A LITTLE girl in Japan lay for two years in a T B Sanitarium. Her little body was so thin and frail that she could hardly move in bed.
One day some Christian workers visited the hospital and left her a gospel tract. She was not able to hold it but a kind nurse propped it up on a stand and turned the pages one by one so that she could read them.
As she read and re-read that simple gospel message it gripped her heart. She prayed, asking the nurse to help her by standing by to hear her voice in prayer. She asked the Lord for forgiveness for her sins and God heard her prayer. The little sick patient was wonderfully saved.
Now she wanted to share her newfound joy in her Saviour with others. She read in the newspaper of a man named Iwata, condemned to death for murder. She decided to write him and tell him about Jesus. It took her three days to write one page, with what little strength she had but at last she got it finished. Then she sent off her letter enclosing the tract which had been given to her.
The hardened criminal was indignant when he first read the letter, but later as he re-read it his heart softened as he thought how much that letter had meant to the little girl who had sent it to him. He was touched to think that some one cared enough for him to write him a letter at such cost.
He began to read the tract. Over and over again he read it, the truth began to dawn on his soul and filly he believed it. God entered that Tokyo prison and saved that condemned murderer, through the witness of that almost helpless little patient in the sanitarium.
Sometime later the converted murderer was taken to another prison hundreds of miles away and placed in “death’s row” prior to his execution. One day he was singing a gospel hymn which he had learned from some Christians who visited the jail at times. As his lonely cell echoed with the Lord’s praises, he heard a voice call through the “peep hole” to the next cell. It was the voice of another man, named Uchida, who had also found Christ as his Saviour. What joy the two Christian prisoners now had as they talked together of Christ and the home above they were going to.
Iwata and Uchida began to pray and work for the salvation of the other men in death’s row. The warden gave them permission to share their testimony for Christ with other prisoners when they were all together at meal time. As a result 41 Condemned prisoners were won to the Saviour in the two years that Iwata was in death’s row. They wanted to be baptized and the warden permitted them to use the prison bathtub for baptismal services. The whole atmosphere of the prison changed from frenzy and fright to Christian joy and peace. As the guards made their rounds along the corridors they could hear gospel hymns coming from the cells.
At last the time came for Iwata to die for his crime. As his last request, he asked that he might be taken to the T B Sanitarium to see the little girl who had first written him the letter and sent him the gospel tract. His request was granted.
Standing beside her bed, he told the story of what her letter and tract had done for him and his friends, through the saving power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Tears poured down her cheeks as she heard the story of what God’s love had done. Laying his hand upon her head he then prayed for the Lord’s blessing upon the poor little sufferer. He returned to the prison with joy, and soon after was at home with the Lord whom he loved, and who had died to bring him there.
“God hath chosen the weak things of the world” (1 Cor. 1:2727But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; (1 Corinthians 1:27)), to perform some of His mightiest works. So may the story of the little Japanese girl encourage all of us who are His to send out the gospel and to pray for the lost and perishing all around us.
ML-11/10/1974