The Story So Far

God has continually been steering me to Japan. It all started when I was working at Ziff-Davis. A Japanese company, SoftBank, bought Ziff-Davis and I was fascinated by the stories of the Japanese owner. I actually at that time bought a Japanese dictionary so I could try and translate some Japanese on some web sites. (This was before the modern translation services.)

I was unhappy at Ziff-Davis (mainly due to immaturity, and seeing all the big raises everyone was getting my switching jobs in the dot com boom) and started interviewing. I interviewed at Juki (a Japanese company) and Alphatronix, a former employer. I accepted a job offer from Alphatronix and soon after received an offer from Juki. At that time, I felt like I should have taken the Juki offer, but it was too late. 3 weeks later, I was laid off from Alphatronix. :) I then started to work at Juki.

I worked at Juki for a couple of years, but I was traveling to Japan way too much and my son Christopher was very young at the time and it was hard on the family. So a friend of mine had me interview at LongBoard. I asked if there was any travel involved, and they said maybe domestically, but not internationally. Durning the time I worked there, they sent me to Belgium and of course Japan. :) Later, I was laid off from LongBoard.

At that time, I did a short contract with Juki, and also tried to start my own business. This was a good time learning more about myself. It was also good in that I controlled my schedule and this was a time my mom was going through her final battle with cancer, so I got to be with her for the last few weeks of her life here on this earth.

After that, I started looking and God sent me to WingSwept. It was all in His timing. While at WingSwept, I went on a mission trip to Japan with my wife and Christopher. While there, we met with a couple of missionaries and I remember one (Mr. Williams) asking if we had considered being missionaries. I said maybe in the future. I thought in the back of my mind, "maybe when you retire years down the road we would be ready."

Anyway, I worked at WingSwept for a while and was trying to figure out what I wanted to do when I grow up, and I thought that I wanted to do more software engineering than consulting work. So I found Trident Systems. It was hard leaving WingSwept, and I question my decision, but life goes on.

At Trident, God was trying to teach me patience, trying to teach me to be a positive influence to those around me, and submitting to authority, even when it was difficult. I didn't do to well learning that. I was fired due to mainly my questioning management about the legality of some of the things they were doing. But the final straw was when I disrespected my boss in front of my coworkers. I was right in standing up for what I thought was right, but I was wrong in disrespecting the authority I had submitted myself to. All authorities on this earth are established by God. We should obey that authority, as long as it isn't in direct opposition to God.

So, the week after I lost my job, I found out that Mr. Williams was returning to the states permanently from Japan. Hmmmmm. Over the next few weeks, God continually shut doors and was saying that it wasn't time for me to find a job yet. He wanted me to go to Japan. One of the things He used was that one day, I received in the mail 3 free tickets to the USA vs. Japan baseball game at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. I have no idea why we got them. When we were there, on the big display board, one of the silly graphics they showed to get the crowd cheering was a centurion looking guy who was pointing and saying "Go!" and the whole crowd was saying "Go!". I had just read in Matthew about the centurion who told Jesus that he too was a man under authority and when he told his servent go he would go.

So, here I am with a plane ticket to Japan. I just recently found a hotel to stay in for the first three nights. It is the Hilltop Hotel in Tokyo and is supposedly on the highest hill in Tokyo. I think there's a spiritual significance to that. Anyway, I plan on being in Tokyo for 4 weeks, but all I know is that the first 3 days I'll be at the hotel, and on that Saturday I'll be helping with a homeless ministry. Other than that, I don't know. I know God's heart is with the poor, needy, and defenseless, so that's what led me to the homeless ministry. I also feel like I am to visit various ministries while I am there.

My wife is a great support for me...always giving me a word of encouragement, and agreeing that this is what God has for me right now. God uses her to complete some things he only shows me part of. Please pray for her strength while I'm away.

In the world's view, being out of a job and deciding to leave my family (when there is much craziness going on) and go to Japan for 4 weeks doesn't make much sense. But I'm being faithful for what I think God wants me to do. I'm sure God will provide for me, and I'm sure He has something big planned for me, but I don't know what it is. Could it be short term ministry there? Could it be long term ministry? Could it be a software job? Could it be to only water a seed he desperately needs watering there? Please pray for me to be open to whatever He has for me there and that I will be faithful to Him.

Truly, God alone is worthy of our praise. He grants us mercy (He's not in our lives to punish us for our sins) and grace (He likes doing cool things for us, even though we don't deserve them), and allows us to have a true relationship with Him. I cannot do anything but follow Him.

--David