“Mom, it’s time to get rid of this god in our kitchen!” I say.

“We can’t do such things, our ancestors will be mad,” she replies.

This is a regular conversation between my mom and me that has been going on for many years. In my mother’s house, she has the “god of fire” or Hinokan, which is worshipped in our kitchen. This god of fire lives in our kitchen! I saw it every day growing up as a child, and I see it when I visit home. In Okinawa, traditional shamanistic practices are still prevalent, and many Okinawans believe in many unseen gods, demons and ancestral spirits. Many seek guidance from this god of fire before making an important decision. The people believe that if the gods are not appeased, they can bring harm to a family or an individual. So they consistently live in fear.

When I became a Christian, I threw away all beliefs, rituals and customs my family taught me because they were contrary to the Bible. The Spirit of God slowly showed me the truth, and I had to get rid of things that are not of God. There was an intense internal struggle. The fear of losing my friends and family, superstitious beliefs I held all my life, and the thought that the god of fire might curse me and my family for abandoning it was a constant, haunting presence.

“If you return to the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the Lord, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines. So the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and served the Lord only” (1 Samuel 7:3-4). Passages like this became a beacon, reassuring me that true deliverance and peace came from serving the Lord alone.

My heart’s deepest prayer is for my mother to encounter Jesus. If she were to truly meet Him, I believe with all my being that the god in her kitchen would be willingly put away, replaced by a heart fully given to the one true God. There are countless individuals in Japan, like my mother, who have yet to encounter the transformative power of Jesus. The hope is that through personal testimony, compassionate engagement, and the unwavering power of the Holy Spirit, more Japanese hearts will open to Jesus. When they do, the fears of angry ancestors and appeased deities will dissipate, replaced by the peace and joy of knowing the one true God.

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