Coins for Joyce
by Cheryl Johnson Barton
Everybody loves a baby. Whether it’s their toothless grins and their chubby, open-armed acceptance of anyone who smiles back, their inherent cuteness that can coax a smile from even grumpy passersby, or something else, everybody loves a baby. Which is why I felt a momentary disappointment when we received the paperwork for Mrs. Hanajima’s new Children of Promise sponsor child, Joyce. From Tanzania, the nation with the most Children of Promise sponsorships, Joyce is a teenager, definitely not a baby.
But to Hanajima-san, Joyce was perfect.
“I’m so happy,” she told me as she held Joyce’s photo in her hand. “If I’d been given a little one, I’m not sure I’d live to see her to grow up. But I believe God will allow me to see Joyce through to independence.”
It had been a couple of months earlier that I’d shared my disgust over a newspaper article I’d read with the women’s group at Hagiyama Church of God in Tokyo. The writer reported about the study by some scientists who’d discovered how to get cows to stop burping noxious gasses that were contributing to the thinning of the ozone layer. It would cost only one dollar a day per cow. I was horrified! One dollar a day per cow? What about all the children in the world dying of malnutrition? Amazing—maybe even miraculous—things could be done with a dollar per day per person, but this group of scientists was devoted to cows. I was not only horrified, I was angry, so I challenged the women to think about what they could do in Christ’s name with one dollar a day, roughly one hundred yen—the price of a bottle of water or a can of soda pop in Japan.
Hanajima-san’s heart was touched. The servant-hearted mother and grandmother decided she must put her feelings into action. From that day onwards, she began saving a one-hundred yen coin daily. “I want to sponsor someone through Children of Promise,” she told me, joining a small group of Church of God women in Japan who are Children of Promise sponsors.
Every month when I visit Hagiyama Church, Hanajima-san greets me with a wonderful smile, a warm hug (despite being a traditional Japanese who usually bows instead of hugs), and her cup of thirty coins dedicated for Joyce. Doubtless, Hanajima-san will never meet Joyce; she’s in her seventies and not in the best of health. But day after day as she puts a one-hundred yen coin into a slotted plastic cup, Hanajima-san sends her love and prayers to Tanzania through Children of Promise. How wonderful to know that this sending of hearts and prayers is happening all around the world because of Children of Promise.
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