May & June 2026
Culture and Opportunity
7/11/202611 min read
Hello friends and family! It’s been a crazy and amazing two months serving with YWAM. I was quite busy around last month’s newsletter publication date, so I decided to put the last two months together.
I’m currently writing from the Philippines, where my team is staying for the second leg of our outreach. It’s been such a blessing to lead a diverse but closely knit team of people with a Christ-like love for others. The first half of DTS (Discipleship Training School) prepared them well for the missions field, and we spent about the last month reaching the people of Japan. God has been working in so many ways!
Finishing Off Lecture Phase
May started off wonderfully. After finalizing teams and locations, we revealed to the students where they’d be going on outreach! My co-leader and I, Emily, were set to lead a great team of 6 students to Japan and the Philippines. The team met once or twice a week to discuss what outreach would look like, practice skits for times like youth ministry, and to just bond and pray together.
Around halfway through May, I got pretty sick. I had a high fever for around 4 days, and I eventually went into the emergency room. I was diagnosed with sepsis and a bacterial infection and was in the ICU for about 3 days. My amazing mom and lots of friends came to visit while I was sick, so it wasn't too lonely for me. Thankfully, I was able to heal from the sickness, but it took about a month to fully recover. I was often very sleepy and low on energy during the day, and I sadly missed about 3 weeks of the DTS. Praise the Lord I was still able to lead my team!
Outreach in Japan
Ever since I signed up for my DTS last September, Japan has had a special place in my heart. The past month in Japan was way better than I could’ve imagined, thanks to amazing hosts and a great team (and most importantly, God).
Japanese people are often very isolated. Japanese culture praises respect and dignity, and it’s what most people’s identity lies in. Letting down your family, your boss at work, and even strangers on the train is a big deal for most in Japan. Because of this, most people tend to keep to themselves. They don’t want to disturb anyone or cause others to bear their burdens, so they stay quiet, and this causes a lot of loneliness. During my time in Japan in January this year, I really experienced and saw firsthand the isolation many people feel. The truth is, they all really desire a connection, something deeper, and that hole is something only Jesus can fill!
Missions work in Japan is very different from my other experiences in Asia. In other countries, we often reach people by visiting their houses, preaching in churches or the street, and by hosting Christian events. During our initial meeting with our host in Japan, he explained that most of the ministry they do in Japan is simply making friends with people they meet in skate parks, universities, and the beach, which is mostly youth. He explained that they usually don’t really invite people to church, and that they typically don’t preach the gospel right away. I doubted this method a lot at first. How could this be effective at all?
In many western countries like the US, most people have heard and somewhat understand the basic principles of Christianity and the gospel story. Since Japan is only about 1% Christian, most people haven’t even heard the gospel at all. This means that there isn’t any predisposition specifically against Christianity: they simply have no opinion or experience with it, aside from the idea that it’s a western religion.
Because of that, most of the time when we interact with a native Japanese person, we are building their view of Christians and God from the ground up. Every interaction we have matters so much.
We always explained to people that we are Christian along with what we were doing in Japan. However, we didn’t preach the gospel unless we got a good chance to. Most people in Japan are not religious, and religion is often viewed as a negative thing, meaning that if someone were to become a Christian, they could be rejected by their family or friend
All of this is why it was very important that we didn’t “force” Christianity on the people we met. If we were to invite them to church, they would likely feel like they didn’t fit in. If we preached loudly in the streets, they would likely see it as an annoyance. And if we were to approach them and immediately tell them they needed to repent or that they were living life wrong, they would be pushed away, and we’d leave them with a negative view on Christians.
However, when we befriended people and simply loved them, they could easily associate Christians with love and joy. And so that’s what we did! There were a few people we met who we were able to share the gospel with, but with everyone else we did our best to show them who Christians really are: not people who want your money, not people who want to control you, and not people who want to deceive you, but people who love because Jesus first loved us.
Right before we left, we held a party and invited everyone we met over our 3 weeks in Japan. We had 13 different Japanese people show up, some coming two and a half hours one way just to see us. This was so cool for me to see, as the team I was with in January tried to host something similar, and unfortunately nobody turned up. We were able to share a little about Jesus and pray over everyone before they left. Many people afterward messaged us and asked when we were hosting again.
Even though we likely won’t see many of those people again, we left good seeds in their hearts, and I don’t doubt that God will continue to nurture what we’ve planted. As more and more missionaries move to Japan for long-term missions, there will be more opportunities for planted seeds to be watered. God is really moving in Japan!
Outreach in the Philippines
We’ve only been in the Philippines for about 2 days now, but God has already been giving us so much perspective and His heart for the people here.
We’re staying in a slum called “Happyland” in Tondo, Manila. Happyland has around 12,000 residents, and is the 4th most densely populated area in the world. People live in shacks stacked on top of each other, and many dig through trash to find leftover meat, which they clean and eat or resell. There is no clean running water, and most people do not have work.
Many teens and children have seen their parents murdered in front of them, either shot or stabbed to death, oftentimes by their own family members. Many of them are beaten and abused by their fathers, and many start substance abuse from ages as low as 6. When we arrived, about 10 kids came out to greet us. Our host later explained that 2 of those 10 kids had lost a parent in the past month.
In the middle of Happyland, New Life Church houses many broken children and families, giving food and a safer place to stay. Our host Tom has been living among the people here for 11 years, loving and being a father figure to many kids. He is currently the only full-time missionary in Happyland.
On Saturdays and Sundays, New Life holds church services for youth, sometimes bringing in up to 600 kids from the surrounding area. Many of the kids know the Bible, especially the ones staying with the church, so a lot of our goal and ministry here is to love and speak life into them. They are so broken, have seen things I could never imagine, and are almost never uplifted and loved by anyone outside the church. What a privilege it is to be here to love like Jesus!
We’ll help host church services, hand out food, and spend lots and lots of time with the kids for the next 10 days. After our time in Happyland, we’re moving to a local YWAM base to continue with other ministries until we fly back to Malaysia in the beginning of August.
My Plans after Outreach
After we get back to Malaysia, the students will have about half a week of class, and then we’ll have graduation. After that, I’ll be heading home to visit everyone and give some in-person updates on my time here the past months. If you’d like to see me, please reach out! I’ll be home from August 11–31. I’d love to meet with and talk to you all while I’m home :)
After my time in the States, I’ll be heading back to Malaysia to do a 3-week leadership school with YWAM, and then I’ll begin staffing the September DTS! I’ve really enjoyed staffing DTS this season and am happy to do so again.
A Future in Japan
As my home base in Malaysia expands, they want to spread out rather than grow into a large base. In about a year and a half, they would like to plant a second location in Japan, and I would love to be on the team! While I know now is not my time to go to Japan, I have a heart for the people there and would love to be there full-time. That comes with higher expense and lots of planning though, so please be praying for provision and vision for myself and the team.
Japan is a country that is ready for Jesus! Sadly, it is often called a “missionary graveyard,” as many people go there and don’t see a single salvation their whole life. With very little presence from other religions, as well as a whole visa just for missionaries, I see no reason that Japan couldn’t become a Christian nation. The more people who go to share Christianity in Japan, the more Japanese Christians there will be, which will make it even easier to reach the people!
My recent trips to Japan have felt a lot like the story of the 12 spies in Numbers 13. God told Moses to send 12 spies into Canaan to see what the land was like. God did not send them to see if they should enter, as He had already promised them the land. When the spies returned, 10 of them said that the people living there were too strong, and that there was no way they could enter. The other two spies, Joshua and Caleb, said that the land was good just as God had told them. The fact that there were giants in the land didn’t matter: God had promised them the land.
As God continues to pull my heart towards Japan, I am certain that He will do many things there through my team and I. Not because we are great, but because He is, and He has promised us that He will be with us wherever we go. It doesn’t matter that it’s a “missionary graveyard”, because God is bigger than the giants that lie ahead, and He has already promised us the land.
Something God Has Been Teaching Me Over the Past Two Months
As I spent time in Japan, it was hard for me to be okay with not sharing the gospel with people directly like I usually do.
I recently read this passage from 1 Corinthians 3. Verses 7 and 8 say:
“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.”
I realized that I was leaning too much into my own power, rather than leaning on God and the other people alongside me and doing what He has called me to do. The truth is, it’s not solely my job to change people’s hearts: that’s the job of the Holy Spirit. It is my part to simply plant and water the seed, and God will do the rest. As I grow closer to Him, I learn more and more to trust in Him and His plan, and rely less on my own. His way is and always will be better.
Closing
It’s been such a blessing to be serving the Lord and His wonderful people alongside great friends. My co-leader Emily has been amazing, and I’m very glad to not be leading alone (Not that I would be alone without her—God has been here every step of the way!)
Thank you again for all of your support! I’ll aim to put out updates the first Monday of every month to keep you all in the loop. You can find these on my newsletter site at micahonmissions.org. You can sign up for email updates here as well. If you'd like to send me mail, shoot me a message on WhatsApp or send me an email for the address. For more info on my base, YWAMEA, you can check out their website at ywamea.com.
Support
I want to thank you all for your support in both prayer and finances, as well as all of the encouragement I’ve gotten through cards, texts, gifts, and your words. It’s so cool to see God’s provision and love in action!
Prayer Points
Prayers for all the people we ministered to and befriended in Japan, that God would lead more people to them to grow their relationship with Christ!
Prayers for the children and adults in Happyland, that we would be able to fully show them God's love for them
Prayers for good health and energy for my team as we stay in Happyland
Prayers for growth in my own relationship with God, that I would be spirit-led in everything I do from staffing the DTS to leading teams across Asia!
Prayers that everything would go smoothly in my finances, my planning, and my day-to-day. That God would be with me and my team every step of the way.
Prayers for my rest, that I can sleep well and long at night, and that I can get a good balance between my work and rest hours.
Prayers for the people of Asia, that the love of Jesus would reach every nation and people!
Financial Support Options
I need to raise at least $1000 a month. If you feel called to give, there's a few ways you can below.
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