With a population of 944,000 people, half of whom reside in and around Wakayama City in the north, Wakayama only has about 70 Protestant churches, some of which have dwindled to less than ten members. Most of Wakayama’s churches are in the northern part of the prefecture near Wakayama City; the southern half of the prefecture only has a hand full of churches. The interior of the prefecture is entirely unchurched. Wakayama is one of the least reached, least evangelized prefectures in Japan.
Starting in 1949, and for the next thirty years, BGC/Converge would send many of their missionaries to rural Wakayama to establish churches in sleepy fishing villages from Mihama to Katsuura, and worked to evangelize the mountain hamlets. Converge labored tirelessly over the decades to establish churches around the Kii Peninsula (which contains southern Osaka, Nara, Wakayama and Mie prefectures). Japanese pastors from other parts of the country came to join them in the effort. Eventually establishing a string of small churches along most of the southern coast.
