December 1, 2025 Show with Alexander Wright on “Declaring the Gospel in Asia”

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Vessels for Christ and the Purpose of the Mission Trip

Today, we have a returning guest named Alexander Wright, who is founder and president of Vessels for Christ, and he's going to be addressing Declaring the Gospel in Asia, Assessment of a Recent Missionary Trip, the Challenges Believers Face Overseas, and Reasons for Optimism Regarding the Advancement of Christ's Kingdom.

It's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Alexander.

Wright.

Thanks, Chris. I appreciate you having me back on the show.

Well, before we get into your most recent mission trip to Asia, let our listeners know something about Vessels for Christ.

So Vessels for Christ is a nonprofit ministry. We started in 2017. I was radically converted in 2014, and God put missions on my heart right away. And after a few years, I decided to start the ministry and really had just had—we have a longing and a heart for the brothers and sisters overseas.

We have a lot of knowledge here in America. We have a lot of resources, and I feel like our time can be well spent helping those that need, you know, that we can give some of that knowledge and resources to the ones overseas, the brothers and sisters, and help equip the churches.

We do a lot of work in third-world countries. We try to help the pastors financially. We support them with teaching and preaching, just trying to get them to understand sound theology, good doctrine, and really equip them to counter the cults and the false teachings in their different countries.

And if anybody wants to find out more about Vessels for Christ, go to VesselsforChrist .org. VesselsforChrist .org, and God willing, we'll be repeating that towards the end of the show. Well, first of all, why the selection of Asia?

And tell us approximately when you launched this mission trip out there, and specifically where you went.

So, yeah, the last couple of years have been eventful. I had a baby almost 18 months ago. We moved down to South Florida. So, we're part of Emanuel Baptist Church in South Florida, 1689 Reformed Baptist Church.

I'm currently going to seminary, to Reformed Baptist Seminary, working on a Master's of Theology. So, there were a lot of life changes happening, and I had to help out with my wife and the school. So, it took about two years since the last trip to kind of organize this, work with the pastors overseas, see what they needed, see what kind of things we could offer to them.

And so, I was able to plan that trip this year. And finally, the baby was at a point where my wife could take care of her more. I didn't need to be at the house for a month, and I was able to go out there and visit different churches, different partners we work with, and really just wanted to get them resources, see how I can help them with preaching and teaching, and just how to flip their church members to boldly proclaim the gospel.

That was the emphasis of the trip. So, in Asia, it's a very safe-based type of culture. So, they're very defensive. You know, they don't want confrontation. They want to be polite, even more so than America.

So, my thing that I was emphasizing on this trip was Christ over culture. You know, we want to obey the command of the gospel, go out to the nations, disciple the nations, share the gospel, the law, the gospel, the cost, tell people what it means to take up their cross and follow Him, and really be bold in our workplace, with our friends out on the streets.

And so, that was a big emphasis of this trip. In South Florida, I open or preach at times. I hand out tracts at times at the campus and the beach. I did some abortion ministry for a few years when I used to live in Central Florida.

I believe God's called me to be with my evangelistic gifts, you know, and to exercise them. So, I wanted to, you know, emphasize that on this trip and try to teach them, help them, equip them to go out and give them just simple biblical truths about what it means to share the gospel, how to share the gospel, how to have those openings, and be obedient to Christ's command in the New Testament.

So, that was a big emphasis for this trip.

Praise God. Well, tell us specifically about where you went in Asia, and tell us about both the challenges and the praise reports.

Japan: Reformed Churches, Cultural Barriers, and Evangelism

Yeah. So, I started off in Japan. So, I was actually in five countries in 30 days. Me and my wife made a rule when we got married. She said, I don't want you to be gone more than a month once we got married because I used to travel a lot more.

So, I said, okay, I'm going to pack five countries in 30 days, which I probably won't do again because that was extremely exhausting, extremely taxing on me. I praised the Lord that He sustained me during that trip, and my health was preserved.

So, I didn't get sick on this trip, which was a huge blessing because that can really—you probably talk to some other people who go overseas and teach and preach and things. It can really derail, you know, the trip.

Well, I'm dying to hear about Japan because I know it has one of the lowest populations of Christians anywhere in the world. I remember years ago when Iron Sharpens Iron Radio was broadcasting at a WNYG radio in Babylon, Long Island, I conducted an interview on the Moonies with a thoroughly knowledgeable expert on that cult, and I got my first and only email from Japan.

And a woman was thanking me for the interview. She had become a Christian through listening to and reading the ministry and books of Dr. James R. White of Alpha and Omega Ministries, and her and her husband were Moonies.

They were married in an arranged marriage, and although they did not have spousal affection for each other, they remained married even after leaving the cult, and she was dismayed because she could not find an evangelical Bible-believing church anywhere near her, the closest church that even had some kind of an identity as Christian was a Roman Catholic church, and she couldn't tolerate attending those services anymore, and I wouldn't advise any true Bible-believing Christian to go to a Roman Catholic church.

So she was just pleading for help to find one, and she said that less than 1 of the population was Christian, but pick up where I left off there.

Yeah, sure. That is true. Yeah, less than 1%, and that's including Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholics in that number, so it's even less.

Yeah, even less.

So Praise God, I'll give you the praise first, is that I know of 20 churches right now in Japan that are faithful Bible churches. The gospel is flourishing there. It's still a very small percentage of Christians, but there are good faithful churches.

Actually, 15 of those, me and my friend, my friend is compiling a list of Reformed churches around the world, 1689, they hold the 1689 or the Baptist Faith and Message, or are just Calvinistic, and 15 of those churches are actually, their pastors are 1689 confessional churches, but they can't report it because they could lose support from the people overseas that support them.

So they have to keep that kind of secret.

And this is where specifically?

This is in Japan.

Really? Why would they have to? Yeah. I wasn't aware of any government intolerance of Christianity there, especially since there's such a small group like there is in China and other places like that.

Well, yeah. No, it's not the government thing. It's the, they have support from overseas, and if they find out, the pastors find out, or the people overseas who support them find out they're 1689, they lose that support.

Oh, so the threat comes from professing Christians.

Exactly.

Yeah. And yeah, so this is pretty common if you do enough work overseas, where people kind of have to hide some of their Calvinistic Reformed convictions from some of their supporting people overseas, or they will lose support because people just hate Calvinism.

Yeah. So tell us a little bit more about your experiences in Japan, and was there frustration that they were such a small minority, their own efforts in evangelizing their neighbors, that kind of thing?

Yeah, so I went to visit Tokyo Bible Church, which is a Reformed 1689 church.

Cool.

Yeah, the pastor is Pastor Shiro Nakayama, and it's interesting. I want to tell the story about how that church came about. I think it'll be interesting for the listeners. So Timothy Peach was an American who was IFB King James only in the 40s, and he went over to Japan to pass out tracts, share the gospel, and then the war broke out.

So he actually went back to the States, and then after the war was over, he went back to Japan, helped with all the aid after the bombs were dropped, and he actually got his first convert. And the first convert he got, he sent him to a Bible school affiliated with Westminster.

So that convert in the early 50s became Reformed, and then actually shared Reformed theology with this guy, Timothy Peach, who was the guy sharing the gospel and wanting to, you know, see people saved in Japan.

And then there was obviously some arguments and tension for a few years regarding this, and then he eventually became Reformed, and they started this church in the 50s. This Reformed Baptist church in Japan, and it's been standing ever since.

Hallelujah.

Yeah, so it's pretty wild, and it's actually, it's a very good church. I met a lot of the members there. I spent time at the service there, and there are a lot of needs. There are things to pray for. I'd say there are evangelistic efforts.

There's a challenge, like I said before, between the Japanese culture and sharing the gospel because they do like everyone to like them and things like that. And then it's also a very isolationist culture.

So actually, there's a fellowship issue there, too, because they work so much, and they like to spend time alone. They don't really connect with the people in the church. So that's something we can pray for as well.

The pastor's been trying to push that a little bit.

Now, did you get a fairly detailed understanding from the Christians there as to why they believe the Christian church is so microscopic in Japan? I can remember seeing a movie about Catholic missionaries in Japan.

Oh, silence.

And is that the one where the Japanese official rebukes one of the missionaries who I think might have been imprisoned or something? And he said, Japan is not the soil for Christianity to grow or something like that.

That's a good accent.

I don't know if your Japanese friends, if they're listening, if they would agree with that or not. But do they share with you any thoughts on why this is? I mean, it's interesting. I mean, you could perhaps disagree with me, but from what I understand, never having been to Japan, but just seeing television programs and documentaries and things, it seems that in many ways, Japan loves the Western culture and seeks to mimic it.

Not that Christianity is Western necessarily, but it flourishes in many parts of the West. And you would think that there would be more of an openness to explore that part of Western culture. Am I correct on any of that?

Yeah, a little bit. They love Christmas and Halloween and the holidays and Hollywood and things like that that come from the West. One of the issues in Japan is it's very materialistic. It's becoming a little more progressive as well.

So people love status and things, and that is a big hindrance to the gospel. So that's one big hindrance. The other hindrance is the connection aspect. People don't really have very deep relationships.

They don't want to go very deep with spiritual things. So it can take a while for them to open up to someone who they even have known just for two or three years. Some of these people, their closest friends are people they grew up with, like when they went to grade school with.

So that is another hindrance. And then you have to get kind of off this Christianity is a religion of the West type of thing. That is another hindrance to the gospel.

So in other words, even though they may love many aspects about the West, they don't want to adopt a spirituality or a religion that is inseparably linked in their minds to the West.

Yeah, exactly. And just like in a lot of other cultures and countries I've been in, you lose a lot from the gospel. So if they do become Christians and actually get baptized, they get ostracized from their family.

They get looked down upon. And a lot of the family members think they're just joining some sort of cult.

And, of course, that happens here in the United States all the time.

Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Exactly. So there is that aspect as well where there's a cost to fall in Christ, as we know. And they have to deal with that as well.

Now, is the dominant religion there Shintoism? Or am I misremembering that? And whatever their most prominent religion there, is it more nominal than really deeply believed and practiced?

So I would say that their prominent religions are Shintoism, Buddhism, and animism. So ancestry, you know, worshiping ancestors. Most Japanese houses actually have a little shrine to your ancestors. So those are the main religions.

And, yeah, it is very nominal. Most people don't really hold deeply to those roots. They kind of entertain it. But most people are just atheists at the end of the day in the Japanese culture. They don't really believe in anything.

So if you can actually get them to open up and talk with them and share a track or the gospel, you can start from the beginning to the end and actually share what the Bible says. Because they've never even read a Bible.

They might have a concept of it, but they don't really know what's in it.

And by the way, before I forget, I would love to have the contact information of that Japanese pastor to get him on Iron Trip and Zion Radio.

Oh, sure. I'll send that over.

The Reformed Baptist one. Now, how are you welcomed in that country, even just walking around in public? Did people immediately notice the fact that, hey, look, there's a Caucasian here? Because obviously there are very few comparatively over there.

I mean, I don't know if there's a tourist area where there are dozens, if not hundreds, of Caucasians there at one time. But tell us about that.

Yeah. So, no, yeah, I stick out like a sore thumb. I'm a 6 '5 white American.

Wow. I met you and I don't remember you being that tall. Wow. In fact, I ate dinner with you. And I'm trying to remember if I was astonished by your height.

That was a long day. I think that was after the G3 conference.

Yes, it was.

That was a long day. But yeah, so I'm very tall, so I stick out. I'm a foreigner there. People definitely look at me. And as far as the tourist areas, yeah, like I went to go see one of the biggest Buddhas in Japan.

It's probably like maybe 250 feet. It's really tall and it's a huge Buddha and that's a big tourist area. Yeah, I blend in a little more there. There's more foreigners sightseeing and it's a tourist spot.

But yeah, if I'm like, you know, going around the subway or going into some neighborhood where it's mostly Japanese. Yeah, people are always looking at me and sometimes smiling. Yeah, they're sometimes smiling and laughing.

I look at them in the eyes and they look back at me. It's like, I know you're staring at me.

They were probably laughing more because of your height, I'm assuming. Yeah.

Yeah, and everyone assumes I'm like a famous basketball player, like some sort of celebrity.

We have to go to our first commercial break. If anybody would like to join us with a question of your own. Our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com. Chrisarnson at gmail .com. As always, give us your first name, at least city and state and country of residence.

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Thailand, Cambodia, and the Need for Simple Gospel Teaching

We're now back with Alexander Wright of Vessels for Christ. And Alexander, where we left off, we were discussing Japan. And do you have anything further to say? Because I know you visited a lot of countries in Asia recently.

So it's up to you if you want to move on or say anything else that you learned from your experience in Japan.

I just want to say one more thing, then we can move on. We're thinking about doing a conference there next year. So your listeners can be praying for that. Like I said, evangelism is a little—they're a little soft on evangelism in Japan.

They're also kind of soft. Some of the churches, not the ones I was talking about, but some of the churches are soft on abortion and homosexuality.

Even evangelicals?

Yeah, even evangelicals.

Wow.

Yeah. Yeah. So there's some of that there. So me and some of the brothers and pastors were talking about maybe having a conference where we just talk about those topics.

I hope that that does not include that Reformed Baptist Church you were talking about.

No, no. They're solid. Their pastor teaches solid stuff.

Okay. That would have been a shock otherwise.

No. Yeah, no, no. They're good. But some other churches, and then we would have the conference and bring some of those guys in from the other churches.

Now, is the English language so common there that you didn't need to learn Japanese? Or do you know Japanese? Tell us about that.

I'm learning a little basic Japanese, but no, I needed a translator. With some of the guys, they grow up learning English, so you can speak to them like some of the Christian brothers. But even with the pastor that I was mentioning, he had a translator there.

He spoke pretty good English, but sometimes they had to translate because some of the phrases and concepts don't really translate well.

So you could easily get smacked across the face for saying something that you never intended.

That's definitely true. But yeah, so we'll see.

Okay. Well, let's hear about some more of the countries you visited in Asia.

Yeah, so the next country I went to was Thailand. And there's a couple of things I did there. One, I visited a missionary. I'm not going to mention his name on the air because he's done work in China for years.

And he actually got kicked out of China, and now he's currently staying in Thailand. But I actually met with him and was very encouraged. He gave me some encouraging words. We're in the same type of Reformed Baptist circles, and he was just encouraging me to keep exhorting, encouraging people in those circles.

Sometimes I feel like even as Reformed Baptists in those circles, we can be a little soft on evangelism. You know, sometimes we get comfortable in our churches, and we like our churches, but we don't kind of go outside of our churches.

So he was encouraging me in that regard to keep doing what I'm doing, keep encouraging the churches in the Reformed world to share the gospel, proclaim the gospel. And also just to remember, I think one thing that's important, and maybe I have a different viewpoint because I've been traveling a lot, and I don't really stick in one sort of camp, but it's always important.

We've got brothers and sisters across the camp—Presbyterians, Anglicans, evangelical, and even charismatic brothers. We want to stay true. Our connection is on the essentials. Do we believe in the deity of Christ?

Do we believe in the resurrection? Do we believe it's the Word of God? Do we believe that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone? You know, these are the important things that keep us united as brothers.

But yeah, we have differences in baptism and different things, but we want to stay—we want to remember that just because we have those differences doesn't mean we shouldn't fellowship and partner and work with those brothers, you know, with those differences.

Yes, obviously there is the balance, because some differences that are prevalent, unfortunately, in evangelicalism are so heretical that we have to avoid fellowship or break fellowship with certain people, depending upon how extreme the difference is.

Yeah, I mean, one of those would be like Seventh-day Adventism. I mean, that's clearly false. You know, Ellen G. White was a false prophetess. She believed that Jesus is continually washing away our sins in heaven.

Justification is not once, but it's a continual process. I mean, that's clear break of fellowship. That's heresy.

Right, and of course, like the Word of Faith movement as well and things like that.

Yeah, prosperity, which is a big deal in Thailand and in other countries, is the prosperity stuff. That's a lot of what I'm counteracting overseas, because people think those false teachers prey on those brothers and sisters overseas.

They think that they preach this, you know, name it and claim it, give and be blessed, your life's going to be great. Look at me, I fly in a jet. You can fly in a jet, too. They don't preach the whole counsel of God.

They just twist the scriptures. And that is something I'm constantly teaching against and constantly counteracting those ideas in those different countries.

Now, is there a much larger evangelical population in Thailand than in Japan?

So with Thailand, there is, I'd say a little bit more, but not much. In Thailand, yeah, the predominant viewpoint, it's primarily Buddhists. It's about 95 Buddhists. And it's more of a nominal Buddhism, you know, Buddhism by name.

Some of them go to the temples and here and there. But there is a small faction of churches, because in Thailand, you have to register the church with the government. You have to abide by certain rules.

There's certain things that kind of restrict you from even worshiping there. But you are free to evangelize. You're actually even free to open air preach there. You just can't say anything bad about the king.

If you say anything bad about the king, you're going to prison. So you just can't talk about the king of Thailand, but you can actually preach the gospel there.

Oh, praise God. Yeah, that's good. And just so I don't have to keep repeating the same question, how prevalent is the English language in these Asian countries that you have visited where you are understood or you always have an interpreter with you?

Yeah, so I was in Japan. It was kind of a mix, you know. In Thailand, I actually spoke to a church there. His name's Pastor Marcus Say. He has a small Baptist church in the border of Thailand and Myanmar.

He had a mostly Filipino congregation, so Filipinos speak English. So I actually just preached to anyone out there. And then later that night, he had a Baptist church plant type of outreach thing that they were doing.

Sorry, Burmese, Myanmar Burmese Baptist church plant. So I had to have a translator. I can understand. I lived in Myanmar for a while, so I can kind of understand 50%. I have 50 comprehension level of Burmese, but I still need a translator when I preach to Burmese people.

And then in Cambodia, I had a translator the whole time. They don't really know much English. And then in Myanmar, I had a translator as well because their English is very limited as well.

Oh, you know, it just occurred to me. I've got to hook you up with my friend, Pastor Jeff Waddington, who is a Presbyterian pastor here in Pennsylvania. But he provides online instruction in the Christian faith to a church in Cambodia.

He does it via Zoom. And so I obviously have to get you to introduce to each other.

Yeah, that would be great. Actually, speaking of Presbyterians, Legionnaire, which is kind of loosely connected to St. Andrews, they actually were gracious enough to donate almost 30 Reformation study Bibles to our ministry.

And I was able to get those to Myanmar and other countries in Asia.

Great Scott. So any other specific experience that you want to address in Thailand before you move on to another one of the countries you visited?

Yeah, so Thailand, I was saying, I was with Pastor Marcus Say, I preached on church membership there. I preached a couple of evangelistic messages to lost people there as well. Some of the praises there, there are little faithful churches there and there's evangelism going on, which is great.

Some of the challenges there are that that is even worse than Japan. And they think the Christianity is just the Western man's religion. So you really have to counteract that and say, no, no, Christ died for all.

He can be your savior, too. He forgave the sins of the people of the world, John 3, 16. We can preach that and emphasize that. And then on top of that, the Buddhist culture there, there's no beginning with Buddhism.

They think the world was people reincarnated, the world was renewed over and over and over again. There's no starting point. So you have to counteract some of that. You really have to start from creation, from Genesis, go to Revelation with people there where it's a little different.