God had a plan for my life

At age 14, I preached my first sermon at an Easter Sunrise service. Certain God had called me to ministry, I entered Elim Bible Institute, Class of 1977. Yet God’s plan looked different from what I imagined. In 1978, I met a Japanese exchange student, and we married in 1981. We moved to Japan in 1988, where I taught English in high schools. Soon after, I joined a Japanese company that established worldwide math education centers. In 1996, Kumon Institute transferred me to Switzerland for three to five years, but that assignment became two decades until my retirement in 2016.

Switzerland opened the door to short-term missions. Through my American pastor, I joined outreaches to Bosnia-Herzegovina just after their civil war, then Nepal, and Ladakh, India. Often, my Japanese students accompanied me on these spring break trips. In BiH, we served Muslims, Serbs, and Croatians. In Nepal, we ministered to Hindus, Christians, and Muslims. In Ladakh, we encountered Tibetan Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Moravian Christians, and even Jews. Seeds of the Gospel were planted, and even now, years into retirement, God continues to create divine appointments.
Back in 1977, during a prayer meeting at Elim, a young man told me he saw a vision of me above a country shaped like a boot, with fruit overflowing from it. I didn’t understand it then, but I held onto his words. I often recalled Psalm 139:15–16—God had already written the days of my life.

Looking back, I see how God unfolded His plan, not by my design but by His. I held a secular job, yet ministry happened in ways I never expected. Ephesians 1:11 reminds us: “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.”

Our lives and ministries are right where God intends them to be. The call is simple: trust His plan—and rest.