Glyndon Lutheran Church

OUR MISSIONARIES

Jim and Carol Sack

3-10-20 Osawa

Mitaka- Shi

Tokyo, JAPAN    181-0015

Easter Greetings      March 23, 2008

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

  Grace to you and Peace, on this day of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior. He has risen. He has risen indeed! Japan is just now getting warm and the new spring days are filled not only with the beautiful blossoms of plum trees but the promise of cherry trees pregnant with ready-to-open sakura flowers. This is always one of the most beautiful times in Japan and we enjoy viewing those blossoms each and every day. 

  The blossoms remind me of a wonderful story about Hiroko Enjoji. Hiroko is in her 60’s and has been the dorm mother for the dorm for the last 11 years. She just completed that service and moved last week to a location about 1 1/2 hours from Tokyo. We are almost related, as she took care of our Frisky’s (dog) mother for the last 7 years of her life. She would often look after Frisky during those summers we were in the States for home leave.  Hiroko not only looked after the students, taught them cooking and was just a fun person to know, but she also would take great care of the grounds of the seminary.  All year round she was out pruning, digging and transplanting flowers and trees. Virtually all 12 months were months that some plant or flower was blooming. Her presence was felt by everyone on the campus even if they did not know who she was. We all could enjoy God’s creation because of her love and care of God’s earth. We will deeply miss her and the “artwork” she created on campus. However, we are also related as brother and sisters in Christ as she was baptized the week before she left Tokyo. 

  She was raised by her grandmother for most of her young life as her mother died while she was quite young. Her grandmother was not a Christian but a spiritual woman who would pray each day to the gods she knew. Hiroko was given some Christian literature when she was about 20 and after she read that there was a sense of peace in her heart. She had never gone to church but still felt that some divine spirit was looking after her as she raised two children on her own as the father was not there to assist. She mentioned how she felt the same kind of peace when she was asked to be the dorm mother here. There were a number of times when Christ had been mentioned to Hiroko and those seeds remained in her heart.  From my perspective, seeing the beauty of the flowers and trees on campus, it was a mutual respect between God and Hiroko as they both attempted to care for the soul of those who studied on campus. God made a beautiful creation and Hiroko kept it looking spiffy.  I believe she was impressed by the contact she had with so many Christian faculty, staff and students around here. Every now and then she would come to the chapel service and she was usually around for graduation and the entrance ceremony service. There was never any attempt to make her a Christian but the “quiet still voice” of God continued to whisper to her through creation and those on campus.

  This year we had five graduates from the seminary and one of them was a woman. A week before Hiroko was to leave, God knew Hiroko was ready and laid it on this graduate’s heart to ask Hiroko if she was ready to be baptized. It was like when Philip was involved in the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8, where we read “the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go up and join this chariot.’”  This seminary graduate asked the question that made Hiroko look at her life and decide what she would do.  After thinking about the question for a day she simply said “yes.”

And with that, Hiroko decided to become baptized, which took place on Palm Sunday. The pastor who baptized her also began the same year she did as pastor of the Mitaka church on campus.  He is also taking a new call to a church that is only a 15 minute walk from where Hiroko will be living. We praise God for taking care of the “budding Hiroko,” and    bringing the question to her about baptism.  It is now that she has become like one of the beautiful sakura blossoms on the cherry tree.  From Romans 10:17, “So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ.” 

  That is also why we continue to work in conjunction with you in Japan. We are called to both preach and show the Word through action to the people of Japan. Please pray for Hiroko.  Also pray for the five new seminary graduates that are being sent out to their first calls. 

  We ask you to pray for our school, the Japan Lutheran College and the Japan Lutheran Theological Seminary.  Pray for us too, that we may have the wisdom of God in our ministries here. 

Blessings to you all during this Easter season. 

  Jim ( for all the Sacks)