In the morning I wake up and I recount the dreams I had from the Lord while I slept. I pray and process with the Lord, spiritual. When I go downstairs to my house’s common area, I greet my teammate who is not my family by blood but is my chosen sister in Christ, spiritual. I leave my house and bike to the church where my team meets together. As I bike, I am surrounded by the hundreds of people in my neighborhood as they go on their morning commute. Statistically, inside of each of their homes are physical idols that they are bowing down to and giving their offerings to. I pass by the unreached people and their unreached homes filled with idol worship, spiritual. I arrive at the team meeting where we pray and process our emotions and what we are each feeling from the Lord, spiritual. I cook a meal for myself with money from my bank account that was given to me by supporters—living by faith we call it, spiritual. As I live and breathe and take my daily steps, I commune with the Lord, whether it be by singing to Him or purely offering my thoughts and listening to His, all day long, spiritual, wonderfully spiritual.

This is no ordinary life. This is far different from the way I grew up. Sometimes life feels blatantly spiritual until it doesn’t. Sometimes the offerings and incense in front of the neighborhood idols catch my attention and remind me that this nation is truly unreached. Sometimes I forget. Sometimes I see families playing in the park and they seem happy. Sometimes I take the train that’s filled with thousands of people but is somehow more quiet than a waiting room in the US, and I think to myself, “they are all just tired from work.” But it’s not true; they are empty and they need a savior. And who will tell them?

I remember a time last year when I wrote about a normal day for a Japanese salaryman. He wakes up, gets ready, and walks to the train while watching Netflix on his phone. He watches until he gets to work and then works for 12 hours. He gets off work, and he and his boss go out for drinks. They drink until they have enough courage to be vulnerable. Then he heads home with headphones in, watching something on his phone until he walks through his front door and crashes for the night. He will do it again tomorrow and the next day, leaving no time to think about his life and who created him. When our team was in the midst of evangelism last year, a couple of common questions I would ask people were “Do you believe there is a God?” or “Why do you think you exist?” And the popular response I would receive was, “I don’t think I have ever thought about it.” It’s easy to not think when your mind is constantly distracted. A lot of ministry and conversations last year consisted of getting people thinking and, of course, telling them the Gospel—the truth.

I know this may be hard to believe because of how technologically advanced Japan is, but it really is an unreached nation. The Japanese are the second most unreached people group in the world. To put it into perspective for you, here are the names of 39 people I spoke to last year who had never heard the Name of Jesus before: Satoshi, Brenda, Alaina, Karin, Son Kin-Kin, Lisa, Uya, Sarose, Nagisah, Mami, Mai, Namie, Emina, Edni, Michael, Gina, Yoshimasa, Kaya, Son Ju Lee, Gin Lou, Sowda, Yuma, Noaya, Son, Ichi, Aatsko, Hirono, Raiko, Mr. Hajimoto, Maki, Idee, Sho, So-me-chin, So-me-ho, Yasami, Reyhe, Si, Kydo, and Aiyana.

I wouldn’t be telling the truth if I said ministry here was easy. In my experience, you have to be willing to push through without seeing maybe any fruit. But there is work being done even if there aren’t tons of people giving their lives to Jesus. I can tell you they are being made aware of Him, and they are getting to hear His Name. But the story doesn’t end there, and there is so much hope. We get to have faith. Japan wasn’t always the way it is now. In the 16th century, there was a boom of Christianity in Japan. From when the Jesuits arrived in 1549 to about 1579, there were believed to be more than 130,000 converts. During this time period, the church experienced very heavy persecution (this is worth reading about).

Present day, our team has paused most ministry outreach to focus on full-time language learning. It is a priority of ours to communicate with the Japanese effectively and at a heart level in their native language. On Sundays, I have the opportunity to visit different churches that I have found. I recently stumbled across one near my house that has 50 faithful members. The church was started by missionaries but is now entirely run by local Japanese. Every service is holy and filled with so much reverence. I couldn’t help but weep tears of joy when I watched each member take communion one Sunday. I can confidently say it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

Please pray for us missionaries here. On our team specifically, we have a total number of 8 adults and 6 children, with one more on the way. Right now, I am the only single full-time missionary on our team, and I’m learning how to navigate the dynamic of being a single in a team full of families. Please pray that the Japanese language really clicks for us. And please pray for all of us here to be encouraged and strengthened. Above all, please pray that the Japanese would come to know and love Jesus. Thank you.