JAPAN MISSIONS 2026
Andre Park
こんにちは / KON’NICHIWA! / HELLO!
I’m headed back to Japan! In 2024 and 2025, I went on two mentoring trips.
This September, I’ll be returning for a third year in a row, but this time for a missions trip - I’m so excited!
For two weeks in April 2024, I witnessed a spiritual landscape unlike anything I'd experienced - a nation full of beauty and order, yet so far from the Gospel. It was on that trip God made it unmistakably clear: Japan is where He's calling me long-term, God-willing, full-time. After our first Sunday there, the Lord commanded me to come through Matthew 14:29, and I said yes.
My trip in 2025 was physically and spiritually challenging. At a Shinto shrine, I felt something I'd never felt before - pain shooting through my entire body, a pressure like G-force weight pressing down on me. I tried to lie down, but then I quickly stood back up, wondering if God wanted me to see something. For thirty minutes I stood in a corner and watched people throw coins into the offering box, clap, and "wake" the gods to pray to them.
And then it hit me: they just don't know. They've simply never heard of Jesus. I experienced a tiny glimpse of what Christians in Japan must feel daily.
From 9/10 - 9/21, with a team of 16, I’ll be headed back to Japan with my home church, Grace Community Chapel, and our sister community, Kings Covenant Church. This time, I get to go as a newly married man - Liz and I tie the knot in August - and this will be our first trip to Japan together as husband and wife 🇯🇵💍
It’s finally happening 🥲
Why am I going back?
This time, I'm going back for two reasons:
First, to support our career missionaries: Sarah Chang, Pastor Masao, and Angie Fujishima. To spend time with them, love them, and to simply be with them in the work they're doing every day in Japan. And, of course, to hang out with the four Fujishima kids!
Second, to seek further vision and clarity - for me & Liz - on what ministry and life together in Japan will look like. We’re also praying for a deeper heart - His heart - for Japan and the Japanese people.
[This photo is of all of us together during the 2024 trip after Liz and I each made our individual commitments to be missionaries in Japan 😭 Also pictured is Missionary Eugene Pak, a brother I’m so excited to see again! Also, Hi Ohtani - Jesus loves you!]
Liz and I were both single here, and now we're getting married - C R A Z Y. We’re so excited to do ministry in Japan together. God is so good :')
What will we be doing?
As a team, we'll be partnering with two ministries:
Missionary Sarah Chang — supporting her prayer ministry through prayer walks across the city and interceding for Japan. Please check out her Beneath the Surface website to learn how to pray for Japan - MSarah and her team have been working so diligently and faithfully on this site for years.
Pastor Masao & Angie SMN — serving alongside them at GCA (Global Christian Academy in Gotemba and planning a full retreat for the students there. I’m so excited! I’ll be in charge of creating our body worship presentation (and the Lord already knows I’ll need His help). We'll also be visiting Shoutai Church, a local church in Kawasaki that Pastor Masao has been serving and preaching at.
And honestly, I’m just so excited to see them again. They are more than missionaries to Liz and me - they’ve become our foundation for life and ministry in Japan. We’re so grateful we eventually get to join them as co-laborers in Christ - to not arrive as strangers, but to come home to people we already love.
This will be the last time Liz and I go to Japan with the GCC team.
Two reasons. First, the Japan team is always our smallest short-term missions team each year - it's a hard country to travel in as a large group - and Liz and I take up two of those limited spots every year. We want other people in our community to witness firsthand what God is doing in Japan, the way we got to.
Second, Liz and I are planning to go to Japan in 2027 for our own vision trip - one that isn't tied to a missions trip's schedule or structure, where we can move at the pace God is asking of us specifically.
But we don't want any of that to cloud this trip. We don't want the future to steal our attention from now. We want to be fully here, with our team, fully surrendered, not arrogant about what we think we already know or where we think we're headed.
We're praying for continued alignment - for our vision for ministry, for missions, and for our marriage to stay knit together around the Lord, the way He has graciously kept them knit for years now. Not because we've earned it. Only because of His grace. Please pray with us 🙏
What this trip means to us
After two years of witnessing God move in Japan, I am so excited to witness His glory again. As our team trains and prepares for takeoff, I’m praying to draw near to Him, to love His Word, and cling to the Vine 🌱
Please keep me, Liz, our team, our leader Pastor Diane Kim, our missionaries, Japan, and revival across the nation in your prayers. Our God is a big big God - let’s pray with boldness and faith 😤
If you wish to support me financially, please click the link below and use the code “JP_01_Andre_Park”.
https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/2026-japan-stm
My full fundraising target is still TBD, but I’m estimating at least $2,300.
Please note: the donation fee to Zeffy is OPTIONAL! You can opt out by clicking “Other” and contributing $0. All donations are tax-deductible.
How can you support me?
What can you expect going forward?
Thank you for making it this far into my support letter - I’m truly so excited to share this next chapter with you. I’ve been studying Hosea this summer, and I wanted to share 2:23 here.
“I will sow her for myself in the land.
And I will have mercy on No Mercy,
and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’;
and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”
We are following the Lord to Japan to sow gospel seed in a place where most people don’t yet call themselves God’s people - most people have never even heard of Him. This verse is the trajectory of what our team is stepping into - Lo-Ammi becoming Ammi. Not My People becoming My People.
This is Japan’s spiritual story and mine to participate in. So let’s go! 💪
To stay up to date on our team’s progress via email updates, please submit your email address below! 📥
