The Gift of Rio (The Gift of the Elements)

by C. S. Elston

  Rio asked if Luke worked at the airport since he had mentioned not being on a plane that day, he clearly didn’t have to get on one since they were now sharing a meal, and he seemed to know an awful lot about the airport. But, Luke explained that he simply spent a lot of time there. He had been in and out of it several times himself but, even more, he had picked people up and dropped them off there too many times to count. The real surprise came when Rio learned why - Luke was a Christian missionary.

  He grew up in the southwestern corner of Torrance, a city in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County, California. The house he lived in for his entire childhood was near a place called Rat Beach. It was wonderful that they shared a love for the water and beaches in common. Luke was even a surfer. He was constantly surprising Rio.

  He was third generation American and grew up in a Christian home with loving parents. Much to the dismay of his great-grandparents, Luke’s grandparents had converted from Buddhism to Christianity at Billy Graham’s first crusade in 1949. The crusade was held in a tent they called a canvas cathedral at the corner of Washington and Hill streets south of downtown Los Angeles. Luke considered it a privilege to be born into a family with the Christian foundation already in place. When he learned, as a teenager, that the country of his ancestors was about 35% Buddhist, 4% Shinto, 1% other religions including Christianity and the other 60% didn’t identify with any religion at all, he immediately felt called to go to Japan and share the love of Jesus Christ. But, he was determined to do it all the way. So, he finished high school and moved to Pasadena where he attended Fuller Theological Seminary. He stayed until he completed his Master of Arts in Theology and Ministry. Then, he hooked up with an organization called Christian Youth Outreach International. They put on sports camps around the world for anyone under the age of eighteen who wanted to attend. While there, the kids learned how to be better athletes. And, they also learned that there is a God who loves them. Luke had been working with CYOI for two years now and his passion for it had only grown stronger.

  Rio was amazed at his story. She had never met anyone like him. And, Luke was equally fascinated with her story. He had never met anyone like her either. He didn’t seem to bat an eye when she admitted that religion had never been a part of her life. She half expected to feel judged but, the judgment never came. In fact, Luke offered to be something of a tour guide and drive her around – even help her find a place to stay. They were amazed when they realized three hours had passed and quickly decided that the adventure they were going to now take together should not be delayed any further. With that, Luke and Rio officially left Hawaii behind and stepped outside into Osaka, Japan.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Old Church Van

  Rio stopped and stared as Luke approached the silver van with black, red and orange stripes on the side. It was a 1988 Toyota Master Ace Surf that had been lowered on BBS mesh wheels. It had windows all the way around that almost made it look like a space ship in a mid-nineteen-eighties b-movie. The two sets of side windows in the back and the rear window all had curtains hanging in it that, at one time, probably matched the orange stripe on the side but had since faded with years of direct sunlight.

  “This is yours?” Rio finally asked, unsure if she should laugh hysterically, show her complete disgust, or run for her life.

  “Yeah,” Luke stated without thinking anything of it as he opened the rear hatch and placed Rio’s bags inside before closing it and turning to face her. “Well, it belongs to the ministry, actually. Why?”

  “It’s a little creepy, don’t you think?”

  “Creepy?”

  “Definitely. Like, hey kid you want some candy, creepy.”

  “What? No way.”

  “Yes way.”

  “This is the kind of ride rock stars take on tour.”

  “By that, do you mean to say, this is the kind of ride garage bands take to their first out of town gig because the drummer borrowed it from his uncle who, the day before, was asking kids if they want some candy?”

  “Well, thanks a lot. The next time I pick up kids to take them to basketball camp, I’m going to feel like a complete low-life.”

  “Oh,” Rio started with a silly grin that feigned shame, “I’m sorry.”

  “Sure you are. Maybe you just need to hear the soundtrack.”

  “The soundtrack?”

  “Yeah. Audio Adrenaline plays the van’s theme song.”

  “Audio who?”

  “Audio Adrenaline. Christian rock band.”

  “Never heard of ‘em.”

  Luke walked around to the passenger side of the van, unlocked the door, and opened it for his guest. “Hop in. I’ll introduce you.”

  “Okay. But, if I get in and find a big bag full of candy I’m getting back out and running away as fast as I can.”

  “Deal.”

  Rio climbed inside and glanced around at the grey carpeting and matching cloth seats. She didn’t see any candy. Good sign, she decided as Luke shut the door and walked around to the driver’s side.

  She briefly thought about how weird it was to be sitting on the left side of the front of the car but not be the driver. But that passed as Luke climbed inside the van, shut his door, started the engine, ejected a compact disc from the stereo and reached across Rio’s lap to open the glove box. He pulled out two jewel cases, opened a brown one called Jesus Freak by a band named DC Talk, and inserted the disc from the stereo. He then opened the other jewel case and removed the disc inside before closing it again and putting both jewel cases back in the glove box. Rio closed the glove box as Luke put the second disc into the stereo. She noticed that the name of the new album was Some Kind of Zombie by the band he had mentioned just a moment ago, Audio Adrenaline.

  “Ready?” Luke asked.

  “For the Mystery Machine’s theme song?” Rio fired back, flirtatiously.

  Luke did his best impression of Scooby Doo’s laugh which nearly dropped Rio’s jaw into her lap.

  “Okay,” she stated in amazement. “I did not see that coming.”

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” Luke said with a grin as he hit the button on the stereo to bump it up to track number six before hitting play.

  It took a moment for the stereo to get the CD going and then catch the right track. But, when it finally did, the first twenty-three seconds of the song were all build-up. It started with an eight second, single electric guitar strum on just one string, drawn out with a slow-moving wow-wow bar. The following fifteen seconds included an up-tempo intro that Rio thought sounded almost like a mash-up of pop, rock, ska, and punk.

  But, then the first vocals came in with the lyrics “Fourteen kids in an old church van . . . ” and she and Luke started laughing like two old friends.

  “Okay,” Rio admitted. “I totally get it now.”

  “Good,” Luke stated as if declaring a major victory.

  Rio was surprised by how much she liked the music but, even more, by how much she had instantly connected with Luke. The whole thing was so unexpected but so incredibly welcome. A trip she was already thrilled to be taking had now become even more exciting and enjoyable because of this chance-encounter with a stranger in a foreign airport. She smiled to herself as she once again thought about how it felt like a romantic comedy cliché. But, here she was, living it.

  “So,” Luke began to ask, “where’s our first stop?”

  The question snapped Rio out of her thought process and forced her to change gears. “Oh,” she exclaimed as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, “right. Um . . . I have it circled on this map. My mom said an address wouldn’t work like it does back home.”

  “She’s right,” Luke agreed. “Most of the streets don’t have a name and the buildings aren’t numbered sequentially. Totally different system over here. Cities are all divided into Ku and Machi.”

  “What?” Rio asked as she finished unfolding the map and handed it to Luke while pointing at one of the circled locat
ions on it.

  “Um,” Luke responded as he took the map, “they’re like wards.” He looked at the map for a few seconds before commenting. “Yeah, I think we can find this.”

  With a wink, he tossed the map on the dash, reached his left hand down, shifted into reverse, checked the mirrors and, with a glance over his shoulders, backed out of the parking spot. As the music transitioned into a much more mellow song Luke said was called “Lighthouse,” the van rolled out of the airport and onto the Hanshin Expressway, headed south toward the house her mom once lived in with Sota Tanaka. The very same house in which Rio was conceived.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Details

  Over Pipikaula, Rio had told Luke a lot about herself. She had even shared her reason for being in Japan. Of course, she left out the part about the prophecy and the fact that she had gone to bed the previous night with poor eyesight and awakened that morning with perfect vision and the ability to move water with her mind. But, other than those not-so-minor details, she had pretty much given him an accurate account. He knew that her mother considered her father to be a bad person but, that Rio wanted to find him and decide for herself. Luke thought that made her a brave young woman.

  Rio had also learned a lot about Luke. But, now she wanted to pry a little more and find out what made him want to do what he was doing with his life.

  “So, how do you know God exists?” she asked boldly.

  “Do you think He doesn’t?” Luke responded, scrunching his eyebrows.

  “I’m not necessarily saying that,” she stated, contemplating.

  “Because, I think to know that, you’d have to be God yourself. Which, makes it impossible.”

  “Whoa. What?”

  “I mean, you’d have to simultaneously be everywhere and know everything in order to have the amount of information necessary to truly and emphatically know that God doesn’t exist. And, if you were everywhere at once and had total knowledge and awareness, that would make you God. Are you God?”

  “Nope. And, that was quite the philosophical smack down you just laid on me. So, thanks for that.”

  “I didn’t mean it that way,” Luke said with a chuckle.

  “I guess I just don’t know for sure one way or the other,” Rio admitted. “I’m assuming, as a missionary, you believe pretty firmly that He does exist.”

  “Correct.”

  “How?”

  “How what? How did I reach that conclusion?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, I was raised in a Christian home. But, that doesn’t mean I was always truly a Christian. I had my time of doubt before I made a real commitment.”

  “That makes me feel a little better,” Rio said with a grin.

  “The things I was being taught in church and the things I was being taught in school didn’t always align. That bothered me. I wasn’t sure if one was completely true and the other was completely false or, if both had gotten parts right and parts wrong. So, I started doing some deep thinking on my own.”

  “Is that how you got so philosophical?” Rio teased.

  “Maybe,” Luke acknowledged with a grin forming on his face. “I did quite a bit of research and a lot of praying. I asked God to, if He was real, show me what the truth was.”

  “And?”

  “And, it started to slowly make more and more sense.”

  “What did?”

  “Well, the first thing that hit me was the question of why is there something rather than nothing. Why does anything exist at all? And, how could it be an accident when all of the details are just so.”

  “The details?”

  “The details. A caterpillar has two hundred and forty-eight individual muscles in its head alone. Each human eye has over two million working parts. There are over four hundred billion stars in our galaxy and something like a hundred and seventy billion galaxies in our universe. Now, obviously, most of that hasn’t been explored yet but, so far, the most complex object we can find is the human brain. How could all those details have happened by chance? We’re no accident, Rio. And, ultimately, the conclusion I came to was that the Bible offers the best answer.”

  “But, what if the Bible is wrong?”

  “First of all, what if it’s not? Second, it is truthful in all areas open to investigation. It’s philosophically consistent and all its historical, geographical and scientific claims have already been verified as factual. Even its prophecies, end-time events of course excluded because they haven’t happened yet, have all come true. If it holds up in every area we can test it in, why would we assume anything other than that it holds up in the areas we can’t test it in, too?”

  “You’re right. That does make sense. I still don’t know though.”

  “Besides, we know from observational evidence that the universe is expanding and, therefore, had a beginning. That means it clearly isn’t eternal. It had to come into existence by way of something else that existed before it. The scientific law of cause and effect also tells us that the effect can’t be greater than the cause. So, whatever brought the universe into being is greater than the universe itself. This is true of everything in the physical universe. Nothing exists that is not dependent on something else for its existence. To explain the existence of the dependent, non-eternal universe and everything in it, knowing again that it did have a beginning, there must be an independent and eternal Creator. And, like I said before, the Bible gives me the most satisfying answer for that. So, the only conclusion I could draw from there was that the Judeo-Christian God revealed in it is very real.”

  Rio watched him as he talked. If nothing else, she admired his intelligence, passion and certainty. And, she could see how he arrived at the conclusion that he had. Still, she had more questions than answers. Finally, she decided to get after one of the big ones.

  “So, that Judeo-Christian God is supposed to be all about love and peace and stuff, right?”

  “Yep. He is perfect in love, holiness, goodness, justice, wisdom . . . I could keep going.”

  “I’m sure. But, let’s focus on the part where you say He’s perfect in love. Doesn’t the existence of suffering and hatred and all forms of evil prove that perfect in love God must not be real?”

  “Not at all.”

  “Well, I can’t wait to hear this.”

  “Good,” Luke said with the least annoying smirk Rio had ever seen. “Captive audience.”

  “No doubt.”

  “Let me start with a question.”

  “Okay.”

  “How do you know what evil is?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We can agree that murder is evil, right? Please say yes. Otherwise, I may have to pull this sweet ride over and let you out. For my own safety, of course.”

  “Have no fear. We can definitely agree that murder is evil.”

  “Good. But, how do we both know that?”

  “We just do.”

  “Ready for me to get philosophical again?”

  “Go for it.”

  “For us to both know that, a moral standard has to exist beyond us. In other words, without a moral absolute that exists outside of human consciousness, we would never be able to determine right from wrong in any universal sense. Yet anthropology and sociology tell us that there is in fact a universal standard of behavior in all people throughout history regardless of religion or culture. I believe that universal moral code originated with God and He summarized it for us in the Ten Commandments about thirty-five hundred years ago. Unfortunately, there is also sin in our nature. Therefore, when we follow our own standards of behavior, we tend to do evil. But, this is more proof for, not against, the existence of God. Because, if morality were truly relative, if it changed with culture or time, there would be no worldwide continuity. Instead, we have a God who judges perfectly what is right and wrong. He doesn’t change. Therefore, our moral standard doesn’t change. He is the law-giver. Evil exists because we are often law-breakers.”

  Rio continu
ed to listen. It was striking a chord because he was saying things that she hadn’t thought about before and it all made sense. But, that didn’t make it true. This was going to require a lot more mulling over. She was so deep in thought that she didn’t even realize that the car had slowed down and then suddenly came to a complete stop.

  “We’re here.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Stepping Up To The Plate

  Rio suddenly felt like her heart was going to burst out of her chest as she looked out the window and realized she had made it. It had all started with a swim in the Wailuku River. That’s when the idea for this trip had come to her. And, now, here she was. She was parked in front of the house that her mother had lived in when she was married to Sota Tanaka. The same house in which Rio was conceived. And, the same house her mother had fled when she left Japan for America.

  “Oh,” she quickly started, “I'm here. I’m actually here.”

  “Uh-huh,” Luke agreed. “Now what?”

  “I don’t know,” Rio admitted as she looked closer and began to doubt that this really was the correct house. “I guess I go up to the door. Although, this doesn’t really look like the picture my mom showed me. Are you sure this is it?”

  “Pretty sure. Did you bring the picture?”

  “No but, this isn’t how I remember it.”

  ”Well, it’s the spot circled on your map. A lot of the houses in Japan aren’t built to last. Some of them are torn down every twenty to thirty years so, it’s very possible this is the same location but a completely different house.”