My Journey of Becoming a Missionary in Japan
From a town in the mountains of the Cordellira in Benguet, Philippines to being a missionary in Japan
Olivia Lagman Kisaki
My name is Olivia Lagman Kisaki. Family and friends call me Olive. I come from the mountainous region of Northern Luzon, Philippines which is collectively called “Cordillera.” Particularly, in the province of Benguet and in a town called Mankayan.
I was born in a Christian family. For as long as I can remember, we held church service in our house every Sunday. Itinerant evangelists, missionaries pastors and Bible school students would drop by or stay in our house. They would share the word of God as well as their testimonies. These spiritual inputs made a deep impression on my young mind. When I was in grade 3 in elementary school, a pastor and his family came to pioneer a church in our town. Our family became the first members. When I was 9 years old, I surrendered my life to the Lord Jesus Christ during Kids Camp. After that, I got baptized with the Holy Spirit. It was then that I began to feel a stir in my heart that I didn’t understand what it was at the time. I got to know it later, in my mid teens, as the “call of God” in my life.
My home church is an Assembly of God pastored by Pastor Antonio Caput, Sr. and his wife, Elizabeth. Besides my parents, they were my spiritual mentors. Missionaries would occasionally visit and stay in our church. In 1976, a missionary from Japan, Pastor Masaaki Sasaki, visited our church. It was the first time I met a Japanese person. I would meet Pastor Sasaki on different occasions after that. The unusual triangular shape of our main church building was designed by Pastor Sasaki’s late wife. The building is still standing today in memory of her.
Meeting missionaries and hearing their testimonies have fueled the stirring within my heart that began when I got baptized with the Holy Spirit. I was a first year student in university when I could no longer bear the stirring within me. I consulted with my pastor about it, and he confirmed that I should go to Bible school. With the approval and blessing of my parents, I left university and went to Bethel Bible College (BBC) in Manila which is very far from my mountain home. During my first year in Bible college, I met a Japanese couple, Tamotsu and Naoko Uchimura. Tamotsu was a student at FEAST (Far East Advance School of Theology) while Naoko took some classes in BBC. I became friends with them. During that time, I also met Dr. Koichi Kitano who was the Dean of students in FEAST then. During that time, FEAST shared the same campus as BBC before it was moved to Baguio City and the name FEAST was changed to Asia Pacific Theological Seminary (APTS).
After I graduated from Bible school in 1988, I went on a scholarship to Singapore for a 6 month mission training with Asian Ministry Teams (AMT) under the leadership of Irvin Rutherford, a missionary from America. After a month of training, I was sent with a team to Medan in Indonesia, then to Malaysia. After returning to the Philippines, I was asked to teach at our district Bible School called Luzon Bible Institute. During that time, I got ordained as a minister with the Philippine General Council of the Assemblies of God. It was also at that time that Dr. Wonsuk Ma, a Korean missionary, invited me to pursue my masters degree in APTS. He was the Dean of Students at that time. I accepted the invitation and completed both my masters degree and master of divinity in ministry in 1993 and 1995 respectively. I am indebted to Korean brethren and others I haven’t even met that have financially sponsored my 3 years of theological training. This was also facilitated by Dr. Wonsuk Ma.
It was one time in APTS that I met Pastor Sasaki in front of the school library. In the course of our conversation, he suddenly asked me, “Olive, would you like to be a missionary to Japan? You will work hard for 5 years, but you will only get one convert.” I thought he was just joking, so I replied jokingly, “why not, if God leads me so.” Until that time, I never thought of Japan as a mission field. Not long after my conversation with Pastor Sasaki, I was introduced to Tomoyuki Kisaki by a common friend. Friends call him Tom. He was introduced to me as a Japanese person who speaks British. The British Assemblies of God missions recommended him to get a theological training in APTS before going back to Japan to evangelize. As I was actively involved with Mountain Churches Ministry at the time, we would sometimes cross paths as he also got involved through a friend. After a year of knowing each other, we got married in 1996.
It was also in APTS that Tom and I got to know Keiji Wada, a Japanese pastor who came to study with his family. It was from him and his wife that we learned about ministry in Japan. They advised us to make a short visit to Japan to have a feel of the place and the people before going to settle and minister in Japan. Pastor Keiji endorsed us to Pastor Hisoka Murakami in Kyoto. He and his wife kindly welcomed us. We stayed in the guest room of their church for 3 months in 1997. Tom graduated from the seminary in 1998. Shortly after, we left the Philippines for Japan. Since we didn’t know anyone to work with, Pastor Wada again endorsed us to Pastor Noriaki Fuji in Takatsuki, Osaka. He and his wife kindly accepted us even though they didn’t know us. We became part of their church for 3 years.
In 2001, we moved to Hachioji, Tokyo to join Pastor Keiji Wada and his wife, Mikiko. It was during this time that we became officially affiliated as missionaries with the British Assemblies of God. We helped as associate missionaries in Mejirodai Zion Chapel. It was during this time that we met different pastors,visited different churches and learned more about evangelism in Japan. With the support of Pastor Wada and the church as well as the encouragement of Pastor Yukio Funatsu, we started Teen Challenge Japan International in 2005. This is a global faith based drug rehabilitation ministry. The first center started in a rented house in Okinawa in 2007 with Temote Yamashiro, a graduate of Teen Challenge Hawaii, as the center director. In 2011, we built our own Teen Challenge Center in Okayama on donated land that was kindly offered by Pastor Uchikawa and his wife.
In 2013, we moved from Hachioji to Okayama for Tom to oversee the operation of the center. When the COVID hit in 2020, we had to let go of our students and staff. As we prayed about what to do next, the Lord led us to plant a church in Okayama in 2021. Although we started with our family of 4 and a few people, the Lord added to our number. We now have more than 30 people including children. We will be celebrating the 4th anniversary of Hope Center Okayama this coming November 2025. We can only thank the Lord for bringing us this far. We are also grateful for all the people God used to pray, support and help us in the ministry.
By God’s grace, I am where I am today. After I decided to go to Bible school, I have never looked back. Coming to Japan, I didn’t have trouble with food, but it hasn’t been easy learning the language and the culture while raising 2 girls. However, I am grateful to the pastors and the church people we worked with who have been very supportive of us.
I have been in Japan for over 20 years now. I now understand why Pastor Sasaki told me that “you work hard for 5 years and only get one convert.” Evangelism in Japan is a lot more challenging than in the Philippines. I often ask myself, “Have I done my best? Have I contributed something as a missionary in Japan?” I strive to keep in mind 1 Corinthians 10:31, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” I also try to “focus my eyes on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).
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