We’ve passed a year anniversary in Japan and grateful for it. Every time we hang out with friends, we thank God for the people he has put in our life and know it is an answered prayer.
During my team meeting at work, my boss asked a co-worker to share his recent story.
He had been having several bad things happen lately. For example, his house was broken into when he went out of town for vacation in May which is rare in Japan. Lastly, his kid became ill and had some bleeding. They took him to the doctor where several exams and tests were run. Everything came back normal, and then the doctor looked at him gravely, paused, and asked if he had had any interaction with spirits or ghosts of any kind recently.
The doctor’s theory was that the child’s illness was caused by him being afflicted by some ghost or spirit.
My colleague and his wife recalled some incident at the child’s kindergarten where a kindergartener had died in recent years and not received 成仏 (joubutsu) which is a Buddhist practice for the dead that allows them to be free of this world. If they don’t receive it they may become a 幽霊 (yuurei), a ghost which must remain in this world usually bearing some regret or grudge and haunting. His wife suspected this ghost was affecting his family.
He visited a Buddhist temple and had the priest there pray for his child and family and perform purification and the bleeding stopped.
Some non-Japanese co-workers laughed at the story but the Japanese members took it very seriously.
I approached my co-worker and told him wholeheartedly I believed in his understanding of what happened, as there are many strange afflictions from spirits in the New Testament.
I offered to pray to Jesus for healing for him if that were to happen again.
Pray for the people of this country. The gods of this country are fickle - sometimes blessing, sometimes cursing. Jesus is always reliable, always strong enough.
