I am a returnee Christian who had the opportunity to attend GRC in both 2023 and 2025. Through GRC, I experienced true salvation and spiritual growth, and I would like to share my testimony.
While studying abroad in the U.S. during college, I was led to a church and eventually baptized there before returning to Japan. After returning home, I continued attending church weekly while working as a young professional. However, the reason I got baptized back in the U.S. wasn’t so much out of a deep faith in Jesus, but rather because I was drawn to the way Christians around me lived. I wanted to be like them. As a result, for many years I went through the motions of church life without a strong conviction that Jesus is alive and actively at work.
But in 2023, at GRC, God welcomed me into His family as His beloved child. I heard the message that He loves us with an unconditional love. About a month later, I experienced a major setback at work, which led to depression and several months of medical leave. Through this painful time, I came to deeply realize that God’s love for me does not depend on what I can or cannot do. It was then that I experienced true salvation—the grace of God.
Since then, I’ve been given a desire to share God’s love and hope with those who don’t yet know Him—especially people like me who have gone through deep personal failure and find themselves in the pit of despair. That desire led me to begin seminary studies in 2024. Though the season of depression and brokenness was incredibly painful, the message I had heard at GRC echoed in my heart while I was at my lowest. God spoke to me:
“You are my beloved child. You are precious and honored in my sight. I love you.”
And He pulled me up from that dark place.
At GRC 2025, I happened to sit next to a brother during one of the meals, and I discovered that he had experienced a similar kind of grace through GRC. Through that conversation, I was reminded once again that our God is truly alive, actively working, and full of love.
I give heartfelt thanks to God for using GRC and the ministry of JCFN, and to the JCFN staff, planning committee, and volunteers who serve faithfully behind the scenes. I’m also deeply grateful to the scholarship donors who helped cover part of my participation fee and made it possible for me to attend.
Soli Deo Gloria.
Shohei Kajiwara
(Senior, Tokyo Christian University / TCU)
