God can use anything

When we arrived in Ōmura, Nagasaki Prefecture, in 1981, Cathy and I were in our mid-30s, and our daughters were in elementary school. We expected God to use us in many ways right away, since I was a Japan MK and Cathy had known since she was 13 that she was called to be a missionary in Japan. We had previously spent two years as a family in Japan, mostly in Sasebo, and we all felt like we had “come home.” However, God’s ways are not our ways, and that’s a good thing.

Being an independent missionary has the advantage of no bureaucracy but the disadvantage of no finances. We didn’t even have a “sending church.” Cathy and I both taught English, and I was blessed to get in right at the beginning of Nagasaki Rehabilitation College. Initially I taught English conversation but that progressed to medical English since I also taught at a nursing school that was part of the same organization. At that time, we had no way of knowing how God was opening up medical doors for us. In 1988, we were granted permanent residency, which freed us up to do almost anything a Japanese citizen can. It was good timing because shortly after that, I was cut from full-time faculty and had to go on the general national health insurance instead of the private school employee insurance that was much more generous.

Then in 1993, Cathy started passing out at odd moments. We know that angels can drive because one of those times she was driving and “came to” nicely parked several hundred meters from where she started after turning at an intersection! Tests revealed ventricular tachycardia, and she was started on medication, which thankfully was fully effective for her.

In 1998, she had to have her gallbladder removed. In 2002, an MRI revealed a small tumor in her brain, so from that point she had annual MRIs.

Each set of medical issues opened doors of opportunity to touch so many lives we could not have met otherwise. In 2005, Cathy was diagnosed with essential tremor, which runs in her family. Then she was hospitalized with acute diverticulitis (2005), fell in the house and broke her back (2006); and was diagnosed with Sjogren’s Syndrome, an autoimmune disease (2012).

In May of 2013, Cathy was diagnosed with pre-diabetes, so she got serious about losing weight. However, three falls in fairly short succession led to a diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease that July. She hadn’t had essential tremor after all. Starting on medications for that made a huge difference in her quality of life.

In March of 2015, she was diagnosed with lumbar canal stenosis, a side effect of having a degree of scoliosis from childhood. The resulting pain from pinched nerves had her go from using a cane to being wheelchair-bound in a few months. She had surgery to correct the back issue in two stages, and thankfully, it was a grand success.

During all this time, the tumor in her brain had been growing. In February of 2016, we were told the time had come to take it out. A few days after the surgery, she was sitting up to eat breakfast and completely froze. The nurses were very thankful I came in at that moment: my looking in her eyes and telling her I loved her brought her out of the seizure. Because of that, she was put on a medication for epilepsy. Unfortunately, a side effect of that medication greatly increased her Parkinson’s tremor, so she had to take a special pill for that for three months.

Since then, she has had cataract surgery in both eyes and a second back surgery. In all of this, she has continued to go to rehab three times a week when not in hospital. People at the various clinics she has attended, as well as medical technicians, have stated that she is a good example for teaching how to care for this or that medical problem. It has also been said by many, “Your God is strong!” Virtually everyone who knows her admires her, and they know it’s because of God.