What are we talking about? : When you visit websites of any business, charity, church & ministry organisations, it is most likely that you'll see some sort of statements that capture the core value, vision, mission or aim of the organisation. If it is a website of a church, it may have a page titled 'Statement of Faith' or something like that. So it is very understandable that you may be expecting to see a similar kind of thing in this part of our website... well, it's a little bit different.

The 'Vision' we want to talk about here refers to the prophetic kind God gives to His children, giving us a glimpse of what is to come in the future. It may be a pictorial impression regarding God's calling on someone's life or a dream about a specific plan He has for that person. Even in our relatively short walk with God so far, we have received these kinds of visions from both the people He brought to us, and directly from Him on a number of occasions.

In Habakkuk chapter 2 (v2-3), we find God telling the prophet Habakkuk to write down the vision God was about to give him - "Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry." (Bible Translation : New King James Version). So this page is our way of writing down the vision He gave us, and to share how we received it.

The Background : For about 3 years building up to the spring of 2006 we spent a lot of time wondering, seeking and praying about one big question we always had - 'What is God’s plan & future for our lives?'. Although God's been very gracious in giving us good lives, Masa in particular was very unsettled & unfulfilled with where we were at; we were looking for something that enabled us to have life in its fullness.

As we didn't want to just start pursuing things without God's blessings, we continued our lives as they were during this period with a hope that one day He would show us His plans for us. We're both naturally not adventurous / pioneering kind of people so this approach was a convenient way for us to carry on. In the meantime, many things had happened that fueled our feeling of unfulfillment, making us more desperate for change. (we'll share more about our walk in other parts of this website in the future).


The Beginning of Change : In May 2006 God finally started speaking to us regarding our future; he gradually started unfolding His plan on how we are to take part in the expansion of His Kingdom. Through divine meetings with people He sent us and reading books such as The Barbarian Way (Erwin Raphael McManus), Wild at Heart (John Eldredge), Waking the Dead (John Eldredge), and Cure for the Common Life (Max Lucado), He started to reveal to us something that really resonated with our heart;

He showed us that each of us is created with unique gifts (natural potential & abilities for certain skills / built-in personality traits etc.) & purposes to fulfil God's Kingdom works here on earth; when we start discovering & utilising these gifts for the Kingdom purposes according to His timing & season, we start living truly fulfilled lives - Of course, it can’t be said enough that this goes in hand with His work in us to transform us into the image & character of His son Jesus on a daily basis. Through the parable of the Talents (Matthew 25 v14-30), Jesus teaches us that God has made investments of various amounts to each of us, and on the day when we see Him face-to-face we are to give an account of what we did with His investment. We all have choices to make with our lives, but for us we want to make sure that we have made good use of what He has entrusted us with.

The tricky part is that, so many of us often find ourselves living unfulfilling lives, carrying a sense of disappointments, discouragements and tiredness; neither really knowing what God's plan is for us, nor utilising the gifts He has equipped us with. This is the work of the enemy - the enemy wants to keep us in this state of 'deadness' because he fears us becoming alive and embracing what we are created for. So there are battles to be won.

So, what does this mean for the Tomita family? For many years we have known that the things that really made Masa come alive, with the sense of 'this is what I am created for!' have always been in the area of creative works through arts, design, woodwork, and music. However we have also been aware of the fact that these things God has freely given us hadn't really been utilised for His purposes. So throughout the summer of 2006 we sought God by asking Him how these qualities / desires can be a part of His plan & future not only for Masa but for Lydia and for our son (who was still in the womb at the time).

For many years Masa dreamt of having a workshop at the back of our house where he could spend hours carving wood and building guitars, as it has always seemed like an idyllic activity combining his love of art & craft with love of music & guitars. Although we had always imagined it to be a part of our retirement plan, in light of our seeking we also brought this to God in prayer – could this be something for us now? Another thing we prayed about was the possibility of us moving to the USA as this has also been in our mind for many years.

The Vision : That summer we received prophetic words from 2 people and a vision from God, all of which seemed to be linked with what we'd been seeking. As we are talking about the vision here, we'll share about the prophetic words some other time. The vision came to us in the afternoon of Sunday 10th September (2006). We were sitting in our living room reviewing what we'd been praying about & prophetic words we received during the summer. We talked about the idea of a guitar building business combined with the possibility of opening a Christian retreat center that caters for people with creative gifts & talents. The center will have a facility for woodwork & guitar building, providing a creative / peaceful / inspiring environment for people with God-given creativity to come alive and to meet with God; to become alive to whom they are created to be. It would be a place to either initiate or facilitate the individual's journey in discovering & celebrating His purpose for the person. Once again we asked God to show us if we were talking about something in vain or something divine – Father, show us what it looks like. Within a moment, Lydia received a picture which she described in her journal;

"I am aware that some of what I saw could have been coloured by my own desires and our discussions, but here goes... I saw scary goth-type musicians playing guitars that Masa had built and being flooded by the Holy Spirit and filled with light. I saw a Ranch - a long log cabin type structure up in the mountains surrounded by snow. I walked in the front door and saw a bookshelf to the left containing books and CDs. I looked up and there were stairs leading to a balcony, off which were a lot of small cozy bedrooms - each looking out to a view of the lake & mountains outside. There was also a prayer room / library. I saw myself in the kitchen helped by our kids, whilst Masa was in a large open plan space teaching others to build their own guitars. Then I saw Masa and I and our children lead worship together and minister to the people. We as a family had our own closed-off quarters within the ranch. Masa's business was built up from hand-picked people who were just re-discovering their passions."

Our Response : The same summer, we started looking for a place where Masa can be trained to be a guitar craftsman and found a school in Big Rapids, Michigan, USA. As an act of 'pushing doors' we also started applying for immigrant visas for Lydia & our son. As it currently stands, we don't know the how & when, but we are continuing to pray that God will refine this vision by taking everything we may have added according to our 'fleshly desire' away from it, and to open only the doors He plans for us to go through.

Thank you so much for reading this lengthy account on the vision we received. This is not intended to be a theological / doctrinal teaching, but we hope what we shared will encourage our readers to seek God for their lives - for there is no better place to be than in the will of God.