Biography
April Yamasaki is an author, editor, pastor, and spiritual formation mentor sharing faith and hope for everyday living.
After twenty-five years as lead pastor of a growing Mennonite congregation, she now serves as resident author with Valley CrossWay Church, edits Rejoice! daily devotional magazine, speaks in person and online, and mentors others both informally and more formally through Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary.
Publications
April's latest book is Hope Beyond Our Sorrows: Learning to Live with Life-Changing Loss (Herald Press, 2025), alongside Sacred Pauses, Four Gifts, On the Way With Jesus, This Ordinary, Extraordinary Life, and other books on living with faith and hope.
Her articles have appeared in Light magazine, Faith Today, and in other print and online publications. She shares writing as a spiritual journey on Substack.
Speaking
April has served as a guest speaker and teacher for churches, colleges, and conferences across Canada: Acadia Divinity College, Mennonite Church Eastern Canada, Connecting Streams, and many local congregations.
She is equally at home with Scripture texts that connect with congregations and a wide range of topics that relate to specific needs: self-care, spiritual practices, living with loss, writing as a spiritual journey, and more.
Invite April to speakAbout This Website
When April started blogging, she chose the tagline Writing and Other Acts of Faith, borrowed from author E.B. White: “Writing is an act of faith, not of grammar.”
Here you'll find her writing on Scripture and everyday life, prayers and book reviews, self-care and spiritual practices, and other ordinary acts of faith and hope. Posts from When You Work for the Church now live on this site as well.
Browse the postsAbout Substack
With writing, editing, and speaking already on the calendar, April never intended to start a Substack. She claimed her profile anyway, and now posts some of her publishing journey under Writing as a Spiritual Journey.
Visit April's SubstackEndorsements
Hope Beyond Our Sorrows is the compassionate companion we all need while navigating life after loss. April Yamasaki’s reflections are honest, acknowledging the pain of grief rather than explaining it away.
— Kendra Broekhuis, author of the novels Between Them and Us and Nearly Beloved
I envy those who have April Yamasaki as their pastor, but Sacred Pauses widens her ministry; she now becomes a wise spiritual director to many readers.
— Arthur Boers, author of Living into Focus
In my soul’s journey into the deeper, darker, and nutritious soil of soul care, I have looked to April Yamasaki as a trusted guide. I read everything she writes!
— Christena Cleveland, author of Disunity in Christ
It is clear that words matter to April. She uses them carefully and to great effect. The result? Timely sermons that come from her heart, are rooted in the text, and speak powerfully, yet sensitively, to our current needs.
— Peter Horban, Valley CrossWay Church
Thank you for the gift of your words and sharing your life with us this past weekend. Your posture and your presence embodied your message of stillness, of attentiveness to God’s voice, of simply paying attention by stopping and setting aside distractions. This has been a very special weekend for us all.
— Tim Kuepfer, Chinatown Peace Church
You inspired us to care for ourselves. You challenged us to try something new. You pointed us to Jesus as our true hope.
— Mary Lou Ng, Connecting Streams / Power to Change