a child and that they could assume she was financially supported. About one year from then sister A. and her husband have had some twists and turns about that.
Salvaiton of her husband
Let me bring you back to May 2010: her husband came to our Sunday service one month after she came to our church for the first time with their children. She had told us that her husband was a Buddhist, but he told us that he was here to say thank us for helping his wife out. To get the problems of theirs resolved, I felt he should be saved as well; I told him about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and he agreed to accept Christ. We prayed together to accept Him. In December 2010, sister A. and her husband got water baptism together. Hallelujah!
Regarding their problems, we were pleased to hear the reports of some good developments until right before their baptismal ceremony. However, the following year in spring 2011, when they returned Japan, they found the good developments they had been seeing were turned over, and they were cornered again to find the only solution was a voluntary bankruptcy. And she was pressured again to divorce.
God gave me the word
As my wife and I continued to pray about the problems of sister A.’s, one morning the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart, saying, “These problems will be instantly solved at the right time.” I told my wife about that and also told sister A. and confessed those words in the Sunday service.
Then, finally, just as the word from God had been shown me, the wonderful things happened to sister A. and her husband. In September 2011, her husband returned Japan to attend the conciliation conference to resolve the child support for his ex-wife. The member of conciliation had asked him to come to attend it long before but he couldn’t make it. So the member took sides with his ex-wife and demanded an outrageous amount of money. This time around, sister A.’s husband sincerely told the member of conciliation that he didn’t mean to walk away from his responsibility and was willing to support his ex-wife as much as he could. The member who had heard him understood his hard situation and gave him compassion; the child support was reduced to an amazingly low amount. Thankfully, his ex-wife and her spouse agreed to that. So this long dispute was finally resolved. Also, as for the large debt the deceased father of sister A.’s husband had left, sister A.’s husband ran across his relative, businessman while he was in Japan; he heard about his difficulty and extended a helping hand by becoming a sponsor for him, and told him to not file a voluntary bankruptcy. Miraculously, the day he met his relative was the day before he was going to file it.
Another thing is: sister A.’s husband had been challenging a state examination to be qualified doctor for the past ten years as he moved to the U.S. while working as an intern. (Please note that sister A.’s husband had been achieving satisfactory results as a psychiatrist in Japan.) The result of the exam he took in October 2011 was announced in the following month. He called me, overjoyed, telling me he passed the exam.
Fulfillment of God's word: Amazing solutions
Sister A. and her husband have been fighting over the issues of the court, the debt and the medical doctor’s qualification over ten years. Those three struggles have been resolved all at once. Sister A. and her husband were deeply thankful to the Lord for these miraculous results. We have seen the truthfulness of the word from God. We praise the Lord and give Him glory.
"so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." Isaiah 55:11