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Show 30 Nisei Christian Journey, Vol. II good about what we had been able to do. We were thinking to go back the next year and so, we were making plans to return to the United States. The very next day we got the telephone call. We reached rock bottom from the shock of it all. I can talk about my own Christian faith and how 1 can survive but in a moment like that, everything left me and I completely hit rock bottom. 'During that period it was.n't our praying, for we could hardly pray, or our reaching out that sustained us, but 1t was the whole community of people praying for us that did it. The Trip Home God cares for us in a way I least expected. It was uncanny. Nick made arrangements and fortunately, we had enough money to pay for the airfare right away. We had to have ready cash to pay for airfare so Nick was able to buy the tickets for us. We left the very next day as soon as we could, and in my haste, I forgot to take my passport. When we got to Osaka, he was able to leave and I couldn't. I had to go all the way back to pick up my passport! It's about three or four hours by train. I went back by myself and the very next day I had to get back on the local train to Hiroshima and then take the Shinkansen (Bullet train) to Osaka and get on the plane. The man, who had written the passage Philippians 4:6-7 in calligraphy for us on the kakejuku (a hanging scroll) on the wall (of our current home), was on that train between Hiroshima and lwakuni. It was uncanny that he should be the one who was on that train. In retrospect, it was very providential. We had worked with him and he was very close to us. It could have been anybody else, but it happened to be him. His name was Yoshioka-san. He wanted to go into the ministry, but his health failed him so he didn't. He was a lay person who worked in the Naval services in Japan in his younger days. He did all the calligraphy for the church. He was a key layperson in this Higashi Church and was very active. He was a source of strength to me. I felt at that moment God surely puts people where you need them. .We talked and I was able to share with him what had happened. What I said was not as important as to have someone to talk to. The other part, and Nick felt this too, was that I was always with the children. The kids always turned to Mom first, so it gave him a chance to go a whole day ahead to talk with the children and he needed that more than anything else. I think he would have felt completely left out because the children would have talked to me. He felt it worked out that way and I thought so too. God's Presence June Kimoto had been through tragedy. She told me, "You're going to feel you don't want anyone to help you, but you have to leave yourself open for people to help you and do what they can. They want to ~elp, but if you keep turning them away, they will figure that you don't want help. lfs Important to keep that line open." That was very valuable to me because I could have closed myself off. All 1 could say all the way across the Pacific Ocean was the 23rd Psalm. That was another time when I felt my childhood memorization of some Bible verses was very important. I said the 23rd Psalm when other things were impossible to think about and that was very strengthening to me. I repeated it as I went across the ocean and felt His Presence even when I almost wanted to deny it. Nick felt the same way, that in spite of ourselves, God was there to provide the help we needed. |
