Part 4 (final part) - My Life Story - by Mark
(Scroll down for the beginning of this story)

God had freed me and had filled with me such love, joy and peace.

After becoming a Christian I saw my brother reading his Bible and thought, “Maybe I should read my Bible too.”
As I read I couldn’t believe the difference.
Before becoming a Christian, when I had tried to read the Bible it was so hard to understand and very boring!
Now it began to make sense!
As I read the New Testament I felt that God was speaking directly to me!
“This is exactly what happened to me!” I thought.
I began to have a real relationship with God, not just religion.

This was the beginning of the most thrilling life I could imagine. As Paul in the Bible says, “I was sorrowful, but I was always rejoicing.”

I had tried to quit drinking for a year, with God’s strength I was able to stop.
I didn’t need it anymore.
God filled my thirsty soul.
Before I had become a Christian I feared speaking in front of a crowd.

I would skip speech class and get C’s and D’s rather than speak in front of others.

After becoming a Christian I realized that I had found what everyone is looking for in the wrong places.

It was a joy for me to share this great news with others.

I was able to speak in front of many groups about God.

I wasn’t nervous at all.
God has helped me overcome my fear of people.
I became less shy and was able to share with many people about my faith in Christ. Some of them also became Christians.
In receiving so much, it is natural for us to want to give to others.
God’s love and joy has become like a spring that overflows from within me.

I long to help other people know Him and His great plans for which He made us.

Through meeting Japanese friends on my campus, through the Bible and through other mission trips, God put it in my heart to come to Japan.

I wanted to help people in Japan find the full life I have found in Jesus.

6 years ago I came to Japan with the Navigators Christian mission.
At first it was very difficult to live because I didn’t know any of the language!
God gave me strength and hope to study and to start to learn, even though it was hard. But my desire was to help Japanese people know this wonderful God.
I learned a lot from the Navigators and have many friends in the Navigators but I saw something was missing

We saw a lot of college students come to Christ, but they graduate, get a job in another city and often times stop being a Christian because there is no church there.

On a trip to Kansai I was introduced to chapel and became friends with some people here.

I felt it was important to have a place for people to continue to grow after becoming Christians.

I am very happy to help people find a home at chapel now.

One of the bonuses of coming to chapel was that I met my wife here.

When I first came I started to get to know a wonderful Japanese girl named Maki.

We started to date and about 2 years later we got married. God was faithful to give me a partner for the work He called me to.

I had desired to be married, right after college; but God had other plans for me.

In His perfect plan God had chosen a wife that could be a wonderful helper in my ministry to Japanese people.

It is another story about how all that happened.

Of course I still have problems even though I am a Christian.

But now I personally have a relationship with a God who fills my heart and will never fail me, even after I die.

Please learn from my experience.

Truly there is no created thing that can compare with the Designer.

Mass media makes many promises that are simple lies.

Don’t believe them. Only God can satisfy you fully forever.

He made us that way.

You will live a empty life and die without God.

However, if we come to know God and live with Him,

Psalms 16:11 says this: “In His (God’s) presence is fullness of joy, and His right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

Full living with God will never end.