Deaths Elsewhere

I always read the obituaries in our local newspaper (that's a sign of aging!) and I always check the 'Death Elsewhere' column. I seldom know anyone in that column but once in a while I recognize a name. Today is a name I know well. Jacob Daniel DeShazer, 95 yrs. I had already read about his death in the Missions News that I get on-line from our church headquarters in Indianapolis, so I wasn't surprised at his death but I was pleasantly surprised to read about it in our local newspaper. My parents and Jake and Florence were friends from clear back in the 40's. I remember praying for Jake when I was a child. He was one of the Doolittle raiders, and was in a Japanese prison camp for 40 months during WWII. Even though he was brought up in a Christian home he wasn't a Christian, himself, when he was captured by the Japanese. He hated the guards of the prison, he and the others were treated so badly. One day he was given a Bible to read, while he was reading God revealed Himself to Jake. He prayed for forgiveness for his sins and was changed into a new man. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come. II Corinthians 5:17. Jake was a new man. He now loved the guards! After he was released from prison he went home and enrolled in college. After graduating he took his wife and baby son to Japan as missionaries to the Japanese people. Now this little death notice in today's paper doesn't tell all that but it does say that he went to Japan to convert the people to Christianity. It also says that in over 30 years he started 23 churches. So it's an okay article. There is quite a story to Jake's life and it's been written in a couple of books and has also been made into a movie and is available on DVD. Heavenly Father, thank you for men like Jacob Deshazer. Thank you for your saving grace. Thank you for the ministry Jake had in Japan and for the influence he had on thousands of people, both in Japan, and here, in the USA.