Guided for His Purpose
If money and prestige did not matter, what would you be doing with your life? This particular question was asked during Andrew Rokeby’s first Sunday service at Central Baptist Church in Victoria, BC, and he immediately thought: I’d be a missionary. Even though he did not give it serious thought at the time, this was just a small part of what God was doing in his heart, and what years later would become a conviction from the Holy Spirit.
Andrew and Tanja Rokeby are Fellowship International missionaries serving in Japan, and their story reflects how the Lord has been intentionally guiding their path for His purpose throughout the years. Tanja shares: “We met during Andrew’s first week of studies at Northwest Baptist Seminary and married 11 months later. After graduating, we served alongside church planters in Japan for five months, between 2015 and 2016. Our mid-term service in Japan gave us a good idea of what ministry in Japan could look like for us.”
From Andrew’s first trip to Japan after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, to getting married and serving together, the Lord was touching this couple’s lives, using them as beautiful instruments in His harvest and for His glory, leading up to their service as appointed long-term missionaries.
Currently, Andrew and Tanja are in a season of their ministry that involves language and culture learning. Japanese is a very time-consuming language to learn, which becomes a great challenge for English speakers, but at the same time, the Rokebys are using the gifts that God has given them as tools to show His love to the Japanese.
Andrew explains: “…[W]hen we are not busy learning Japanese, we are out meeting our neighbours and community members. God has equipped Tanja with the gift of hospitality. While people might not always understand the words we are using, people instinctively know when someone is loving them.”
Along with Andrew’s gift of evangelism, the Rokebys recently opened their home for their neighbours to celebrate Christmas, where six of these people heard the story of Jesus’ birth for the first time in their own language. What a blessing to see how the Lord is touching people’s hearts through the work of this family.
Let’s pray for them as they venture into a new season of ministry, that they can be an encouragement for new believers, and can continue sharing what God has done in their own lives and the hope that we live for.
We invite you to learn more or support the Rokeby's ministry or email them.