God makes the impossible possible on Japan mission trip

Because the Japanese are the second largest unreached people group in the world, there has been an influx of missionaries to the nation of Japan in recent times. Unfortunately, this has resulted in increased security measures, particularly on college campuses, that hinder religious activities. So, when the 12-member mission team from Southwestern Seminary deployed to Japan earlier this summer with the intention of reaching university students, they feared that their opportunities for sharing the Gospel had been severely limited.

“But we trusted in God for providing appointments with the right people,” explains master’s student Ariel Lee, who was the trip’s logistics leader. “God definitely answered our prayers! In the three weeks [we were there], even though we shared the Gospel fewer times than previous trips [because of the restrictions], we had five people pray to receive Christ. It was an encouragement to see that even though we shared the Gospel less, God was able to bring much fruit.”

A full-time missionary to Japan prior to his coming to Southwestern, Lee is the one who initially proposed the idea of sending mission teams from Southwestern to Japan. The Fish School of Evangelism and Missions faculty liked the proposal, and the first team, comprising seven members, deployed in the summer of 2015 to Nagoya to work alongside two International Mission Board missionaries on college campuses (see here). This year, from May 14-June 2, a second team went forth, engaged in much of the same ministry tasks, and saw even more encouraging results.

Lee says the reason the Southwestern team focuses its ministry efforts on college students is because they are more accessible and more open to the Gospel than any other group in the country. “Working adults have 70-hour work weeks and no time to meet,” Lee says. “High school and younger students go to campuses that are heavily guarded by security with few chances to disciple the youth. College students also come from all around the nation to study and may go back to their home villages; how great it would be if they could also bring back the Gospel!”

One student the team met on a college campus already called herself a Christian. After developing a friendship with her, the Southwestern students invited her to join them for dinner at a restaurant. She accepted the invitation, and she brought some of her friends to the meal, as well.

“After dinner, our students were able to have deeper conversations with the Japanese friends and shared the Gospel with them,” Lee says. “The girl who thought she was a Christian heard the Gospel for the first time, and she decided to surrender her life to Christ.”

This three-week trip was master’s student Kate Li’s first overseas mission trip with the school. “I am an international student, so it is a lot of work to get visas,” explains Li, who came to Southwestern from China. “[But] a friend of mine, who went to Japan before, encouraged me to try and see what God would do for me—even financially provide for me—if I took the first step. It was a lot of work, but through that, God taught me patience, and it was amazing to see God opening doors for me. He blessed me more than I expected or deserved.”

One of the primary blessings for Li was the opportunity to minister to Chinese students in her native language. “Though I don’t speak much Japanese, I was able to meet a few Chinese friends and minister to them, and one of them became a new brother in Christ,” Li says. “Through that, I got to see God make the impossible possible, and He taught me that He Himself is the one who prepares the hearts of the lost.”

Li continues, “I thought it was interesting to meet Chinese people in Japan and be able to minister in Chinese when I thought I was useless. God can be humorous.”