At 18 years old, Miyako faced an unplanned pregnancy while deeply entangled in a cult. Confused, isolated and pressured to abort her child, she struggled to find a way forward. But God’s grace intervened, guiding her toward faith and a new life.

After high school

Born and raised in Okinawa, Japan, Miyako experienced a strict upbringing as the eldest of four children. After graduating high school, she was eager to break away and seek freedom. She got a part-time job, saved her money, and ran away from home.

Miyako spent her nights at parties and filled her days however she wanted. But over time, the excitement wore off, and her heart began to feel empty.

“I was getting tired of my lifestyle. I stopped hanging out and going to parties and tried to be more serious in my life,” she explains.

During that season, Miyako met her then-boyfriend, now-husband, Shawn. But something in her life still felt missing. She began to see she lacked the power to change herself, so she sought out religion.

Drawn into a cult

Miyako explored New Age practices and meditation, but she says their lifestyles did not align with what she wanted. Instead, she encountered a group that appeared Christian.

“They were telling me, ‘If you want to change your life, change yourself … If you want to know your purpose in your life, if you are seeking God, there’s an answer for you.’ So I thought, if I go there, they can help me,” Miyako recalls.

At first, Miyako did not realize the group was a cult. She says the group, known as the “Moonies” or Unification Church, manipulated her through its teachings and seminars.

At the end of a week-long seminar in mainland Japan, Miyako says she pledged herself to the church leader in a dedication ceremony. She confided in her leader, who told her that personal relationships were forbidden and that the church arranged marriages for its members. She returned to Okinawa, prepared to break up with Shawn, move into a communal home with other believers, and fully devote herself to the group.

During this time, Miyako discovered she was pregnant. She says her leader told her that her baby had “Satan’s blood” and she must abort it. She trusted her leader and wanted to break up with Shawn, commit fully to the church, and abort her baby.

Two pregnancies, two different decisions

This was not Miyako’s first pregnancy. She first became pregnant with Shawn when she was 18 years old, just six months prior. She felt unprepared for a child and followed others’ advice by having an abortion.

Miyako became pregnant again while under the cult’s influence, pressured by the group’s leader to have an abortion. But Shawn resisted and encouraged Miyako by connecting her with an Okinawan pastor. Miyako says the pastor showed her that her baby was a gift from God and that only Jesus can save her.

The Holy Spirit touched Miyako’s heart, and she saw that the Moonies had been brainwashing her. She accepted Jesus as her Savior, started a new life, and decided to keep her baby.

Facing her parents

While her heart was changing, Miyako still had to tell her parents about her pregnancy. Her parents feared what others would have thought of their daughter and family. 

“They were so upset [and] so angry,” Miyako says. “They were telling me, ‘We are ashamed of you and what this will bring to our family.’”

The night Miyako told her parents, Shawn was at a church prayer meeting where he asked everyone to pray for Miyako. Anxious to find out how things went, Shawn called Miyako’s parents’ house. 

Shawn recalls hearing Miyako’s family arguing before the call abruptly ended. Shawn called back and got no answer, then drove 45 minutes to Miyako’s house.

“I was just praying and saying, ‘God, what am I gonna do? What’s going on? I don’t want to fight anybody. You got to help us,’” he says. 

Miyako’s mother told her she could keep the baby but would be cut off from the family and forced to leave.

God opens a door

At 18 years old, Miyako left home and had nowhere to go. Shawn, who was serving in the U.S. military, requested a hardship waiver to allow Miyako to live with him on the military base as they processed marriage paperwork.

Miyako distanced herself from her family and heavily leaned on her new church family during this season. She and Shawn got married when they were 19 and 24, respectively. Shortly after their wedding, Miyako gave birth to their daughter, Megumi, whose name means “grace” in Japanese.

Miyako remembers her mother being upset when she called her after Megumi was born. Despite feeling hurt, Miyako’s church family surrounded her with support and accepted both her and Shawn.

When Megumi turned 1 year old, the church held an Okinawan-style birthday celebration. To Miyako’s surprise, her mother and younger sister showed up toward the end of the party. Her mother wept and apologized for how she had communicated with Miyako, paving the way for reconciliation.

Reconciliation with her father

A year later, after welcoming their second daughter, Gracious, Miyako and Shawn received orders for their next duty station and prepared to leave Okinawa for the U.S. But Miyako could not leave without making peace with her father, so she returned to her parents’ home with Shawn and their two daughters. Her father was shocked.

“He was yelling, ‘Why are you here? You don’t belong here,’” Miyako recalls. 

But her mother pleaded with him to forgive Miyako. Finally, Miyako’s father accepted and forgave them. That reconciliation allowed Miyako and Shawn to leave Okinawa in peace. 

After finishing their time in the U.S., Miyako and Shawn returned to Okinawa as missionaries. Shawn separated from the military to focus on mission work, and they needed a sponsor to return. Miyako’s father stepped in, handling the paperwork so they could come back after nearly two years away — now with three children.

Called to help others

Miyako says, “I realized that I got saved by grace because I was ready to abort [my] baby, break up with [Shawn], and just have my own life. But God knew how to save me. Even though I got pregnant, God used that to get me saved and have a family.”

That experience also deepened her compassion for women facing similar struggles. Seven years after returning to Okinawa, Miyako and Shawn received a call from an orphanage about a mixed-race girl and were asked if they would consider becoming her foster parents.

“At that time we already had three kids,” Miyako says. “I was thinking, ‘It’s not easy to raise other kids, so let’s pray about it.’ We fasted [for] three days, and God gave us a Scripture from Moses.”

The passage reminded Miyako of how God heard the cries of the Israelites in their suffering and raised Moses to deliver them. In the same way, she believed God was hearing the cry of the girl at the orphanage and called their family to step in and deliver her from her previous life. That assurance gave them peace to tell the social worker they were ready to become foster parents.

When she came to faith, Miyako says God placed a desire in her heart to help children and mothers in need. She and Shawn have lived that out by adopting two children, fostering six more, and raising four of their own. For more than 34 years, they have opened their home to children who needed family and care.

Miyako says many of the biological parents of the children they have fostered and adopted came from challenging backgrounds, including prostitution, neglect and domestic violence. Raising these children has become a living testimony of how God has used their family to bring healing and hope.

A family built on faith

Today, Miyako and Shawn have 10 children, five grandchildren, and a thriving ministry as pastors of Hope Chapel Ginowan in Okinawa.

Shawn and Miyako serve as pastors with a continued passion to reach people who are hurting and overlooked. As a child, Shawn witnessed broken families, drug use, violence, repeated abortions, and women struggling to raise children who relied on welfare. Experiencing that shaped him, and after coming to faith, he knew he wanted a different life and felt called to minister to people from similar situations.

Miyako’s encouragement to those facing an unplanned pregnancy:

“Don’t keep it to yourself. Go ask for help [from] the right kind of people. Help is there. We all make mistakes with our decisions, but God is able to forgive and give [us] another chance, even though we know we’re so messed up. God is able to help us through [our] experiences and use that to make something beautiful.”

Shawn’s encouragement to those facing an unplanned pregnancy:

“Although you may feel you’re not ready, children have a way of bringing change, helping you mature and grow. If you really are at a place where you don’t believe that’s what you can do, consider foster care or adoption. We live in community, and there are those who can help. There is a God who is a Father who also just wants to come beside [you] and help navigate and walk through the journeys of life we all encounter. He is a loving, gracious, and just a great, not only God – but friend. He’s a present help in time of need. He’s really faithful. He’s really dependable. If you have been given an opportunity to house a baby – you’ve been selected. And it’s something that God believes He can trust you with. Trust Him to walk with you through this journey of life.”

Written by Melina Nicole.