Longo, Robert & Megumi

I, Bob, was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. We always went to Methodist church on Sundays. Elementary school years were spent at Lutheran Elementary School in Bay Ridge, just down the street from our church. We heard the Bible daily, and always had a memory verse. On Friday mornings we walked to Lutheran church, also on same street. I had a good foundation (Prov. 22:6; 2 Tim. 3:15). I graduated LES and started at a Christian high school. There I clearly understood the gospel. During first semester I trusted Christ for salvation at age of 15 in October of 1968. On graduating in 1972, I enrolled at Shenandoah Bible College in Roanoke VA (now defunct). It was in my last year there that I came into assembly fellowship in fall of 1975 at age of 22. I spent one more year at Washington Bible College in Lanham, MD. There I had further exposure to missions (a subject well heard of since my elementary school days). After my dad's sudden death of heart attack (12/1986), I felt compelled to move forward spiritually, even if I had to "limp" from sorrow. In early 1987 I became more interested in foreign missions. My dad served in the US Navy on a destroyer escort in the Pacific War, getting as far as Nagasaki Harbor immediately after the war, although he never set foot on Japanese soil. All he would say of the atomic bomb damage was "Rob, it was devastating!" If my dad went as far as Japan for war, I felt I should go as far as Japan for the gospel of peace. Jesus said concerning Himself, "For the Son of Man is not come not to destroy men's lives, but to save them" (Luke 9:56-KJV). I first arrived in Japan on March 29, 1988. In the grace of God, I'm still here 36 years later. Megumi was born and raised in a Christian home, and in assembly fellowship from childhood. She was baptized at 12 years old. She's four years ahead of me in the Lord. We met during my first year in Japan, and were married on July 1, 1989.