I recently returned from a mission trip with my church to Tokyo, and I’ve found it difficult to fully explain how much this trip impacted me. It feels silly to feel so deeply about this trip—to have such affection for the people I met and overwhelming gratitude to God for what I experienced and witnessed there—but I do.

Our team partnered with a local church in Tokyo to lead two days of VBS English camps and three days of junior high school visits, where we practiced English with 7th–9th grade students. We also partnered with the college ministry at Waseda University to participate in various events during their International Week, including game nights, a baseball game, and large-group fellowship. The purpose was to build relationships and spark students’ interest in Christians and Christianity, as some students had never met a Christian before.

Personally, this entire trip felt like a spiritual rejuvenation, awakening a part of me that had become buried beneath complacent worldliness. Being intentional about building relationships and pushing myself to serve, be present, and simply pray for energy (with lots of coffee) made me feel alive in a way I only experience while doing ministry. I recognized the ways I’d been compromising and forgetting the passion I’d felt several years ago, and I returned to the U.S. feeling changed and reinvigorated to pursue my faith wholeheartedly.

I’m so thankful for the Japanese Christians who showed me what it looks like to intentionally work together as one body to bring friends to Christ, no matter our backgrounds. So often, even within Christian communities, we slip into living individualistic lives, staying comfortably within our own circles and cliques. In Japan, where following Christ is both difficult and rare, that simply isn’t enough.

Living with one shared vision—to serve God and make the Gospel known—is both beautiful and essential, and I left convicted that this is how the Church is meant to live everywhere.

My U.S. teammates served with such pure hearts, energy, and positivity, and they became a source of inspiration to me. We truly felt like the perfect team for this 2026 trip in the way we worked together towards a shared vision and got along, and I found myself feeling more energized by them than tired or burnt out by our ministries. Love grows deeply through shared, intense experiences like these.

The Japanese students and ministry interns I met also brought me so much joy as I got to know them through conversations and activities. I was a little nervous about being older than most of the people on my team, but I quickly realized the college students were just as interested in getting to know me and staying connected. I found myself genuinely curious about their lives, perspectives, and interests, though I had to hold back a bit from bombarding them with my random deep questions.

Through the ministries we joined and the events we hosted and participated in, I experienced deep spiritual encouragement I didn’t even know I needed. Hearing personal testimonies and stories of the ways the church and college ministry are reaching out to others reminded me that God’s work is always greater than what we can perceive, and that prayer truly is powerful.

Something our pastor told us was to store up these memories in our hearts for the days we find ourselves struggling, disheartened, or tempted to sin, and I wholeheartedly intend to keep these memories close. It wasn’t just that I made friends or learned about people from different cultures and stages of life. I got to witness the ways God is working in a place that is so close to my heart.

Overall, this trip reminded me that this—serving God joyfully and loving others—is who I am eternally. No matter how I feel day to day, no matter what ups and downs I go through, I am a child of God and an ambassador for Christ. There is no greater purpose in life than that.

My body might be trashed, but my heart is so full.