A question for foreign missionaries

A student at Tennessee Temple College, I was sitting in the crowd at the Highland Park Baptist Church Missionary Conference in the Fall of 1972. This yearly conference used to be one of the best of all time, with up to 200 missionaries attending, and halls for the displays.

Dave Marcum from Japan was the speaker, and as he told about Japan, God spoke to my heart. In essence, the leading of the Lord was, "Would you go to Tokyo, Japan, if I asked you to?" I told God no, because Tokyo is the second most crowded city in the world (next to Hong Kong), and I didn't like crowds. But God continued to work on my heart so that by Friday evening I was able to tell Him I would go anywhere for Him.

Ironically, I took that as my call to be a missionary, and not to Japan in particular, so I prayed about Hong Kong for years. My parents were appointed by the CIM to be missionaries to Tibet, but WW2 stopped them. That gave me a love for China.

I graduated in August of 1976, and there sitting behind my parents in the exercises was Jim Norton, long time missionary to Japan. They discussed me, and Dr. Norton learned that I planned to be a missionary to Asia. So he met me outside after the graduation before my parents did, and asked me to work with him in Japan. I said I would pray about it, and did so while I began seminary.

One day that fall while having my devotions, I came across Rom. 15:20-21,

Through this passage God confirmed that His call to me was for Japan. And here I am!