“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?" - Luke 15:4
In 1988 I was asked to lead a major research project for the U.S. government. I put together a research team comprised of some of the top people in our field, and directed a study tour going behind the scenes of the operations of many preeminent Japanese companies, including Toyota, Hitachi, and Fujitsu.
The study tour lasted ten, long days. Our translator, Mamiko Nozaki, was highly efficient and professional. She had the unique ability to SIMULTANEOUSLY translate Japanese to English and vice versa; not just the words, but the nuances of voice tone, and all colloquial and cultural meaning.
After our study tour farewell dinner, Mamiko said she had some questions for me. She asked if I would have lunch with her the following day. It is highly unusual for a Japanese lady to ask a man to a business event, but I awkwardly agreed to meet her. I knew that when Mamiko was not translating, she was a prominent broadcast journalist for NHK, the major television network in Japan. I assumed she had some news related questions.
We met for lunch in a small Japanese restaurant. After our meal was served, and I prayed over the meal, she began to tear up. I asked her what was wrong. She shared that her father had recently died of heart failure. She went on to share that he was one of the most prominent heart surgeons in Tokyo. Mamiko's greatest concern was that her father had fallen apart emotionally during his illness and passing. This man of apparently bigger than life capability and reputation was undone in the face of the very illness he was so skilled to cure, and the death that he helped so many to delay.
Mamiko concluded during his decline that it was his lack of faith in God that was exposed. She was devastated, and did not want to suffer the same fate. She noticed during the study tour that I prayed over every meal. She wanted to know the God I prayed to.
I shared with her that accepting the free gift of eternal life, mercy and grace offered on the Cross by Christ was the beginning of a walk with God. She was surprised that it was that simple, and was curious enough to continue to ask questions of faith via email. One of those emails was a note to let us know she was going to be in the United States. She asked if she could stay with our family for a few days.
Mamiko stayed with us for a couple of days. The time permitted many fruitful opportunities to share our faith. She asked many questions about faith in Christ, but resisted invitations to receive Christ. My wife and I gave the matter to the Lord, not knowing if we would ever hear from her again. We asked the Lord to water the seeds of His Word we had shared with her. We did not hear anything for six months.
One February morning Mamiko called. She called to say that she and her mother had joined a Christian church in Tokyo, making them part of the 1% of the Japanese population that is Christian, and that has a blessed eternity with God secured through faith in Christ. My wife and I were overjoyed at the news.
In Acts 8:26 Philip is instructed by an angel of the Lord to "Go south to the road--the desert road--that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." In obedience, he started out, and on his way met an Ethiopian eunuch. The Ethiopian was an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. In other words, the man was the secretary of the treasury for Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian man had gone to Jerusalem to worship. On his way home he stopped his chariot to read the book of Isaiah. The Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it." Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading from Isaiah.
Philip asked the Ethiopian, "Do you understand what you are reading?" The eunuch answered, "How can I, unless someone explains it to me?" He invited Philip to sit with him in his chariot. The eunuch was reading a prophetic passage of Scripture from Isaiah. "He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice."
The eunuch asked Philip, "Who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?" Philip answered the eunuch's question with that very passage of Scripture, and told the Ethiopian the good news about Jesus.
As they traveled along the road, Philip and the Ethiopian came to some water. The eunuch said, "Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?" He gave orders to stop the chariot. Both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.
In His passionate and compassionate desire that none should perish (2 Peter 3:9), God goes after the lost, no matter how remote they are, or how improbable their saving may seem to us. Once found and saved, He and the angels loudly rejoice over any lost sheep who has been found and rescued into the loving fold of God’s Heavenly Arms! No one is out of his reach. The saving Grace of Christ is freely offered to the famous and the obscure, the rich and the poor, the old and the young, the far and the near.
We are sometimes blessed to have the privilege to be the one He sends for their saving. Me and my family were blessed to be sent to Mamiko. Philip was blessed to be sent to the Ethiopian. Who may The Lord be sending you to find and save?
Prayer
Loving Heavenly Father, thank You for coming to find and rescue me when I was lost and for continuing to pursue me when I go astray. Thank You for the obedience of those who You sent to rescue me and those you continue to send after me when I am in trouble. Please make me sensitive to Your leading for those who I should be going after for Your Name’s sake. Please help me to be obedient and effective in that call. Let it be in the Name of Jesus!
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