June 7, 2026
"shall not permit their dead bodies to be put in graves" (Rev. 11:9)
I am thinking it is a sin perhaps, to not put dead bodies into graves and to allow a dishonoring, even a concrete scientific corruption of physical decay. But isn't it just as wrong to allow decay and dishonor before a person has died? Actually, isn't that unthinkable?
Maybe it's unintentional, but sometimes it feels like now the younger folk at church (yes, the one my family got started, but no one there even knows I was there then or about that time) no longer have need of me.
Call it silly wishing. I dreamed of having ONE HUMAN BEING rush up to me with the sentiment, "June! You're finally back after all these years! What has God given you for us?"
When I'd left Okinawa, it had been with a dream of returning to a field white unto harvest to help out with the work. I thought the people would be glad to have me back. And I went to Tokyo for language training then was led into a Japanese marriage and family life for three decades. But God proved His faithfulness ever stronger through it all.
But, it's rather tragic (that's understatement) NOT A SINGLE PERSON PRESENT at our 1976 Furugen grassroots home meetings, even one person of the church Charter Members when it was formed in 1981 in the Tairagawa clinic building, IS STILL ALIVE AND PRESENT AT GUSHIKAWA BAPTIST CHURCH built in 1987.
The county ladies who collected personal spending money and handed me an offering on that last Sunday before leaving for my Stateside training are all gone now. "Come back," they'd said, "and serve the Lord with us." And some had sent audio encouragement during my years in college.
They're all gone now. And none of the people in Gushikawa Baptist Church today even know about how the church got started. Maybe it's silly, but I'm "just" the sister of Miss Oshiro (Joyce), the pianist. I don't think the people even know I used to be a missionary.
The customary questions were asked if I could come to certain activities but I have medical limitations now, restricting them (Even regular church attendance!). I can, however, write--I feel that is a gift God has given me--and prayed and submitted something I felt the Lord could use (including the story of God's faithfulness in church beginnings), but heard no response. After I die, the church people may do the outwardly respectable thing and aid in taking care of my remains (at least, I hope they do).
I remember when I was little, I read about how the young ought to respect the elderly because they'd want the same thing when they got older. But I felt I did my very best when I was younger yet feel shoved aside today anyway. Okay--there's one young person, Saaya, who seems to be reading all my writing and has responded with comments showing she's really thought about it; and there's someone nearer my age: Ai-chan, who seems to respond positively too...but others want sensationalism and technically good art...well, that's not what I want people to WANT/VALUE me for.
I know when I was young and met older folk, I asked God to show me the real value behind their experiences, the wisdom in the years God had given them that others did not possess, and I felt I gleaned from friendship with them. Those things were, when I got older, what younger folk would get from me too. But it feels like they don't want those things anymore, and I feel like I will die with a lot "leftover" to give in writings I haven't been allowed to put out.
So I'm just posting some things here for whoever would like to take. I realize now that's what Jesus' written word is, isn't it? His Words for free.
