Our family had a bit of a shock this week when our daughter suddenly got admitted to hospital with an emergency surgery. It got me thinking…

Hello, and welcome to the Bless Your Mind podcast. I’m Isis, from Canada, currently residing in Sapporo Japan. I work in the media and volunteer at a local Christian church here in Hokkaido, and through this podcast, we hope to share short stories that can uplift you, help you refocus on the good in the world, and hold on to hope. Through this English and Japanese podcast, learn some new phrases, and be ready to get encouraged! We hope to Bless your Mind.

It’s Summer, August! What have you been up to? It’s Obon holidays this week in Japan, where people take a few days off to visit their family homes, think of their deceased loved ones, and pay their respects. Every country is different when it comes to funerals and remembering or honoring the deceased.

In Mexico and by Mexican-Americans in the US, Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a two-day holiday. People celebrate the lives of loved ones who have died through special foods, parades, festivals, and dancing. Some visit the graves of loved ones, cleaning them, and offering food and drinks their loved ones used to enjoy. It is believed that during Día de los Muertos, the souls of the deceased return to this world to visit the living.

That sounds similar to Obon here in Japan. Usually, in the second week of August, 2-3 days are taken off to visit hometowns. It is believed that ancestors come back to visit the living. Many people visit the graves of their family members, or participate in a local Obon dance at a park or community center, wearing Yukata. In some places, they light lanterns or make big bonfires to guide visiting spirits back to the land of the dead. Some families in Japan have a Buddhist altar in their house, and they pay their respects there, lighting incents and ringing a bell. Many people think of Obon in Japan as time off to visit family in their hometowns, or one of the most expensive times to travel nationwide…

Well, Our family had a bit of a scare this week when our daughter suddenly got admitted to hospital with an emergency surgery. The nurse had to tell me the chances of her possibly dying due to this reason or that. What happened was, that my daughter got very sick, and even with an IV, she wouldn’t get better. Her stomach hurt very much, and she felt nauseous, unable to eat for over a day, as everything came back out again, (if you heard last week’s episode, you could imagine my horror at that…). So I went with her to the hospital, and long story short, she had to get her appendix removed. It was a common and simple procedure. And she is now fully recovered, thank God!!

But it got me thinking… ‘Will she die today?’ Of course, I didn’t want to think that, so I immediately prayed for peace. And I was very grateful I could stay calm the whole time.

But I get asked this question a lot as a Christian, “What happens after we die?”

Well, the good news is, that God loves us, and he wants to take care of us. He promises anyone who would like to join him in heaven, they can, just by believing in his son, Jesus. Some people think they have to be perfect human beings to be able to go to a perfect heaven, but that’s impossible. I’m definitely not perfect! But it’s not my good works that get me to heaven, it’s just my faith and my decision that I want to believe in Jesus. So if ever you are in a life or death situation, I recommend calling out “Jesus, help!”

In the Bible, it explains that when we die, our soul separates from our bodies, and in heaven, we get new healthy bodies. There’s no sickness, no tears, no pain, and no loneliness in heaven. There’s peace and joy. There’s even a new earth, a paradise. I believe we can even have jobs in heaven, doing the things we love and spending eternity with the people we love, with our families, too.

I have one Christian friend from Malaysia whose grandmother passed away, and she told me when she went to the funeral, it was a celebration. There were some tears when they said goodbye, but they knew they could meet again in heaven. So her family remembered the good times and focused on celebrating her life, instead of mourning her death. Wow!

I’ll finish with the most famous Bible verse in the world: