HOW WE BEGAN
Foundations Baptist Church held its first service on Wednesday, March 4th, 1998, as a result of God's call on Missionary Mike Peslak’s life to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and God's direct leading in his life to Okinawa, Japan, to start an Independent, Fundamental, Soul Winning church. From June 1998 until August 2001, the church met in a storefront in Takahara, Okinawa City. In August 2001, they moved to the area called Hiyagon in Okinawa City. The church continues to meet in Hiyagon today.
PASTOR JOHNSON
Pastor Peslak received a call from the Lord to return to his home church of Stratford, Connecticut in March 2004. On April 18, 2004, the people of Foundations Baptist Church voted unanimously for Missionary Randy Johnson to take over as the new pastor. Pastor Johnson had been a missionary serving in the Azore Islands of Portugal for 6 years.
Pastor Johnson served in the US Navy for 12 years before leaving the service to attend Hyles Anderson College in June 1992. In January 1996, Pastor Johnson took his last final and started deputation sent out by FBMI and their pastor, Dr. Jack Hyles, to go to the Azore Islands of Portugal. His wife Kelly, daughter Christa, and he arrived in the Azores the last of May 1998. While learning the language, they saw many people saved and lives helped. In March of 2001, he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and had to be in the States for a year for surgery and treatments. On September 10, 2003, while at Mayo Clinic for a tumor his wife had, Pastor Johnson and his family received news that their 24-year old son, Eddie, had been tragically killed in an automobile accident. Due to the recovery time needed after his wife’s surgery, it was necessary for the Johnson family to stay in the States for another six months.
Through a series of events that could have only been from the Lord, they went back to the Azores in April 2004, shipped everything they owned in a container, and landed in Okinawa on June 23, 2004 with missionary visas in hand. Both Pastor and Mrs. Johnson are cancer-free. Christa attends Golden State Baptist College in Santa Clara, California.
