Exposure to Missions
Shortly after I gave my life to Christ as a young child, God began orchestrating things in my life to point me towards the mission field. My grandparents on both sides of my family were involved in local and overseas ministry, and my parents continued this legacy of supporting and encouraging missionaries. In 2001 my dad founded WordOutreach International, a ministry that has allowed him to build connections with missionaries and pastors across the globe through his job as a pilot. Growing up, I observed him and my mom actively serving in not just local church ministry, but also regularly taking trips overseas to love on missionaries living in hard places. On several occasions, I was able to accompany my parents on mission trips to places such as Brazil and South Korea. Our home was often used to host missionaries when they returned to the States. Listening to the countless stories and testimonies of seasoned missionaries at our dining room table, I was deeply impacted by the need to share the gospel with people in unreached places.
Kiyomizu-dera, Buddhist temple in Kyoto
First trip to Japan, 2018
As a result of that “aha!” moment, I realized that having more training in the harp would equip me further towards being a music teacher, so I applied to graduate school that fall. After graduating from Liberty, I earned my Master of Music in Harp Performance and Literature at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Those were perhaps the two most intense years of my life! In addition to a heavy rehearsal and performance schedule, I also started my first private harp studio in a town an hour away, which was a wonderful way to gain practical experience in teaching. I taught a variety of students from elementary-school age to students in their 60s. It was a great chance to directly apply the training I was receiving in my harp pedagogy classes, and also develop my own philosophy of teaching. God even used that experience, along with other freelance gigs and scholarships, to help provide for my living expenses in Illinois, and I learned first-hand about the loving provision of God and His faithfulness to answer prayers for all our needs. Many relationships were formed through my musical studies during those two years in which doors were opened to share my faith with other musicians. Through those opportunities, God showed me time and again that He wanted to use the harp for His kingdom purposes.
Harp concerts at churches in Yamaguchi and Iwate prefectures, Fall of 2025
God first began to awaken my interest in Asia in the summer of 2011, when I served with my parents at a Word of Life Bible English camp for a week. I was already a Christian, but it was during that week one night that I made a commitment to give my life for mission work, wherever God decided to send me. A year later, God answered this prayer by pointing my heart towards Japan, a place less than 1% of the population is Christian. One particular missionary family who lives in Kyoto was very instrumental in sharing with me about the culture and religious background of Japan. My dad often served with their ministry in Japan over the years, and we regularly hosted them in our home during their furloughs in the States. Around the age of 13, it was through their friendship that I was inspired to think about missions in Japan. I began learning the language through online resources and books from my local library. I also met some Japanese people in my hometown of Louisville, KY, with whom I got to enjoy language exchange. After completing a 2-year online Japanese course in high school, I was able to visit our friends in Kyoto for a week in Fall of 2018 - this was my first real trip to Japan. During that trip, I was confronted with the desperate spiritual needs all around me, especially when observing the Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines that I saw in Tokyo and Kyoto. One the plane ride home, I felt strongly that God was calling me to return to Japan one day.
My Music Journey
I am blessed to have a strong musical heritage as a third-generation harpist. Through my grandmother, I was introduced to the harp around the age of six, started playing by ear, and then began formal training in private harp lessons (along with my mother) at nine years old. I began getting involved in my church’s worship ministry, learning to use the harp in playing with others, while continuing my classical studies. At the end of high school, I felt a clear calling to commit my instrument to God as a ministry tool, so I pursued a degree in Instrumental Music at Liberty University with a focus in harp performance, while also taking cross-cultural missions classes for my Global Studies Minor. The summer before my senior year, God orchestrated an amazing connection with a Japanese family who asked me to teach their daughters harp lessons. I had no experience teaching, but as I began to help them learn their first notes on the harp, I began to enjoy pouring into my students out of the years of classical training I had been given. It suddenly hit me that teaching music could be a powerful way to build relationships and invest in people’s lives. And the fact that I was blessing a Japanese family at the same time through the gift of harp music was clearly something God had arranged! Maybe this was something He wanted to use in Japan.
Returning to Japan
After graduating in 2024, I sought out an opportunity to take a missions trip to Japan. After seven years of music and language study, it felt like the right time to return and experience what practical ministry there would look like. After a year of seeking opportunities and raising support, God opened the door to return to Japan. In Fall of 2025, I completed a 3-month internship with WorldVenture’s Pathfinder Program. During this vision trip, God answered prayers in some crazy ways and confirmed throughout that trip that Japan was the place He was sending me. He provided two pedal harps in two separate locations - one at a church in Yamaguchi prefecture in southern Japan, and one at a church in Iwate all the way up north! With these harps, I was able to give outreach concerts and use the stage as an opportunity for sharing my faith along with playing classical harp music and hymns. I also made some deep connections with fellow Japanese Christians and enjoyed getting to support their efforts in sharing the gospel with their communities. It felt like a surreal fulfillment of years of waiting and praying. Through the connections made on that trip, I felt directed to return to Iwate prefecture and serve with local Japanese churches, and in June 2026, I was accepted as a missionary with J-Venture.
Over the past two years, there have been some beautiful connections made with Japanese people right here in my current hometown of Lynchburg, VA. Through these relationships, God has continued encouraging my efforts towards language study and fellowship with Japanese believers. I have learned so much about God’s faithfulness to answer prayer and to equip us for whatever task He puts before us. And I am excited for all that He will continue to do as the future unfolds!