A Testimony of My Father's Salvation
“In short, my father was saved.”
In short, my father was saved. My father had followed Sekai Kyusei Kyo for about 55 years. This is my testimony of what happened during his final hospitalization.
Video title (translated): God’s Miracle! Salvation from Idolatry — “A Testimony of My Father’s Salvation”
Miyako Kato’s testimony: her father’s salvation
I share what happened during my father’s hospitalization, his confession of faith and baptism, the prayers of family and church, the funeral, and the gospel material I found more than 25 years after sending it to him.
The beginning of a 55-year faith journey.
In short, my father was saved.
My father began following Sekai Kyusei Kyo when my younger brother was born. My brother’s life was in danger, and our family understood his recovery after receiving prayer at a nearby mission center as a significant event.
After seeing that, my father continued in that faith devotedly for about 55 years. Later, from my Christian faith, I came to understand it as idolatry.
About two years before his death, he stopped driving and his eyesight and hearing declined. He no longer went as regularly to the place he had attended almost every week, and he also read its religious books less often.
Hospitalization, and a time when the family gathered.
Until shortly before turning 89, my father continued doing what he could for himself at home. He did not want to enter a care facility and lived alone with support from relatives, helpers, and day care services.
Then pneumonia worsened and he was hospitalized. The doctors told us that his age and physical condition could make things difficult. When I visited him, he could still speak, and when he learned that a grandchild had come, he even tried to stand up to go and meet them.
I held his hand and said, “Believe in Jesus, and let’s go to heaven.” For years he had answered the gospel by saying that his own faith would take him to heaven. This time, he answered, “Yes.”
A prayer of confession and baptism.
During the first visit, noise from another patient made it difficult to speak calmly. I went home praying, “Please give me a quiet time to explain the gospel clearly.”
The next day the hospital called to say his condition had become critical, and he was later moved to a private room. On Friday evening, when I was given a longer time to visit, I felt, “I need to pray a confession of faith with him now.”
My father was already having difficulty speaking, but he could hear and still responded. I prayed on his behalf for forgiveness of past sin and idolatry, told him about forgiveness through Jesus Christ, and baptized him with water by sprinkling.
During the prayer, my son, who was beside him, wiped away my father’s tears. I received those tears as a sign that he was receiving the prayer.
Removing what he had worn for years, and saying goodbye.
The next day, an amulet from the religion he had followed was still around his neck. I cut the cord and prayed that the former spiritual connection would be broken and that he would be joined to Jesus Christ.
During the hospitalization, a nurse also spoke of a positive change in his lungs, and there was a period when suctioning phlegm was no longer necessary. After the amulet was removed, his labored breathing also appeared to become calmer.
That night my father rested peacefully. The next morning the hospital called to say his heart had stopped. When we arrived, his expression looked as though he were sleeping. I received his death with peace, believing that the Lord had taken him home.
The funeral, and a testimony spreading through the family.
After my father died, we immediately needed to find a place for the funeral. Although it was difficult to find an opening, we were given a place where the family could gather and a staff member who helped us, and we were able to hold the funeral several days later.
Flowers also arrived from At Home Church Okinawa. In front of our relatives, I had an opportunity to testify that my son and I had been baptized as Christians and to share what had happened during my father’s final days.
There I learned for the first time that a cousin and her daughter were already connected with a church. I was glad to see that seeds of faith had been growing in our family in ways I had not known.
At the funeral we played “Amazing Grace” and “How Great Thou Art,” shared strawberry daifuku and tea, and remembered my father. At the staff member’s suggestion, our relatives placed flowers together and carried the coffin. It became a warm time together.
The gospel material sent more than 25 years earlier was still there.
Around the time of the funeral, I was looking through an office my father had once used when I found an old videotape and a gospel tract on a shelf. They were materials I had sent him from Hong Kong about 25 or 26 years earlier.
He had not believed at the time. But he had not thrown them away; he had kept them in the envelope.
My father did not believe then, but he received the gospel material and did not throw it away.
That became a great comfort to me. I also remember eating with my younger sister and seeing the Japanese word for “thank you” at the bottom of a bowl after we finished. I received that as another comfort after my father’s death.
Gratitude for the people who kept praying.
This did not happen through my strength alone. Brothers and sisters in the church kept praying behind the scenes, and I am deeply grateful.
There were years of praying for my father’s salvation without seeing an obvious change. But when I look back at the gospel material that remained for decades and at my father’s final “yes,” I believe that what was spoken and prayed had not disappeared.
Through what happened in our family, I received again how important it is for the church to pray for and support one another.