I thank the Lord for sending
great missionaries to Japan. Missionary Dave Marcum and his
family came to Japan in 1964. He started a church in our
hometown, Kakogawa, in 1970. My parents believed in Jesus
Christ through his ministry. I praise the Lord for this!
When my parents got saved, I was still in my mother's
belly. So, since I was born, I have been in church my
whole life. I thank the Lord for this wonderful privilege.
By the way, I met my wife in
the church nursery. We grew up together in the church
ministries. I received Christ as my personal Savior when I
was eight years old. My wife got saved when she was
11-years old. When I was ten years old, I got baptized and
made a decision to dedicate my life to the Lord.
Since I do love my country,
Japan, I wanted to serve the Lord in Japan, but the Lord
called me to foreign missions. It was so difficult for me
and took a long time to realize that even small churches
in Japan are given the Great Commission and the task of
world missions. By God's grace, when I was 20-years old, I
made a decision to dedicate my life to foreign missions.
Before I made this decision, I
had the privilege to visit churches in the Philippines and
Indonesia. Those experiences were surely used by God to
help me to make this decision. I naturally thought that
the Lord was calling me to go to one of the Asian
countries. But later, I found out God was leading me in a
different direction.
About the time I made the
decision to go to the foreign mission field, the Soviet
Union was about to collapse. I was almost forced to hear
and watch their tragic physical, moral, and spiritual mess
every day through newspapers, television and radio. God
gave me a huge burden for the people of the former Soviet
Union at that time. I understood the people in Russia were
really looking for something true and for a real purpose in
life. Then I heard of so many false religions and cults
going into the former Soviet Union, including
Oumu-Shinrikyo, influencing people there. That made me
very sad. But, at the same time I was so scared by the
thought that God might be calling me to Russia. I knew the
Japanese language and English, to some extent, but not
Russian language and culture! I thought, "how can I
go there?"
But God started speaking to my
heart clearly to go to the former Soviet Union. I
struggled with God's calling for more than a year. One day
as I was praying, God spoke to my heart with His own word,
"Be not afraid, only believe." Finally I could
say, "Lord, I can't do anything, but you can do
everything. Send this servant to where ever you
want." I surrendered myself to the Lord for missions
in the land of the former Soviet Union on April 12, 1992.
Then the Lord gave me a great
privilege to come to Trinity Baptist College to get
training to go to the mission field. By God's grace, I
graduated from Trinity May 8, 1996.
When I made the decision to go
to the former Soviet Union I did not know that Brother
Marcum, who started our church in Japan and led my parents
to the Lord, was having a missionary ministry there. When I
heard about this I was very excited. Then God provided us
a tremendous opportunity to go to Ukraine with Brother
Marcum in May of 1995. That was a great experience. I was
very impressed by the way TITUS was working in world
missions. Then in February of 1996 Brother Marcum
came to Jacksonville. At that time he was a great help to
me in planning my future missionary ministry, including
teaching me how to E-mail. This has become a great
communication tool for me and I appreciate what TITUS has
done to help me. Then Brother Marcum mentioned the
possibility of us becoming affiliated with TITUS. When I
heard this, I shook with joy. As far as I know, there are
no other missionaries to the former Soviet Union from
Japan.
On March 19, 1996 my wife and
I were accepted as missionaries to the former Soviet Union
with TITUS. Three days after graduation from Trinity we
went with the TITUS Team to Odessa, Ukraine. Our purpose
in going at that time was to work with them and then spend
four months on the field in language study and culture
adaptation, as well as minister in local churches in
Ukraine. It was a wonderful experience.
