Gen 12:1 …”Go from your country, your people, and your father’s household to the land I will show you."
It was about 18 years go when I heard God’s voice to go to Japan. I was so excited because I had just come back from from my Tokyo Disneyland contract and hearing God’s voice I got ready to go back and “Do the Thing”. But it wasn’t until now that I realized that He didn’t say “go do it”. What I failed to realize was that God didn’t tell me to go to Japan then. What I didn’t hear was “I’m going to get you ready so you can go”.
So for the next 18 years or so after I heard God’s voice, I trained in ministry, in leadership, and started learning more skills in music production.
I’m not a reader…my goodness, I am horrible at reading. I’m a little ADD, so it’s difficult for me to focus on something too serious. Even reading comics is difficult if I’m reading for too long. I’m even getting sidetracked writing this blog! But it was so important to me, so I pushed through and made myself read leadership books, ministry books, even business books! All with the purpose of becoming someone that would be able to fulfill the call God had in my life…And then I met Ayaka!
When Ayaka got saved, about 4 years before we met, God put a call on her life to create worship music in her language, and she did! She wrote 8 songs and started asking God to help her develop her and her call. In that time, she continually prayed for clarity and direction. She only had 2 things clear: Reach Japanese People, and Create Worship Music. But there was no clear plan as to how to approach the goals God had given her, and eventually she decided to go to bible school.
After getting approval and blessing from her family, her boss, her pastors and her friends, I showed up and put her in my luggage and took her home! That is a joke, but seriously, I showed up and when we talked about our vision and dreams, God made it clear that we were going to be spending a lot of time together….then a year later we got married.
And now, Ayaka and I are getting ready to step into a dream and a call we both received at different times of our lives, After we met and got married, we began working on our call, and soon God started opening doors for us, beginning with starting a church with our pastor, Jermaine Rodriguez! What a challenge! A little over a year of marriage and already God was training us in team building and ministry structure. And we have served as the Creative Arts Pastors up until now!
Going back just before we went to Jacksonville, we attended the Japanese Central Conference that takes place in Chicago each Spring. We went as guests the first year and through relationships we became the worship directors for the conference the following 3 years, from 2017 to 2019!
While the virus situation began to die down, we had the pleasure of being introduced to an incredible couple from Miami who lead the amazing Japanese Christian Community Miami (JCCM), and after a few Zoom calls we finally made the drive down to meet them. There is not a day that goes by that Ayaka and I don’t talk about them and what an incredible blessing they have been in our lives! In the short time we have known each other, not only have we been able to share with them from what we’ve learned, but we have learned so much from them!
And now we’re about to have one last big event before our final BIG MOVE! It’s so exciting to see the doors God has been opening! Our final concert in the states is in a place we never imagined we would go! Pastor Frank Rodriguez from Betesda Baptist Church in Miami opened his doors to us and we get to celebrate both our launch to Japan and their 9th anniversary alongside JCCM! We are so blessed! Ayaka has already purchased her ticket, and thanks to some very generous donations we have been able to start shipping some of our studio equipment and some home furnishings overseas! As we continue this journey we ask that you prayerfully partner with us in this undertaking! Check the support tab for more details! And not just financially but pray with us that we have wisdom to move to the right area in Japan where we can be effective!
Thank you so much for your continued support! We can’t wait to share our adventures with you!
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