The Story of a Heart's Spiritual Journey in Japan

"Ahhh, so this is what it looks like when God has prepared a heart," says Joshua Morey, an AIA staff representative in Japan. "I've never seen it like this [in Japan]...I barely touched the fruit and it fell, ripe, to the ground."

Morey was referring to a meeting he had on the Waseda University campus with a student-athlete, a top cyclist in Japan.

"It all started two months ago right before Thanksgiving..." Morey wrote in his journal in early 2006. On that day Patrick Low, a Campus Crusade for Christ staff member, and Mike Froeberg, in Japan on a STINT (a short-term international project for Campus Crusade), came across "Tat" on campus and ended up talking to him for awhile about the Christian faith. But no decision was made by Tat.

A short time later, Low invited Tat to a Thanksgiving outreach where another staff member, Atusuhi, talked further to him about the Christian faith. Still, there was no decision made by Tat in response to the message.

Fast forward to right before Christmas and Tat showed up at the Christmas outreach and talked with another Campus Crusade staff member, Imai. Still, there was no decision.

After Christmas, Tat went to church with Morey, but ran off afterwards to his part-time job.

Then it was only one and a half weeks before the end of the semester, and the Campus Crusade staff team was not motivated to go onto campus because the students were busy studying for exams and would not want to meet with them. But the staff team met for prayer and decided they needed to "give our best and let the Lord do the work," Morey says.

That afternoon Morey and Froeberg had an appointment to meet with Tat and another student at Starbucks to talk. "It was here that the Lord invaded Tat's space," Morey says. "Not five minutes into the conversation with Tat he says he wants to become a Christian. He says life is way too hard and that he's searching for a peace in life."

Morey proceeded to read through "The Four Spiritual Laws" brochure with Tat and said, "Dude, Jesus is knockin' at the door. If you open the door He will come into your life forever."

Tat looked up at Morey and said, "Hi ['yes' in Japanese], I want to pray."

Tat prayed in Japanese and English, then Morey and Froeberg prayed for him and welcomed him to the family with a strong handshake. They set up a time to meet for a follow-up Bible Study in the weeks ahead.

After saying goodbye to Tat at the train station, the two staff members turned to each other and started bumping chests and yelling, "Yeah, baby!" They were too thrilled to care about the puzzled stares of strangers.

"It's amazing to see God answer prayers...two months ago Tat had no idea who Jesus Christ was and now he's committed his life to live for Him," Morey exclaims.

But the story does not end there.

Morey began meeting regularly with Tat and even started an evangelistic Bible study with Tat's best friend, Ken, a soccer player at Waseda University. In April 2006, Tat helped Morey lead Ken to faith in Christ.

Tat and Ken are continuing to be discipled. "It's been a rough adjustment to Christianity for Tat, but he's been growing and working on sharing his faith with his friends," Morey says. "They [Tat and Ken] are very young in their faith and are embarking on an intense spiritual battle."

"All around Japan this is happening-two girls at our summer camp last year started a worship service on their campus seven months ago and now have 20 new believers," Morey adds. "We're living in a very special age for Japan...let's be on our knees even more for this nation."

Article by Kathleen Kaiser Harl, AIA Communications