During the summer of 2013, our Hiroshima Saniku Gakuin campus was in the middle of excavating a well. Located at an elevation of 450 meters, we get our water supply from eight onsite wells. The campus water is very delicious, for it comes from the well-conserved natural ground water system of Japan.
However, the amount of water available from the well has been decreasing over the past years. We speculated that we would not have enough water for the upcoming quarter and decided to drill another well. Two different places were drilled in hopes of finding a good water vein. However, the results did not meet our needs.
Hiroshima Saniku Gakuin Academy
Finally, at the end of the summer vacation, we bore another well at a completely different area and found a good water vein that yielded enough to accommodate our school. However, it was certain that the water would not be available for use at the start of the quarter, for we still needed to go through legal procedures and water quality examinations. Every day we prayed to God to guide and protect our water supply.
As students enthusiastically returned to campus, we began our second quarter. On September 4, it was a cloudy morning with sounds of thunder in the distance. It was 10:55 a.m. In five minutes, students would be outdoors on their break, transferring to their next classes. In the principal’s office, I was working with my back turned against the window. Suddenly, there was a sound of an explosion. I quickly turned to the window to see what had happened. There was yellow and white smoke coming out from behind the gym, and I knew that lightning had struck. “Did it strike the gym?”
I quickly called the gym and was relieved to hear that everyone there was safe. There was power failure everywhere, and an emergency all-call was made for the students to stay indoors and continue on with their morning classes. Shortly after the lightning strike, we found out that it had not struck the gym but the mobile phone antenna by the tennis court. We found pieces of concrete debris from the top portion of the antenna which had burst off because of the strike.
A Class of Hiroshima Saniku Gakuin Academy
Our academy is an all boarding school with faculty and staff also living on the same campus. Damage was reported from both school buildings and faculty houses. Fortunately, the electrical power returned in the afternoon, but as days passed we found more and more malfunctions. Water pumps, extension phone systems, external street lights, campus emergency broadcasting systems, and boiler systems in faculty housing had all been affected and damaged by the lightning. It was a great headache to even think about the cost of restoring all the damage on our campus.
However, we later began to discover many good things. That summer, we had just installed brand new computers in our computer lab, purchased with the funds that Pastor Kwon JeongHaeng from the Northern Asia-Pacific Division (NSD) had gathered for our academy. Amazingly, not a single computer had been affected. The boiler systems in the faculty housing that had been damaged were only the old boilers that had not been replaced.
One of our maintenance staff came and reported that something was happening to the water. I asked if the water supply had stopped. He replied, saying, “No, the water-well that was not producing water is now beginning to yield more than double the amount than before!” I could not believe his response. I asked him if the water meter had been damaged from the strike. He told me that initially he had thought the same and had checked the measuring system for any damages. However, the water meter was not affected and was measuring the water level accurately. I doubted my ears. The water in our well had begun to flow immediately after the lightning strike.
A group of students enjoy their class
Hallelujah! I knew that God had helped us. It has now been a year after the incident, and we have not had any trouble with the water level. The newly drilled well is now ready for use. The grand total of damages received on campus from this incident was equivalent to more than 5 million US dollars, but it turned out that the insurance company covered the entire cost of the damages.
In the beginning, this all appeared to be nothing but a terrible disaster. However, this one-time energy from the lightning allowed us to renew all the old systems to new ones, and the situation became a blessing. Being able to experience the miraculous work of God firsthand, in which He allowed lightning to strike the water vein to provide enough water for our campus, has become the most grateful experience of all.
Through this experience, we were once again assured that Hiroshima Saniku Gakuin is, indeed, a school God has intentionally built. “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58).
Shiro Onoue, Principal of Hiroshima Saniku Gakuin Academy and JUC Education Director