MISS AKIKO TANABE - COUNSELING

Mrs. Akiko Tanabe is an experienced counselor who deals with some of the Japan Mission’s most difficult and time-consuming correspondence. Please pray for wisdom and strength for her as she strives to serve the Lord through this ministry.

Read the following testimony and see how the Lord delivered Miss Tanabe from tremendous suffering, to become a Christian counselor and a vital instrument in His service. This testimony is a wonderful example of how God can transform the most desperate person to that of having true meaning and fulfillment in life.

SLAMMING THE DOOR IN BUDDHA'S FACE

“All right Buddha, do your worst! Send some dreadful punishment on me for slamming the door on you! I am waiting!" shouted a young Japanese girl as she stood before the closed door of the Buddhist family altar, literally shaking with rage.

Akiko Tanabe could not tell how long she stood there motionless; waiting for some dreadful calamity to descend upon her for her irreverence, but her rage and fear gradually subsided. Years of bitterness weighed down upon her as she looked at her deformed right hand and virtually useless left leg in the mirror. She again cursed the day that she was born!

At the age of one she was stricken with Polio and almost died. She spent most of her life hospitalized and unconscious until she was 6 years old! At 7 she recovered. Her father’s business started to prosper at that time and she was able to start to attend school.

Her mother had told her that the wrath of the gods was on her because she had been struck down with polio. She urged Akiko to be humble and do the lowliest tasks so that gods would be kind to her. Akiko desired to attain favor with the gods and even ate the left-over, cold, hard rice which had been offered days before on the god-shelf!

As Akiko grew up, bitterness overwhelmed her. She decided that her life should be a short and a merry one, and that at the age of 25 she would end it all by committing suicide. From then on she stopped thinking about her miseries, as she whirled around in one round of pleasure after the other. Her life was immersed in theatre-going, musical shows, night clubs, kabuki dramas and puppet-shows!

Akiko became friends with one of the stars of a famous musical show. The star’s mother had a very likable personality, and was a beaming Christian. Akiko had always thought of Christianity as an imported religion, not to be preferred over Japanese religions.

Her new friend often invited her over to spend the night. Her friend’s mother then enthusiastically told her of the marvelous story of Christ. She also invited her to church. At first Akiko did not want to have church dampen her fun. However, she felt obligated, so she thought that she would go just one time.

To her utter amazement, the minister spoke of a man who was born blind, and Jesus said of this man that “neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him!” As the minister preached, it powerfully addressed Akiko’s deformity, and it did not take long for her to yield herself to God and to ask Him to also manifest his works in her lifestyle.

She eventually became a deaconess and was greatly used in the church where she found Christ. She became a Sunday school teacher. Five of the students later became Sunday school teachers themselves!

Japan Mission was looking for workers at that time. In March 1966 Akiko decided to join the Mission to help with the many hundreds of Bible Correspondence Courses that were being sent in. This gave her a wonderful opportunity to touch many thousands in Japan over the years. Akiko is still a vital part of the Japan Mission, and deals with some of the most difficult and time-consuming counseling situations and correspondence.

“I am so glad that God intervened and did not allow me to commit suicide at the age of 25!” Akiko Tanabe says. “Otherwise I would not have been able to enjoy such a marvelous ministry for over the past 40 years!”

Contact Miss Tanabe by e-mail at: jm@japanmission.org and simply put her name in the subject line and we will make sure to pass on your e-mail to her.