College students mobilized in Japan

In May of 2025, students from Crowder BSU and North Central Missouri College BSU teamed up to travel to Japan to share the gospel. In summary of the trip, Crowder BSU’s Campus Missionary Austin Pfrimmer wrote in his May Campus Missionary Report:

Mission trips are difficult for many reasons. Culture shock, exhaustion, spiritual warfare, literal warfare, and countless dangers are some of the struggles one might face on a mission trip, but how about tourism? When I went on mission to Africa, my biggest concerns were health and safety. During the BSU’s mission trip to Japan in May, my biggest concern there was tourism. I was afraid that my students would be tempted to be tourists instead of missionaries. You can imagine how proud I was when I witnessed the determination and passion that my students had for the mission itself. Sweet treats, souvenirs, and savory food stalls did nothing to faze my students on this trip. They were locked in. They sought every open door to the gospel that they could. They went into shops to find something little to buy just so they had an excuse to share the gospel with shopkeepers. They got discouraged if we took too long to eat or stood around too long – there was ministry to be done. At the end of full days of traveling, walking, and sharing, they were ready after a short break to go back out into the area we were staying to continue engaging with lost people, often times pushing midnight. This is missional living. My students fought the temptation to be tourists, and were some of the most committed, passionate, and locked in missionaries, for a short time, that I have personally witnessed.

NCMC BSU’s Campus Missionary, Christina Boatright, summed their trip up this way in her Facebook post:

“Japan. Such a beautiful country but so much lostness. Our group got to share the gospel

everyday, multiple times a day with people from Japan, Vietnam, Korea, all over the world! Many of our conversations were with people who had never heard of Jesus! I got to watch:

• Valorie Gabrielli share the gospel with so many people, even though she just gave her life to Jesus back in September, she stepped out of her comfort zone to have so many deep conversations about Jesus with people!
• Ty Claypole also sharing the gospel and stepping outside of his comfort zone speaking to people that don’t speak the same language to share Jesus! We used 3 circles bracelets and stickers plus cards I had made in Japanese sharing the gospel.
• Andrea Jenkins being her bubbly self everywhere helping, serving, and sharing with others!
• Hannah Gryder shared often in random places like bathrooms, parks, and at malls!

We had so many deep conversations such as in KFC with two young women, with ramen restaurant workers, and on the university campus with our new friends. We also connected with a missionary there purely on accident thanks to Hannah. We got to hear from that missionary and others on his team about the need for Jesus, even having a picnic with them! We fed deer at Nara Park, walked around the huge mall areas, coffee shops, and towers, all while sharing the gospel!

My students truly understood the love for others while simultaneously having joy and fun in such a beautiful country steeped in tradition. Our students were respectful of culture and language, asked questions, and stretched themselves physically and spiritually. It was an honor to share the gospel with people who have never heard it! We planted seeds and we pray for spiritual rain.”

If you’ve got time for a longer read, Austin wrote a lengthier summary of their trip in his Facebook post:

“There’s a lot that each of us could say about our mission trip to Japan. There’s about 1000 pictures we could share from the trip. It would be fun and interesting to share about just how different Japan is from America.

Instead of sharing all of this, let me focus on the highlights of what God accomplished and how He is still working.

Japan feels hopelessly lost. If you stood in the right place in Osaka or Tokyo, tens of thousands of people would walk past you in a single day, and the reality is that almost all of those people have never heard the gospel before. Why do we know this? Statistics aside, we know this because we experienced it. We went to the majorly populated areas in Osaka. We walked shoulder to shoulder with tens of thousands of people, and almost all of the people we shared with had never heard the gospel before.

Imagine bringing the gospel to a place that knows nothing about it, watching as thousands of people walk by who don’t care, don’t have time to listen, or simply reject your message, and realizing, you are one of the few Christians actually trying there.

It feels helpless, but the Lord showed us in several key ways that the situation is not helpless since He is involved, and that even a ragtag group of knuckleheads can make a difference if they truly seek to glorify God and do His will.

We shared the gospel out and about in Japan for around 11-12 days. We traveled by train and by foot to reach our destinations since that is the norm in Japan. We picked out a base of operations, like a park, and split off into groups from there. For several hours, we simply went out and shared the gospel with people who would talk to us. We approached people who seemed talkable, said the appropriate greetings in Japanese, bowed, and then started a conversation with them. We handed out cards that had the gospel written on them in Japanese, cards that had church information on them, and bracelets and stickers with the 3 Circles presentation on them. After a few hours of this, we would head back to the area we were staying in, take a short break, and then go out and do the same thing in that area, often staying out until close to midnight. It was exhausting, but we can rest now that we are home. That was our mindset.

As soon as we hit the ground in Osaka, our students were out sharing with people, and doing their best not to waste any time. At one point, one of my students and friend told me that he felt good about his mindset on the trip, because he didn’t really have a desire to go looking for souvenirs or visit the really cool areas. This was the mindset all of our students had. Even when we stopped to eat, our students were striking up conversations and leaving gospel cards with the owners and other customers. We went up into two different towers in Japan, and aside from having a bit of fun at one of them, we used that time to pray over the areas we were working in. Even in the deer park, our students understood that they had less than an hour to work the area, and as tempting as it was to play with the deer and have a time of rest, our students only spent 5-10 minutes doing so before heading out to find people to share with. The main souvenirs we brought home were free things we were given at certain places. There was a spiritual weight that we experienced in Japan. Being around so many lost people, having so many barriers for the gospel, and having such little time made it hard to enjoy anything “touristy.”

Our students were taught basic Japanese phrases and also taught the respect/culture/social rules that you must know if you visit Japan. It is extremely important to know some Japanese and to know the respect culture in Japan, whether you are a missionary or simply on vacation. Many Japanese people have a distaste for Americans in particular because most American tourists don’t do any research about the respect/social rules in Japan and don’t learn simple Japanese phrases while also expecting Japanese people to speak English. Our students were informed and equipped about these things, and they did amazing. Just like Paul became all things to all men for the sake of the gospel, our students learned and practiced to the best of their ability, the Japanese phrases and respect/social rules and culture of Japan for the sake of the gospel. This created a lot of open conversations for us, with multiple people commenting on how respectful we were compared to other tourists.

There are tons of stories to share, but I’ll end with a few highlights. We had a lot of conversations, short talks, and sometimes, just handed cards to people. We also got outright rejected a few times, scoffed at, and some people refused to take cards. The highlights were always the longer conversations where we were able to share our testimonies, share the full gospel, and answer questions.

Emma Robinson reports on one of her and Angelica‘s highlights,

One personal highlight that I can report about is the time we spent at Fukuoka University and what followed. We went to this university and held up signs that said, “ask Americans anything,” as a conversation starter, and it was some of the most fruitful time we experienced. The college students were much more open to talking to us and were genuinely interested in what we had to say. We even met a Christian college student, which gave us a lot of hope. That day in and of itself was fruitful enough with the conversations we had, but one student wanted to meet with us the next day to have a follow-up conversation about Christianity. I took Anna Sheets and Ashlyn to travel across Fukuoka to a completely new area and meet with this student, while the rest of the group went to a place called Canal City to evangelize. Before the student met with us, I talked Ash and Anna through how to approach the conversation, we prayed, and I left them to speak with him. They shared the gospel with him, gave him their testimonies, and answered his questions for about 45 minutes. At the end of the conversation, Ashlyn gave him a Japanese Bible. This was one of the most positive and hopeful moments we had on the trip, and we are prayerful that God will continue to work on this student.

I have already shared a little about the time I spent in the Izakaya talking with the owner. We stumbled across this little cafe and social bar one night that didn’t seem like much, and it wasn’t. We had lots of better options for food that night, and Emma was about to kill me if I didn’t pick a place to eat, but for some reason, we felt drawn to this place. Funny thing was, the place didn’t even serve food, but while we drank some ginger ales, I got to talking to the owner of the place. He spoke a little English, and I spoke a little Japanese. This man became a friend to me in just a short time.

For the next 3-4 days, I spent my evenings talking to him about Christianity, Shintoism, and Japanese and American culture. Each day I spent 3-4 hours in conversation with him until midnight. He met my wife and daughter whom he was very fond of. He told me of his family. He gave me advice on how to share the gospel with people in Japan even though he didn’t believe in it. He kept telling me to come back the next day so we could talk about “religion” more. He told me if I came back to Japan, I could stay at his house with his family for free. He hugged me, told me several times how much he loved talking with me, and told me his first name, which in Japanese culture is done only to people feel like you are close to (for example, he referred to Chloe as “Pfrimmer” when talking about her, but called me Austin). As I said before, I just wish I had more time with him. Leaving him and that tiny cafe felt like leaving the best opportunity I had in Japan, along with leaving a good friend.

There is so much more that I could share. More great and positive moments, and some difficult ones. We experienced a lot of spiritual warfare, especially on one day in particular. Each of us seemed to be struggling with things that took us by surprise. If I had time I would share more about the bilingual Baptist Church that we visited, and the time we spent with missionaries and what they taught us.

I want to end by expressing the utmost gratitude I have for the churches in our association that funded this trip. The fact that we were fully funded to take the gospel to Japan never left the minds of our students, and that is one reason why they were so focused on sharing the gospel and did their best to ignore the distractions. We could not have went on this trip without the prayerful and financial support of the churches in our association.”