Taketo Kamiyama
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together
for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
(Romans 8:28)
On the 11th of August this year, I was baptized at Lake Nojiri in Nagano Prefecture. I have been around church for a long time and have heard the testimonies of many believers, but this is the first time for me to give my testimony in public as a baptized Christian myself. I would like to reflect on how I came to faith and was baptized, and tell you how the Lord has worked in me.
I was born into a family of a few generations of pastors, with my great-grandfather and grandfather being pastors, and my uncle still serving as a pastor. I attended church Sunday School for as long as I can remember and have been familiar with the Word of God. When my grandfather was alive and well, the church flourished and I remember feeling proud as a child of my grandfather, who was loved by many members of the congregation.
However, when my grandfather fell ill and died when I was in early primary school, I witnessed the turmoil in the church and the division in the congregation that I had been so close to. I came to believe that Christianity is for the weak-minded and that pastors and evangelists are just the outcasts of society.
The death of my grandfather and the church problems caused serious rifts in my family. I stopped going to school for a while and spent my childhood causing much worry to my parents and relatives.
What changed my mind was two trips to the USA and an interaction with a missionary family.
Pastor George King of Takatsuki Bible Baptist Church in Osaka, Japan, took me, my mother and sister to various churches in the USA many years ago.
The Christians I met there made a positive impression on me, different from the image of Christianity I used to have. Also, in Florida, one day in the evening as we watched the sun setting over the sea, Pastor King preached about God’s work in creating this beautiful nature. I still remember the scene vividly.
Around the time of that trip to the USA, I became acquainted with the family of a missionary called James Smith. This family was staying at my uncle’s church. They were, in my eyes, an ideal Christian family, and the fact that the well-educated husband and wife had left their careers in their home country to come to Japan to serve missions came as a shock to me. During my experiences in the USA and in fellowship with missionary families, my ideas about Christianity changed and I gradually developed a desire to become a Christian and to believe in Jesus. In January 2009, I recognized myself as a Christian.
However, even after I was saved, I was not comfortable with the idea of belonging to a church or confessing my faith to others at large. I prayed but did not actively open my Bible, had no interest in baptism and led a very immature Christian life. Looking back, I think that at the time I had high expectations in the area of asking God to grant me whatever I wanted.
Two years after my salvation, my faith gradually cooled as I stopped going to church at the same time as going to postgraduate school because I was ‘too busy with my studies’. And although I intended to concentrate on my studies, my lack of perseverance and diligence meant that I did not achieve my goal of making a career in academia, and I became disappointed in myself.
I had spent many years going with the flow, not being aware of God’s presence on a daily basis, praying less and less, and having half lost sight of the meaning of my life, when I started working for my current company through an introduction from a friend. I had never been deeply involved in a company or in the wider society before, but suddenly I was given an honest job and was able to become financially independent. I had been living comfortably in this privileged environment for about two years. But gradually, I was entrusted with bigger and bigger jobs and became involved with many different people, and just this year, a series of events occurred that shook me to the core. I was faced with problems in both my professional and personal life that I could not handle on my own, and this brought me back to my faith.
As I began to lean on Jesus again, I began to open my Bible differently than before, and I soon understood the meaning of baptism and that Jesus himself was teaching Christians to be baptized.
Then, from a few months ago, I started studying for baptism online with Pastor Mikaelsen, whom I met at Takarazuka Lutheran Church back in 2013. And in April this year, I started to meet regularly with Pastor Thierry, whom I met by chance when I first went to Grace City Church in Tokyo. And just a few weeks ago, I was baptized by Pastor Thierry and Pastor Mikaelsen in Lake Nojiri in Nagano!
It feels like a roundabout way of getting here. But if it had not been this way, I would not have met Pastor Thierry and his colleagues, and I would not have lived as a disciple of Jesus, and I would not have developed a desire to know the Bible in depth.
A scripture I used to recite in church school as a child was Romans 8:28:
“28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
We know that God works all things for the good of those whom he has called according to his purpose.
It is true that I have regrets and scars from my life, and I still feel unfulfilled in my daily life from time to time. However, I believe that God will keep humbling and renewing my mind and that he will make all things work together for good in the end.
Through the cross of Jesus Christ I have been completely forgiven and have become a child of God. And I also hope to be transformed daily into the likeness of Jesus by the indwelling Spirit, and, like the Christians who once inspired me to faith, I strongly hope that one day, through my own witness and work and the sharing of the gospel, I will be able to help others to understand Jesus and his salvation and his presence. That is my goal in life now.
Thank you.
MCT Worship Schedule (September-December)
Date: September 22nd, October 27th, November 24th, December 15th
Time: Starts at 9:45 a.m.
Inquiries: Takaaki Hirano（jbhirano@tokyomarunouchipartnership.com)
Prayer Request —— Thank you for your prayers!
- Pray that we will be wise in our approach to those who do not yet know Jesus, and be able to invite them to join us.
- Pray that we would grow closer to one another as we worship God together.