Fishing

Our school director Rumiko is one of our favorite people; not just in Japan but anywhere. She is an invaluable asset to the school and to us as missionaries and teachers. However, she is just swell and we would love her even if she didn't make our lives so much easier than they could be.

We have over 80 students here at our language school and each one is a friend of Rumiko. Beyond that she is friends with the students parents, siblings, cousins, spouses, grandparents and pets. She is a lady of strong conviction, simple faith, and unconditional acceptance. Simply put, she is what we are all supposed to be though few of us ever attain it.

She isn't friends with people so that she can trick them into Christianity. She is friends with people because she loves them. Because of this many, for Japan, have become Christians. One of the families she has befriended is a couple who owns a CD store in the local mall. The wife, Akane, takes classes with us as do their two children, Maria and Arisa. They are very busy and have very little time to invest in friends but are very hungry for friendship.

On Friday Koji, the husband of the family, rented a fishing boat and invited us to come along for some sea fishing. I'm sure this wasn't cheap and we were very grateful for the generosity and chance to have an adventure. We left port early in the morning and sailed into the bay with him, his uncle, two daughters and Rumiko. We anchored in the shadow of Mt. Sakerajima, a volcano that is constantly smoking, and dropped our lines. Mary Ellen was the first to catch a fish and we were soon pulling them in faster than I could take them off OUR lines. That's right, she would pull them in but wouldn't grab them or take the hook out or break the neck. It's all equal until it comes to killing fish. Then the man suddenly has a God-given duty to do the dirty work. Truthfully I didn't mind a bit. There's something silly about your wife wanting you to be manly that makes you feel good. Rumiko and the little girls liked Mary Ellen's idea so they started having me kill their fish too. Boy did I feel manly.

I really wanted to catch one of those deep-sea-fangly fish that have the custom lures and lights on their heads; but all I caught was about thirty-five thousand of some school fish they call blue fish. I caught so many that I got tired and was relieved the few times my line came up empty.

That evening Rumiko cooked some of the fish we caught and brought it to us for supper. We were brave and even tried some Sashimi, raw fish.

Jesus calls us fishers of men. I think Rumiko exemplifies this. She isn't looking for more notches on her rifle. She isn't looking for numbers. She simply lives a genuine life of love and unselfish interest in others and we are all drawn to a person like that. The difference though is that the fish ended up on our plate and tasted delicious by the way; but the people she has "caught" have found a freedom in knowing Jesus that you can't believe until you breath it in yourself and realize it's what you always dreamed of but never could put to words.

I learned a lot about fishing on Friday; both kinds.