For Sho

"Dear friends,
Today at around 2:30PM, Sho Ishii passed away.
All along he had been doing so well. And today Kaoru said that he was singing praise songs and dancing. But then he got a stomach pain and just a few minutes later, he lost consciousness. The doctors worked hard to revive him, but they couldn't. Kaoru was there with him and Seiji got there just in time to see him before he passed on. Kaoru said, "Papa is here," Sho opened his eyes one last time and that was it.
The official report is that Sho died from heart failure from complications of pneumonia. But they really don't know what happened. Everyone was shocked. I helped Seiji at the hospital. The nurse in charge led us to the room where Sho was and there were two rows of nurses around Sho; they were weeping. It was a moving moment. Everyone loved Sho because Sho loved everyone and was such a bright shining light in his ward.
Please uphold Seiji, Kaoru and Saki."




Life can really be so unpredictable. Its one of the classical cliches, that somehow always still manges to catch us by surprise whenever it throws one of its twists into our lives.

I had a really really good day yesterday, all in all. Right until I went home to read the email about how Seiji's son, Sho, suddenly passed away from complications of pneumonia. He contracted leukemia a couple of years ago, and had only recently undergone bone-marrow transplant. Everything was looking good, and there were plans to release him from the hospital, when he suddenly developed stomach pains, then he was gone in moments. He had just turned 5 two weeks ago.

Seiji has been one of the only people from Nagoya I still pray for, ever since I learnt about Sho. I get regular updates from Jody about the ministry there, and I keep up, every now and then praying for them when there's a need. But I had made a point to try and consistently keep Sho in prayer. So it comes as twice a shock and blow to learn that he's passed away so suddenly.

Guess we can only pray for Seiji's family now, that God will bring them His peace and comfort after their period of mourning, and that they will be able to continue to trust His heart.