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Simon has been a member of St Aldate's church in Oxford since 1996, when he came up to Oxford to study Japanese. After graduating, he continued working in Oxford, serving in St Aldate's as a children's church helper and a pastorate leader.
In 2003, he became challenged about the state of the church in Japan, and went on a short term mission with WEC International to Shiga Prefecture, in the west of Japan, near the second city of Kyoto. During that time, God confirmed his calling to full-time mission work in Japan, and he enrolled at All Nations Christian College for a two year degree course.
While there he developed a passion for leadership development and teaching, and an interest in new and culturally-appropriate expressions of church. He also developed links with the Japanese church in London and other outreach to expatriate Japanese.
Simon joined WEC after completing Bible college, and came to Japan in April 2007. He is now based in Nagahama church, preaching in English and in Japanese, leading an English congregation, giving seminars and teaching on leadership, and continuing language study. From May 2008, he will be starting a new church group in nearby Maibara city.
Last updated: 2008-03-12
Mission Testimony
How this all happened...
In 2003, St Aldate's sent me out to Japan, a country I'd visited many times before for study and for work, but this time for a different reason - a short-term mission trip with WEC International, to help their church planting teams and to decide what God was saying to me about long-term work. For a month, I gave English classes, led Bible study groups, gave my testimony, built a web site, and helped to translate "Operation World" into Japanese to mobilise national Christians into mission.
As I was travelling around the WEC churches, I was working on the Operation World translation as I went. One night, I was staying in a church out in the countryside and decided to use my copy of OW to pray for a country that night. The country allocated for that day was Japan! I wondered if God might be speaking to me about longer term service! I read on, to the prayer points for Japan: first, as a country where only 0.1% of the population know Jesus, Japan needs many more missionaries. Maybe this was for me!
The second prayer point was for missionaries to be able to pick up the language - Japanese is one of the hardest languages to learn. But I already speak Japanese! And the third point? For the rural areas of Japan - and here I was in a rural area, staying in the only church in an area of 30,000 people. God spoke to me very clearly that night that He could use me for His service in Japan. All I needed to do was to let Him...
