A TESTIMONY: SABBATICAL EDITION PART II

Testimony: Sabbatical Edition Part II (a) I wrote this section in September 2024 before moving to Japan. I've edited it slightly to facilitate smooth reading.

My connection with Japan started in 2007 when I lived in Tokyo for a year on a one-year exchange program. Actually maybe even before that... When I had a Japanese neighbor in elementary school and we played together a lot. Her mom would invite us over and make Japanese food for us and I had a good impression of Japanese people. I think one of the first Japanese words I learned was "abunai!" There were many firsts for me in Tokyo as a new Christian in 2007 - this is was where I was baptized, where I served on the worship team for the first time and went on my first missions trip to South Africa! I had my first mentor who happened to be from Singapore and I also shared my faith when we went on the streets and we also went to high schools for worship and outreach. My host sister joined my church’s English camp and accepted Christ and even my professor at Waseda came to church when I invited him! God really grew my faith in Japan! I went back to New York in 2008 to finish my Bachelor's degree and I attended Urbana 2009, a college conference organized by Intervarsity. I went on the Business as Missions track. At that time I was on fire for God, so at the closing session when there was a commitment call, I committed to being a long-term missionary for God, not thinking too much about it. After graduation, I was busy with climbing the corporate ladder and loved my life in Manhattan. I still attended and served at church, but my purpose and mission shifted to my career rather than living a surrendered life to God. God stopped me in my tracks and made my job in New York soooo miserable that I decided to quit and left for Asia to figure out my next steps. When I left New York City in 2017, my original plan was to relocate to Japan, while using Singapore as a base for my job search (because I really didn’t like living in Singapore). But God had other plans! No doors opened for Japan mainly because I don’t speak Japanese, but I’m thankful that I found a job in Sustainable Finance at Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore in 2019 and my sabbatical ended then (read earlier blogpost HERE for my testimony on that crazy miracle). 

God grew me a lot professionally through my super competent boss in Singapore, Eugenia, and gave me the work connections I needed. In hindsight, I see why God kept me in Singapore for 7 years - to be there for my parents during the pandemic because they live in Singapore, to reconcile our relationship and share my faith with them. I wish I was better with my finances though and saved more money. I had a crazy spending habit; probably to release stress too.  When Covid hit in 2020 and there was a lockdown and almost all activities ceased, I decided to pick up Japanese again. I started out with 3 hours of Japanese a week just for fun, and when I saw my classmate taking the Japanese Language Placement Test (JLPT) prep course, I thought, why not, and took 6 hours of Japanese classes a week to prep for the exam and I did that for almost 6 months. It was a miracle that I managed to register for the JLPT exam when there were maybe only 20-30 spots during Covid and it's also a miracle that I passed! JLPT N2 is exactly what is needed to work in Japan, but I still don’t speak it well, so it was difficult finding a job in Japan. In 2021, I also signed up and completed the OMF Tentmaker bible study series to learn more about tentmaking. When speaking to my BSF leader Yih Tyng, she reminded me that since she’s met me, I’ve been speaking to her about my desire to move to Japan. I was looking back at some of my prayer requests I had sent her:

Not lose sight of the bigger plan of possibly moving to Japan. To be patient and let God lead me and wait on His timing instead of rushing it. - Oct 25, 2021

For guidance on next steps and to have faith that God will lead me to Japan one day. - Nov 8, 2021

Still... No door to Japan opened and I kinda gave up on it since I was enjoying and learning a lot from the Net Zero project I was working on at that time, even though it was really stressful. In August 2023, I was supposed to travel to Okinawa for my Divemasters certification, but a typhoon hit and it thwarted my plans. I changed my plans last minute and traveled to Tokyo instead. That was how I caught up with a friend, Tiffany, who happened to reach out to me “randomly” when I was heading there and she shared about how she stayed on in Japan after her Masters program, which gave me the idea to apply for a Masters too! That’s how God planted that idea in my head and everything was set into motion. Long story short, God rolled out the red carpet for me to move to Japan. With the help of many, I managed to get into the Masters in Sustainability Science program at the University of Tokyo which started in October 2024. I was originally going to apply to the United Nations University (UNU), but my friend Anny had a friend who went to UNU, and when we spoke she told me about the Sustainability program at UTokyo, so I expanded my research on the different programs. I reached out to many people through LinkedIn and other platforms and spoke to around 20 people about applying to UTokyo, my research topic, etc. Someone recommended my current supervisor and I'm very grateful because he really helped me prepare for my application and interview. I'm so grateful that God led me to UTokyo (this is a miracle; I'm totally not the studious type), which is a better brand name for applying for jobs in Japan and God also helped me save so much money because tuition at UNU is more than double that of UTokyo.

Without an acceptance to UTokyo and encouraged by a friend, I quit my job in December 2023 and traveled the world for about 8 months. I was in Saudi Arabia when I did my Zoom interview and only found out that I got into UTokyo in February 2024. Now in hindsight I don't know if it's faith or recklessness. God used this time of traveling to change my perspective on life, purpose, relationships, and many other things - I signed up for 2 OM mission trips, one in Namibia and one in Moldova and really enjoyed it! I felt like God was slowly bringing back my passion for reaching people and for Japan, which I had abandoned, and He’s reminding me that the reason He opened the door for me to go back to Japan because Japan is my missions field! In these past few months, God has shifted my priorities in that yes, I am in Japan for school and I want to do well in my program, but at the same time I want to be a part of a church that does outreach to reach the lost, and for me to use this time to explore and figure out what being a tentmaker looks like and be open to the doors God opens for me during this time. It’s been 17 years since I first set foot on Japan and the more I think about it, it really is quite unbelievable that I’m going back to Tokyo for school again! And it is amazing thinking about how God worked on my heart these past 17 years, not letting me go even when I strayed, showing me how wide, high, long and deep His love is for me, patiently waiting and gently rebuking me and leading me to a place of surrender. He also provided sooo many growth opportunities professionally and also financially. I am beyond grateful! 

Testimony: Sabbatical Edition Part II (b) Written on July 24, 2025 as part of my support letter and details added for this blogpost.

My long pit stop in Singapore came to an end and I finally moved to Tokyo, where I wanted to move to since 2017.

Time flies! It’s been almost 10 months since I moved to Tokyo. I’m done with 2 semesters of my Masters program at UTokyo and I have 2 more semesters to go. It’s kinda scary, but also exciting thinking about what’s next (more scary than exciting though. Lol). I moved here for school and I'm kinda still figuring out what's next. I really enjoy school and I take a whole range of classes from coastal ecosystems, groundwater and wastewater management, innovations in engineering and agriculture to Japanese religion, manga, etc. I've also been taking Japanese classes! I took about 6 hours of online Japanese classes per week in my second semester. It's been kinda discouraging because I still struggle with speaking in Japanese... I think I have a lot of perfectionist tendencies and I don't like to "fail" or look bad or embarrass myself, so I refuse to speak it until I know it perfectly. It's something I want to work on. And honestly I think my memory also just isn't as good as before.

I moved to Japan knowing with much certainty that God paved the way for me to be here and intended for me to be here, although not knowing what I’m supposed to do apart from me getting my Masters degree. So far God has clearly provided an apartment - no one else would accept my application since I’m a foreigner with no income, but God opened just one door (literally) and I have the kindest landlord, Fujita san, who has been non-stop gifting me fruits and snacks and even money recently (he gives me a big bag of fruits and food almost every other week and I'm still shocked that he gave me 60,000 yen or around US$400 for my utilities when I told him I try to not use the AC to save money). My apartment “happened to be” one station away from the church I attend now, Awakening Tokyo, and so many people from my church live walking distance from me. There are also 2 guys whom I met in Naoshima in 2023, Hagi and Ivan, who “happen to” live around me. Hagi actually lives in the building just right across the street from me!! Just to be clear, Tokyo is HUGE, unlike Singapore. Maybe God knew that I’m in a foreign land and may feel lonely, so He provided friends.

And God continues to provide! 8 ministry school students from my church will be moving into my apartment building and my landlord will also be renting out another 2 apartments in another building to my church. My landlord is also always buying dinner and drinks for my friends when I try to organize dinner for us all. I continue to see God provide for me and even people around me 😊 God also clearly guided me to my current church, Awakening Tokyo. People I met in my travels (at the Iris Global retreat) mentioned that I should check out Awakening Tokyo, and when I found out that it's one station away from me (God knows that I like being able to walk to church), I thought, this is it!! Another confirmation was when I bumped into Alex Smith at church maybe my second week there. I first met Alex at UTokyo's orientation week and we had to share about why we decided to come to Japan. I thought there was something similar about both our stories - that it was a way for us to come to Japan but didn't probe more. What are the odds that Alex attends Awakening Tokyo too! 

God also provided my friend Anny who hosted me for almost a month while I was apartment hunting, and my friend Hide who helped me with my apartment search, helped me move, and is my guarantor and all. I'm so grateful.

And that’s not all... God’s provision continues... He provided the nicest senpais in my research lab. My supervisor isn’t the easiest person to work with and he’s not always very helpful, but my senpais are so willing to share their materials with me (someone with no research experience) and advise me on next steps. Everyone in my department really has been so kind, guiding me on how to get research ethics approval and many other things. God also provided a contact in Indonesia to help me with my research fieldwork. A professor in Medan whom I cold emailed offered to help me find interviewees, a translator, and be my local collaborator with no additional questions asked! (fingers crossed it all works out)

The most “random” things happen to me - like a grandpa whom I do not know “randomly” giving me 3 free tickets to Disneyland/Sea when I was on my way to a sauna. I was in Osaka for the World Expo and I “randomly” bumped into a friend from Tokyo whom I haven’t seen in 17 years. In order for me to bump into him, so many details needed to align. My friend Ian had to want to go to Osaka for Pokémon GoFest on Friday and so I suggested to visit the World Expo that Thursday. I didn’t commit to the trip till the last minute; 2 out of 3 of my Friday classes “happened to be” canceled so I was able to travel that week. My friend Jared from Singapore “happened to be” in Japan too and when we parted ways at the Expo he texted to tell me to check out the Gundam statue, which is why I walked towards the West Gate Zone (World Expo is HUGE). Ian “happened to” want to see the Gundam statue too, so I stood there waiting for him… That’s when I heard someone speak and there was a music performance about to start right around the corner. I walked over and lo and behold the emcee happened to be my friend, Alex Hatton, from church from a long time ago!!

And the list of things goes on... I’m not sharing these stories to brag... I’m sharing these to show how crazy strong my lack of faith and unbelief is!! Despite God making it “visible” that He’s with me (like how Elisha’s servant’s eyes opened to see God working), now that I'm a year into my Masters program in Japan and still not speaking Japanese well, I’ve been so anxious and have so much fear about the future. God's pursuit of me continues. I do wonder here and there though whether He will give up on me since I still keep doubting Him and no confirmation seems to give me full assurance and I'm so reluctant and begrudging in what I feel He's calling me to do (that's beyond my comfort zone).

I think what also adds to the anxiety is that I can't believe I’m already 39 and turning 40 in about 7 months! I do wonder here and there what am I doing with my life and why am I surrounded by kids in their 20s. I was chatting with a friend and we were talking about how life is soooo short and unpredictable. Do we want to live an unchanged life and just be comfortable? Or do we want to live surrendered lives and offer ourselves as living sacrifices to be used by God? 

My move to Japan made me realize that it’s easier said than done... I’ve always said, “Yeahhh!!! I want to be a tentmaker or missionary and serve God!!!” It was easier to say it when I was going just on short-term missions. But now that I’ve been in Japan for some time and going for outreach at Ueno Park with my church on Sundays the past 10 months and getting rejected left and right and people looking at my weird and seeing zero salvations, I started questioning myself and whether this is for me. Long-term missions is a whole other beast!!

Despite my lack of faith and my doubting of my own abilities, God is so gentle, kind and loving and He didn’t give up on me. He keeps pursuing me and wants a deeper relationship, as He does with you! He's been stripping away what I put my trust in - relationships, status, fame, stability - and teaching me that He's my One Thing. He's our first love and our good good Father. 

God convicted me to join my church’s ministry school on June 8, 2025 through a sermon illustration a speaker used, which was exactly what happened to me a few days before. She spoke about doublemindedness and someone not being able to decide which ramen flavor to get and was in a dilemma for a long time. Doublemindedness was something the leader on my Namibia missions trip also pointed out to me before... Anyway, I was literally at the grocery store TWICE (2 separate days) and stood at the ramen section and went back and forth in my head on whether I should get the soy sauce or salt flavor and I FINALLY made a decision the second time after a long deliberation. Don't ask me why. After being convicted, I went home that day and signed up for my church’s ministry school, Awakening Asia School of Ministry (AASM) immediately. If I didn't do it immediately I would have changed my mind again. Lol.

I'm excited to see where God will lead from there. I'm kinda one of those who just wants to flip to the end of a book and read the ending. What will Part II (c) look like? I wonder when I write it will I look back and see God guiding me all along? Me choosing to join AASM means I won't be able to do the carbon credits internship which I found, which I was hoping will lead to a full-time job after graduation. I feel like this is a crossroad where I made a choice which will have a big impact on where my future is headed. I trust that God's invisible hand is guiding and leading me where He wants me to be.

I've signed up to join my church's ministry school worship team too! I'm excited to be a part of that. My church is kinda like a start up... We need all hands on deck. And if you speak to people here, almost everyone and if not everyone has a crazy story of how God called them to Japan or to the church. It's a pretty unique, mission-focused church. They're also looking to do a stadium event in Tokyo in 2026 which is something I would love to support and help out with!

Oh and can you believe it... I actually cook now! My friends from Singapore and America are so shocked. I used to eat out basically for every meal and eat fast food 3-4 times a week 🙈🙈🙈 But I actually eat at home almost every meal now!! I make Korean food, simple soup + rice meals and steak. I even hosted friends at my place and cooked for them. Lol. I've also cut down on a lot of shopping and spend maybe 50% less than what I used to (this is with my rent in Japan included and I didn't pay rent in Singapore). I used to not care about buying items on sale, but now I actually do check out sale sections!! It's such a simple thing, but I'm so proud of myself!

Thanks for reading this crazy long post. If you would like to support me through prayer or financially (for my AASM tuition), please do reach out to me and I would love to share more 😀🙏