Alumnus Yutaka Gakiya – Shy Person to Ordained Preacher

EAST News caught up with Rev Yutaka Gakiya who graduated last May and has since returned to serve in his home church, Sakai Evangelical Church, Osaka. He was ordained as a Pastor in October 2021. It was a significant milestone for Yutaka as the ordination denotes the official start of his duties and responsibilities as a minister of God’s Word. It was also a proud moment for his father, Rev Akira Gakiya, who is the Senior Pastor of the church to witness Yutaka following his footsteps in serving God full-time.

Yutaka has grown from being someone who was known as shy and lacking in confidence to now being able to deliver God’s Word to the congregation without fear. He attributed his growth and development to his time of equipping at EAST where he preached weekly as part of his field practicum but most of all, his Mentoring Group Leader (MGL) Rev Dr Lewis Winkler encouraged him to hold on to the verse in 2 Timothy 1:7 – “for God did not give us a spirit of timidity”.  Whenever he has worries or concerns about whether he can preach well, by recounting the season he spent at EAST, and meditating on the verse which Dr Lewis gave him helps assuage his fears.

He is grateful for the helpful biblical resource tool “Logos” which EAST has equipped him with. He still uses Logos in his sermon preparation, as he looks up meaning of Bible passages in the original languages. However, when Yutaka recounts the learning of the Biblical languages Greek and Hebrew, he remembered it was a struggle.

“I could go through the difficulty because of the help from classmates and lecturers. We asked questions and learned together,” he recalled. “It was tough but I also enjoyed.”

Another aspect of EAST he enjoyed was the Mentoring Group (MG), with Dr Lewis Winkler and Dr Benson Goh as his MG Leaders and Mu Draw (Myanmar) and Jaeseong (Korea) as fellow MG members. They went to Myanmar for MG Ministry Weekend and taught about God’s Calling to 30 seminary students at a Bible Training School nearby Yangon. Ministering together as an MG was a highlight of his time at EAST.

Having spent the last few years in Singapore and at EAST, Yutaka faced reverse culture shock upon returning to Japan. While he had grown accustomed to the more direct manner of communication by Singaporeans, he had to relearn the Japanese way of communication which is more indirect. The first couple of months were stressful for him as he readapted but he is doing well now.

For current Seminary students still ploughing diligently away at EAST, Yutaka has these words of wisdom:

1. Don’t let your grades define your worth in Christ.
2. It’s okay, lah!
3. Eat well. Sleep well. Study well.

Prayer Requests:

1. Pray for my current ministries here so that they will be fruitful. I am pastoring youth and serving by giving a message once a month in the main service.
2. Pray for my future ministries. I am praying about starting new services for young adults as well as foreigners around my church, since we do not have regular services/meetings for them yet. I do need some friends to help me in doing that.
3. Pray for my church as well as Japanese churches so that we can serve as mission hubs in each city. We hope and pray for our church to have more “windows” in order to reach out and welcome those who seek the way in Christ.