GPBC Blog

Pastor Tyler has been encouraging our church family to look for tangible ways to show Christ’s love to our neighbors, friends, families, and even strangers. Our church continues to reach out in myriad ways. The Bible makes it quite clear that we’re to serve others as Jesus did. Mark 10:45 says, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve...”

I’ve got a wild and crazy way for you to personally serve as Jesus did. Host a foreign exchange student!

Through FOCUS ministries, for the past three years Lee and I have had the privilege of hosting girls from Okinawa, Japan, each staying with us for six months. It’s been a delight to learn about their culture and share (Portland’s) America with them. Because FOCUS is faith-based, these non-religious girls regularly attended Bible study. Our prayer was always that we could serve them in the most important way by helping them know Christ personally.

Our most recent student, Hina*, had a hunger to know God from the moment she came to the United States. Her first week here she attended five Bible studies! She owned a Bible but had never opened it. She was full of questions: Who is God? Why did He come to earth? Why did He die? What is Easter? Because she arrived just weeks before Easter, answering her questions came naturally. Regularly bringing Jesus into our conversations was easy as we prepared to celebrate His death and resurrection. Praying at meals was a new concept, and she loved it.

We live near an evangelistic Japanese church in Tigard, so we have taken all our exchange students there. Hina flourished due to the Christian teaching and strong Singles fellowship. She told her Okinawan friend, Haruto*, about the church; he began attending though he lived in Happy Valley. He willingly spent 2.5 hours taking two buses weekly to go to church. We enjoyed fun times with Haruto, a confident and adventurous young man. Of course, we earnestly prayed for the salvation of both Hina and Haruto.

One night Hina told us, “I have an important decision to make, and I think you’ll be very happy.” She wanted to accept Christ as her Savior but was nervous about her parents’ reaction. To her surprise, they supported her decision because she was “an adult now.” Soon after, she publicly announced her decision to follow Jesus. Another joy came: she asked to be baptized! Lee had the privilege of baptizing her in a friend’s swimming pool.

Soon after, Haruto announced at the Japanese church that he wanted to become a Christian! With less than two months left of their stay in America, Jesus Christ changed both dear Gen Zers’ lives forever.

Romans 10:13-14 declares that God wants us to serve those around us by sharing the gospel. We hear His encouragement, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the One they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”

How will you choose to serve people who haven’t yet called on Him?