Luke Elliot
MTS, 2012
I am a Canadian who grew up in a missionary family in rural northern Japan. Later, while teaching English in Japan for five years, my wife and I discerned a call to full-time Christian ministry in Japan and decided that I should study at Wycliffe College during our preparation period. When I arrived at Wycliffe, I was fascinated by the stained-glass window in Founders Chapel with the picture of Wycliffe graduates arriving in Kobe, Japan. It inspired me to do my thesis on the history of Wycliffe Missions.
Two of our five children were born at Wycliffe College (home births in Apartment 11). Our family's favourite thing about Wycliffe was its community life, most especially morning and evening prayer and Wycliffe Wednesdays (which consist of the Wednesday Event, Eucharist, and Community Dinner). The close and personal interaction we were allowed to have with staff and faculty is still one of the most formative experiences our family has ever enjoyed.
I entered Wycliffe College with a passion for Old Testament studies but left it with a strong interest in interdenominational ministry and cooperation and in a healthy and robust passing down of the Christian Faith to new generations. After a two-year training period serving under a Japanese pastor in Sapporo, my wife Yuko and I were designated to reopen and develop the Aomori Christian Center (ACC), an interdenominational Christian camp and retreat center that I had often gone to as a child. Step by step, we have been working to expand our network of participating churches, renovate, or rebuild inadequate facilities, and develop teaching and discipleship programs for both Christians and not-yet Christians of all ages.
