This is Seera.
She was born and raised in Japan in a non-denominational church pastored by a missionary from the United States. Seera was taught to love God, but her church was shallow and legalistic, upholding “American culture [and] theology” while demonizing Japanese culture.
Seera went to college in Seattle, and her home church crumbled while she was gone, and the loss of her church family was traumatizing. She and her husband fell away from church for almost seven years, but God invited them back through hardships in their lives.
Seera found herself at a church plant in Tokyo. The gospel-centeredness of this new church was certainly a blessing, but she still felt out of place. She didn’t feel comfortable with the western way of thinking and of studying the Text.
Then she started listening to BEMA, and it was the first time she’d ever heard her eastern way of thinking was valuable and could coexist with western theology. Seera gained resources to renew her perspective of God, the Text, and the Church. And hearing Marty share his own struggles around not fitting in with his community, yet still yielding to the importance of submission and trust, she was encouraged to strive for the same.
“Becoming someone who can trust the story, live selflessly, and pursue the Kingdom of God (shalom) is my prayer every day.”
