Audrey Brings Her Changed Life to Her Japanese Roots

“I was going through a really hard time my senior year, and God used that to bring me to Himself,” Audrey says. She had been exposed to Catholicism growing up, but never really heard the gospel. “Maybe I heard that Jesus died for my sins and that He was resurrected, but I didn't make any connection to how that related to me,” she says.

Then she went to a church’s high school winter retreat and one of the moms gave her a Bible. “Through reading the Bible for myself, God really opened up my eyes,” Audrey says. “I was just in a bad place and so I think that drew me to want to read the Bible.”

After reading God's Word on her own for just a couple months, she became a believer. At the beginning, she really struggled with doubt, but she prayed, “God, I do want to believe. I feel like I'm not fully there yet, but I'm willing to keep trying and keep learning.” She wrestled with her faith for those first couple years, but God slowly answered her prayer as she grew to trust Him more and more.

As she trusted God, He radically changed the trajectory of her entire life. “In a lot of ways, I was very worldly and rebellious in high school and middle school,” she says. “I went to public school so it was kind of normal to go to parties and drink and do all that.” Also, ever since a young age, she had a lot of pretty bad conflicts with her parents. “But when I got saved, that made me realize that I should honor my parents, which helped my relationship with them a lot,” she says. “I went from living in sin and darkness—barely acknowledging God—to God becoming the center of my life, which was all by His own doing and not my own.”

And now that she's reoriented her entire life around her Savior, Audrey became very interested when Encompass held a missions conference at her church. “Because I'm half Japanese, I just feel really drawn towards Japan,” she says. So when she found out about our team internship to Japan this summer, she signed up. "Japan is a really hard place to reach people for the gospel,” she says. “They have a pretty morally harmonious society, so many Japanese people just don't see why they would need Christ.”

While she’s been to Japan a couple times before, her trip with us this summer will be Audrey’s first time back as a believer. On the trip, she and her teammates will immerse themselves in the culture, meet the teams we have there, and engage in outreach opportunities. “Please pray that this trip would help me figure out if becoming a missionary in Japan long-term is something that God would have me to do,” she says.

It’s so exciting to hear how God revealed Himself to Audrey and transformed her life! Now that He’s given her a desire to live for Him, her Japanese roots could be the perfect gateway to do that. Please pray for Audrey and consider partnering with her as she explores God’s call on her life.