An encouraging testimony

Recently, I was checking my email and I received an email from a Japanese man I had never met. There is a Christian group I am associated with (The Last Reformation) and the group has an interactive world map online where Christians can contact each other, network, etc. The Japanese man (I’ll call “Mr E.”) found my profile on the map and shared that he has come to believe in Jesus and wants to follow him whole-heartedly.

After I had processed the initial shock and excitement, I emailed Mr. E back. After expressing my joy and excitement of his faith in Jesus, I asked him a few questions that naturally arose in my mind. Mainly, I just asked him how he came to believe in Jesus, even though he is living in a very small town in Yamagata prefecture. Amazingly, Mr. E shared that he really doesn’t have any Christian friends or acquaintances. He also doesn’t come from a Christian family. He said that when the Covid pandemic started in early 2020, he began to be more aware of how much evil was in the world. He cited various stories in the news, such as things related to the Covid-19 outbreak, scandals that were uncovered involving human trafficking and other related things. At first, he wanted to exclude Japan from some of these evils. But the more videos he watched and research he did, the more he realized that terrible crimes and evil happens in Japan too. In essence, he realized every person and society is plagued by sin.

So what is the solution and what hope is there? He began to look at different religions and watch different videos on the topic of God. Eventually, he started watching different videos with Bible verses and Christian themes. He said his heart resonated with these verses and it made sense. So he started to watch more Christian videos and read the Bible. The more he studied and thought about everything, the more the Bible made sense. Eventually, he said he just reached a point where he believed the Bible was true, Jesus was the truth and he wanted to follow Jesus. This is how Mr. E came to believe in Jesus.

I had never met someone who became a Christian like this. We arranged a time to meet and Mr. E drove his mini bike for 4 hours and met me in Sendai. We met over lunch and had a wonderful time of fellowship and prayer. As I continued to listen to Mr. E, I was amazed at how much he understood. It was clear he was ready for baptism and believed in Jesus. He really wants to devote his life to being a disciple of Jesus and living a Christian life like we read about in the book of Acts. And so in a couple of weeks, I am planning to baptize Mr. E in a river in Sendai. Only God could have arranged this. But it shows that God is at work in Japan and He is continuing to draw people to Himself. I believe we are on the cusp of a great move of God in Japan and this is just one such story that gives evidence to this.

Kevin Cochrane – Send International