Christian Missionaries to Japan - Our Story
Jim and Darla Snipe – Pastors
Our story begins with our marriage and tells how we are fulfilling God`s plan as Christian missionaries to Japan. A lot of our story is illustrated in the photos on the last page of our story. We met at the University of Idaho in the fall of 1967. I graduated in the spring of 1968, and we were married at the Presbyterian Church in Moscow, Idaho on Aug. 24, l968. Right after the wedding ceremony we hooked up a “U-Haul” trailer to our car, loaded the trailer and headed to Canada on our honeymoon! We moved to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada so I could enter graduate school at the University of Alberta.
In July of 1969, we bought a 400-acre farm so we could raise pheasants and operate a pheasant hunting club on the farm. It was my dream. However, we moved to Lethbridge, Alberta in September 1969, because I had accepted a two-year position at the University of Lethbridge Economics Department. The job was to help finance our pheasant farm and hunting club. I received my MSc degree from the University of Alberta during the fall of 1970. Our first son Shane was born in December 1970. We moved to our farm in September 1971, and our hunting club opened in September 1972. We lived in a very small two-room log house that was built by the original settlers of the farm in 1929. We were able to buy a double-wide mobile home in the spring of 1973, with financial help from my father`s mother. We needed a bigger house as our second son Jay was born in September 1973. In the spring of 1975, we began building a house on our farm with an inheritance from my mother`s father. Our double-wide mobile home would become our club house for our hunters. I did most of the carpentry work during the two years it took to build the house, including all the cabinets. My wife became a Christian during the winter of 1975-6, and she began praying I would become a Christian.
In April 1979, we bought St. Paul Hatcheries in St. Paul, Alberta. Included with the hatchery was a 160-acre farm with 13,500 turkeys and many chickens and even ducks! Unfortunately, buying the hatchery was not a good idea. The first year we operated it we lost a lot of money and were in serious financial trouble. A government meat inspector suggested we start a poultry processing plant to help our financial situation. We carefully considered starting a poultry processing plant and applied for a loan from our bank. Our bank turned down our loan application, but eventually agreed to loan us the money. The poultry processing plant opened in August 1981. We started selling poultry to a few businesses but needed many more customers. The first 6 months after starting the poultry processing plant were very difficult and our financial situation became worse! After meeting with our bank manager, we prayed very seriously for our business. God answered our prayers in amazing ways, and our financial situation improved quickly. We got many more customers including supermarkets, Kentucky Fried Chicken stores, and convenience stores.
I became a Christian in April of 1981, and our two sons became Christians in the next two months. Our lives began to change greatly. We believed God had a special plan for our lives. I became a member of a Christian businessmen`s organization, Full Gospel Businessmen`s Fellowship International (FGBMFI) in Canada and started a local chapter in St. Paul, Alberta in November 1983. In 1985, FGBMFI in Canada and in the USA began planning an outreach to start FGBMFI in Japan. FGBMFI would then be used to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Japan. We did not go on the first outreach in November 1985 but joined the second one in April 1986. Early on our first morning in Tokyo, we looked out of our hotel room window and could see Mt. Fuji. We both began to cry as God gave us a burden for the people of Japan to become Christians. We spent a week in the Tokyo area and then travelled by bullet train to spend a week in the Osaka area. We visited the Good Samaritan Church on Sunday morning on our last day in Japan. Pastor Aoki asked us to visit their church again just before we left the Itami Airport for the Narita Airport in Tokyo and our return flight to Canada.
We went on our second trip to Japan in January 1987. We arrived one week before the outreach team to visit some churches that we had visited on our first trip to Japan. Three of those days were spent at the Good Samaritan church! Our last week in Japan was spent in Tokyo with the outreach team. While we were singing praise songs and praying in a hotel room in the Keio Plaza Hotel in Tokyo the room became quiet. Suddenly a woman said, “Some of us will be full time Christian missionaries to Japan.” As soon as she spoke those words, I knew that my wife and I would be moving to Japan to become Christian missionaries! However, I was crying as I was overwhelmed by the realization of what God’s plans meant for me. I knew that we would be leaving family, friends, businesses, etc. We had lived in Canada for almost 20 years and had a very comfortable life there. We were living on one square mile of farmland in a beautiful home we had built. My wife was on the other side of the room, and she was also crying. We stood up and hugged each other. Then Jack DeLong, our outreach leader, said to us that we needed to have confirmation of God`s plan. Soon after a woman from Toronto said she was with us in a church the day before. At that time God told her we would be Christian missionaries to Japan. My wife was crying because she had seen a vision of Jesus beckoning with his hand for us to come to Japan before the woman had spoken!
After returning to Canada, we told our two sons that we would be going to Japan to be missionaries. Our older son Shane said he was not surprised, but he was not going to Japan! Our younger son Jay also did not want to go to Japan.
We moved off our farm in August 1987, and rented a house close to Edmonton so we could study the Japanese language. We had to sell our businesses. Our sons Shane and Jay entered a Christian high school. Our older son Shane graduated from high school one year later and entered the University of Alberta. Amazingly, we were debt free when we answered God`s call to be Christian missionaries to Japan! We flew to Japan with our son Jay, arriving on July 31, 1989. It was our 6th trip to Japan and our 5th time to go to the Good Samaritan Church! The church arranged for us to use a church member`s condominium for one month. We were very surprised that over 20 members of the church met us at the airport! We did not know what church we would be working with as missionaries when we left for Japan! However, the Good Samaritan Church asked us to be their missionaries in September of 1989. We were happy to be their missionaries! Our older son Shane decided to take a year off from his university studies to teach English in Japan! He joined us in October. Our younger son Jay entered the Canadian Academy in Kobe in September to finish his last two years of high school. We were a family again in a small Japanese condominium.
In time both of our sons met Japanese women from Mie prefecture in Japan. Shane met Hiromi Shirokoshi in Okinawa. She became a Christian and Shane and Hiromi were married at the Good Samaritan Church on Nov. 9, 1996. We have been blessed with two grandchildren, Jasmine and Brandon, from their marriage. They are both Christians. Jay met Kumi Kawakita in Banff, Alberta, Canada when both were working at different Japanese gift shops. She became a Christian the first time she attended the Good Samaritan Church! Jay and Kumi were married in the church on June 21, 1997. Our sons are very happy we became Japanese missionaries to Japan! Amazingly, our sons also worked as golf caddies in Japan! Most golf caddies in Japan are female.
God led us to start a chapel of the Good Samaritan Church on Awaji Island during our 10th year in Japan. How did this come about? During the first few days of January 1999, my wife prayed for God`s leading for the New Year. She began to receive visions of Awaji Island and was impressed that we should go to pray for the island. On Feb 11th we went with our pastors, Yasuhiko and Yumiko Aoki, and four others to pray for the island. It was our first time to go to Awaji Island. We wondered what God`s plans were for us on Awaji Island. The answer came the next morning during our church service. My wife saw a vision of big waves coming against the island. People were crying out, " Please come and help us." When my wife told me about the vision she was crying. After she told me about the vision I also cried. The vision was very similar to the Apostle Paul`s vision to go to Macedonia in the New Testament of the Bible. “During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, come over to Macedonia and help us.” (Acts 16:9) We discussed my wife`s vision with our pastors and agreed that my wife and I should move to Awaji Island as soon as possible. About 6 weeks later we moved to Sumoto City on Awaji Island and started Sumoto Chapel in a rented house on April 4, 1999.
In the fall of 2006, we began to sense that God had new plans for Sumoto Chapel. On December 1, 2006, my wife said that she believed God wanted us to start a kindergarten. I then told her I had also been thinking about kindergarten. We both realized God wanted us to start a kindergarten. A few days later my wife had a dream. She was standing on land close to a steep slope and looking at a very beautiful view of distant mountains. She thought the site may be the place God wanted us to build a new church and start a kindergarten. In January we began looking for the site she had seen in her dream, but we could not find it! I usually asked her at each site we saw if it was the place she saw in her dream. She always said no!
On February 1st a church member came to visit us early in the afternoon. She had just started a new job that day with Bright Homes, a home building company. She knew we were looking for land and asked us what our requirements for a building site were. Shortly after returning to her company, she phoned and said, “I think I have found the site you are looking for.” Soon after she brought us a map of the site. The next morning, we visited the site. It was my birthday. The site did not seem to be suitable because there were many shadows on the land from nearby homes. A sunny place is needed for kindergartens. However, the land just north of the site looked very promising. The land bordered a steep slope to the north. My wife ran over to the edge of the slope and excitedly said, “This is it!” It was the site she had seen in her dream two months before in early December! It was a very exciting birthday for me!
On the next day we went to an “open house” where our church member was showing people a new home her company had built. She was surprised to see us, but soon asked if we were interested in the land next to the steep slope! We were very surprised at her question, but immediately replied yes! She then said, “Pray.” It was a perfect site for Sumoto Chapel’s church and kindergarten! Several weeks later the farmer that owned the land agreed to sell it to us. The land was re-zoned from farmland, and we purchased it on Aug. 31, 2007. The groundbreaking ceremony was held on October 13th. Construction of the church began on November 19th and was completed on March 25, 2008. We believed that God wanted us to start an international preschool for 3–5-year-old children rather than a kindergarten. It was God`s plan for my wife to be the teacher! In April of 2009, we started Shin Ai International Preschool. We operated the school for 11 years until it was closed in March 2020.
(1) God created us to be with Him.
(2) Our sins separate us from God.
(3) Sins cannot be removed by good deeds.
(4) Paying the price for our sin, Jesus died and rose again.
(5) Everyone who believes Jesus died for their sins and repents for their sins has eternal life.
(6) Life with Jesus starts now and lasts forever.
Contact information: TEL.-fax-0799-45-1991 〒656-0046 Kanaya1268-1,Sumoto-shi,Hyogo, Japan
