Koko: I Want to Talk to My Friends More About Faith

Challenge 2026 was my first time coming to America.

America is super fun. It's easy to have conversations with people, which is totally different from Japan. Japan is a little more quiet. One thing that surprised me is how everybody jumps around during worship. That was new for me. 

Japan's Christian population is much smaller than America. I go to a church in Kyoto, Japan, called Rakusai Kamisato Chapel. It’s just me and my little brother in the high school youth group. About 80 percent of my church is older adults.

My pastor found out about Challenge through the Evangelical Free Church of Japan (EFCJ). He told us that people from all over America come to this big conference. [The EFCJ] wanted a group of Japanese youth to go, and he invited me. I wanted to go because I’ve never been outside of the country, and I wanted to experience other countries and cultures. Challenge showed me that even though there are different cultures and languages, we all worship the same God.

I want to bring back the emphasis on prayer. Everyone here intentionally prays—and not just for friends and family, but for the city, for people they don’t know. People in America—especially at Challenge—are so open about their faith. I have lot of friends at my high school in Japan who aren't Christian, so when I go back, I'd like to invite them to church or talk to them more about faith.