Mid-Term Missionary serving through RJTA with the Kita Sanriku Christ Church church-planting team. This is a church plant for the Iwaizumi (including Omoto) Town and adjacent Tanohata, Fudai, and Noda villages in Iwate Prefecture in Northeast Japan. Prior to this church plant, there was no church or regular Chrisitan outreach in this entire area.
After retiring from serving as a pastor in a church in Singapore for the past 20 years and serving in Japan on short-term mission trips, Pat now hopes to make a contribution in Japan (for which she has long had a burden) while beginning to learn the language and culture and getting a tase of rural Japan ministry and life through a longer (eight-month) mid-term period of service with Kita Sanriku Christ Church from September 2023 through April 2024.
Pat’s pastoral experience was overseeing small group ministry, pastoral care ministry, pastoral counseling, project planning for events, and leading short term mission teams for overseas mission trips. Now, in the very different setting of rural Japan, she will be begin to acquire some basic Japanese language skills and develop a prayer strategy plan, while assisting under the direction of the Kita Sanriku Christ Church church plant leader in whatever practical ways she can with both behind the scenes preparation tasks (craft preparation, flyer distribution, maintaining supplies, assisting with administrative tasks, etc.) and while joining in the team’s many outreach events through which mainly older adults and kids gradually learn about their
Creator, His love, and the gospel. She also will attend multiple worship services of the multi-site church plant. As her Japanese ability grows, Pat’s ability to form relationships will also expand. To that end, she will spend 10 hours/week in language acquisition. She also will learn to share her testimony in the Japanese language.