Thanksgiving
Praise the Lord from the Rocky Mountains! (Praise The Lord!)

Praise the Lord from the Rocky Mountains is a popular monthly magazine, 'Kumo No Aida Ni Aru Niji' (Kumo No Aida Ni Aru Niji press). We reprint Pastor Kamidate's article on her testimony of thanksgiving. Every year I remember that daylight saving time begins at around the end of Merlin Kids U.S. team. But this year, the 1st day of the daylight saving time gets earlier by one month, which falls on the 11th March. British call it Summer time, while Americans call it daylight saving time, because the purpose for changing time is to save energy, using daylight effectively. For the first week, it usually is a bit of work for me to adjust my lunch time to this daylight saving time, because my stomach makes sound at around 11 am. It is only a problem for my stomach, but I saw on T.V. how serious companies were to adjust time. It said that much money was used for preparation so that built-in clocks in computers won't malfunction. Before the year 2000, Y2K problem shook the world. I think the problem was as follows. When the year changed from 1999 to 2000, the date became 01-01-00, and the system thought it was January 1, 1900. Since I had been working at Misawa base at that time, I saw that American soldiers were very nervous about this problem. They explained to us the expected confusion to come and advised us to secure food and water for several days. Also they advised us to withdraw some money, because the bank might not operate for a while. So I soon got water and food ready, went to the bank to withdraw all of my money and put it in my wallet. How poor was I whose whole property can be put in a wallet! However, my daughter at that time was still little, so I needed to put all my money in my wallet. I prepared everything perfectly for New Year's Eve and left to Hirosaki for an overnight prayer meeting. I planned to have a short nap and worship in the church after the prayer meeting. I brought only my wallet with me there. Then, the incident took place.... On the 1st of January 2000, there was no confusion of Y2K, however, I lost my wallet, with all my money! I was really seriously shattered, disappointed, went home and I sat at my Kotatsu (a low table with electric heater) and started to think how I could survive. There was no solution just thinking by myself. So, I started to give thanks. Thanksgiving is what we always learned in church. I gave thanks and gave thanks and gave thanks. At the beginning of giving thanks, I was still confused. However, when I repeatedly gave thanks, I finally got very happy as I could pray, 'God, I really thank you that I lost my wallet!' from my heart. That was totally unexpected outcome. I couldn't help feeling happy with a visible situation that I lost everything and lost my way how to survive. In Philippians Chapter 4 verse 6 and 7 in the Bible, it says, 'Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.' At that time, God's peace which was way over my thought was given to me. And I could somehow survive in that month with a help from my family member. Although the starting of year 2000 was the worst luck, it has become a very impressive year for me, because I was financially very well blessed in that year. I could even join three of overseas missions. A great difficulty was the sign of a great blessing. Praise the Lord! As a sports woman, who was trained strictly by my coach and my father, who was a national skater of Japan, I do not grow in a comfortable condition, but do grow in a harsh condition, I think. Also, I tend to be spoiled when people give good comments to me. When I was driving a car for the Merlin team, one of the elders told me that my driving was good. At that moment I drove on the curb. I think God knows me very well. Difficulty is really something to give thanks to, because I get serious in thanksgiving and prayer when I have difficulty. But the time of thanksgiving become the time to fight with sleepiness, if I don't have difficulty and things are going smoothly. However, I give thanks to my weakness of flesh, too. Now I look forward to Merlin Kids U.S. Team, where some of you from Japan will be coming to U.S.A again this year. By the time you are reading this, Pastor Merlin will have finished his seminar, your thanksgiving will be strengthened and spiritually you will be on fire. We will expect a lot from the Lord and worship him from my heart. Praise the Lord!

(Reprinted from 'Kumo No Aida Ni Aru Niji' May 2007 issue)