About the OPC Mission in Japan

The Orthodox Presbyterian Church has served in Japan since 1937 when Malcom Frehn and Herber McIlwaine began working under the auspices of the newly formed OPC Committee on Foreign Missions. This work continued until World War II started and the missionaries were forced to return to the U.S. in 1942. The work resumed in 1951 when the committee sent the McIlwaine and Uomoto families to reopen the denomination’s Japan mission. Their tasks included literature distribution and radio work, but mostly the mission set out to engage in regular, continual preaching and teaching within and alongside the indigenous church. This patient work has grown for seven decades. 

From October 2015 through October 2019, the work of the OPC Mission in Japan (formerly funded by Worldwide Outreach) was under the auspices of the OPC Presbytery of Ohio. As of October, 2019, the Presbytery of the Dakotas has assumed responsibility. The mission is funded primarily by the Committee for the Support of the OPC Japan Mission, and the Japanese language work is being carried out by three families sent by three presbyteries: the Lauers (Presbytery of OH), the Uomotos (Presbytery of Dak.), and the Yaegashis (Presbytery of Mississippi Valley, PCA), along with the help of Missionary Associates J.B. Hellman and Sara Lauer. The Gomes family, sent by the Presbyterian Church of Brazil carries out evangelism primarily in Portuguese. Through church planting, Bible studies, English classes, youth events, cooking classes, cafés, radio programs, counseling, and other various ministries, the Gospel is being brought to the people of Japan. Though the work is hard and the rate of conversion is slow, God has blessed these efforts in Japan, and we have been able to serve many Japanese in the wake of the Tsunami in 2011 (and the more recent flooding caused by Typhoon Hagibis). Relationships have become strengthened between the Mission and the people in the communities affected as they suffered together. Though we mourn this horrible tragedy, the result has been an exciting time of growth and renewal in Jesus Christ.