A Testimony of My Father's Salvation

At the beginning, Kato says, “In short, my father was saved.”

Her father began following Sekai Kyusei Kyo when Kato’s younger brother was born. She says her brother’s life was in danger, and the family understood his recovery after receiving prayer at a nearby mission center of the religion as a significant event.

After seeing that, her father continued in that faith devotedly for about 55 years. Kato later describes that faith, from her Christian perspective, as “idolatry.”

About two years before his death, however, he stopped driving and his eyesight and hearing declined. He no longer went as regularly to the place he had attended almost every week, and she says he also read its religious books less often.

Until shortly before turning 89, her father continued doing what he could for himself at home. He did not want to enter a care facility and lived alone with support from relatives, helpers, and day care services.

Then pneumonia worsened and he was hospitalized. Doctors told the family that his age and physical condition could make recovery difficult. When Kato visited him, however, he could still speak, and she recalls that when he learned a grandchild had come, he even tried to stand up to go and meet them.

At that time Kato held his hand and said, “Believe in Jesus, and let’s go to heaven.” For years he had responded to the gospel by saying that his own faith would take him to heaven. This time, she recalls, he answered, “Yes.”

During the first visit, noise from another patient in the room made it difficult to speak calmly. Kato went home praying that she would be given a quiet time to explain the gospel clearly.

The next day the hospital called to say his condition had become critical, and he was later moved to a private room. On Friday evening, during a longer visiting period, Kato says she felt, “I need to pray a confession of faith with him now.”

Her father was already having difficulty speaking, but she says he could hear and still responded. Kato testifies that she prayed on his behalf for forgiveness of past sin and idolatry, spoke to him about forgiveness through Jesus Christ, and baptized him with water by sprinkling.

During the prayer, her son, who was beside him, wiped away her father’s tears. Kato understood those tears as a sign that he was receiving the prayer.

The next day, an amulet from the religion he had followed was still around his neck. Kato says she cut the cord and prayed that the former spiritual connection would be broken and that he would be joined to Jesus Christ.

She also recalls that during the hospitalization a nurse spoke of a positive change in his lungs, and there was a period when suctioning phlegm was no longer necessary. After the amulet was removed, she says his previously labored breathing also appeared to become calmer.

Kato testifies that she received these changes as grace within the prayers of her family and church. This page does not claim a medical cause-and-effect relationship; it preserves how she herself understood the experience.

That night her father rested peacefully. The next morning the hospital called to say his heart had stopped. When the family arrived, she says his expression looked as though he were sleeping. Kato received his death with peace, saying that she believed the Lord had taken him home.

After her father died, the family immediately needed to find a place for the funeral. Although it was difficult to find an opening, Kato says they were given a place where the family could gather and a staff member who helped them, allowing the funeral to be held several days later.

Flowers also arrived from At Home Church Okinawa. In front of relatives, Kato had an opportunity to testify that she and her son had been baptized as Christians and to share what had happened during her father’s final days.

There she learned for the first time that a cousin and the cousin’s daughter were already connected with a church. Kato received it with joy as evidence that seeds of faith had been growing within the family in ways she had not known.

At the funeral they played “Amazing Grace” and “How Great Thou Art,” shared strawberry daifuku and tea, and remembered her father. At the staff member’s suggestion, relatives placed flowers together and carried the coffin, creating what she remembers as a quiet and warm time.

Around the time of the funeral, Kato was looking through an office her father had once used when she found an old videotape and a gospel tract on a shelf. They were materials she had sent him from Hong Kong about 25 or 26 years earlier.

He had not believed at the time. But he had not thrown them away; he had kept them in the envelope.

“My father did not believe then, but he received the gospel material and did not throw it away.”

That became a great comfort to Kato. She also recalls eating with her younger sister and seeing the Japanese word for “thank you” at the bottom of a bowl after finishing the meal; she received that experience as another comfort after her father’s death.

Here too, this page does not assign a supernatural meaning to the event as an objective fact. It presents how Kato herself understood the experience and how it encouraged her.

One theme Kato repeats near the end of the testimony is gratitude that brothers and sisters in the church continued praying behind the scenes. She says the outcome was not the result of her strength alone.

There were years of praying for her father’s salvation without seeing an obvious change. Looking back at the gospel material that had remained for decades and at her father’s final “yes,” she came to feel that what had been spoken and prayed had not disappeared.

She concludes by describing how this one family experience renewed her understanding of what it means for a church to pray for and support one another.

In short, she says, “My father was saved.” But along the way she sees many small moments of grace layered together. That is what Kato is communicating through this testimony.