Church Planter (Hispanic People), Tokyo, Japan

Luis has been serving the Lord in Japan since 2004. He is a native of Lima, Peru, and was once a member of the Church of the Savior in Barranco. He met his wife Nicola in Japan and they were married in 2005. They are primarily laboring among the large Latin American community in Tokyo.

Our story:

We serve a God who is sovereign. The way that He bought Nicola and myself to Japan and united our lives in marriage and then in work as missionaries in this land for Him amazes us. I am a Peruvian and was serving God through a music ministry and short term missions when God told me to leave for Japan. He made it so that I arrived in Japan in October of 2004 on a one way ticket with 60 US dollars in my pocket, a one year missionary visa and minimal English, but with the utter certainty that God had called me here ! I met my English wife at a Discipleship Training School and she had only come to Japan for three months with plans to continue on in graduate studies towards her career goals. But whilst she was seeking God for her future, she came under the conviction that her plans were not His. In July of 2005 we were married in Japan. During our engagment as we asked God about our new life together he showed us that He wanted us to work as missionaries for Him together in Japan. We were starting from zero as neither of us knew the language, had any financing as missionaries, or any friends or contacts. But it gave us a wonderful dependence on God in seeing how He bought everything about. We got in touch with the pastors of the three churches that we had either attended whilst in Japan or had done missions at, and God lead us to join Grace Christian Fellowship, an international non denominational church in Ome working in their Christian school, and helping out in every aspect of church life in this new church.

Since then we have now been at GCF for three years. Over that time, God has faithfully provided for our needs, as we started out living here without any regular financial support of any churches, supporters or mission boards. God has chosen to do it this way because He is the one being glorified and praised because nobody knows how we can serve God without regular support as other missionaries are sent with. The ways God chose to bring in the support constantly change, whether it be a one off payment from a church, monthly food offerings, our rent paid for by the church we serve at; friends paying for our airplane tickets... There has been no stability in how it arrives, but there has been God's constant faithfulness to take care of our needs. Everything is God's mercy, and it has been His plan for us to trust in Him, and give Him the glory. We are glad, and always share these things with you praising the Lord, because the lessons we have learned to live without seeing the circumstances have been so important.

Bringing a Peruvian and a Brit together to serve Him in an American Japanese church in Ome, Japan is only the sovereign work of our God. It has certainly been a challenge and a sacrifice for us starting our married life and missionary work at the same time and far from our families and in a foreign culture. But God has made us stronger because of it, more reliant on Him that any thing or one; and for those foundations that He has built we will be forever grateful.

The Ministry:

Grace Christian Fellowship is the church my wife and I had been attending since we arrived in Japan, but it wasn't till August 2004 that we were involved in full time ministry. The church is "non denominational", somehow loosely linked with Calvary Chapel, and was planted by an American missionary, our pastor Jonathan Wilson and his family seven years ago now. It is located in Ome, which is a city 50 kilometers to the west of central Tokyo.

Some months after joining as missionaries I started translating the services for a Peruvian friend, and from there gradually grew a ministry to the Latin Americans in the area. Latin Americans are the third largest immigrant group in Japan, due to a historical post-war relationship. Those with this Japanese ancestry are called ‘nikkeis', and their presence in Japan usually comes as a surprise to many outside. Though they normally remain unnoticed by missionary organisations the unmeasurable mercy of God is sending native missionaries here, where they can preach the gospel and disciple their people in their own language. Many of them take manual jobs in the factories working long hours and seeking hard to find their place in Japanese society. As the ministry grew I took on the responsibility to lead this group in worship and study of the Word in their own language, and in April of 2007 we started our first separate service on Saturday nights in Spanish (with translation in Japanese and English).

The other main ministry area I work in is the leadership and discipleship of the Worship Team with Japanese, American and Peruvian members. Apart from organising the weekly worship for services, my main goal has been to see the worship leaders and each member become more like Jesus, so I lead them in the study of the Word and teaching.

Firstly the idolatry of money, and the foundations that the enemy placed in this country are like enormous wide walls. There is no foundational knowledge of Jesus Christ or the Creation with Adam and Eve, and all the perversion and emptiness is masked by superficial politeness and order.

And secondly the ironic problem is that the 1% of Christians here are spiritually weak, the majority conformed to a certain ‘light American' Christianity with a cancerous doctrine . I can not see real and healthy fruit in Japanese Christianity and even in the church where we are serving these last 3 years. I believe the fruit of God's work in the church has to be reflected in the families. We can praise His name because in His mercy He has given us a men bible study every week; a couple was living together and God convicted them to get married; a husband preached the gospel to his family and now his wife and son come regularly to church; for the baptism last year of 3 Peruvian brother and sisters; and their regular attendance at the bible study. God is directing us to continue preaching the gospel to other Latin Americans. I don't want to be misunderstood about trying to sound cymbals and giving the reports of ‘our' work. I believe we are seeking holiness and maturing to Jesus' image, holding and protecting the pure doctrine and preaching with love from the abundant joy that it means to be save. I don't know what are God's plans for the future, but I have the conviction of my Lord sending us to serve Him here to preach, supported by the testimony that only God could have written into our lives. Our two main goals and our vision is to preach the gospel, and to disciple our brothers and sisters to become like Jesus.

When I was preaching and serving God in the Peruvian jungle, it was encouraging to see and to share about all the "numerous" fruit of what the Lord was doing there. In truth I realised that I was harvesting the fruit of the work that a lot of Christians sowed years ago. Here in Japan, we are sowing in the dead dry dirt, and false doctrine is like a rampant weed around the lands we want to prepare for seeding. But God is doing also a great work in His choosen ones, in my life and my wife's life. He is blessing us with the opportunity to sacrifice our will, reasons and desires to do His will, but a sacrifice full of peace, joy, love for people and passion to give Him glory with our obedience.

Where we are now and the future:

One of them being the doctrinal differences between us and the leadership of the pastor of our church; the one prayer salvation deal; the prioritising of unity and fellowship above all else; a certain superficialness and ecumenism to cover up the both the lack of foundations and differences in doctrine; and the misunderstanding that God's grace means that we should allow anything within the body. (If you have more questions about these points, please do ask). We have been constantly seeking God's guidance with the help of my pastors back in Peru about continuing working at the church under our pastor's leadership; and even more so when we started up a new service. God continually told us to go ahead; and again when talking with Pastor Paul in January in Peru, God confirmed the need to bring truth and sound doctrine to the people within our ministry, being prepared to work with them over years to build a sound and God glorifying foundations and pillars in their lives. We now believe that it is impossible for us to do so remaining within GCF.

At the same time that God confirmed this long term commitment to stay in Japan and then the conviction that we need to come under an authority with sound doctrine, He also gave us the news that we are expecting our first baby! This in itself also requires more faith as we trust in God to bring about the changes necessary for the coming of our child: a warmer and larger home, and an increased income to accommodate the changes.

God called us to Japan to work with the people here whatever nationality they have. We now have a specific burden and commitment to the Latin Americans in Ome and it is our desire to stay here as long as God desires, working with this community and in the long term with the Japanese too preaching them the Gospel and discipling them so that they grow more like Jesus. We desire to see a church grow in Ome that is based on the principles of the Bible and on sound doctrine, bringing the truth and being witnesses of it to these people. We are now seeking help in the next step of our ministry here as we leave GCF.

God bless you,

Luis Angel and Nicola