Testimony as a Missionary
– Halfway-Around-the-World Reverse-Import Missionary –
Tomoyuki Kisaki
I was born in Kawasaki in 1971. Having moved three times before the age of six, I suppose I was destined to live that kind of life. I attended elementary and junior high school in Kyoto, but I don’t have any fond memories of that time. I didn’t attend cram school or participate in extracurricular activities. I didn’t have any friends, and my life was boring. I had no knowledge of Christianity. In elementary school, I had a friend who was a Jehovah’s Witness, and I thought that’s what it means to be a Christian.
At age 14, I had the opportunity to study abroad in the UK. I enrolled in a boarding school for boys, but everyone there drank alcohol, smoked cigarettes, chased after girls, and did whatever they wanted. Bullying younger students was almost officially approved. I was disappointed because I had gone all the way to the UK to escape the boredom of Japanese schools. People are the same everywhere, no matter the country. Everyone is bad. When I condemned humanity like that, I realized that I was part of it, too. Despair. I lost my motivation to study and felt there was no meaning in life. This led to a mental breakdown. Due to anxiety, I couldn’t go to the dining hall in the dormitory and instead hid in the library, nibbling on biscuits.
At that time, a Christian friend said, “You’ve been acting a bit strange lately. Can I pray for you?” I didn’t know how to pray, but since no one had ever offered to pray with me before, I prayed what he taught me . Surprisingly, my insomnia disappeared, and I slept soundly. “This must be God,” I thought. From then on, I started reading the Bible, and I came to believe in Jesus in about a month.
However, at that time, the Unification Church was notoriously active in Japan. Fearing I might be drawn into them, my parents banned everything except reading the Bible at home and attending the church service on Sunday. No prayer meeting, no fellowship in church or university Christian group, etc. I was all by myself, a lonely Christian.
During those three years, however, my faith was shaped by consistently reading the Bible and praying to God. My faith became such that I didn’t rely on any human or compare myself with others or care about their opinions. I didn’t know it at the time, but that was God’s plan.
At that time, however, no matter how much I read the Bible or prayed, I couldn’t understand it or hear God’s voice. I fell into a state of resignation, thinking that being a Christian was impossible for me. I moved from church to church, and the last one I went to was the Assembly of God (and I didn’t even know what it meant.)
But seeing the faith of the people there, I prayed that I could believe in God like they did. Even though no one was praying for me, I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I didn’t understand what had happened, so I cautiously told the pastor. He explained the theology of the baptism of the Holy Spirit from the Book of Acts, and it made sense to me.
After receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I lost interest in everything except evangelism. Even chess and fencing, which I once loved, no longer brought me joy. I let go of the chess pieces and swords without any regret. For three years after becoming a Christian, I couldn’t invite anyone to church. Now, I find myself evangelizing to everyone I met on the street. I realized that was not my own strength.
At university, I majored in sociology and social policy. I participated in feeding the homeless and there I saw people taking marijuana for the first time. After studying for three years, I wrote my thesis on homelessness, yet nothing improved. No matter how much welfare you provide, society won’t improve unless people’s hearts are changed. I realized evangelism was the only way.
I wanted to share the Gospel with Japanese people like myself, who don’t have any Christian friends and don’t know where churches are. When I decided to return to Japan, I was advised to attend a seminary in Asia, so I went to the Philippines.
There, I met Olive. I proposed to her on the third day of our courtship. She said, “Wait” and we got married a year later. At APTS, I met two professors whom I respect as my mentors, but honestly, what I learned from living among Filipinos after getting married and moving out of the dorm (with no refrigerator or washing machine and no toilet paper for six months!) and going on mission trips to the mountains (where bedridden people got up and demons appeared!) was more useful than what I learned in school.
When I returned to Japan and started sharing the Good News, the people who gathered were facing serious issues such as gambling addiction, alcoholism, homelessness, mental illness, and suicide attempts. At one point, eleven out of twelve residents in a six-room apartment came to church, but it was like juggling — I couldn’t keep up. To nurture them as disciples of Christ, I realized that we had to live together. In 2007, I rented a house in Okinawa and started Teen Challenge. For the first six months, I commuted by plane from Tokyo.
On March 11, 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake struck. We went to Sendai to bring some relief goods, but when we saw the devastation, we couldn’t help but go back again. We ended up goint to Higashimatsushima every week for six months. Since then, We’ve responded to disasters such as the 2014 Hiroshima landslide, the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake, the 2018 West Japan floods, and the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake.
We built the Teen Challenge residential center in Okayama and moved there in 2013. However, when Covid hit, no new students came and thus no income. I prayed, “What should I do?” and the Lord led us to pioneer a church. With the whole country in lockdown, how could I possibly gather people? I took a chance and asked a nearby dance studio, and they let us have church service there. So Hope Center Okayama began in November 2021.
As more families faced economic hardship due to the pandemic, we started a food pantry ministry to distribute food. It was once a week to start off with, but has grown to be a four-times-a-week ministry that connects non-Christians to Hope Center.
By responding to social needs, people can experience God’s power and the love of Jesus and find salvation.
“In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds, and praise your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:16
※ This is a translation from the original Japanese by DeepL.com (free), with a little editing.
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