Follow Up Story

On March 1st I wrote a story called "Japanese Birthday." I talked about leading this student to Christ. Last weekend he stood bfore the Allen congregation and shared the following story!

-My Testimony

When I was little, I remember walking down the path to go down to a temple on New Year’s day, which is a tradition in Japanese culture, seeing a bunch of people holding up pictures of Jesus Christ hanging on the cross, and announcing the verses from the Bible through a microphone. Nobody seemed to really pay attention, but I remember asking my father as a curious child, “Who is Jesus Christ?” My father simply smiled and told me “Boy, you don’t have to worry about it, how about another candy huh?”

Coming from Japan, where more than 50% of the population is Atheist, when I moved to New York in the summer of 2000, spirituality was one of the many things that I did not know about American culture as a whole. To say the least, learning the language, adjusting to the school system, and getting used to the enormous food servings were more important to me back then. The high school I attended was very small, and mostly Jewish. It’s embarrassing to say, but I went to the first couple Bar Mitzvahs and Bat Mitzvahs with no knowledge that it is a religious celebration; to me, it was more of an opportunity to hang out with my friends who I could barely communicate with and eat good food. Four years in high school was definitely not the best time I had in my short career so far: I was learning the English language for the most part in school. Because of that, my grades weren’t that great, and my family was a mess. I was suicidal; I did slit my wrist a couple times, and I struggled to get along with my parents.

I must say I was somewhat relieved to leave New York to attend college in Salisbury. As a freshman, I arrived at Salisbury University in September of 2006. I experienced what society calls “college life” for the first couple months down here before I encountered God. Partying hard on the weekends, doing whatever I felt like doing, to say the least. Somehow I still felt empty inside, and that’s when I first had a conversation about God. One of my strongest passions is to dance. I tried out to be on a dance team at Salisbury called “Untouchables Dance Inc.” Through there, I met this one girl whom I found to be attractive. I expressed my interest to her towards the end of the first semester, and the response she gave to me was pretty much “I love God!” Unlike some people, I just couldn’t back off that time; as selfish as I sound, I just wanted to find out more about this God thing that she was so into. She ended up taking me to Allen Memorial that weekend. That was my first church experience. I kept coming back to church for the next couple weeks, because it was fun for me. I loved the music, and I enjoyed hearing Pastor Warren’s message each week. I was still partying on the side, but I did begin to slow down. One Sunday, I found myself filling out the “Christian counseling request” that I found in the bulletin. That week, Pastor Michael Sove e-mailed me and we set up a meeting.

Going into the meeting, I did not know what to expect. I did not even have a Bible with me at that point. I went in to the meeting that day an Atheist, and came out of it as a follower of Jesus Christ. I still remember the Bible verse that we discussed for a good amount of time; Romans 10:13 “for anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” That verse just blew me away. I did not know how to react. Until that day, I thought you had to know and follow certain rules to become a follower of anything. That verse just simply shocked me. At the end, that day, March 10th 2007, I did become a follower of Jesus Christ and it completely changed my life.

I did not feel the difference right away, but in upcoming weeks, I found myself asking a bunch of questions to fellow Christians, and looking forward to weekly meetings that I had with Pastor Michael. I found myself looking for and spending more time with people who helped me get to God. And for the first time, I felt as though that empty spot in my heart has been filled, with love of God. And to this day, that hasn’t changed.

A few weeks ago, my mentor passed away with prostate cancer. If God wasn’t with me that day, I honestly don’t know what I would have done. Even though selfishly I miss him a lot, I know that Peter, my mentor is with the Lord now, and that he is happy: Peter was one of the people who were so excited to hear that I had become a follower of Christ, because he himself was in love with God.

God has led me to do many things since I’ve been a follower of His. Just a few days ago, I invited my parents to go to church with me on the way back to Salisbury after Thanksgiving break. I did not know what to expect when I asked that question. But their answer was “yes.” I cannot describe to you how happy that simple word made me feel. The same father who told me to not worry about who Jesus Christ was, was now coming to church with me. When they told me that they enjoyed their first church experience, I was truly happy for them and only wished that there was a church back home where they can go frequently.

If you asked me to describe myself in one word last year around this time, I would probably used words like Japanese, male, dancer, or a student to describe myself. But ask me that now and I will tell you from the bottom of my heart, that I am a Christian: that I have been saved by Jesus Christ, and I am in love with him. Thank you. Hideaki