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Celebrating Rob and Kathryn Fleming

After 33 years of ministry, we say goodbye with gratitude to Fellowship International missionaries, Rob and Kathryn Fleming, who have faithfully served the Lord in Japan. Together with the Fellowship International team, they have discerned that the Lord is leading them to conclude this season of missionary labour, and though this transition brings sadness, we want to commemorate their steadfast service throughout the years.

Kathryn’s interest in missions was sparked when she attended First Baptist Church in Timmins, ON, after a missionary, Lynda Schultz, visited. This led to Kathryn writing to her and marked the beginning of the interest that the Lord would eventually use in the lives of this missionary couple.

While attending Calvary Baptist Church in Guelph, ON for post-secondary school in the 1980s, both Rob and Kathryn were exposed to several missionaries and had the opportunity to spend a summer in Peru in 1985. After this trip, God led them to commit to missions, which eventually brought them to Japan. There, they encountered a deep spiritual poverty and sensed the Lord calling them to make disciples and share the good news of the Gospel, departing for the field in 1994.

During their time in Japan, they were able to witness Japanese people whom God brought to faith in Christ. Throughout their ministry, they planted a church, Hitachi Hope Church, north of Tokyo (1995-2005), started a neighbourhood-based outreach program “Oasis” (2005), trained Christian workers in a seminary in northern Japan (2015), and built relationships with both Japanese men and women who eventually gave their hearts to Jesus.

Rob and Kathryn lived most of their time in rural areas, with few believers and isolation, as there were often no churches. This encouraged them to build good and deep relationships with Japanese believers, which led to conversations that encouraged others to consider God’s love.

Looking back over their years of ministry, Rob and Kathryn are most grateful not just for the Japanese people that God has brought to faith in their midst, but also for the way in which He has cared for them and worked in them, using their life experience in Japan to bring them closer to Jesus in their daily walk.

We’re deeply grateful for their missionary work, and we invite you to pray for them during this next season of their lives, and to continue praying for Japan. Although 0.4% of people in Japan are evangelical Christians, half of these believers are expatriates, mostly from Southeast Asia, living and working temporarily in Japan. These Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Philippine, Thai, Indonesian, and many other believers have the potential to be tent-making missionaries in Japan. Let’s continue to pray for this and that more churches would be started in the rural areas.

“I thank God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now”

Philippians 1:3-5, ESV