After a pregnancy filled with mandatory bed rest and almost not going full-term, Caitlyn gave birth to a little boy (see the July 2026 issue of Adventist Frontiers).

Hiroko and I were in the middle of Sabbath-related duties when I got a call from Caitlyn.

“You guys need to come to the birthing hospital. Now!”

We ran to the car and drove the couple of kilometers to the hospital. When we entered, we were immediately directed to the second-floor nurse’s station, where a team of nurses and Caitlyn’s doctor were crowded around a small incubator—inside of which was our son, receiving oxygen. The doctor began speaking rapid-fire Japanese with Hiroko, and Caitlyn filled me in with what she knew. As the nurses watched our son overnight while Caitlyn got some much-needed rest, he had turned blue and began needing oxygen support. By the time Hiroko and I arrived, the hospital had already called an ambulance to transport our son to another, bigger hospital nearby.

At the larger hospital, the NICU staff began running a multitude of tests. We waited. And waited. Eventually, a nurse came out and walked us through the signing of a mountain of paperwork.

At last, the doctor came out. Our son had an extremely serious heart condition that needed treatment right away, and this hospital was not equipped to provide his care. They would be transporting our son by helicopter to a children’s hospital about 2.5 hours away by car. To get there a little faster, Hiroko, Caitlyn and I opted to take the bullet train while our son flew through the air.

After arriving at the children’s hospital and several more hours of waiting, a doctor came into the room and gave us a very detailed explanation of exactly what was going on with our son’s heart, including diagrams and translations of difficult words from Japanese to English. The doctor took a lot of time to make sure we understood everything, such as what medicines were being given now and the treatment plan, including four heart surgeries over the next two years—two of which ended up happening in the following ten days.

Since that time, Caitlyn and I have been staying near the hospital, visiting our son each day, watching him grow, and most importantly, praying along with many others for his health and recovery. Hiroko has come and gone from the area a few times to help us with logistics and translation. I have taken several short trips back to Yamaguchi Prefecture to handle our son’s visa, related paperwork, and to pick up the car and drive it back to the hospital area.

Our launch into the parenting experience has been exhausting. Before our son’s birth, our plan for many months had been to move to an unreached city in Japan that we had researched and studied extensively, and to conduct a culture study followed by church planting work. I had done a lot of research on apartments and housing and was receiving daily emails about available listings. In our several trips there, we had even been able to network a bit and met several people with whom we believed we could form friendships. However, due to these sudden changes and our son’s health needs, we are unsure if we will ever be able to live in that city because it likely does not have adequate health care for our son’s condition.

So our plans for moving are on hold until further notice, and we are again praying about where God wants us to church plant. We have also had to place our furlough, slated for early to mid-2027, on hold until further notice. Our heart’s desire is still to reach unreached cities in Yamaguchi Prefecture, but the timeline is now very uncertain.
We have heard of more than one person who has asked, “Why would God let this happen?” Truthfully, we cannot answer that question this side of heaven. What we can say with absolute certainty, however, is this: God is still good, even in hard times. We see God working and leading in many ways, from the excellent medical care our son is receiving, to being able to be a Christian witness to those at the hospital, to providing for our daily needs in a time of great uncertainty. Being able to look back at how God led throughout the pregnancy, as well as the prayers of countless people, has been sustaining us during these dark days.
But, you might ask, are we staying in Japan as missionaries? Yes, yes, yes! We are not backing down or leaving Japan despite our present circumstances. We may not know what the future holds exactly, but we do know this: “We have nothing to fear for the future except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history” (Ellen G. White).

Please welcome our son as the newest AFM missionary to Japan!

• Twitter