A missionary looks at God's love in Christ to WELS' sister church in Japan over the past 50 years.

Do you take your shoes off at the door before entering your house?" the woman asked. "It must have been very difficult for you to learn the many strange customs in Japan!"

She continued, "Just think of how difficult it must have been for the first missionaries! Do you think that the first Christians should have obeyed the Japanese government when it commanded the Christians to despise Christ by stepping on his picture?"

The Japanese government banned Christianity in 1600. That ban and the persecution of Christianity were so effective that Christianity in Japan was virtually wiped out for more than 250 years. During that time anyone caught practicing Christianity lost not only his life, but also the lives of his family and even the lives of all who lived in his village.

The ban on Christianity officially was lifted in 1889, but it still was not easy being a Christian.

WELS begins in Japan

Protestant missionaries from America and Europe began to arrive after the ban was lifted. Among the first Protestants were Lutherans from the United Lutheran Church in America (now ELCA). Our own synod wrestled with the question of sending missionaries to Japan at that time, but in 1893 WELS instead decided to do evangelism in Arizona among the Apache Indian tribe.

Finally, in 1957, Missionary Richard Seeger arrived in Japan. Seeger's family was joined by Missionary Richard Poetter in 1958. The mission that gave birth to the Lutheran Evangelical Christian Church (LECC) had begun in earnest. Official incorporation as a church body under Japanese law took place in 1963.

In the first 30 years of mission effort the church grew from zero to 200 members. This growth matches and even surpasses the growth of other Christian bodies doing work in Japan. An executive of a major American company who regularly visited on business has remarked, "It just amazes me that you have as many believers as you do. "