Susan Okamura
Salvation Experience
The first time I remember thinking about God I was around 9 years old. I know now that it was the Holy Spirit touching my heart since I didn’t grow up in a Christian home and no one in my family or extended family ever went to church. Around that time, I began asking my mom about God, and my sister was interested too. My grandfather who lived with us off and on (he was a caretaker and worked on ranches), came to our house one morning as he usually did when he wasn’t working and brought my sister and I a rosary because we had been asking for one. We each kept it on our bedposts. To us, it represented God. Also, in those days there were door-to-door salesmen that came around in the neighborhood selling household items and miscellaneous things. My mom bought us a set of little Bible books, of which I still have Book Four, “The Children’s Friend,” “Pictures and Stories of the Life of Jesus.” (Copyright 1928) Even though my family never attended church, my dad encouraged us kids to go. Down the street from us lived a Swedish family, so my sister and I would go to the Lutheran Church with their youngest daughter, Marie. At other times, I remember my mom getting my brother, my sister and I all dressed up in our Sunday best and my dad would drive us to the Havenscourt Colonial Baptist Church and drop us off. I remember as we went in, we discovered we were early and the first ones there. Once inside the foyer, I looked up and saw a large sign that read “Silence, this is the House of the Lord.” We then went inside the sanctuary and sat down in one of the pews before anyone else was there. My little 5-year old brother sat there dressed in his best Sunday suit including a new hat. The kind usher came by and said “son, remove your hat in church.” We didn’t know any better.
As I entered junior high school, I was only 11 years old, and there I met my best friend Rosemary. We would spend the weekends over each other’s houses sometimes and when we were at her house we would go to St. Cyrl’s Catholic Church on Sunday mornings. I loved it! I started asking Rosemary questions about God and church, so she gave me her catechism book. I remember reading it from cover to cover. I wanted to know so much about God. As I learned more, I wanted to become Catholic and told my mom of my desire but she said no.
As time went on, my sister and I met a family that moved in down the street with 3 daughters. Sharon was the youngest and was my sister’s best friend. I remember one day my sister told me “Sharon says we have to be saved.” We didn’t know what “saved” meant. Sharon’s family were Christians and they attended Oakland Neighborhood Church on 84th and MacArthur Avenue in Oakland, not far from where we lived. They invited us to church and we went every Sunday morning and Sunday night. After a few months, my sister and I decided we were going to answer the “altar call” the next Sunday night. So, on Sunday evening, March 4, 1956, as Pastor Bellig gave the invitation to accept Jesus as our Savior, my sister and I raised our hands, walked down the steps to the isle that lead to the Prayer Room where Mrs. Foote, Sharon’s mother worked, and we prayed together to receive Jesus into our hearts. We were so happy that we had just become “Christians.” That night I wrote in my diary “we gave our hearts to Jesus. We are now Christians.”
As we became involved in Neighborhood Church, we began going to the High School activities on Friday nights called the “Hi Wy,” and on Sunday’s, Kenny Backlund was our Sunday School teacher. It was one of the best times of my teenage years, I was learning so much about God and Jesus. My sister and I would sit on our beds each night and read the bible together, given to us by Neighborhood Church. The next step was baptism. Sometimes on Sunday nights they would have a baptism service and that was my next step, but when I asked my mom’s permission, she said no. I was 15 years old at the time and it wouldn’t be until I was 36 years old that I would finally get baptized. During this time at Neighborhood Church, I invited my best friend, Rosemary to go with me and my sister to the high school activities on Friday nights. I also asked my grandmother to go with me to church one Sunday, she lived on the next street over from us and my dad drove the two of us to church that Sunday. As Pastor Bellig gave the invitation to invite Jesus into your heart, as he did at the end of every service, my grandmother raised her hand and we both went to the prayer room together where my grandmother prayed to receive Jesus as her Savior, she was 65 years old.
My Adult Years as a Christian
At the age of 20 years old, I married a young man I had met at the Hi Wy at Neighborhood Church and we were married in the Crimson Chapel. He was a Christian and had gone to a Christian Elementary School. As the years passed, we had two children, a boy, and a girl, I had started attending Fremont Neighborhood Church when my daughter was 2 years old and that’s where both of my children grew up. I started participating in small bible studies with ladies from our church. One day I saw an ad for a bible study called Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) taking place in one of the local churches. I went to the orientation and joined the first class, not really knowing how to actually “study” the bible. I was hooked. I learned so much after that one school year. I was then approached to become a “Discussion Leader.” For the next several years, I went from a Discussion Leader to becoming the Administrator in BSF. This was one of the best times of my Christian life. I was then approached to be the next “Teaching Leader,” the person that gives the lectures after the discussion classes. According to BSF guidelines, I was to ask my husband for permission to accept this position, but I was in for one of the biggest shocks of my life that would rock my world. My husband said no. To make a long story short, my husband had decided to leave our marriage.
One of the times in my life that I have actually heard God’s voice was after my husband had moved out. I had been on my knees every day praying and thinking about what’s next for me and my children and I remember saying to myself, “what am I going to do?” Then I heard God’s voice so clearly say to me “I will help you.”
After my divorce, there were some difficult times that followed and I confess that I drifted away from God for a few years and made my own (wrong) decisions and have had many regrets, but God is a God of second chances and in His great provision for me, He called me back to Himself, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Some years later, I remember reading in the book of Joel and thinking of those years I wasted, and as I looked down at the page I was reading, these were the Lord’s words to me, “I will restore to you the years the locusts have eaten…” Joel 2:25. I have carried that verse in my heart all those years since and He has restored to me ten-fold…no, one hundredfold to my life!
As the years passed, I was able to buy a condo and I lived by myself after my children had grown and moved out. I had to live very frugally but always paid my tithes each week and the Lord continued to provide for me. My friend was going to refinance his condo at the time and told me I should do the same. I was fearful that I could even attempt to do something like that even though I had managed on a shoestring to buy my condo, but would give it a try. Again I remember driving to work and saying out loud to myself, “Lord, if you can hang the stars in the heavens and call them all by name, you are able to make this refi go through.” Again, I turned to the book of Isaiah for the Lord’s answer, “Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you.” Isaiah 41:10 needless to say, the refi went through with flying colors.
I have been praying for my family members for many years and the Lord has again answered me through His word. One time I was praying for salvation for my family members with my bible open and I asked for a word from the Lord, as I looked at the page I was reading, I read “…Believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved, you and your household.” Acts 16:31. I dated that scripture 10/25/93. In the margin of that page I have written over the years, those who have come to the Lord: my son baptized 4-2-94; my mom, 6/1/94; my son-in-law 12/17/95. And while praying over one of my favorite scriptures, Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.” The Lord once again answered me, my grandchildren: Harlie 7/20/14 and Ben, 3/26/16.
Another time while driving on my commute to work in Milpitas, I would pray for my day ahead as my job was very challenging a lot of the time. So many times I would read these scriptures over and over “…Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. Isaiah 43:1-2 They would sustain me.
I continue to use God’s word for every decision and task for my life, along with prayer. It has sustained me, and spoken to me at every turn. Specifically, one time I was trying to make a decision about my job, whether to continue to work or to quit and take a long break. After pouring over the scriptures for days, the Lord spoke to me again. We happen to be driving down to southern California and I was looking out the window, thinking about my decision. Again I heard the Lord’s voice, “You have a choice.” Right then and there, I blurted out the words, I’m going to quit my job!
What I would like to leave at the conclusion of my life is that the Lord is Faithful! Faithful to His promises, faithful to provide for your needs, faithful to speak to your heart with his mercy, grace and affirmation of His great and awesome love. He choose me before the foundation of the world, how awesome is that! “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Psalm 139:16b.
Key Scripture
I want to pass on to the next generation, the wisdom of the scriptures. God has provided a book to help us live life the way he designed it, if we heed his words. And I leave you with this scripture that I pray sums up my life: “Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, Your might to all who are to come.” Psalm 71:17-18
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