1 Corinthians 3:7 says, “So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.”
My family and I just returned from Japan. This is a recap of our time.
We served with Mustard Seed Network planting churches since March 11, 2014. When my wife and I moved to Japan, we had never learned another language. We had never done any church planting. We had never lived in an urban area. Basically, we were totally clueless.
We landed in Osaka, Japan, and served with the church plant there while studying in language school for 18 months. After language school, we moved to Kobe in 2016 to help begin that church plant.
Our time in Kobe was hard. We had conflict on the team. We were slightly separated from the church we knew in Osaka. And we had our first baby right after we moved. Also, because our Japanese level was so low, using Japanese in daily life was stressful.
After almost two years, it was decided that it would be better if we moved somewhere else to help another church plant. At that time (2018), the church plant in Kyoto had just begun and was experiencing a lot of growth. So we went to Kyoto to help. Right after we moved, we (well, Audrey) gave birth to our second child.
We spent about two years in Kyoto, mainly serving the children’s ministry. The church grew so quickly! We saw many baptisms in that hub of Buddhism. After two years or so, I began to talk with Mustard Seed about leading a church plant. We looked at a city called Sendai (I had never really heard of it either) in the northeast and decided we would move there and try to plant another church. So, in October 2020, we had our third child. Then we moved in November.
Two other families moved with us: the Martins (who many of you know) and the Yoshidas (who we worked with in Kobe). Sam, Reo, and I began meeting, praying, and thinking together about this church plant. As a team, we either visited other churches on Sunday or met in our home.
In March 2021, we started public worship services. Things started slow. Our first Sunday was about 45 people. The next was about 15… Slowly though, God gave the growth. He answered A LOT of prayers. He gave us another baby in 2022. He gave us new family in Christ who we miss dearly. When we moved away, we had seen 14 baptisms, average attendance was 70, the Martins had been sent to plant in Yokohama, Reo became the pastor of Sendai, and a lot of other amazing things happened that don’t fit on growth charts.
We’re back now. The church is still there. Church planters are still there. The harvest is still plentiful. The workers are still few. The need is still great. And it is all still fueled by your prayers.
Ethan + Audrey Greer
After over a decade of faithfully serving in church planting ministry in Japan, Ethan and Audrey Greer are transitioning back to the United States to be closer to family and continue their ministry work here. Their most recent ministry effort was planting Mustard Seed Christian Church in Sendai, Japan.
