2008 Convention Leadership

Midori Yanagisawa - Keynote Speaker

Ms. Yanagisawa was brought up in a typical Japanese non-Christian family, which did not emphasize on any religious activity except New Year’s worship as a family at Japanese shrine. Through one of her high school classmates, who attended Koza CP Church, I learned about Christianity. She says, "When I experienced such deep thirst for the truth of the life, Jesus Christ encountered me by His grace during my freshman of a university. Since then He has never left me alone. I have grown by His words and fellowship with other Christian brothers and sisters at church. He gradually grew my desire to serve for Him somehow." During her studies at the US Center for World Mission in Pasadena, Calf., Ms. Yanagisawa received God's clear calling to serve the poor in the world. Wanting to follow Jesus' call, she joined the Japan International Food for the Hungry (JIFH) in 1988, one of whose board member was the principal of the seminary, from which Rev. Ishitsuka graduated.

At JIFH in 1990, Ms. Yanagisawa was given an opportunity to serve the poor people in Bangladesh. She was told that living and serving as woman in Bangladesh seemed very difficult, and that she might need to be back to Japan within one year. She prayed to the Lord asking that her stay in Bangladesh be for the period He wished. In the end, God allowed her to live in Bangladesh for 11 years. In 2008, Ms. Yanagisawa was given the opportunity to visit African countries on behalf of JIFH. She says, "I know that God has been very faithful to His promise that He called me and led me to be involved in the service to restore the poor people in the world wholistically as Jesus had done."

Rieko Kinoshita — Bible Study Leader

Ms. Kinoshita was a missionary to Taiwan through Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF) from 1984 to 2006. While there, she worked in church planting in the inner city of Taipei. She served the homeless, addicts, gangsters, handicapped people and prostitutes. Ms. Kinoshita studied at Redcliffe Missionary Training College in England. In 2006 she came back to Japan in order to care for her aging parents. In addition to this important ministry as a caregiver, she is working with OMF in the Chinese Diaspora Ministry.