Bryan and Amy Lenartz were on staff at Harvest for many years, but they have recently relocated to Japan. Learn how they are serving on this episode.
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Transcript
Chris Harper: Welcome to hHarvest Time. My name is Chris Harper, and our host on this program is Pastor Gary Walton, the lead pastor of Harvest Baptist Church. Every week, we spend these twenty five minutes together telling you the stories of our church by interviewing our members and other friends of the ministry. We have two services at Harvest Baptist Church every week, the first at 08:45AM, the second at 10:45AM Sunday. We have Japanese and Korean translation during the 10:45AM service, and that’s also when we livestream at hbcguam.org.
Hbcguam.org. This week, Pastor Bryan Lenartz’s will be speaking in both services on faith from Hebrews 11. We begin today’s Harvest Time by welcoming Pastor Gary Walton. Hi, pastor.
Gary Walton: Hey, hafa adai, Chris. Yeah. We’re looking forward to hearing from pastor Bryan on Sunday. And in fact, they’re here in the studio with us. I’m gonna introduce them in just a minute.
Pastor Bryan and Amy Lenartz were on staff here for thirteen years. We’ll ask them some questions about that here in a minute. And actually with them is their oldest daughter, Ellie, who is 14 years old. And if you’ve been around Harvest, these are familiar people to you. If you’re new or listening for the first time, then you might know that Pastor Bryan and Amy were here for a number of years, then God called them, really began planting a seed in their life for several years prior that, they just listened to God’s voice.
I’ll let them tell that story in a minute, but they are now planted in the big city of Osaka, Japan, just trying to fulfill God’s calling in their life to, reach the the people of Osaka. God’s given them a burden for that, help them to know the gospel, have a gospel preaching, teaching church where where people can grow up in their faith. And so all that’s happened over the last few years. We’re absolutely glad to have them here for this weekend. Let me welcome you guys first.
Pastor Bryan, Amy, thanks for being back. I’m so glad to see you guys.
Bryan Lenartz: We are so glad to be back. Thanks for having us, Pastor.
Amy Lenartz: Yeah, we’re super glad to be back and enjoying our island culture again.
Gary Walton: It’s good to have you here. Ellie, thanks for coming and joining us.
Ellie Lenartz: Yeah, thanks having us. Yeah.
Gary Walton: You’re here specifically for retreat at the end of this week. In fact, this is going to air Friday night. So as we’re airing Friday night and Saturday, we’ve got what we call a young professionals, a young pros retreat that’s taking place down at Jones Beach. Last I heard, I think there’s 75, 76 registered, maybe even above that now. And Pastor Bryan’s going to be there speaking, Amy’s interacting, helping, discipling, counseling.
So we’re looking forward to that. And then also going to be preaching on Sunday. So back us up a little bit about Brian and Amy specifically to, in the short version, God bringing you here and then bringing you out. What did that look like?
Bryan Lenartz: Yeah, we were here about fifteen, sixteen years ago. We arrived on Guam. I arrived about six months prior to Amy. I met her here and we got married soon after. Amy will share a little bit in a moment here, but she worked as a PA on island and I took one look at her and I said, okay.
And next thing you know
Gary Walton: This is my future.
Bryan Lenartz: Yes. Four kids, all of them Guamanian. We adopted our son Carson from island and every inch of this campus and all over this island where I look, have specific memories of God working and just just the enjoyment of people and friendships all over this island. We love this place. We love this place deeply.
And the Lord started bringing trips to Japan across our path and people from Japan. And over time, our hearts began to be burdened. And it was about a two year stretch where we were questioning, Lord, why are you doing this? We were content, more than content to spend the rest of our life here. We love Guam, we love Harvest Ministries, but we couldn’t get away of the fact that Japan is the second most ungospelized country in the world right now.
The need is great, and there is such an open door. And we took the biggest faith step of our life, and we watched God do bigger things than we’ve ever seen Him do in our life.
Gary Walton: Yeah, I want to ask you about some of that here in a minute. Amy, you know, this journey along, you know, first God brought you to Guam, connected you with Brian. You guys I mean, I remember our first conversations, your hearts were so knit together with what God was doing here. And then I remember the conversations as God began to clarify for you that I’ve got another path than preparing you for something else. How did all of that resonate with you?
Amy Lenartz: I think that each step that God puts in front of you, you have to walk by faith. And I think there’s a lot of small faith steps that God gave us before to help prepare. For example, Elliana’s with us, but when she was a baby she actually had a heart defect. And we had you know, our little baby was gonna go under surgery and you have to surrender that to the Lord like, Lord, she’s yours. And this is hard, but we’re gonna surrender whatever you ask.
And God decided to heal Ellie that she didn’t need the surgery. And so many small faith steps that you take helps you prepare for the big faith step. And there was a lot of fears that we had. I mean, I specifically, when we left Guam, I didn’t know where we were going to live. We had a place for the first three months and after that, and yet God just provided so much for us.
And even when we got to Japan, I had some things I was worried about or feared like, Where am I gonna take my kids to the dentist? We can’t go years without a dentist. Or, know, Where are we going to live in Japan? And how are my kids school? And God has been so kind to us and has provided for each and everything.
And so there were a lot of fears and worries, but God answered and you know, you follow your husband and you take those steps and God sees us and he’s provided. And it’s been very encouraging.
Gary Walton: Ellie, let me ask you about this. I think I mentioned you’re 14 years old, eighth grade there in Japan, maybe maybe in ninth grade if you’re here. Think you told me that. So you’re 11 when you left here, 11, 12?
Ellie Lenartz: I I think I was 11, yeah, when we left because I vividly remember turning 12 in The States on deputation.
Gary Walton: Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That’s a pretty big move when you’re 11. I know.
What did you think about it?
Ellie Lenartz: So I think we were first I was first told when we were I was 10 or nine, nine or 10. And being a little 10 or nine year old, you don’t really know how to, like, how to comprehend that.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Ellie Lenartz: Like, because Guam was the only place I’d known. I’d never seen snow. I hadn’t been any colder than anywhere colder than, like, 50 degrees. Mhmm. So but I really think I was excited for Japan because we’ve been there multiple times, and, yeah, we had a I had a lot of Japanese friends here.
Harvest loved Japanese classmates. So then I remembered being really excited for Japan. When I, like, came back here right now, it’s it’s kind of, like, hard because
Gary Walton: Right.
Ellie Lenartz: I had sometimes you, like, think about, like, what would be, like, what would have happened if we stay on Guam. So, yeah, that’s kinda my perspective right now.
Gary Walton: Yeah. That’s really helpful. Actually, thanks for being honest about that because we feel that too. Right? We love your family Mhmm.
And miss you guys. And we’re thrilled for what God’s doing, but we also, you know, we feel those, you know, those memories and thankful, you know, for all of them together and Yeah. Praying for you. Praying for you, your brothers and sisters, and your family together.
Ellie Lenartz: Thank you so much.
Gary Walton: For those who know you from your years at Harvest, what’s been the biggest shift from serving as an associate pastor, Brian, you’re here for thirteen years, ministry partners together to planting your lives in Osaka, Japan.
Bryan Lenartz: Yeah. I think, you you look at, you know, like the forty year principle in scripture and you have, you know, Moses, forty years here, forty years there. We went from a season where every minute of every day was consumed with people and ministry. And when you shift to a culture like that, one of the biggest priorities is you need to be able to speak the language. If you’re gonna have an impact in a life’s and heart and if you’re gonna have a long term ministry.
So for us shifting our whole lives to dedication to learning Japanese, it takes a radical shift because you’re investing your time and energy in something where the fruit you know is probably going to come down the road. It’s not something where every day there’s those people in front. We do have those opportunities every day and the Lord’s given us more opportunities than we were expecting at this point already in Osaka, but our lives are driven by language. At times we were up late at night studying and cramming and just draining. It is very physically draining there that you don’t really think about.
Life’s different. Things are smaller. We’re a family of six, which is very rare in Japan. Most, if anything, people might have one child, but most don’t even have a child. And so it’s just kind of complicated that.
So we’re investing in the long term and we’re thankful for the opportunities we’ve been given now. But I think that’s the biggest shift that we have to have in our minds is keep our eyes on the prize and why we’re doing what we’re doing.
Gary Walton: You’re in your second year of language learning, language study, in a very intensive, right now. What’s been the most humbling or surprising moment as you’ve worked to communicate in Japanese?
Bryan Lenartz: Yeah.
Amy Lenartz: I feel like every day is humbling. Oh, I sound a little bit like a toddler. You know, you go from I used to work at a medical facility, being able to explain all this stuff, and now I’m happy to just ask for the red hat that I need, you know?
Bryan Lenartz: Dr. I was learning a structure where you add the word try to something, and Japanese is very complex, so you add like this mite to it. So kite mite is, know, can I try on something? And I remember you learn it and you go, I want to practice this. And I took Ellie in shopping.
She was looking for some clothes. I’m like, I’m gonna I’m gonna, you know, ask this gentleman where where I can try she can try this on. I I’m like, And so I’m I’m doing this and I’m holding this up and I’m realizing I’m forgetting to put the term for my daughter. So I’m holding this middle school girl’s outfit asking the gentleman, Where can I try this on? And it starts dawning on you what you’re saying and you have these moments where you just step back and go, Oh boy, I have a long ways to go.
Gary Walton: Ellie, I think I’ve heard you and your brothers and sisters are, you know, in some ways you’re progressing faster than dad and mom, which is not unusual. You’re in school. Right? So you’re in a public school there. Tell me about, you know, getting dropped into a school where you’re at that time when you started, your Japanese was very Yeah.
So how’s that gone for you?
Ellie Lenartz: So yeah. It’s it was interesting at first. I remember the first, like, day I was there, my the English teacher, she just left, like, once, and for the first time, I just kinda felt like, oh, I’m like, what am I gonna do? Like, I can’t, like, say anything. Mhmm.
So, yeah, the first year was very, very rough for me. Mhmm. Yeah. Also, like, I didn’t know what to do. We have cleaning.
Like, the students will, like, clean after school or they, like, serve the lunches, And I’d just be, like, standing there for, like, ten, thirty minutes, like, just, like Right. What do I do?
Gary Walton: Right.
Ellie Lenartz: So, yeah, those times were hardest. It was also very hard for me. My grades, I at Harvest, I was very proud of my grades, so it was very humbling to come and get like I averaged, like, zero to 10 points on my test right now, which isn’t great. But, that was very humbling for me and probably one of the most difficult things. But, yeah, this year has gone way better because I’ve already I’ve oh my goodness.
I’m forgetting English. I I’ve kinda, like, learned what to do. Like, some of the culture shock has gone down. Like, every once in a I’ll be like, woah. What what is going on?
What’s happening? Right. But, yeah, I’ve been God has been good this year with he’s provided a lot of classmates that have helped. Yeah.
Gary Walton: That’s Well, I think I mean, there’s a lot of reasons why God does good things in our lives, but I really believe that part of that is directly response to so many people who are praying specifically for you, your brothers and sisters on that specific area. Yes. And, I’m encouraged with you that God is answering those prayers. You can know that God’s alive because he’s answering these, you know, specific prayers for you, not just for your dad and mom, which is awesome too, but for you. God cares about you in that situation and praying that God would give you really beautiful things that you’d never experience in any other place except right where you are, which is where God wants you, things that God’s gonna gift to you.
So I’m excited about that. Bryan, Yeah. Let me back up for a minute. Your support raising happened remarkably fast. What do you think God taught you all, but maybe you personally, about faith, about obedience, and maybe even a little bit about community through that season.
Bryan Lenartz: Yeah, would say a couple things. One, you know, it was such a big faith step for us. Something that a lot of people don’t understand that aren’t from Guam is traditionally a lot of the missionaries come from the West and they they travel out of their home, they go different places, they come back, they have their their church there and they kind of have that rallying crew there. For us, we had to travel halfway around the world just to raise our funds to travel back halfway around the world. So we had to leave our church family.
Amy and I both essentially quit our jobs as pertaining to financial income. And we went to zero income pretty much outside of the generous gifts of the church and the help. So we had no idea what was going to happen. It was truly a down to almost zero income traveling around the world to America, which we haven’t been really in twelve, thirteen years, which that is a whole another world. Right, yeah.
And trying to understand even church cultures and all these things. So we just gave it up to the Lord and we were so convinced of his hand and his guiding from the beginning that when we took that step of faith, we were completely reliant on him. And I remember we were about three, four months in, and we just didn’t hear from anyone. Typically, when you go to a church, they have annual meetings and things, and they make these decisions if they’re gonna take on a missionary. So all these churches we’ve been to, we just haven’t heard from them yet.
And I remember us just talking and getting on our knees and saying, Lord, maybe this is gonna be five, six years. I said, We are so committed and we believe we’ve taken the faith steps you’ve asked us to, and we can’t control tomorrow, but we are entrusting you within. I remember right after that prayer, we just saw the Lord open the floodgates of financial provision. And what we saw was remarkable. We had all of our income come in in about ten months, which the average is like five years or so it takes.
And a lot of that, I think, was testimony to this ministry, because the churches, when they would hear that Amy and I have been serving in a multicultural setting for fourteen years, With the reputation of Harvest and the love of Harvest Baptist Church, a lot of churches were saying, Those are the type of people we want to invest in. And it’s a testimony of this ministry as a whole. It’s not just our story, but it’s the history Harvest and what God has been doing on this island that people see and go, That’s what we would delight to see across the globe. And we stand back amazed at God’s goodness, and when you taste God’s goodness, you just want more of God’s goodness. And that has carried our confidence into trusting God by faith in what he’s called us to do.
Gary Walton: Yeah, I really like that idea. I mean, is a remarkable story, but the ongoing confidence that it places in you that God has called you. Yes. Because it’s a miracle that your support came in in the time that it did, and, I agree with you. In those tough days to know God has called us and he’s prepared a way for us.
And if he did that, he’s he’s got these next steps planned too even when we don’t always know them and see them right in front of us. Amy, we’re talking about this a little bit, before, maybe I’ll bring Ellie into this too. But you have five children. Ellie’s your oldest.
Amy Lenartz: Just four.
Gary Walton: Excuse me. I’m not trying to actually, I was not trying to make an announcement. Four children. I’m sorry. Four. Four children.
And all of them now, you know, experiencing life in Osaka. How has God used family life as part of your witness there?
Amy Lenartz: I think definitely so much. We decided to put our children in the public school and God really provided a wonderful elementary and middle school for our kids to go to. And our, just having our kids in the school, I’ve been able to meet other moms. They’re so kind. They help me.
If I don’t know which uniform to put on the kids, I have a few that I can text and ask. And because of that, we’ve just been able to make friends and reach out and get to know different people. Selah has some disabilities, so I’ve gone in and spoke to the teachers and they’ve been very kind and let Selah come part time so I’m able to teach her at home and teach her at and then she still can come to school for art and PE class, some great things to help round out her education. And through that I’ve got to know the teachers and God’s allowed me. I go in once a week and I read an English book to the kids and it’s been pretty fun.
So enjoy that. And just having our kids in that school has allowed us to really get to know a lot of different people in our community.
Gary Walton: Yeah, it’s cool. Bryan and Amy both actually shared last Sunday night in church, these are stories I think that we are the church family is familiar with as we stayed connected with you, but to be able to see the pictures and see the ways that God is using your whole family, you know, it’s not just, you know, Brian there preparing to do what God wants and you guys along for the ride. God is using your family together as a gospel witness there, and it’s it’s really cool. I’m I’m so encouraged by that. Bryan, Japan described often as spiritually resistant in many ways.
What gives you hope as you as you live, as you serve among the people, you know, many who may have never seriously considered the Gospel. What’s the hope?
Bryan Lenartz: Yeah. I think people are surprised to hear Joshua Project, which tracks the unreached people groups. Japan’s actually currently the second most ungospelized country in the world.
Gary Walton: Yeah, just kind of really interesting, the Joshua Project, if you’re listening to that, it’s a cool website. You can get it, anybody can get access to it, and it gives you stats of where the Gospel is, what areas do not have the Gospel, and yeah, exactly what you’re saying.
Bryan Lenartz: And for reference, a lot of people think of countries like China as unreached for the Gospel. China, I mean they are unreached and they need missionaries, but they’re at about 7%. Japan is at .3%. Yeah. 21 times more.
So the open door is huge there for the gospel. I think what’s made it so difficult historically, and it’s been given the nickname the Graveyard Of Missions, because so many have gone and just it’s been very defeating there historically. It’s a very societal country. Everything they do is for the betterment of the whole, of what it means to be Japanese. And you see it.
You go in the morning when we would go off to school, everyone is wearing either black or white. You see no color. Amy would wear a red coat and I can always find Amy. And there’s a way to go on the escalator. When you go on the train, everyone knows you’re completely silent.
There’s a system for everything you do and Christianity is not part of that system. They view Christianity as a Western religion, which we know it’s not. It’s not a religion. It’s a relationship with Christ about a God who loved them and came and died for them. We have a promise in God’s word that he loves all people and that this gospel will go forth across the globe before he comes back.
So we have confidence this is going to happen and that God has not forgotten the Japanese people. I think our hope is, this is a little bit sad, but it’s the reality is Japan is a very, very lonely place. A lot of people die alone. This is a pretty sobering reality, but there’s a striking number of people who will pass away. They don’t find their bodies till months and months later.
Because they just have a system where everyone, you do not bring any problems to another person’s life. You do your thing, you keep to yourself, you don’t even talk to people, that can be rude in some ways. There’s no waitresses and waiters at most places. You press buttons and use iPads and you pay without talking to people. It’s just set up this way.
And our hope is that we look into their eyes and we hear their stories and their craving. They’re craving belonging. They’re craving relationship. And when we can tell them about a God who loves them and who desires an intimate relationship with them, you can see the eyes start to open. It’s something they crave.
We have to be strategic in how we approach it in Japan, but the people that God’s allowed us to have a deeper impact with, we have hope for the gospel, and we know that they represent the whole. And I believe that God’s getting ready to do something bigger than we can imagine in Japan.
Gary Walton: Amen. Amen. I believe it too. If you could speak directly to the Harvest Church family listening right now, what would you want them to know about how their prayers, their love, their partnerships are shaping what God’s doing in Osaka?
Bryan Lenartz: Yeah. I think of two areas of scripture. One, Paul is asking the church, pray for a door of utterance to be opened for the gospel. Mhmm. And then you have another passage, I believe it’s in Acts, where he’s reporting back to the church and he’s reporting on all the doors that were opened for the gospel, that the work we do is an impossible work.
We need God to do the work and God can do it. And he delights to do this through the prayers of his saints, through the local church, that we’re not doing this. It’s not like the Lenartz’s are off doing this and the church is doing this. We are in this together. We are so dependent on the prayers of the saints to go on our behalf that the Lord would open up doors of opportunity.
And we see this. There’s my wife meets with a lady named Sarasa. She went through cancer not too long ago. She’s had questions and there’s times where it’s just like a door is opening. There’s times where it feels the door is not open.
But then there’s moments where it’s like something happened and the opportunity for the Gospel is here now. And we have testimonies of those type of situations where we feel a closed door and then we see an open door. And I would just I used to be kind of like, Oh, there’s lots of missionaries, everyone needs prayer. I’m maybe a little bit more selfish now, and I am begging people to pray for us because we need it to do the work that God’s called us to.
Gary Walton: We take that to heart, and I hope you know it and feel it. People here praying, caring. We love you guys. Brian, you and I were walking across campus, talking about this. You said it first, but I feel the same thing that it’s almost as if, you know, it’s been, what, two and a half years, whatever the time is, it’s almost as if you can kind of just put that in this little parenthesis and you guys just fit right back into, you know, your place here.
And I think that’s really healthy. You are part of this ministry. We want you to know that we’re going with you. We want do everything that we can to support and encourage. Glad that you’re back.
You’re encouraging us by telling of the works that God is doing. And, yeah, thank you for joining and sharing a little bit on the radio. Ellie, thanks for joining with your parents Yeah.
Ellie Lenartz: Thanks for having us. It’s it’s been really fun to be here.
Amy Lenartz: We’ve so appreciated everyone’s kindness and wanting to spend time with us and just caring for us and our kids. And I think it’s given us the rest and encouragement to go back and do what God’s called us to do.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Amen. Alright. We’re praying this will be a time of refreshing for you and, knowing that your testimonies are encouraging and helping us. So thank you guys for being here.
God bless you.
Amy Lenartz: Thank you.
Ellie Lenartz: Thank you.
Chris Harper: And thank you for listening to Harvest Time. Of course, at this point in the program, we always wanna personally invite you again to services at Harvest Baptist Church. Two services every Sunday, 08:45AM, 10:45AM. We have Japanese and Korean translation during the 10:45 service, That’s also when we bring you, the service live on 88.1 FM at khmg.org. We hope to see you this Sunday.
Thanks again for listening to Harvest Time.