Testimony in the Workplace seminar participant — Yoshinobu Iwata
Church: New Urayasu Church of Christ (Reformed Church in Japan)
Ways I serve on Sundays: Sunday School (teenage kids), Sunday Service leading, Sunday Service preaching
Workplace: It has been 21 years since I joined LIXIL Corporation. I am in the Material Technology Product Development Department. I mainly work at Osaki, Shinagawa, near central Tokyo and in the Noda Testing Center in Chiba, east of Tokyo.
I learned about the Testimony in the Workplace Seminar through a social media post. A soccer fan around my age in the church’s LINE group shared information about the seminar. At the time, the pastor of my church had asked me to support the young people who attend church as well as those who have left the church, by being something of an older brother figure to them. But I was honestly unsure how to do this. When I read the seminar flyer, I thought, “This is it!” and decided to participate.
(The Testimony in the Workplace seminar is a 6-session course led by Akira Endo, helping to equip Christians to live for and witness to Jesus in their workplaces.)
The first session was on October 21st (2024), but it was unusually hot for autumn. Participating in all six sessions of the seminar, especially the emphasis on being a “full-time Christian”, had a profound impact on me. As a second-generation Christian, I had always attended church every Sunday without question. However, I was overwhelmed by work, family, and community volunteer activities, and my priorities kept changing. I didn’t even realize that I was a “part-time Christian”. I only read the Bible when preparing messages, and as for prayer, I realized that I only prayed when I was told to pray, or when I was in trouble.
I spend most of my week at work. Through the seminars, I was able to encounter the Word of God that is relevant to my workplace, which also gave me an opportunity to learn more about who God is. Additionally, each time I participated in the seminars, I found myself able to act with the awareness of prioritizing following the Lord in my daily life, not just at church. I believe this is because the Holy Spirit worked through the Word of God in those seminar sessions. I decided to join a daily LINE (message service) devotion (called WBS) hosted by the seminar instructor Endo-san. Even when I forget to read the LINE devotion in the morning, I am encouraged by the responses from my brothers and sisters. And each morning I pray as I start my day, “May I walk with the Lord”.
At last year’s Church Christmas celebration, we offered praise to the Lord together with the young people at Church. It had been 20 years since I last played the violin, but I think it was through the seminar, meeting Endo-san and my brothers and sisters in Christ, and developing a desire to be thankful for everything that led me to play the violin again (and made me want to play again).
“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Colossians 3:17
In the Lord,
Yoshinobu Iwata
