July/Aug. response: Wesley Zaidan

Regional missionary helps empower young Japan

by Audrey Stanton-Smith and Nile Sprague

Just as Rev. Hikari Kokai Chang’s marriage helped build a bridge between families in Japan and Korea, her work at Wesley Zaidan is building bridges between the United States and Japan, and tradition and empowerment.

Chang is one of United Women in Faith’s regional missionaries. 

Around 2012, United Methodist Women had been looking for someone willing to go to Japan and oversee the newly founded Wesley Foundation, Chang explained. They wanted a unique skillset—familiar with The United Methodist Church, proficient in the Japanese language and culture, and familiar with Japan.

At age 50, Chang said yes and left the United States. It had been 25 years since she left Japan.

Chang, a self-identified “P.K.” or Preacher’s Kid, was born and raised in Japan. She attended seminary in Tokyo, and in 1986, went to the United States to further her education in pastoral counseling at Boston University School of Theology. That’s where she met her husband, Paul, who was about to become a United Methodist pastor.

The young couple shared Asian food and discussed the potential ramifications of a relationship between someone from Korea and someone from Japan. It was taboo, but love prevailed.

“Fortunately, with God’s grace, we could marry, and then the families gave us their blessings,” Chang said. “But where would we do ministry? That was a big question.”

In Japan, Paul could face discrimination. In Korea, female pastors were forbidden.

“So, we just stayed in the United States,” Chang said.

A short time later, when a United Methodist district superintendent worked to convince a church’s staff-parish committee that Paul and Hikari would be a good fit for their congregation, he told the group that their relationship was akin to one between a German and a Jew.

“He told them, ‘But they married, and they have one family together. So, if they can overcome that kind of relationship, then why don’t you think that you can do that with this (church) family? At least are you willing to try?’”

The New England congregation agreed, and the couple spent three years there.

“Prejudice? Yes. At the beginning, always,” Chang said of church relations. “Wherever we went, the church had some challenges. … So that’s a difficult situation, yet once we got to know one another, and became slowly open to one another, then we always had a very blessed time together, so we are very thankful.”

For more than 20 years, the ministry grew, and so did Chang’s family. Then, in 2012, United Methodist Women asked Chang if she would consider serving as a regional missionary in Japan.

“At that time, of course, I was surprised,” she said. “And I initially said ‘No.’ Several times, I said no, because I was doing that pastoral ministry in New England and New York.”

It was Paul who pointed out that Hikari was uniquely suited to this kind of mission work. “He said, ‘Don’t just say no. Now, let’s just pray and think about it.’ So, we did.”

“So, at this time, God called me to go back to Japan,” she said. “I was from an old generation and suddenly came back to this new Japan. Culture-wise and behavior-wise, I had challenges for a couple years. But by now, I think I’m well adjusted. And now I can really see the beauty of both cultures. … If those two things are combined, great things can be done.”

And if her marriage could survive the cultural taboos associated with Korea and Japan, then the Pacific Ocean was really no great hurdle for their relationship. Paul continued his pastoral ministry in the United States.

“Physical distance is nothing,” she said. “It was more so really, when we decided to overcome that huge, huge mental distance among society and among people. Physical distance became just a small challenge.”

For more than 10 years now, Chang has been tackling challenge after challenge as she empowers Japanese young people through Wesley Zaidan.

A deeply rooted history

Wesley Zaidan’s roots go back to 1874, when Dora E. Schoonmaker, sent by an overseas missionary group organized by women from the U.S. Methodist Episcopal Church opened “Girls’ Elementary School” in Azabu, Tokyo. 

Japanese missionaries were in Japan before World War II, starting churches and Methodist-related mission schools, Chang explained. But over time, the Japanese government lumped all Christian organizations in the country under one umbrella, so Christians, a minority in Japan, work together ecumenically.

“We have some traditionally or historically Methodist churches here and there, yet they don’t have any connection with The United Methodist Church anymore. So, in that sense, this Wesley Zaidan role is a very empowering attempt, at that,” Chang said. “Oh, yes, we have a legacy of the Methodist church mission and the ministry here. And we are still doing that.”

In 1965, United Methodist Women built Women’s Missionary House in Minami Aoyama 6 Chome. They named the house “Reisekiso.”

In 2010, Wesley Center, where Wesley Zaidan’s office is located, was built on the former site of the Women’s Missionary House. The 11-story building includes Wesley Center and Minami Aoyma Park House. And on Nov. 25, 2010, Wesley Foundation was registered as a General Incorporated Foundation. 

In 2015, the name Wesley Foundation was changed to Wesley Zaidan, and in 2020, the organization celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Wesley Center dedication, the 10th Anniversary of Wesley Zaidan, and established the Wesley Legacy Fund.

“Wesley Zaidan is originally, historically, founded with a gift from the United Women in Faith and also the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church,” Chang said. “This is a Methodist connection.”

Wesley Zaidan’s goals are threefold. They include women’s empowerment, which helps women realize their gifts and use them to proactively contribute to society; developing the next generation of leaders, which includes nurturing leaders of the next generation to live in and serve the global community responsibly; and humanitarian work, which happens in collaboration with various mission partners to strengthen awareness of and work for social issues in Japan and abroad by giving grants.

Empowering the next generation

Wesley Zaidan also organizes overseas and domestic seminars and lectures, grants, global partnership projects, and conference room rentals.

In fact, it was one of those seminars that helped Natsuko Takito realize that Christian women could be strong leaders.

Takito, a senior program staff member at Wesley Zaidan, credits a Wesley Zaidan seminar in New York for giving her the confidence she needed to continue working in Japan as a Christian minority.

“I had kind of lost the confidence working there,” she said of a previous job she held with a nonprofit organization in Asia. “But after I joined the seminar in New York, I was so empowered by other participants and also the lecturer.”

There, Takito said, she learned about United Methodist Women, now United Women in Faith.

“In Japan, Christian is a minority, so I was not confident, not sure about what we could do as a Christian,” she said, “but when I went to New York, I saw very strong and powerful Christians and the organization was so big. It was really one of the big impacts on me.

“I saw I have so many, many sisters in the world, and I feel I am not alone,” Takito said.

Inspired, she took a position nurturing other Christian leaders.

“If we want to change the world, we really need young people,” Takito said. “If we want to change the system, we need young minds. So, we really need to nurture young people and young leaders who can really transform the system.

“In addition to seminars and workshops, Wesley Zaidan also offers educational grants or scholarships,” Chang said. “We support about 30 students who are studying in Japan, higher education, plus two training at skilled training schools, and 20 people in Asia.

Through an application and interview process, Wesley Zaidan awards partial scholarships to help with tuition.

“We are grateful to support those peoples’ education, because we really believe that with the skills and knowledge, they can be the leaders, the future,” Chang said, adding that the organization also awards two grants—one for social justice and another for social development in Asia.

Hands-on learning

Sunhan Kim is a 2021 Wesley Zaidan scholarship recipient who is now a student intern with the organization.

Kim said her parents’ generation focused heavily on traditional gender roles.

“For example, the woman would be in the kitchen,” Kim said. “She would have to cook, do the cleaning, the chores. Once you get married, you quit your job. You raise children, you take care of your children, and that’s what a woman should do.”

Times have changed, she said, thanks in part to organizations like Wesly Zaidan.

“I didn’t think much about women’s empowerment when I was younger,” said Kim. “Recently, I’ve started to realize the Japanese society is getting better nowadays … but I do still see some things that could be better.”

Kim, through Wesley Zaidan’s connection, studies at the Asian Rural Institute, a Christian organization that trains rural leaders from around the world to work toward more sustainable, healthy, self-reliant communities. ARI places emphasis on reaching the most marginalized, poor, and oppressed people, with particular attention placed on the recruitment of women leaders.

Tomoko Arakawa, director of ARI, said the institute strives to follow Christ’s example as it teaches servant leadership, sustainable agriculture, and a community of learning together peacefully. 

“The best example is Jesus Christ, who was leading people by serving and then teaching by serving and loving by serving,” Arakawa said. “So, we believe that servant leadership is effective everywhere, but especially in the rural setting, where people need to be empowered and loved and cared for more than any other place in the world.”

For Kim, the connection between hands-on sustainable farming and community leadership is already empowering.

“I still have a long journey ahead of me,” Kim said. “I know Wesley Foundation really looks at the ability of people and tries to ignore gender roles. … So, I think working with them also helps me learn how to improve the society.”

Sprouting seeds

Hikaru Uyama, another Wesley Zaidan scholar, is using his experience to help children. Uyama was in his last year of high school when news about violence against children and child neglect inspired him to take action.

“I had this interest and urgent feeling to do something for them,” he said, “and so that is the reason I started to take this study.”

Uyama plans to use a degree in early childhood education to help prevent violence against children. With Wesley Zaidan’s help, he recently interned at a children’s home while attending college.

“What I experienced was that I really felt that I would like to support and help those children who are living there, especially those who have heavy pains and sufferings. I would like to support them, and I would like to walk with them,” he said.

And, walking with others, said Chang, is what it’s all about.

“When I was asked to be a missionary to Japan, first I thought, ‘That’s a very odd concept, to go back to my own country as a missionary,” Chang said. “Then I thought, being a missionary doesn’t just mean foreigners going to unknown foreign countries. When I was brought up, growing up as a Christian family member in Japan, actually I was already a foreigner. I always felt a kind of difference from the society. This Japanese society has less than 1 percent of Christians, you know. That includes Catholics, and Protestants.

“But I saw Wesley Zaidan, and that through Wesley Zaidan, God can do many things. I’m glad I’m part of that work.

“Finally, we see the seeds that we planted are coming up.” 

Your gift to Mission Giving supports regional missionaries.

Audrey Stanton-Smith is the editor of response. Nile Sprague is a California-based photojournalist.

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