
Written by Luke Sinclair, Staff for Kanto Region
How does a kid from a small town in a country where people are outnumbered by sheep five to one end up doing student ministry in Tokyo? I’m still not exactly sure! But part of what God has used was my own experience as a student which helped me see the importance of student ministry and was where I took my first steps in this direction.
Firstly, it was as a student that I walked away from Christianity. I had grown up as a Christian with Christian parents in a New Zealand country town. I was an active Christian during my High School years and came to university eager to get stuck in with a Christian Club, which I did.
Yet by the second semester I was intentionally distancing myself from Christian activities and by the end of the year I was able to admit to myself that I was no longer following Jesus. Leaving home and living in a 600-person dormitory was tough. Everyone around me looked like they were having so much fun – except for me who often didn’t join in with the partying as I was shy and a Christian. Then there were the vocal atheists who asked me questions I couldn’t answer and were sometimes nasty even to my face. I started to have doubts and so pulled back and then eventually pulled out altogether.
But it was through student ministry that I came back to Jesus. My second year at university was more miserable than the first. By the end of that year, I knew I needed to stop being apathetic and start looking for meaning to life. I got connected with one of the staff workers from TSCF (New Zealand’s KGK) and in one meeting he answered many of my questions and caused me to think. He invited me to join a church that was starting the next year especially for students.
So, in my third year of university, while I started going to this new student church, I also kept exploring and thinking through Atheism, and started attending Buddhist meditation classes. Comparing these three worldviews, the incredibleness of Jesus and the Christian worldview really stood out.
Reading through Luke’s gospel I was amazed again at Jesus’ words and actions – his point was always sharp and I couldn’t just sweep him under the carpet. Especially concerning his resurrection which he had clearly foretold and headed towards. Looking into the evidence for the resurrection I came to be convinced that the best explanation for how Christianity started and spread was that the disciples had seen this man die and come back to life just as he had foretold. And if that was true, I couldn’t carry on ignoring Jesus but I had to listen to him.
Also, that year in the weekly Bible Study we looked at the book of Ephesians. Through this I came to see beauty and power of the gospel again. “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:4–5 NIV). Atheism was telling me that ‘love’ was merely an accident of chance, a useful fiction for helping humanity survive but ultimately empty. Buddhism was telling me I needed to be freed of ‘love’ as it was the problem causing me to attach to the illusion of this world and perpetuating my suffering. But the Christian worldview told me love was real and good as it comes from God himself. This fit best both philosophically and emotionally for the importance and prevalence of love in my thinking. Furthermore, that God would love me and show me mercy even though I had turned my back on him – that was a love I couldn’t ignore. It didn’t happen overnight but across that year God, in his mercy, brought me back to trusting and following Jesus.
And it was in those student years that I took my first steps on the path towards where I am now. An important verse to me was Luke 9:62 “Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’” I realized that in my first year of university I had “looked back” and given up on following Jesus. Having now come back, I was determined, with God’s help, to keep looking forward and serving to see God’s Kingdom grow.
Knowing again how good the gospel was I wanted my classmates to also know about Jesus and took my first small steps in evangelism. Knowing how easy it was to walk away from Jesus I started to want to encourage other Christian students to persevere in their faith. I didn’t feel I had the knowledge or integrity to teach the Bible but by joining the setup/packdown team I found a practical way of serving that supported people hearing God’s word.
Over this time a guy in his late twenties from church met with me each week to read the Bible and encourage me. It was simple yet so helpful for my Christian growth. The challenge then came: could I do the same with another student? I didn’t feel qualified but I started to see that forward-looking service in the Kingdom of God would require me to keep taking ‘one step outside my comfort zone’. So, I started to read the Bible each week with a classmate who had become a Christian after I had invited them to church the year before.
Through this experience I was challenged to become better equipped to handle God’s Word to teach others. As I approached graduation, I had expected to become an engineer who faithfully used these skills to serve in my local church and share the gospel in my workplace. But with this ‘one step outside my comfort zone’ mentality I was also challenged to contemplate whether this was something I should do full time.
And God used these first steps while I was a student to lead me here to KGK in Tokyo. After finishing my Masters I did a two-year apprenticeship at my church and then went to Bible College. It was there I met my wife Naomi, who had just come back from 2 years as a KGK staff worker. We served at my home church in Christchurch, New Zealand for 3 years where I was an assistant pastor. And then we came with our family to Tokyo in 2022. After a period of language learning for me we both started as KGK staff workers in April 2024.
I’m still not sure exactly how I got here but looking back I see clearly God’s incredible mercy towards me as a student. I long for students here in Japan to know the same and look forward to seeing where God leads each of them.