Joanna Shelton’s journey to faith began unexpectedly with an email inviting her to the 120th anniversary of a church in Osaka, Japan-one founded by her great-grandfather, 19th-century Presbyterian missionary Thomas Theron Alexander. Despite a secular upbringing in Texas, where church was more educational than spiritual, Joanna’s adult life was marked by a high-powered career as an international economist and trade negotiator in Washington, D.C., and Paris.
Yet, even amid professional success, Joanna felt something was missing: “A feeling deep inside me nagged me with thoughts of a more ‘normal’ life. (One) of community and day-to-day rhythms focused more on family and friends than on international travel and high-level diplomacy.” She eventually traded diplomatic life for a Montana farm and began researching her great-grandfather’s legacy.
To understand what had drawn him to ministry in Japan, Joanna started reading the Bible seriously, guided by two devout relatives. “A long-suppressed inner flame burned brighter as I read and contemplated the Scriptures,” she writes. Verses like Luke 17:20–21 and John 14:9 resonated deeply, helping her grasp “the true meaning of faith, as hope in things unseen.”
Her spiritual search was further fueled by witnessing the enduring faith of Japanese Christians whose ancestors had been taught by missionaries like her great-grandfather. “My great-grandfather’s hand, still for over 100 years, seemed to beckon, and I followed,” she reflects.
In 2007, Joanna joined a small Presbyterian church in Montana and has since served as a ruling elder, taking the same vows her great-grandfather once did: “to trust in Jesus Christ my Savior, acknowledging him Lord of all.” She concludes, “You might say I’m the latest convert of a man whose work clearly was not done when he died more than a century ago.”
