Antibiotics and a Surprise

I've been sick for about two weeks straight now, so yesterday night I gave in and went to a Japanese doctor (after hearing horror stories and how they can charge the equivalent of a hundred dollars for one visit). Kathy, a missionary in our neighborhood, said she had gone to a good one, so she drove me to the clinic.

(Incidentally, nurses wear pale pink, not white, here. Or at least at this clinic).

The doctor was, as Kathy said, gentle and polite. He spoke softly and smiled when he talked. He asked me all kinds of questions about allergies, my sore throat, and then, seemingly out of nowhere: "Are you a Christian?"

"Yes, she is," Kathy said in Japanese for me. "She's a missionary."

He nodded and made a note of it on his medical chart.

He then pulled out some sheets about allergens in Sapporo (particularly cedar trees) and prescribed antibiotics and a good anti-allergy medication. I was still puzzling about his "Christian" question.

"Are you a Christian, too?" Kathy asked the doctor.

His face was kind. "Oh, no," he replied. "But I have friends who are."

He gave me a bottle of drops for my ears, and the visit was over.

Out in the lobby (still sniffling and coughing) I waited for the receptionist to call us to pay. Kathy took the sheet to the front, spoke to the lady in pink, and nodded.

"We can go," she said to me in English. "He didn't charge you."

Here's something I wrote for a ministry team in Tokyo (hence the trip in November) that was recently published in the Texas Baptist Standard, a Southern Baptist newpaper in Texas. You can see it here:

Texas Baptists urged to tell Japanese students about Christ while in U.S.

I love writing sooooooooooo much!! And about JAPAN!

jenny :)