She Magazine FEBRUARY 2017 | Page 139

God is going to work all things to good and the promise that the plans that he has for us are not to hurt us but to give us hope and a future .
We left two weeks before school ended . I was not quite 15 . I lost credits . I lost residency so I couldn ’ t go to University of Florida as planned . When I started school here , I was the only one who didn ’ t know what The Citadel was , among other things . I literally stepped out of one way of life into another . I had already been involved in sharing my faith through good news clubs and I had started working with the Salvation Army teaching their Pioneer Girls . I even worked the tent crusade that was going on in Florence in 1962 . I knew God had called me to missions – I just didn ’ t know where he wanted me to serve .
Mission work had become an overall abiding certainty . The church that we were members of back in Miami was a church that had missionary interns . Those people were totally committed to the Lord . I wasn ’ t clear on what kind of missions ; until my senior year , I thought it would be in medical missions , and probably in South America . I spoke Spanish already . I found out about pathology and just fell in love with disease , and finding cures for diseases and decided that I wanted to go to a school that was connected with a medical institution . Winthrop had such a setup , but by the end of my first year , having spent most of my time in a chemistry lab , I decided I did not love test tubes . I love people more . God just showed me that I needed to move out of that and into something else . I found that nothing you learn is ever wasted ; it is there in your life for a reason . But I never intended on Japan , never in my wildest nightmares .
I spent one year teaching school after graduation then entered seminary at Free Will Baptist Bible College ( now Welch College ) in Nashville , Tennessee . While there , the missionaries in Japan sent out a plea for an evangelistic music group to come in January 1972 because the Winter Olympics were going to be held in their city . Auditions were held at three colleges . I was encouraged to tryout because I sang and played instruments , and my boyfriend at the time wanted so much to go . Well , I made the cut and he did not . It was the end , as they say , of a beautiful friendship .
Each chosen student received the music individually and then we spent two weeks practicing together in Hawaii – praise and worship , and some folk music – before heading to Northern Japan for six months . And this girl from sunny Florida landed in Sapporo on January 4th , in the middle of a blizzard ! I had never seen so much snow . As we were driving 2 hours through the snow from the airport , God just seemed to speak to my heart . These are the people I have chosen for you and this is the country that will be your home . What ? No . Wait a minute ! But , I believe in the sovereignty of God and He
always knows what He is doing .

God is going to work all things to good and the promise that the plans that he has for us are not to hurt us but to give us hope and a future .

It depends on how you want to respond . You know when Peter stepped out of the boat , as long as he was focused on Jesus , he walked on the water like Jesus did , but when he changed his focus to the circumstance , he started to sink . And I think we ’ re the same way . The “ nightmare ” of Japan turned into a most powerful blessing for me in many ways . But it took some time to get back there .
I returned to Florence and spent a year setting up the junior and senior high school for Maranatha Christian School . The missions office then sent me to France for a year , but God continued to reaffirm that he was calling me to
Japan . After a year in France , I returned to the states , finished my master ’ s degree at the University of South Carolina , and then headed to Detroit , Michigan for a Missionary Internship , the final portion of missionary preparation .
Through all this time I learned so much about missionary work . In Japan we were an evangelistic music group . We did special concerts and different things ; we toured here and there , so it wasn ’ t the normal day-to-day missionary work . The Japanese treated us like royalty . But my year in France really introduced me to the reality of missionary work . It was my experience that the French don ’ t really like Americans . They treat you like dirt - and many Americans act like dirt when they ’ re abroad . I understood that and I saw a bunch of it when I was in France . The reality of everyday life smacks you in the face and you realize that sharing your faith is not just street meetings or what happens on Sunday , but it ’ s an everyday kind of lifestyle .
You either live consistently for the Lord or you don ’ t – people can tell the difference and wonder why you are there . So there are struggles . There ’ s the whole issue of being single on the mission field , learning what you can and cannot do . I had a crash course in French , mind you , so I learned just enough . I was functional in the language , but not enough to share my faith . So you see how limited you are and how hard it is and you look at the other missionaries around you . I was with a veteran missionary couple and a new missionary couple . There was a veteran missionary couple in another city too , and you learn that missionaries have a tendency to be put on a pedestal . But you also learn they are human beings , fighting a spiritual warfare as much as anyone else .
You find out God has put you on this earth to do a job , He expects you to do this job and no matter how hard it is or how rough things are , He put you in that place . And where He has put you , He will keep you . There is no place that you ’ re going to end up that He isn ’ t already there . He has the power to transform hearts , to transform the world - and He has the power to transform the hard times into something of value . That ’ s the thing about God , He ’ s outside the box . For us , we ’ re still bound by boxes but God is already outside of the box and he ’ s trying to help us step out in faith and see what He ’ ll do .
After all this , I expected the Missions office to again send me to Japan . Then the plans fell through . The general director asked if I ’ d consider Costa Rica and I said no . This caused quite a stir ! Meanwhile , my family took our first vacation in a long time . When we got back , there was a letter waiting for me from Japan . One of the missionary couples I had worked with earlier asked if I ’ d be interested in teaching two years at the international school . This was the answer to prayer - God really wanted me in Japan . The letter arrived in May of 1976 and I was in Japan by August ! I stayed for 40 years . I went this time on a professional educator ’ s visa , rather than a mission visa . The vision of our missionaries was to go into the Japanese educational system . I was a “ tent making missionary ” like Paul . I paid my own way but was working in tandem with other missionaries . In 1992 I left the Japanese school system for full time work with our missionaries .
My first heart attack happened in Japan . I had been having trouble with angina and was being treated through medication . I was 30 or 31 and in good condition , except for the angina . We had a late , heavy snowstorm and the snow gave me a heart attack ! I was shoveling it out of my driveway when the attack happened . I went upstairs and called the doctor who told me to take nitroglycerin , lie down and call back if the pain didn ’ t subside . It didn ’ t , and I was transported to the hospital in horrible pain . That first attack was more like a “ classic ” heart attack that men experience – crushing pain in the jaw , and down the left arm . CONTINUED >>
SHEMAGAZINE . COM FEBRUARY 2017 139