Day 2 – John Minami

1. What do you do for a living? (occupation/field of study).

Currently unemployed; prayerfully looking for my next step. I am currently enrolled in part-time seminary.

2. How do you like to spend your free time?

A lot of games and reading, but I also like working with my hands whether it’s baking or doing crafts.

3. Share one interesting fact about you that most people don’t know!

I am unofficially the third best baker at Grace Church.

4. Do you have a favorite book in the Bible? If you do, which one is it and why?

My favorite book of the Bible is Ruth because it’s the only one I know in totality, and I am a sucker for romance. The portrayal of Ruth and Boaz as us and God – and how God worked so beautifully in that situation – always speaks powerfully to me.

5. Is there a verse/passage in the Bible that has significantly impacted your life? If so, which is it and why?

1 Peter 5:7 “Cast all your anxieties on him for he cares for you”. Growing up, I had so many worries and stresses about the future, and I felt like all of it was on my own shoulders and I had only myself to rely on. This verse however, truly magnified how much God cares for me and how He wants me to bring all my worries to Him.

6. Is there a prayer request that has been on your heart recently? If so, please share with us.

I want to keep confessing that “God is good”. The world today is in so much chaos, both overseas and closer to home; I don’t want to lose sight of Jesus amidst the waves.

7. Tell us about how you met Christ? (Feel free to share a brief testimony).

During my freshman year of high school, my mom dragged me to her friend’s church. After a few weeks however, my mother stopped attending. I had been planning to do the same, but my budding Youth Group (YG) pastor continuously dragged me to church. This guy would awkwardly call me on the weekdays where we would just sit on the phone in silence because we had nothing to talk about and he would drive to the park and physically drag me to church when all I wanted to do was play handball with my friends. This went on for months until one day I told him that I didn’t see the point in any of this. I had been listening to him rant to me about some guy named Jesus every week and I still didn’t get it.

One day, he sat me down and asked me what my daily life looked like outside of church. Sure, I may have been listening to the sermons, but what was there an application of the things he had been preaching about? I admitted that I pretty much just forgot everything the moment I went home. He told me how Jesus wanted to get to know me, but that I wasn’t giving Him a fair chance. My heart and my life were closed off to Jesus so how could I expect any change by just listening to random words every week? So, I meditated on his advice for a while before decided to apply it.

For the rest of that year, I opened myself up to whatever force had pushed my YG pastor to be so loving and determined in how he chased after me to get to know Jesus. If this crazy person was really doing all these things just because Jesus wanted to meet me, I figured it was worth giving Jesus a chance. Slowly but surely, my heart softened, and I found myself seeing more and more glimpses of Christ until that summer, I was able to fully accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior at our summer YG retreat. My walk with Christ since then has been an incredible blessing, and my YG pastor is still as crazy for Jesus as the day that I met him.