In the Field: Sent to Sendai

Praise Community Church in Sendai, Japan

Bethany had been in Japan for less than a month, and she was ready to find a church she could be involved in while she lived in Japan to teach English. So she met one of her co-workers to make their way to downtown Sendai. She learned which subway station to get off at, and which of the station exits to use. Then they walked into a bar.

They sang worship songs in English and in Japanese. She sat in the back where a church member whispered the English translation of the sermon. At the end of the sermon, Bethany was caught off guard when she was asked to tell the congregation her name, favorite food, and how she had come to the church. She didn't know yet that these types of introductions were frequent in Japan. 

"I remember just feeling a sense of home," Bethany says. "It just felt comfortable."

English Conversation Cafe, an outreach of PCC

That was Bethany Panian's introduction to Praise Community Church (PCC). At the time, she was only planning to be a member. Now, through partnership with Asian Access, she is on staff at the church. If she brings a guests, she warns them about the introduction, even if she forgets until it's almost time for the introduction.

Bethany became a Christian while attending the University of Missouri - Columbia. She was hired through the university to work with a school district. The school was going through budget cuts, and she knew was not going to have a job there the next year, so she started asking God what to do. She prayed with her campus pastor, Missi Trask, and went to a job fair at the university.

While at the job fair, she saw someone recruiting for teaching positions in Japan. "Japan wasn't on my radar for my life at all," she says. So she decided it would be good to practice interviewing with the recruiter. After the fair, they continued to email back and forth. As she prayed about what to do next, a woman from her church told her, "You can't steer a parked car." Bethany applied for the teaching position. By the time she heard back, she had started telling God, "If you don't give me Japan, I don't know what I'm going to do."

Staff prayer night at Bethany's pastor's house

Eventually, Bethany found out she had the job. She moved to Japan in February 2011 and began teaching English, which she did for four years. She taught second grade and high school. During her fourth year, she started working part time as a teacher trainer and began volunteering at PCC.

In her volunteer role, Bethany would organize roles for church volunteers, put bulletins together, make worship music available online, and helped with a monthly Bible study for women. "In those two roles, I was on the edge of burnout again, and I didn't even know it," she says. That's when she found out her school wanted her to be full time the following year, in the position they had created for her. "I had to make a decision between giving up my position at the school and my work at the church," Bethany says. "I was heartbroken because I didn't want to give up either."

She decided to spend a month praying about her options. "I had no peace about returning to teacher training because I felt I had made a commitment to my church and to God," Bethany says.

She had been looking for roommates for the following year. When the friends she was talking to found out she wanted to stay with the church, they offered to cover part of her share of rent as a way to support her. She also read 1 Kings 17 and thought, "If God can make the ravens feed Elijah, He can take care of me," she says.

Bethany meeting with her pastor, supervisor, and a VP
of Asian Access

So Bethany started speaking with Asian Access. Because Asian Access normally pairs missionaries with partner churches, she was not sure how things would work out. She knew she was supposed to be at PCC, but PCC was not a partner church. That spring, the vice president of Asian Access was traveling through Sendai, and Bethany met with her between travel connections. "We both had that feeling we'd known each other forever," Bethany says. Without making any promises, the vice president told her how she met the need at PCC. "God calling me was a perfect fit with things going on behind the scenes I didn't even know about."

After spending some time in the states for training and support raising, Bethany returned to Japan in September 2016. "I have to remind myself I'm still a first-year missionary. It makes sense for me to be barabara," she says, using the Japanese word for scattered.

Some of the "aunties" in the temporary housing community
where PCC Kai is held

When the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan in 2011, Bethany had just arrived, but she knew she was supposed to stay in the country. Residents affected by the disasters were placed into temporary housing communities, and PCC formed a relationship with people at one of the nearby locations. They have recently started what is called PCC Kai, or monthly church services with the residents. "We still haven't seen anyone come to Christ," Bethany said. "My pastor feels like he knows some people who are open to it and seeking. In a Japanese context, making a decision to do something different from the group is almost impossible. I've prayed that He'll change the whole group, and they'll all be following Him."

Now that she is officially on staff with PCC, Bethany has some specific goals in mind for what she would like to do. Bethany is used to small groups playing a big role in spiritual growth. She would like to start a small group with some of the young women in her church. She wants a Japanese co-leader to work with her.

Bethany also wants to see prayer become a normal part of every church member's life. She wants people to be comfortable praying for each other. "One of the biggest challenges is how people view leadership," she said. "Leadership tends to be a really elevated honor. People expect the pastor to do everything." That includes prayer. To encourage others to pray, she is setting an example. "I'm making that a normal part of how I interact with people and modeling that."

But that's not the only change PCC will be seeing. After 10 years of meeting in a bar, and only having the space for a few hours on Sundays, PCC finally has their own space. That means more room to grow.

Prayer requests from Bethany:

• Prayers as PCC enters the new season with their new building
• That they would use the space for God's glory
• That they would be able to better equip their members
• That they would be able to do more outreach

Bethany with her pastor and his family as well as the church's
new intern after their last service in the bar - just last Sunday

*All photos courtesy of Bethany Panian, taken by her pastor Takahiro Ami