Coming Home
Testimony of My Calling to Become Missionary to Japan
Daniel Matsunaga
(Order Daniel, Elena, Riona and Kazune)
I was born and raised in a Christian home and my parents were very devout church members. My parents were born and raised in Japan, and immigrated to the US before I was born. My mother was a Christian before they moved to Japan, and my father came to Christ after moving to the US. When my father became a Christian, it was a fulfillment of my mother’s prayer to have a Christian family, so they made sure we were always in church.
As I Grew up in Environment
One of my earliest memories was being in church breaking my arm when I was around two years old. For some that could have been a defining moment to stay as far away from the church, but because I was still so young, that thought probably never occurred to me. As long as I remember my home church was a place that I spent lots of time.
At our home church in California, missions was a big focus. I remember we would have missionaries come and share monthly, and once a year we would have a missions emphasis week. For eight straight days we would have missionaries from around the world, who would share their exciting stories and victories they saw through the working of the Holy Spirit. As I grew up in this environment, I felt that sharing and spreading God’s word was something that was important and essential for all believers.
My Calling to Become Missionary
One night at a separate evangelistic outreach service, the evangelist asked the men to pray over the boys, and the women to pray over the girls. It was after that night, that I felt God calling me to go into missions, I was only seven years old at the time and I didn’t firmly grasp what that meant. Of course, I told my parents and I think they saw it as a phase or rambling of a seven year old. Years later, my mother did tell me she saw my calling coming full circle. She came to Christ because of missionaries who came to Japan and shared the gospel with her.
My home church had many ministry opportunities for all age groups. From middle school, we were allowed to participate in local ministries, through choir tours, and other outreaches. In high school, we got to travel farther and longer for these outreaches and choir tours, as well as start to participate in foreign mission trips. It was during these times that I continued to feel God’s confirmation on my calling to become a missionary.
Asking God about Country of My Calling
Upon graduating from high school, I enrolled and entered Bible college, and started my studies in missions. I felt that I was probably the only missions major, who did not know what country or what ministry I would be doing. I remember it was a point of frustration as I spent time praying asking God to direct me to the country of my calling. Unfortunately, I never felt a clear confirmation during my time at Bible college.
However, we need to choose an area and religion of study, because I was familiar with it, my choice was Asia and Asian religions. My classmates asked me if I would consider going to Japan, and my answer was always no. I never considered Japan as a foreign country. Growing up I would go to Japan every year. As a matter of fact, because summer break in the US started earlier, I would go to public school in Japan for the months of June and July. Even after middle school, while I didn’t go to school in Japan, I would still visit yearly. Most of my extended family lived in Japan, I had friends there and it was the place we would go for vacation, but in my mind, I never really thought of it as a place of ministry.
During my last years in Bible College, I was interning at a church, and led a couple of missions trips. During those times as I was leading teams to other countries, the national people would always ask me, what country I was from. I would of course tell them the USA. They would then ask me where my parents were from and I would answer Japan. Inevitably they would get excited that I was ethnically Japanese and proceed to tell me how much they loved Japan and the Japanese people.
They would point out that Japanese companies helped bring jobs, or build a road, or a dam or some other infrastructure for their country. Or they would talk about how the Japanese government gave their country money to help support their country. The people had such a positive view of Japan and the Japanese people. This was especially noticeable, because during that time, the war on terror had been going on for many years, and the favorability of the USA was really low. I remember one time when I was in Zimbabwe, the others with me were told they could not be alone by themselves because it was dangerous for white people to walk around the city without a Zimbabwean escort. Then they told me, I can freely go in and out of the city with no issues because I was Japanese and Zimbabweans like Japanese people.
Decision to Become Missionary to Japan
After graduating from Bible College, I went to graduate school. It was during this time that I was developing my own understanding of what missionary work was. At the time there was a growing shift in missions. In the past, the general idea of missions was for the missionary to focus on church planting. The shift was from focusing purely on church planting, to be able to go to a country creatively or by other means, like starting businesses or opening clinics etc.
Also, during my time at graduate school, I read a book on communication and in that book, the author talked about how when two people talk, there is already an immediate breakdown in communication. Because each person has their own background and ideas that are present before even communicating. The author said for communication to be effective, the closer the two people are, in thinking, cultural, age, gender etc., the easier it was for them to properly communicate. He said this is especially true in communicating the gospel. He said the closer we are to the people we are preaching/teaching the gospel to, the easier it is for them to receive it.
It was then I realized that throughout my whole life, even before I was even aware of it, God was preparing me to come here to Japan to become a missionary. But not only to share the gospel with the Japanese people, but to encourage them to also become missionaries in their work place.
As I previously wrote, there are many Japanese people working around the world. They are well regarded for the work they are doing in those countries. It made sense to me that if these workers were Christian, they could work and share the gospel at the same time. Because of all these reasons I decided that I would become a missionary to Japan.
Our Ministry as Missionary to Japan
In 2005 I was commissioned to become a missionary to Japan and in 2007 I landed in Fukuoka. During my first term and the first half of my second term, I helped the Gonzalez’s with their church plant at Momochi Symphony Church.
Momochi Symphony Church
The last half of my second term, I helped at Fukuoka Christ Church with the Yoshiyama’s.
Fukuoka Christ Church
In 2017, because of policies in our mission’s organization, my family and I were sent to the Philippines. We served at Asia Pacific Theological Seminary in Baguio, where I taught English and was the Assistant Dean of Students. To be honest it was a difficult time for my family and me, because we felt called to Japan but were sent to the Philippines.
During a particularly tough time and spending time in prayer, I was asking God why we were going through this season of ministry. It was then that he reminded me of one of my students. This particular student was Japanese and she had a heart for missions. By this time, it had been over a decade since I developed my own understanding of why I was a missionary, but it was a reminder that I wanted to share the gospel with Japanese people, but also to equip those people to share the gospel overseas. It was a moment of clarity and to trust in God’s plan.
If you are wondering what happened to that student, she is currently a Missionary to the Philippines who is being sent out by the Japanese Assemblies of God, her name is Yoshimi Yamashiro and I am honored to know that we are colleagues in spreading the gospel.
Yoshimi Yamashiro is on the left
Fortunately, our time in the Philippines was not forever and in 2020, we came back to Japan to serve at Kawasaki Gospel Church with the Yabuki’s.
Kawasaki Gospel Church
Since then, our ministry role has shifted dramatically, and we are now district missionaries to the Kanto Southwest District. Our role is to fill in for pastors and churches where there is need, to preach special services and to help start outreaches or help existing outreaches. We also connect short term missions teams to churches here in Japan. Our ministry is primarily of pastoral and church care. We are trying to support and cooperate with the local church to further their reach into their community and to the world.
Kanto Southwest District
We don’t know what the future might hold, but we do know that we are in the palm of God’s hands.
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