Yukiko Maki, NCCJ Secretary
Easter has arrived. Having been baptized on Easter, I have a special feeling about Easter that is different from Christmas. Easter is birthday as a Christian for me, and on this day, I am grateful for the year I spent safely, and it is also the time to reset myself for a new year that God will make use of. It all started when the junior high school I entered was a private Christian school. I wasn't born and raised in a Christian home, but I chose that school simply because I could attend from home. There are a lot of things that make me happy to be a Christian since I was baptized on Easter when I was in 11th grade. Being able to pray together with friends has been a great support for my studies and work.
Now it's Easter, but this year that is likely to be a special one in my life. This is due to the spread of the new coronavirus infection, which had an outbreak in China from November 2019 to 2020, and is still violently shaking the world. At the same time, following the coronavirus pandemic, damage caused by a large number of grasshoppers eating up agricultural crops has occurred in East Africa. Currently, hundreds of billions of grasshoppers are crossing the sea and attacking the Middle East, approaching India and China. And the next worries after this is the crisis of hunger. My organization (CWS Japan) has decided to send emergency assistance to Pakistan, which suffered a great deal of damage. A horde of locusts in the plague, exactly the world of Exodus is actually happening. To me, these phenomena seem like a man-made disaster that upset the balance of all things as a result of unquestionably pursuing economic growth without fear of God. Isn't it time for us to take that responsibility seriously and learn a lot from these challenges?
Following the mainland China, many people in Europe and North America are sick and dying every day. Let us keep them in our prayer.