Imagine a church with three members, the youngest of whom is 79 years old. Then think of another church whose Pastor is 97 years old. 

These may sound incredulous in Singapore, but they are the realities of church life in a mission field just five hours away. 

Since Pastor David Gabriel Lim, 47, started his ministry in Okinawa, these are just a few of the churches that he has come across. In fact, one “megachurch” that he visited had an attendance of around 300.

Due to the fact that many churches are small and cannot employ full-time staff, their Pastors are also bi-vocational, leaving them with little time to think about matters beyond the weekly service. 

“Some of the Pastors are so busy because they are the ushers, song leaders, preachers, musicians and cooks, all rolled into one. They are hard-pressed for time to take a step back and look at the big picture,” Ps David told Salt&Light.

For the congregation with three elderly members, their Pastor is also seconded from elsewhere.

“Some days he is there, some days he is in another church,” noted Ps David.

Stories like these are why Ps David is on a mission to raise a new generation of disciples in Okinawa. 

A cry from Okinawa

The journey had begun almost a decade earlier, when God first stirred his heart for Japan through a series of remarkable confirmations that eventually led him and his wife, Ariel Tay, 47, to start Alive Generations.

Focused on working with local churches to strengthen their believers, their new mission agency looks to equip the next generation of leaders in Okinawa so that communities will proclaim Christ in Japan and participate in God’s wider mission to reach the nations. 

It all started at a regional conference in October 2015 when Ps David was helming the youth ministry at New Life Baptist Church (NLBC).

As he was leading a time of prayer for the nations, he felt that the Lord had “narrowed down” his vision to a group of youths who were huddled together.

Ps David (far left) at the Asia-Pacific Baptist Youth Conference X4, where he first heard God speaking to him about Okinawa.

“It was almost like God blinded me, like everything else was dark. The spotlight shined on this group of youths,” Ps David recalled.

Puzzled, he asked God who these youths were. Shortly after, Ps David noticed a Pastor from Okinawa who came over to pray for them.

It was then God impressed upon him Matthew 9:37, where Jesus said to His disciples: “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few.”

Keeping this to himself, Ps David later joined his worship team for supper – something that he did not usually do.

Stunned to see that someone had invited the group of Okinawan youths whom God had highlighted to him, Ps David was even more surprised when they began sharing about their struggles as followers of Christ.

Suddenly, one of them asked point-blank: “When is God going to send labourers here?”

The group of Okinawan youths praying at the Asia-Pacific Baptist Youth Conference X4.

“That really shocked me. I had not told anyone what I saw in that moment earlier,” said Ps David, who was jolted back to the burden for labourers that God had put on his heart.

That would just be the first of many divine signs. Over the next few months, God would repeatedly speak to him through a series of encounters that were impossible to ignore.

“You are the one whom God has prepared my heart for”

At the end of December 2015, Ps David was preparing to hand over his ministry before his upcoming sabbatical when three of his four church members asked what portfolio he would be taking on when he returned.

“I said I didn’t know yet because we might have a new Senior Pastor who would come in the following year. Then three of them said, ‘Have you considered missions?’” 

Finding it such an odd question, he asked: “Why would you mention missions?”

Recognising that it must have been the Holy Spirit, Ps David said all of them felt it was the “right thing to say” at that time.

At the time when God him a burden for Okinawa, Ps David (second row, standing, fourth from right) was leading his church’s youth ministry.

Then, in January 2016, a church member asked to meet Ps David, sharing with him that God spoke to her specifically that he had to go for missions in Japan.

“That shocked me as well because (my wife and I) had not told anybody what I had encountered in October 2015,” Ps David told Salt&Light.

The final confirmation came when a Christian from another church met Ps David at a Pastors’ meeting in February.

After speaking to him, she suddenly said: “So you are the one that God has prepared my heart for.”

This lady had actually set aside S$500, but did not know who she was supposed to give it to until she started chatting with Ps David.

“She said, ‘Take this amount, buy the air ticket, and go to Japan and see for yourself God’s calling for you.’”

Their eyes were opened to the needs

In March of the same year, Ps David and Ariel flew to Japan. Visiting several churches in Okinawa, they began to learn about the challenges these congregations were facing.

Where there were once healthy multi-generational churches planted by missionaries, the loss of young people has left a gap in the next generation of local leaders needed for leadership transition.

“That really tugged at our heartstrings. We think that in Singapore, we’re struggling with the next generation. But here, even more so,” he said to Salt&Light.

Situated away from the mainland, Japan’s southernmost prefecture does not only have an ageing population. It is also losing young adults who are heading inland in search of job opportunities, compounding the problem of dwindling church attendance.

Located closer to Taiwan than Tokyo, Okinawa boasts a distinct cultural identity that sets it apart from the rest of the country.

“All these factors have become a challenge to them in terms of discipleship and church growth,” observed Ps David.

“The young start to leave church because they don’t find that it is contextualised or relevant to them.”

On their vision trip to Okinawa in 2016, Ps David and Ariel dialogued with young people from Elon318 Community Church.

He then remembered how, as a seminary student, he was encouraged to take a bird’s eye view on church growth instead of focusing on just one demographic.

“I started to realise something that my lecturer (at Baptist Theological Seminary) told me 20 years ago. We can have a vibrant youth ministry, but if the church is dead, where are the youths going to go to?”

“I saw the importance of what he said come alive in Okinawa when we realised that there is actually such a need across all generations.”

For Ariel, the trip also confirmed that Okinawa was where God was calling them to serve. She was deeply burdened by the need to strengthen disciple-making and leadership development, so that believers could grow into mature followers of Christ who would in turn disciple others.

After returning to Singapore, Ariel also recalled how as youths, both she and David had separately responded to an altar call where the preacher had prophesied over them, saying that they had a mission calling.

Ps David (second row, third from right) and Ariel (first row, fifth from right) attended the same youth ministry at Ang Mo Kio Presbyterian Church. This was taken during a mission trip to Sarawak, Malaysia.

“Ariel felt that the Lord had called us to give our lives to our church for the last 20 years, and she saw the Okinawa trip as one of several significant confirmations of a missional calling God had been shaping over many years,” David said.

It was also around the same time that the word “life” was strongly impressed on them, as the couple felt that God wanted them to raise disciples who are alive in Christ, experiencing the fullness of life that He has given to them.

By faith, they started a Facebook page called Alive Ministry. 

A decade of “silence”

Interestingly, that clarion call to Okinawa was followed by almost nine years of “silence”.

After his sabbatical from June to December 2016, Ps David returned to church in 2017. True enough, he was tasked by his new Senior Pastor to strengthen the missions department, just as his church members had earlier urged him to consider.

“Back then, I was not thinking about starting my own mission agency. But it was really very good because I was not only able to organise things for my church, but also meet every single mission agency in Singapore and dialogue with them about how they run their organisations.

“I got to learn and sit at the feet of all these amazing men and women who were leading their agencies, and got to glean from their experiences as mission leaders.”

During the time he was overseeing missions in his church, Ps David would lead short-term trips, such as this one (pictured above) where they ministered to youths in Taiwan.

While Ps David wondered why God did not say anything more about Okinawa during that season, he would later realise that God was quietly laying the groundwork as he discerned his personal calling.

“On hindsight, now we look back and realise that was God’s way of equipping us to be missionaries in Japan and preparing all the foundation that was needed for us to incorporate Alive Generations,” he said.

Coming to life

In 2024, the prompting to take a step of faith into a new territory finally came.

Likening it to the Bible account of how God called Abraham to uproot from Ur, Ps David found courage in how Abraham obeyed, even though he did not know where he was going (Hebrews 11:8).

After stepping down from his role as Associate Pastor at NLBC to explore long-term missions in Okinawa, Ps David and his wife began speaking to many mission agencies.

Some were not able to send them because of the geographical focus of their ministries. For those who could, however, it became clear that God was leading them in different directions after prayerful conversations.

“For example, we don’t want to do church planting at the start. We want to build the existing Church and their successors, so that they can do outreach on their own and are not dependent on missionaries,” he explained.

Finally, when God seemed to have closed every door, Ps David and Ariel revisited the mission agencies one more time, only for them to all ask the same question: “Have you considered striking it out on your own?”

This brought them back to a conversation with a Pastor friend that took place before they had even spoken to the different organisations.

“I jokingly told this friend, ‘Maybe Alive Ministry is our back-up plan.’ Then she said, ‘Alive Ministry is not your back-up plan. It’s your only plan.’ It was quite surprising because she was very serious when she said it.”

Recognising that establishing their own mission agency would also help to provide continuity for their ministry in Japan in the long run, the Lims then kickstarted the process to make that to happen.

Ps David and Ariel with Alive Generations’ Board of Directors at the ministry’s launch. Ps Bettina Low of FaithMissions Movement (far left) was the one who encouraged the couple to start their own agency even before they themselves were convicted to do so. Their other Board of Directors are (from right) Dr Fong Choon Sam, Senior Director of the Advanced Institute of Ministry, Baptist Theological Seminary; and Augustus Low, Pastor, Leng Kwang Baptist Church.

Alive Generations was finally incorporated on October 10, 2025 — exactly 10 years after God first moved the couple’s hearts for Okinawa.

In awe that God provided most of the funds they would need for their first two years, Ps David shared that support came from various places, including their own church and national missions movement Antioch21.

“We were all ready to fundraise from church members and friends, but God went ahead of us. We were thoroughly amazed and humbled.”

Looking back, Ps David now sees God’s hand not only in the extraordinary confirmations that first pointed him towards Okinawa, but also in the long seasons when nothing seemed to be happening.

The call had never changed. God had simply been preparing them for it.

Read Part 2 to see what happened after the couple finally arrived in Okinawa and how they have started seeing fruit in their ministry.

READ MORE:

Can Okinawa’s ageing churches come alive again? This couple is on a mission to raise a new generation of disciple-makers

Why Christians should be going to Japan, and not just for sushi

Land of the Rising Son: Singapore churches are catching the vision of God’s kairos time Japan

“What step will you take to see God’s Kingdom advance in Japan?”: Ps Jeremy Seaward