"Mom, there's something I need to tell you."
But by the end of last year, things had started to change. K started going to church regularly. He invited me to play Christian (!) music with him at open mic night. He decided to stop studying for a special certification so that he could spend more time learning English to use for ministry. He began to pray about who he could invite to join our Bible study. And over Christmas break, he finally decided to tell his mom that he had become a Christian.
At first, he wasn't sure how she'd respond. Would she be skeptical of this foreign religion? Would she even understand what he wanted to communicate? Maybe she'd be angry that he had turned his back on his Japanese heritage-or worse?
In the end, her response was somewhat indifferent. "OK," was all she managed to say. No fireworks, no fist fights, just "OK." But two weeks later, something big happened. During a lull in one of their conversations, she said, "You know what, K? Something's changed. You've become a better student lately and a better son. And you've made me want to be a better mother." K told me later that though she couldn't understand it, "the change she noticed was the Holy Spirit."
God is working out his resurrection life in people like K all across Japan, and others are starting to notice. And that's the way it is supposed to be. "After all, it was Christians that first attracted me to Christ," K told me. "Who knows what may happen with my mother."
Written by Brooks Cain. Brooks and his wife, Riva, are missionaries serving with MTW's Global Youth and Family Ministries in Nagoya, Japan. You can follow the Cains on their blog, thecains.wordpress.com.
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