The Courage to Share Burdens with Others

THE CALL: FALL/WINTER 2022   |   3 MINUTE READ
YURIE KADOYA, NURSE IN JAPAN

My first COVID patient to be hospitalized had a high fever and required oxygen. It was difficult to watch them in pain, but as I cared for them in my role as a nurse, I watched them slowly regain their appetite and their ability to stand up and move about. Finally, they recovered completely; when they were discharged from the hospital, they had a smile on their face. As they thanked me, I remember saying to God, “Thank you so much for healing them.” Now, as I near retirement a few years later, I reflect on how I’ve gotten to be part of that healing for so many patients during COVID and throughout my career as a nurse.

Much of my ministry over the years has happened outside the walls of the hospital. For sixteen years, I performed wellness checks for my neighbors, getting to know them intimately. Every month, I wrote a postcard to each household that said, “Please be sure to take care of yourself.” At first, some questioned my motivations. “Who do you think you are?” they said. “You’re trying to get us to become Christians, aren’t you?” But after about ten years of writing these cards, they understood my intent. It wasn’t meant to be outreach. I just wanted to share my gratitude with them.

My neighborhood—along with my church family—has supported me in so many ways. When my mother was diagnosed with dementia, I didn’t know how I was going to get through it. The church I attend, Immanuel Shimonoseki Church, is part of the Immanuel General Mission, which partners with WGM. Izumi Kuba serves as our pastor, and her husband, Brandon, is a missionary with WGM. As I began to share with my neighbors, other healthcare workers, and my church family, they prayed and rallied around us. While my own strength was lacking, I realized that God was always sustaining me.

The Shimonoseki Immanuel Church (left); Yurie assisting a WGM student team from Ohio Christian University, summer 2019 (right)

God used that season to grow my own faith and to give me opportunities to share His light with others. Being a nurse during COVID was very difficult. Like many people, I spent much of the time isolated, trying to avoid passing the virus to others. I watched many patients suffer with the effects of the virus while trying to care for them as best I could. No matter how difficult my circumstances became, though, God sustained me through them. Not only that, but He filled me with a joy that could only have come from Him. The joy lasted even after the worst of the pandemic had passed.

I lived in such a tight-knit community that often we wouldn’t knock but just enter each other’s homes. When my neighbors would open my front door and see me praying, they would say, “Wow, you have a God who listens to you and answers your prayers.” I knew they were watching me, and so I made it a habit to express encouragement to people or share a word of gratitude. No matter how small, when something negative became a bit better, I knew God was listening.

Yurie (standing, left) and her mother, Mrs. Satoko Kadoya (standing, right)

I probably would never have left my home by choice. But when the typhoon hit in 2019, leaving seemed to be my only option. One of the outer walls of my house was destroyed, and my landlord refused to make repairs. Since I couldn’t afford to purchase the house to make the repairs myself, I emotionally hit rock bottom.

God reminded me that I wasn’t alone, though. Again, I reached out to my neighbors and my church about my situation, and they helped me search for a new home. No suitable homes for my mother’s condition were available in our neighborhood, so I agreed to move to a different area.

Every week, after the church prayer meeting, Izumi and her husband, Brandon, with their daughter, Mihoko, came to me and helped me clean my home and pack my belongings. My neighbors joined, as did others from church. It was like having another moving company with everyone who was helping out. My neighbors said, “Church people have such warm hearts, and they act on what they believe.” One of my neighbors was so impressed that she volunteered to carry Mihoko on her back, even though she was close to eighty years old. “This is all I can do to help,” she said.

Yurie (second from left) with other members of the Shimonoseki Immanuel Church and Pastor Izumi Kuba (far right)

Even though it wasn’t sharing the Gospel in the traditional sense, many of my neighbors saw what a church family does for each other. How they support each other in times of need and show up in the midst of trials. Sharing our problems with others requires courage, but when we allow others to pray for us and support us, we see results begin to take shape and feel our burdens begin to ease. And in the end, we will find that we have grown to be more like Christ through the trial.

ACTION STEPS

PRAY: Lift up your neighbors in prayer by name. Get to know them intimately so you can plead with God on their behalf. Ask God to work through you to impact your neighbors, that you would display His goodness in all you say and do.

Missionary Bio: Brandon (the area team leader for Japan) and Izumi Kuba are prayerfully dreaming about how they might advance the Gospel in Japan through Bible studies, English and discipleship classes, and university outreach efforts.