We first met Mai when she was only 7. She was attending Sunday School at a Completely Japanese run church we attended for a time. She attached herself to me at summer camp, and after that would stay for church and sit next to me. At first we only saw her at church, but that soon changed. She was prone to being bullied. She was tormented at home by her older brother, pestered to tears most every day at school, and even had trouble riding the small minivan that was used as a Sunday School bus, so we started taking care of her on Sunday afternoons, and dropping her off in the evening. We soon discovered what a mess her family was. Her father worked at a small noodle shop making ramen in pig's foot soup. He had only one tooth, and didn't care at all whether he had any clothes on in the home or not (company notwithstanding). Her mother was seriously depressed, and almost always drunk. We discovered she usually went to bed by 7 or 8, and left the family to fend for themselves. Her brother was a big oversized bully who took no greater delight than in making his sister cry. The house was filthy-poor Mai must have developed more antibodies than a herd of pigs-and stunk of unwashed dishes and clothes.
To make a long story short, Mai has become a more or less permanant fixture in our home. She spends most of her vacations living with us, and usually spends the night Saturday to go to church with us on Sunday. She is a solid Christian teenager who struggles with finding time to read her Bible. She loves her family, and has shed great oceans of tears over the fact that they are not saved.
She is the only Christian in
her home, and her class at school, and the only teenager at church who
doesn't have any other Christians in her family. Mai is really at great
risk, because there is no-one who cares enough to spend time praying
for her. With no prayer coverage in a spiritually antagonistic
environment, and as the only witness in her home and school, she is a
prime target for the enemy.
Please pray that she will be a strong witness throughout her day, and will be protected from the temptations and dangers of being a high school Christian in a hostile environment. Pray also that she will have a chance to meet other Christian young people, and pray for her mother and other family members, that God will touch their lives and bring them to Himself.