Mission team brings Gospel message to the unreached in Japan

This summer, 15 Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary students partnered with missionaries to Japan and the Tokyo Baptist Church to reach the city’s college students and neighboring communities with the Gospel.

Although Tokyo is a thriving modern city with a metropolitan population of more than 13 million people, Japan is home to some of the world’s most unreached people groups. For both long-term missionaries and short-term mission teams, the cultural obstacles persist, but the people are not unreachable, says the Southwestern Seminary student team.

“Japan is a ‘hard place’ because there are so many barriers to the Gospel and Christianity,” says Master of Divinity student Brit Redfield. “But we still see the Lord work in mighty ways!”

Students spent their days studying Japanese history and religion from Associate Professor of Missions Mike Morris, meeting with missionaries, and engaging in campus and street evangelism, ultimately making 143 Gospel presentations. In an answer to prayers, 12 people made professions of faith and were connected with the Tokyo Baptist Church, a thriving international church in the city.

Redfield, who hopes to be a long-term missionary to the region, has participated in the Japan missions efforts for several years. Short-term mission trips can be difficult, she admits, as students must work against time and cultural differences. Some conversations come to an awkward and unsuccessful end, so many people believe, she says, that it is “too hard” to share the Gospel upon meeting someone for the first time. But Redfield says one of her encounters proves otherwise.

As Redfield and her fellow students prepared to finish a day of evangelism in the city, Redfield spotted a young woman sitting nearby. She approached the woman, made introductions, and asked a question the team had written on small white boards: “What is your dream?”

The woman smiled at the question and answered, “To be a flight attendant.”

Redfield encouraged the woman in her dream and said, “My dream is to live in Japan.” She then added, “I want to be a Bible teacher and share about Jesus Christ in Japan.”

Redfield had not planned to be so forthcoming in her response, but says she was compelled in the moment to do so. She began to share her Christian beliefs and presented the Gospel as simply as the message would allow.

“One thing we learned while doing evangelism in Japan is to not over-complicate it. The Gospel is simple,” Redfield says, adding that people do not need a lot of knowledge to be saved, just the simple yet life-changing truth of the Gospel.

After several minutes of discussion, the woman expressed an interest in following Jesus. However, the woman came from a Buddhist family, and as with many people in Japan, traditions were important to her despite any apathy toward religion. To further clarify, Redfield asked, “If you want to have a right relationship with God, you must only believe in Jesus. Would you like to believe in Jesus today?”

With some hesitation, the woman replied, “Today?” She considered the Gospel message for a moment and what its implications would be for her life, but finally asked, “How do you become a Christian?”

Redfield happily shared the Gospel with her once again and made sure the woman understood, and then finally led the woman in a prayer of salvation. The team rejoiced together for their new sister in Christ.

“After that, I encouraged her and told her that God is with her wherever she goes and that she can call upon Him at all times,” Redfield says. “She was so happy.”

Reflecting on this and many other encounters, Redfield emphasized the importance of sharing the Gospel during a first encounter, even in a culture where there may be suspicion before relationships are formed.

“Long-term missionaries and the local church do the long-term, everyday ministering,” Redfield says. “But short-termers bring in an urgency to share the Gospel immediately, the energy to do it, and the hands and feet to aid in doing larger events and projects.”

Elisabeth Palmer, a biblical studies student, described similar challenges as they shared the Gospel with people who believe in many gods, or expressed no need to follow God. Even while these challenges persisted, she says God worked in profound ways, as in the encounter with the young Buddhist woman.

“He reminded me that it is He who works in the individual heart; all He asks of me is to obey His command to share,” Palmer says. “Many seeds were planted in our time in Tokyo, and I was honored to be a part of it. Only heaven will tell of its fruit.”