After being a very ordinary girl from a small country town in Australia, I felt like a celebrity in Tokyo with all the double-takes, stares and awkward pick-up lines I received from strangers. I loved it all - from being jammed next to strangers in the express trains, to slurping ramen in the noodle bars. There was only one problem. My church.

It was actually a great church. I found it through my Aunty's friend Stephen, a blonde-haired, very intelligent Australian man. He went there, along with his wife, and a handful of other ex-pats. But there was one significant difference between those foreigners and me - they understood Japanese. I did not. And the service was all in Japanese.

So I would attempt to sing the songs and sit during the sermon with my paper dictionary, trying to catch a word here or there that I could look up. Occasionally Stephen or another foreigner would offer me a whispered translation, but by the end of three months I felt very dry spiritually and a strong desire came over me to find a church where the service was in English.

At this key, needy time, I bumped into Amanda, a tall America girl with broad shoulders and long straight honey-colored hair. She stopped when she saw me on the street and approached me with a warm smile. I smiled back. And almost straight away she mentioned Jesus. I was surprised by this, and even had a twinge of guilt. I was never that quick to mention my faith straight off to a stranger, but I mentioned that, yes I too believed in Jesus and went to church.

Her response was to invite me to her church, which had a familiar and trustworthy name (she did not tell me actual full name of the church at that time). When Amanda added that the service was in English, I decided to go.

Beforehand, she invited me to her small apartment where I met her flatmates. They all talked about Jesus and were all very friendly. My telephone address book became crowded with their names.

Their church building was like a piece of modern art in a prime location in Tokyo. It felt very new and very expensive. The main difference I noticed from the other churches I'd been to was that the choir at the front sang a cappella throughout. I realized the church was probably anti-instruments, but decided that was an unimportant stylistic difference. Afterwards I was greeted by a number of people who seemed genuinely interested in me. I had never been so instantly embraced or so automatically included.

Then Amanda invited me to do a Bible Talk with her and a friend that night. I refused, went home, and began praying about it. I'm not the kind of person who occasionally visits a church. I commit. Did God want me to commit to this church? It was silly, perhaps, but I felt somewhat uneasy about their dedication. They were so passionate in proclaiming Jesus. That was a good thing, right? But why did I feel so uneasy? Was it because I was holding back from God in some way, that the thought of going all-out frightened me?

As I prayed, I felt like God told me he wanted me to go to their church. I texted Amanda, telling her I would come the following Sunday and do a Bible Talk with her and her friend after.

That Sunday, several hours before I needed to leave, Stephen rang me about something trivial. He had never rung me before. (He never rang me again). And for some reason, I blurted out that I was going to this new church.

"But that's a cult," he said. "If that's the one I've heard about, it's a cult". This alarmed me, but I told him I'd promised all these very nice people that I would go. I didn't want to break my word if he didn't know for sure. Besides, everyone had talked about Jesus. People in a cult didn't talk about Jesus, surely? 

Then Stephen offered to come with me. His home was far away (everything is far away in Tokyo) but somehow he was able to arrive in time to accompany me up those stairs into the church.

By the time of the closing song, Stephen, with a solemn face, indicated that we should leave. On the way out we were greeted by people with robotic smiles, all saying how 'impacted'* they were by God and how great their lives were now. They were not interested in hearing about my faith experiences or Stephen's, only in talking about their own.

Afterwards, Stephen sat me down and explained to me what a cult looks like. He said that a healthy church has people in it of all age ranges. The cult, conversely, had people that were all the same - in this case they were all young adult professional types. There were no old people or children. 

The sermon too, although it mentioned Jesus in slogans, focused on praising different people, who were pointed out and one by one clapped for being successful at bringing people into the church. There was no actual focus on reading the Bible and discussing what it says. Stephen also told me he'd heard the Bible Talks were about making you vulnerable. They'd try to make you confess your sins to them and then pressure you to join their church, even if you were a member of another (a quick Google search confirms this).

I came away both humbled by the experience and astounded by the mercy of God. I'd prayed to God, genuinely seeking His will. I thought He'd told me to go to that church. I'd heard wrong. But God did not leave me to blunder off into a web of very sincere, very relentless people. Instead he sent me Stephen.

Stephen then took me to a new, Bible-believing church that was in both Japanese and English. It was not as friendly as the cult - real churches aren't - but it had lots of different types of people: old, young, Japanese, Korean, American. I became refreshed spiritually and, over time, made real life-changing friendships there, of the kind that last.

*A key buzzword for their cult

If you've found this helpful at all, please comment, vote and share. Anyone else had an experience with a cult that would be useful to share?