The One Who Remembers Our Prayers

Yufu Kutaragi (Staff for International Student Ministry, Kanto Region)

"Why did you decide to become a Shuji (a staff worker)?"

Over the past few months, I’ve been asked this question many times. As I reflect on it again, I’ve come to one answer: “Because my prayers were remembered.”

As those who have received Jesus as our Savior and become children of God, we pray about everything from the big things to the small. There are times we can pray, and times we can’t. Times we ask others to pray for us, and times we intercede in prayer for others. There are prayers we clearly remember, and some we have forgotten over time.

When I was in high school, I prayed that I would become a missionary as one who had already received salvation. In university, I prayed that I would be able to study the Bible. I prayed that I could serve as a GA (Graduated Assistant). I prayed to be involved in student ministry.

Every single prayer I brought before God has been remembered. They have been woven together in mysterious and unexpected ways, becoming a path that has led me to where I am today.

We don’t know what we’ll be doing and if we’ll still be alive a few years—or even a few days—from now. But when we look back, we can see the path we’ve walked, step by step, with God in prayer.

Now, I am serving in International Student Ministry (ISM). I sometimes wonder, “Why am I doing ISM?” But then I remember how I had the same question when I first started serving as a GA in the Kyushu region. For two years, I kept asking, “Why me?”—and in the end, the answer I found was this: “praying together.”

Students would share with me both their joys and their sorrows. Because I was there, listening to their struggles beside them, their joys became my joys, and their sadness became my pain. Praying together before the Lord was my daily work.

Even in this new ministry in the Kanto region, praying together has already begun. Each and every prayer we offer together rises up as incense before the Lord.

I’m not confident in my English. But international students are fellow workers in student ministry, and they are part of the mission field. So I continue to pray that I may listen to them and pray beside them just as I did before.

I still remember the deep joy I felt, knowing that God Himself was rejoicing when I first decided to pray about serving as a GA. In this country, seeing students praise, pray, and seriously consider their relationship with God filled me with a strong sense of His joy.

That joy has not faded. It remains in my heart even now, continuing to draw me to be with the students.

Psalm 70:4

Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;

And let those who love Your salvation say continually,

”Let God be magnified!”