11/13/2022
Faith Lackey serves as an English as a Foreign Language teacher in Japan. She will be here on December 4. Here is a recent update from her.
I was sent through the DBC ESL program to teach English classes at Minemachi Christ Church for which we created a sort of sister English program here. Utsunomiya (my city) is home to the largest Honda R&D in Japan, which is why most Japanese families moving to and from Dublin leave and return to Utsunomiya. I was a volunteer teacher for DBC ESL from 2010 to 2017, so it’s been amazing to have the Ohio connection with many of our students who used to live there! Through the English classes, special events, and Easy English Bible Studies we run we can build relationships and share the Gospel with our 100+ students!
I’m a missionary at Minemachi Christ Church (MCC) in Utsunomiya, Japan. I'm here with an incredible partner in ministry, Janet, who is a huge blessing and support in my life. She has lived in Japan for a long time and speaks Japanese fluently. Together we run the MCC EFL (English as a Foreign Language) Program.
In this program, Janet and I teach a lot of different English classes to adults and kids. I also lead two Bible studies in easy English and help run special events for kids once a month. We currently have a little over 120 students who attend our weekly classes. Additionally, about 40 children, on average, attend our monthly events. Almost all of our students are not Christians and know very little about God. They only come to the church for English classes. I love teaching them English, but our real goal is to share the Gospel with them, which we do for a portion of each lesson.
Janet teaches beginner-level classes, while I teach intermediate to advanced levels. Most of my students used to live in an English-speaking country; many of them used to live in Dublin, Ohio, and attended DBC’s ESL program. Therefore, this ministry was created as a sister English program for them to continue using English with a native speaker and for me to continue speaking the Gospel into their lives.
In general, it takes a very long time to form deep relationships with Japanese people and so reaching them with the Gospel also takes a very long time. A lot of what I do here is work to form and build deeper relationships with my students, and others I come in contact with so that they will come to trust me and listen as I share the Gospel. In the 4 1/2 years that I’ve been here, I’ve had the great honor of witnessing 7 women surrender their lives to Christ and have been able to attend 4 baptisms. That is a true miracle in Japan!
A huge prayer request that Janet and I have had since this program began has been for God to provide a teacher to take over Janet’s classes. Janet does not feel called to be an English teacher and already has more than enough work doing all the administrative duties required to run the program. Please pray God will provide someone to replace her or guide us on how we can run the program with me as the sole teacher. Please also pray for God to soften the hearts of our students, especially the adults, to the Gospel. Pray that the seeds we are planting will someday sprout and grow and they will come to a true knowledge of the Truth! Lastly, please pray for me to have the time and courage to learn Japanese. It’s been very difficult for me to learn the language for many reasons, but I’ve been trying to make it more of a priority this year.
