Part of a Church Planting Team in Post-Disaster Iwate Prefecture (Northern Japan) with an unchurched unreached unengaged area focus.
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The Copelands will be participants in the Rural Japan Church Planter Training Center with an unreached/unengaged area focus and also part of the Kita Sanriku Christ Church church planting team.
Benjamin and Alicia and their children Davidicus, Reseda, Ozias, Zane, Alora and Kaito currently live at and work on staff at a church and school campus outside Portland serving in a wide variety of roles, where Ben primarily serves as Children’s Pastor leading Sunday Kids Church and kids ministry events, and in leading chapel and teaching computer and science classes at the school.
On the 27-acre campus nestled within the Portland metro area, the Copelands have also had the unique opportunity to grow flowers, keep bees, raise goats and bunnies for use in the school and in outreach events, where special needs children and the community have been able to interact with the animals. Alicia has also made honey, soap, lip balm, bouquets, baked and home-made craft items to help raise funds for the church events.
They love utilizing creativity and hospitality to care for and bless others. Ben and Alicia have felt a call to evangelism and missions since becoming Christians. Before marriage, Alicia participated in a Discipleship Training School with outreach to Turkey through Youth With A Mission, and both Alicia and Ben served on various short term missions trips to Latin America. They pursued the potential of serving in Japan through teaching English, but the door closed. With a heart for children and the elderly, Ben supported special needs children as a group home supervisor while Alicia provided care for the elderly as a CNA.
After moving from their home in Seattle to the church and school campus in Oregon, the Copelands began to pursue the call to long-term cross-cultural missions in Japan after a series of timely and confirming events. With a desire to serve in rural and unreached areas, they began looking for opportunities in the Tohoku region, at first looking for English teaching jobs, but then deciding to trust God to provide for full-time ministry work. One morning while praying for guidance, Ben heard the Lord tell him that this morning he would find it, and in a web search happened to find Rural Japan Church Planter Training Center, where the description of the Rural Church Planting Team Member was a perfect fit to their hearts and the ways they had been serving at the church campus.
Ben will participate in a 4-year program with the training center in Iwate prefecture, gaining hands-on ministry experience as they serve under the direction of the leader of the Kita Sanriku church plant team in diverse capacities while continuing to study language and culture. Alicia will be caring for the children, homeschooling the older children, and being a general support to Ben. As time permits, she will also contribute her skills to the ministry. She also will be studying to learn Japanese. As a first term missionary, Ben’s initial ministry focuses on the field will include:
- Japanese study
- Attending and contributing to the worship services and/or Sunday Schools within the Kita Sanriku Christ Church multi-site church plant.
- Actively participating in a rural Japan church plant by assisting with the Kita Sanriku Christ Church ministry in worship service locations, neighborhood small outreach groups, kid’s events, and other activities in the communities throughout the Iwaizumi Town and Tanohata Village, Fudai Village, and Noda Village area (These areas were all unengaged and had no church until the Kita Sanriku church plant started). His ministry responsibilities will deepen and broaden along with his language skills.
The Copelands are raising funds for this ministry and are hoping to move to Japan in 2026.