In June of 2006, Yumi arrived at Portland State University from Japan to continue her nursing education. Shortly after arriving, she found FOCUS, an international ministry co-sponsored by InterVarsity. She started going to an international Bible study, and by the end of the semester she had become a Christian. But this was not the first time this woman from Japan had heard the gospel. God had been seeking her for years.
God began to call Yumi when she was child. A friend invited her to Sunday School. She attended for several years, learning Bible verses and even taking part in the Christmas pageant. But when Yumi started junior high, her schedule was crowded with studies and judo, and she did not think of Jesus or the Bible.
But God was thinking about her. A believing friend wrote, telling of her conversion and encouraging Yumi to consider the claims of Christ. When she read this, she thought, “Why would such a rational, intelligent person become a Christian?” God continued to share his Word with her as she continued corresponding with her friend, who included Scripture verses in her letters.
When she was nineteen, Yumi’s attitude toward God changed from curious indecision to aversion and even hatred. Her mother died after a lingering illness. Suddenly and dramatically losing her mother led Yumi away from God and into nursing. As she says, “I thought this would fulfill the dreams of my mother. When my mother became sick and could no longer be a nurse, I promised my mother I would work as a nurse instead of her.”
Yumi worked in intensive care. Here she was very close to death with no answers, a situation that greatly disturbed her. As she says, “I saw patients who feared death, those who died in much pain, people who were in accidents and died without knowing they were dying and small children who died. I thought about life and death. I had no words for the people who were dying. All I could do was rub their backs.”
Frustration with her inability to help patients with the answer to the meaning of death and her own lack of meaning in her life weighed on Yumi. After five years she left nursing and Japan, and went to England and another encounter with the gospel.
While in England, Yumi met a young man from the Middle East who had become a Christian. The situation in his home country dictated that he could not return to visit his family unless he denounced his Christian faith, which he would not do. Again she could not understand the decision. “What was it that would fascinate a person so much that they would want to live as a Christian when they could probably never see their family again?”
After a time of refreshment in England, Yumi returned to Japan, remembering the suggestion of the Middle Eastern Christian that she read the Bible. In Japan, God sent another Christian to Yumi, to tell her once again of the gracious gift of salvation and to share the truths of the Bible. She still had many questions. “What was life and what was death? How I was to continue living?” She thought the Bible might have some answers and decided to read it daily.
Yumi also decided to return to nursing, but she wanted further education in the field. On the plane to Portland, Oregon, where she was enrolled in an advanced nursing program, Yumi sat next to Joan Stroller, a missionary returning from the field in Japan. Joan again shared the gospel with this young woman whom God was calling to himself.
This is where we met Yumi. Shortly after arriving in Portland, she came to FOCUS. She started attending a Bible study and within a few weeks decided to follow Jesus. When she was baptized, Joan Stroller helped her translate her testimony of God’s persistent calling. Today Yumi is being obedient to God, sowing the truth of the gospel among other international students at Portland State.
