YISS GOES Team Travels to Japan for the First Time

Five years ago, while visiting several churches in Japan, I had the opportunity to meet a friend who is a Japanese pastor. During our meeting, he said that if YISS students ever visited Japan, the church he serves would welcome our group with both arms open.

When YISS GOES resumed after the pandemic, it was time to work towards two main goals in Japan. First, the Christian population in Japan is less than 0.5%, which shows the many opportunities for evangelism for YISS and its students. Second, it is important to teach and show the history between Korea and Japan and how this relationship molded both Korean and Japanese cultures today.

In order to fulfill these goals, our group of 16 students and four staff members decided to run an English training camp for students from elementary to high school classrooms for three days at a local church in Fukuoka. We readied games and crafts to play with local elementary, middle, and high school students. We rehearsed English Bible stories and skits to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. The three-day English camp provided a deep bond between local church youths and our students.

We then planned to visit Nagasaki to get insight into the relationship between Korea and Japan. Nagasaki is significant because this is the prefecture where the atomic bomb was unleashed. While in Nagasaki, we also routed our travel to see the famous monument that commemorates the 26 Martyrs of Japan.

I personally want to thank the students who participated in YISS GOES Fukuoka. I am so proud of the students who met every Friday morning to prepare games, skits, and crafts – they did so well in their three-day English camp in Japan. 

At the same time, I would like to express my gratitude to the teachers who attended as staff members. Mrs. Flores played a very important role in the English camp. She came up with important ideas for preparing games and crafts and guided the English camp. Ms. Dooley neatly organized the decisions made at the staff meetings and communicated with the students. She always guided students to return to the hotel on time and made sure to conduct appropriate roll calls. Mr. Arboleda took good care of the students and supported anyone who needed an extra set of hands.

Lastly, I would like to honor God for orchestrating this YISS GOES Fukuoka as a whole so that it could be a beautiful trip.