长谷川春惠（音译，Hasegawa Harue）

美味的福音

自从我在美国阿拉巴马州（Alabama）的复临健康中心学会如何过健康的生活后，我也开始计划在日本开一间可以帮助人们更健康的餐馆。

先前我和丈夫从日本飞到美国阿拉巴马州某健康中心见复临教会医师，就是为了去寻求医治我丈夫癌症的治疗方法。当时我是一名复临信徒，但我的丈夫不是基督徒。

我们在那段时间开始吃纯素的食物和运动，发现身体有了改变。我的体重下降了很多，并且还帮助我的丈夫戒了烟。他开始看《圣经》并且在健康中心接受了洗礼。

但很不幸，我的丈夫在受洗一个礼拜后就过世了，终年56岁。我心里感到非常难过，但同时也感到喜乐，因为我们都答应对方将来要在天国相聚。

我回到日本后算了算积蓄，发现要是以现有的钱来维持生活很充裕。因为日本只有百分之一的人口是基督徒，我便开始想如何使用这笔金钱在这里作传福音的工作。我开始祷告询问上帝：“亲爱的主，我能为祢做什么？”

一天，我在灵修时读到了《圣经》以赛亚书55章13节的经文：“松树长出，代替荆棘；番石榴长出，代替蒺藜。这要为耶和华留名，作为永远的证据，不能剪除。”

就在那一刻，我知道自己想做的是开一间餐馆，能让人们感觉更健康、更开心，就像我在阿拉巴马州时的感觉一样。或许我也能用此方式将福音带给他们。我用了经文里的一个字给店取了名，就是“番石榴”（Myrtle，亦称芭乐)。

同一天，我在自己位于东京郊外的家乡城镇街道散步时，偶然看到了一块要售出的空地，空地附近还有另外三间复临教会，这实在是绝佳地点！于是我买下了这块地，随后也请人盖了一间餐馆。

但老实说，我对如何经营一家餐馆根本一无所知。我参加了一个本会的素食烹饪班，接着就开始设计餐馆的菜单。

在营业的第一天来了大量的顾客，但由于我缺乏经营餐馆的经验，导致店里一片混乱。其中一名客人是我过去的保险客户。他看见我的处境，就请了他认识的一位餐馆老板过来协助我，并提供了我不少帮助！

餐馆的生意还不错，番石榴是东京少数的全素食餐馆之一。我早上会照常地从事我原本的保险工作，大约早上十一点到下午两点就会去店里服务午餐时段的客户。结束后就持续做保险业务。当然，我们在安息天是不营业的。

在这个地方也我不仅有机会提供人健康的食物。我有一位患了乳癌的客户，经常会询问关于健康生活的一些资讯，我常常提供她复临教会出版的健康书籍。还有另一位客户是一位单身女性。当我得知她想认识朋友，我就邀请她来到教会，至今她也参加了好几次的聚会。这间餐馆最主要的目的就是引领人走向耶稣基督。怀爱伦说：“我们必须将餐馆设立在城市之中，否则在餐馆里面的员工根本没有机会接触到外面的人群并且教导他们正确生活原则。”（《信息选粹》卷二，原文142页）这就是我设立这间餐馆的理由。这是上帝的餐馆，是祂帮助我经营，而店主就是耶稣。

来源：本文译自《圣工消息》(社会青年季刊) 2021年第四季

Tasty Gospel Message

I wanted to open a restaurant in Japan where people could become healthier, just as I had become healthier at an Adventist health resort in the U.S. state of Alabama.

You see, my husband and I flew from our home in Japan to Alabama to seek treatment for his cancer. I was a Seventh-day Adventist, and I had heard that Adventist doctors working at a health resort might be able to help. My husband wasn’t a Christian.

As we ate vegan food and exercised, our bodies began to change. I lost a lot of weight. My husband quit smoking. He also began to read the Bible and was baptized at the institute.

My husband died a week after his baptism. He was only 56. I was sad, but I was also happy because we had agreed to meet again in heaven.

Returning to Japan, I counted my savings and realized that I had more than enough to live on. I wanted to use my money to spread the gospel in Japan, where only one percent of the population is Christian. So, I started praying, “Dear God, what should I do?”

One day, I read Isaiah 55:13 during my devotions. This verse says, “Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off” (NKJV).

At that moment, I knew that I wanted to open a restaurant where I could help people become healthier and feel better just as I had in Alabama. Maybe I also could win their confidence and point them to Jesus. I decided to name the restaurant Myrtle after that verse in Isaiah.

That same day, I walked down a street in my hometown just outside Tokyo and saw a plot of land for sale. It was a perfect location, near three Adventist churches. I bought the vacant lot and paid for the restaurant to be built.

To be honest, I knew nothing about the restaurant business, so I attended an Adventist vegetarian cooking school to get some ideas and then created my own meals for the restaurant.

A good-sized crowd showed up on opening day, but it was chaos inside. I still knew nothing about running a restaurant. One of the diners, a former insurance client, knew someone who owned a nearby café and asked the owner to help me. She helped a lot!

Business has been good. Myrtle is one of the few totally vegetarian restaurants in the Tokyo area. I go to my insurance job in the morning. Then I go to the restaurant at 11 a.m. and serve lunchtime customers until 2 p.m. After that, I return to my insurance job. The restaurant is closed on Sabbath, of course.

This restaurant has given me the opportunity to do more than provide healthy food. One regular diner has breast cancer, and she asked for information about a healthy lifestyle. I shared some Adventist literature with her. Another diner, a single woman, told me that she was looking for new friends. I invited her to visit my church, and she has come several times. The main goal of the restaurant is to lead people to Jesus. Ellen White says, “Our restaurants must be in the cities, for otherwise the workers in these restaurants could not reach the people and teach them the principles of right living” (Selected Messages, Vol. 2, p. 142). That’s why I started this restaurant. This is God’s restaurant. God is helping me run it, and the owner is Jesus.

Please find the original article at: https://am.adventistmission.org/mqa21q4-12