Some time after arriving in Japan, we enrolled our eldest daughter, Elisa, in a Japanese school when she was just three. Elisa had always been attentive, had learned to speak early and picked things up quickly. But at school she realised that she could not understand anyone and no one could understand her. This was very difficult for her.
When it was time for school, Elisa would say, ‘I don’t want to go. I’ll be alone there.’ That was how she felt, even surrounded by classmates and teachers. Her teacher, however, was always kind and helpful. Every day when we collected Elisa, she came to talk with us.
At the time we still struggled greatly with Japanese, but her teacher patiently used a translation app and did everything she could to communicate. During one of these conversations, she asked, ‘Are you Christians?’ I said yes and asked whether she knew about Christianity, since few people in Japan had heard about Jesus.
She said she did not, but explained that Elisa kept singing a particular name. Out of curiosity, she had looked it up. Elisa was singing about Jesus! This was her teacher’s first encounter with the gospel.