His Guidance of Grace

It was around 7:25am when I stepped
into the North Auditorium for the
first Bible class at West Coast
Baptist College back in 2001. I knew
God had called me to full-time ministry, but in my
mind that particular morning, I was somewhat
questioning whether this was the right course for
my life. As this was on my mind, the Bible teacher
that morning came to the pulpit and said these
few words, “Let us pray.” The LORD used these
three simple words to confirm in my heart that I
was in the right place at the right time. Prior to
attending WCBC, I was in a secular education with
unbelieving college professors without God’s
direction or prayer, and those three words gave me
a great assurance that He was setting the right
course for my life in His will and in His
environment. As I look back, I realize that His
abundant grace and direction has continually
guided me even in missions.

Upon graduating, God led me to meet
my wonderful future wife, Sarah, who also
graduated at the same time. We were wed at
LBC in 2007, where we were both on staff. I
was the bus director at the time, and my wife
was a financial secretary. As we were busy in
ministry, we both had a heart for missions,
but it was not a clear calling at the time. We
needed His guidance of grace once again to
know His perfect will. We prayed and prayed
for His will to be done, but it seems as though
God was taking His time in making this clear
with us. After being in full-time ministry
for a decade as a bus director and also as an
assistant pastor, the Lord surprisingly called
us to a country, that I myself never dreamed
of going. This country was Japan. It was only
after the calling I got to know that Japanese
people are the second largest unreached
people group in the world with only .58%
professing to be Christians out of 127 million
people. I had my doubts at first, but the Lord
assured me once again that it was His will.
One way was through the testimony of my
wife. Soon after I received the call, I shared
the calling with her, to which she replied,
“When I surrendered to missions back in my
teen years, I asked God to take me to Japan
if He wanted me to become a missionary.” I
did not know this until I was called! It was
once again God proving Himself to be faithful,
patient, and perfect in His will as He had
already prepared my wife’s heart to His future
calling for the both of us. We are also grateful
for the counsel of Dr. Paul Chappell, Dr. Don
Sisk, and my home pastor, Pastor Timothy
Choi who God used to guide and assure us in
this calling.

We entered full-time deputation in January
2017. We are praying for His guidance once
again in our deputation trail as we aim to be
in Japan by the end of 2018. An encouraging
verse that I came across through the burden
and calling of missions was found in Isaiah
64:4, “For since the beginning of the world
men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear,
neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee,
what he hath prepared for him that waiteth
for him.” It is wonderful to know that God
already knows what is prepared for our lives.
All we need to do is to be faithful and wait.
His guidance of grace never fails.