“If God is real, why does He not just do a miracle right now so we could all believe in Him?” said Aoki-San.

It was mid-Sunday morning. We were huddled together in the corner of the church. The other Bible students looked away with annoyance as they had done before whenever he asked such questions. They were a little embarrassed by him challenging the teacher with such hard, frank questions. It was not the Japanese way. Aoki-San stirred things up a bit whenever he joined the group.

“That’s a great question,” I said to the surprise of the class. I then shared that many people in the Bible saw the miracles of Jesus, but still did not believe. I suggested that having faith is not something we do with our eyes when we see miracles, but genuine faith comes from our hearts, even in the absence of miracles. I directed the class to John 20:29, where Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Aoki-San seemed surprised that the Bible had something to say about the very question he was asking. He had never seen this Scripture before because He was not a Christian. He was an intelligent older man and a chemical engineer. He would pop into our Bible study at times to practice his English. But judging by the questions he would sometimes ask, I felt that there was something more he was doing than just polishing his English. He seemed to be a skeptic. But why would a skeptic come to a Bible study at all? So I often wondered about Aoki-san. Might he have been searching for God?

It has been 12 years since I left Japan. But now that I am returning with my family as missionaries, I hope to meet more people like Aoki-san. Because when the powerful gospel of Jesus takes hold of a skeptic’s heart, the miracle of redemption can happen.

Please pray for God’s Spirit to pour out upon Japan. Please also prayerfully consider a small gift to help push us over our fundraising goal. Thank you.

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