icon
close-icon
image description image description
image description image description
image description
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Where We Work
    • US Regional Reps
    • Our History
    • MTW Staff Careers
    • Contact Us
  • Pray
  • Go
    • Search Opportunities
    • Mission Trips
    • Summer Internships
    • 1–11 Months
    • Longer Term
    • Specialized Ministries
      • Medical
      • Workplace Ministries
      • Arts, Music & Media
      • RUF Mentored Internships
    • Multicultural Mobilization
  • Give
    • Donations Hub
    • Missionaries
    • Projects
    • Estate & Gift Planning
    • Disaster Response/Compassion Fund
  • Stories & More
  • Events
  • Resources
    • All Resources
    • Cultivate
    • Videos
    • 1% Challenge
    • Resources for Kids
  • My Account
    • My Giving
    • My Profile
    • Giving FAQs
    About arrow-dwn
    • Who We Are
    • Where We Work
    • US Regional Reps
    • Our History
    • MTW Staff Careers
    • Contact Us
    Pray
    Go arrow-dwn
    • Search Opportunities
    • Mission Trips
    • Summer Internships
    • 1–11 Months
    • Longer Term
    • Specialized Ministries
      • Medical
      • Workplace Ministries
      • Arts, Music & Media
      • RUF Mentored Internships
    • Multicultural Mobilization
    Give arrow-dwn
    • Donations Hub
    • Missionaries
    • Projects
    • Estate & Gift Planning
    • Disaster Response/Compassion Fund
    Stories & More
    Events
    Resources arrow-dwn
    • All Resources
    • Cultivate
    • Videos
    • 1% Challenge
    • Resources for Kids
    My Account arrow-dwn
    • My Giving
    • My Profile
    • Giving FAQs
Donate
image description image description
menu-icon menu-icon

She Couldn’t Resist: A Young Nashville-Bound Songwriter Follows God’s Call to Japan

Alana's heart was being pulled toward Japan, but she'd long had plans to go to Nashville after graduation. Now she had to make a choice.
Chelsea Rollman|20 Dec 2022
image description
Alana (left) with her Tokyo teammate Luka

“No!” the owner exclaimed as Alana Essex stepped inside the share house. Alana had just landed in Tokyo and was anxious to get settled in her new room. She had doubted her decision to come to Japan right up until she boarded her plane yesterday, and the first words spoken to her after she arrived were, “No, no, no.”

Apparently, she—or any person—was not supposed to wear shoes inside a Japanese home. Alana apologized, took her shoes off, put a smile on her face, and followed the man to her room. Within a matter of months God had turned her plans for her life completely upside down and she still couldn’t quite believe she was actually here. In a few hours she would meet her housemates, fellow MTW interns, and her team leaders, MTW Japan missionaries Joe and Felicity Congdon. But before she did, she took a breath and reflected on all the moments God used this past year to get her here.

A Call Disrupts Her Plans

Alana first thought about Japan her junior year at the University of Arkansas. Though she led Bible studies, served in her church, and shared the gospel with those around her, she never once thought about being a missionary until a Bible study with her roommates about global missions. During one of the meetings, the Holy Spirit stirred her heart toward Japan.

“For about a year, every time I opened my Bible, every time I went to church, I would feel this conviction. Even though the Bible study wasn’t talking about Japan, I just suddenly had this burden for Japan on my heart. Crazy because I had no ties or connections to Japan,” said Alana.

But Alana had her own plans. Since high school, she dreamed of pursuing a musical career as a singer/songwriter and this new pull to Japan didn’t change anything.

“For a long time, I just told God, ‘No.’ I was pretty much like, ‘Sorry, I have plans to get to Nashville,’” she said.

Alana Guitar

She went into her senior year telling herself that if God wanted her to go to Japan, He would have to close every door to Nashville. She started applying for all kinds of jobs in Tennessee. She received several offers but did not feel peace about any of them. And she could not stop thinking about Japan.

Finally, she decided she’d had enough. She opened her computer, googled “missions in Japan,” clicked the first result, and called the number on the website. The voice that answered belonged to MTW Central Hub Director Jerry Gibson.

After their initial conversation, Jerry and Alana worked together to find opportunities in Japan and connect with MTW’s Japan team. At the end of 2021, she applied to an 11-month internship with Joe and Felicity’s church planting and campus ministry team in Tokyo.

Still Alana resisted. She continued applying to jobs in Nashville and hoped nothing happened with MTW. She thought applying to MTW would be enough to satisfy her curiosity about this tug to Japan. However, the doors that opened in Tennessee still felt wrong. Then, in March 2022, MTW approved her application and gave the green light to begin support raising for the internship in Tokyo.

Decision Time

It was time to make a decision: Should she give up on her dreams of being a singer/songwriter and go to Tokyo or stay the course to Nashville?

She turned down the internship.

“I just really wanted to go to Nashville. I thought, if God is still calling me to Japan, then maybe I’ll go someday,” said Alana. “So I called Jerry and said, ‘I really hope God forgives me.’”

A few weeks after Alana turned down the internship with MTW, she and her roommate talked about the jewels in a Christian’s crown. They marveled that one day, all of Christ’s followers would lay their crowns at the feet of Jesus in heaven. At some point in the conversation, Japan came up. Alana told her friend she knew God would not punish her for choosing Nashville but felt unsettled with her decision. She wondered if Tokyo was one of the jewels God had given her.

Alana and friends on the street

For days Alana obsessed over the things she admitted to her roommate. She kept thinking, “I think it would make God proud if I went and served in Japan.” She reached out to MTW again and explained that she wanted to go to Tokyo but could only commit to four months. By the end of the summer, she had raised all her support and was ready to take off for Japan.

At first she experienced major culture shock. Alana had never traveled far from her home in Dallas, Texas, and now she lived in a foreign country halfway around the world. Small things like the instance with her landlord and her shoes kept happening. She was blown away watching people on the street separate the caps from their empty plastic water bottles and put each in the proper trash can. But it didn’t take long before Alana settled into her new life.

She became fast friends with her Japanese roommate Juri. Both girls taught each other about their different cultures. Juri showed Alana around Tokyo while Alana helped Juri with her English. They bonded over Christmas music, coffee, paddle boating, and Juri’s first time eating a quesadilla. Alana also connected with other girls from America who went to the University of Arkansas and now served in Japan with different missions organizations. These former classmates supported her as she navigated missions work in Tokyo.

Alana also jumped headfirst into her internship. One of her and the other interns’ main roles is college ministry. Every Wednesday they teach English to a group of four college students. Throughout the week, they travel to different train stations in the city and hand out flyers inviting college students to the social events at the church. Sometimes they do prayer walks as a team around a college campus. And through the internship and these friendships, God is teaching Alana about His great love for her and His world in new ways.

Alana with friend group

God Redirects Her Dreams

The Japanese have the saying, “The nail that sticks up is the one that gets pushed down.” From an early age, Japanese children learn to conform to Japanese norms and values. Ironically, it was in this culture of conformity that the Lord taught Alana He didn’t expect her to be anything other than herself. She realized that God neither called nor desired her to give up her passion for music. He just redirected her.

“Coming here God was showing me that He doesn’t want me to give up on my dreams. He just wants me to do those things here,” said Alana. “He didn’t want me to change who I am and try to fit this mold of what a missionary should be. He just wanted me to be whom He made me to be in Tokyo because that shows Christ in so many ways where these people don’t get to see that.”

She continued, “In a place where 1 percent of people are believers and almost everyone I talk to has never even heard about Jesus or the gospel, it makes such a huge impact to even just be yourself in a place where they’re taught not to be themselves.”

Japan showed Alana she didn’t have to choose between music and missions. She could do both and the internship in Tokyo was just the beginning. Since she arrived, she has written and performed songs for her friends and team about her journey to Tokyo. She has made lifelong friends and experienced life in a new culture. She met fellow musician and MTW Tokyo missionary Roger Lowther, who taught her that music is one of the most important ways she can connect with the people in Tokyo.

Alana has extended her internship another two months to stay with Juri until Juri leaves to study abroad in February, 2023. She currently praying about her next steps and finds herself in a similar position as the beginning of the year. She has spoken to Roger about coming back to Tokyo and joining MTW’s Tokyo Community Arts team but she also still wants to go to Nashville. Whether or not the Lord calls her back to Japan, she has no regrets. The Lord filled her relationships, her ministry, and her heart with joy as she learned to use the talent and passion He gave her to share the gospel with people in Tokyo. She will take the lessons God taught her in Tokyo wherever He leads her next.

Interested in exploring an MTW internship? We offer summer internships (2023 deadline is January 20!) and year-round internships that range from 1-11 months.

author-img
Chelsea Rollman

Chelsea Rollman is a marketing specialist and staff writer at MTW. She formerly served as the girls’ discipleship coordinator at Village Seven in Colorado Springs, and as a marketing assistant at The White Horse Inn. Chelsea graduated from Covenant College in 2016 with her B.A. in English. She and her husband, Hudson, live in Jacksonville, Florida, and attend Christ Church Presbyterian where Hudson serves as the youth director.

Get Involved

video

Art, Music, Mission

Longer More right-arrow
video

Ministry Expanding: Join a New Team in Southeast Asia

Longer More right-arrow
video

Join an Expanding Team in Occidental Mindoro

Longer More right-arrow
video

Defying Gravity: 10 Churches in 10 Years in Tokyo

In the wake of the 2011 tsunami, amid historical barriers to Christianity, Grace City Church Tokyo planted 10 churches within a decade.

See More right-arrow
video

The Bridge of Dance: How Ballet Became a Surprising Gateway to Faith in Japan

I was eager to serve on an MTW summer internship. But I had not expected God would call me to share my faith through dance.

See More right-arrow
video

Karaoke Confessional: Missionary Finds an Unlikely Avenue for Ministry

For one MTW missionary, karaoke has provided surprising opportunities to speak the truth of the gospel into the lives of Japanese friends.

See More right-arrow

Give thanks for those God is drawing to Himself around the world, particularly a Japanese who feared she was too broken to be fixed, and several Ukrainian students who are exploring faith in Christ.

Related Story right-arrow

Give thanks and pray for a couple in Japan who recently came to faith as they faced the last days of the husband's life.

Related Story right-arrow

Pray for believers in Tokyo, Japan, to grow in their faith, and pray for their loved ones to come to know Christ.

Related Story right-arrow
video

Art, Music, Mission

Longer More right-arrow
video

Ministry Expanding: Join a New Team in Southeast Asia

Longer More right-arrow
video

Join an Expanding Team in Occidental Mindoro

Longer More right-arrow
video

Defying Gravity: 10 Churches in 10 Years in Tokyo

In the wake of the 2011 tsunami, amid historical barriers to Christianity, Grace City Church Tokyo planted 10 churches within a decade.

See More right-arrow
video

The Bridge of Dance: How Ballet Became a Surprising Gateway to Faith in Japan

I was eager to serve on an MTW summer internship. But I had not expected God would call me to share my faith through dance.

See More right-arrow
video

Karaoke Confessional: Missionary Finds an Unlikely Avenue for Ministry

For one MTW missionary, karaoke has provided surprising opportunities to speak the truth of the gospel into the lives of Japanese friends.

See More right-arrow

Give thanks for those God is drawing to Himself around the world, particularly a Japanese who feared she was too broken to be fixed, and several Ukrainian students who are exploring faith in Christ.

Related Story right-arrow

Give thanks and pray for a couple in Japan who recently came to faith as they faced the last days of the husband's life.

Related Story right-arrow

Pray for believers in Tokyo, Japan, to grow in their faith, and pray for their loved ones to come to know Christ.

Related Story right-arrow
close-icon

Donation Error

Please enter valid amount.

mtw logo
Mission to the World
1600 North Brown Rd
Lawrenceville, GA 30043
United States
Donor-Advised Fund Portal
Circle Portal
About
  • Who We Are
  • Where We Work
  • US Regional Reps
  • Our History
  • MTW Staff Careers
  • Contact Us
Pray
Stories & More
Events
My Account
  • My Account
    • My Giving
    • My Profile
    • Giving FAQs
Go
  • Search Opportunities
  • Mission Trips
  • Summer Internships
  • 1–11 Months
  • Longer Term
  • Join the Story
  • Specialized Ministries
    • Medical
    • Workplace Ministries
    • Arts, Music & Media
    • RUF Mentored Internships
  • Multicultural Mobilization
Give
  • Donations Hub
  • Missionaries
  • Projects
  • Estate & Gift Planning
  • Disaster Response/Compassion Fund
Resources
  • All Resources
  • Cultivate
  • Videos
  • 1% Challenge
  • Resources for Kids
image description
image description
image description
image description
image description
image description
1-678-823-0004
[email protected]
mtw logo
Mission to the World
1600 North Brown Rd
Lawrenceville, GA 30043
United States
Donor-Advised Fund Portal
Circle Portal
About arrow-down
    • Who We Are
    • Where We Work
    • US Regional Reps
    • Our History
    • MTW Staff Careers
    • Contact Us
Pray
Stories & More
Events
My Account arrow-dwn
    • My Account
      • My Giving
      • My Profile
      • Giving FAQs
Go arrow-dwn
    • Search Opportunities
    • Mission Trips
    • Summer Internships
    • 1–11 Months
    • Longer Term
    • Join the Story
    • Specialized Ministries
      • Medical
      • Workplace Ministries
      • Arts, Music & Media
      • RUF Mentored Internships
    • Multicultural Mobilization
Give arrow-dwn
    • Donations Hub
    • Missionaries
    • Projects
    • Estate & Gift Planning
    • Disaster Response/Compassion Fund
Resources arrow-dwn
    • All Resources
    • Cultivate
    • Videos
    • 1% Challenge
    • Resources for Kids
image description
image description
image description
image description
image description
image description
1-678-823-0004
[email protected]
Manage Consent

To provide the best experience, we use cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent may adversely affect certain features and functions. If you wish, you may view our privacy policy.

Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}