Hallelujah! This month marks our one-year anniversary since moving to our city of Kisarazu and planting the Kisarazu Hope Baptist Church. We made the full move to our home on October 12, 2023, and held our first service the following week on Sunday, October 22, 2023, with just my wife and me. In those days, we were solely focused on giving out invitations to our services and planning evangelistic events, along with our mission trips, as we had no one yet to minister to. Now, we are bringing multiple families before you on a monthly basis to pray over who are a faithful part of our regular congregation averaging 15. What God has built here from zero over this past year is nothing short of a miracle, and we are thrilled to share with you what He has done in this monumental month.
Last month, we mentioned a returning family of four with whom the Lord opened a special opportunity for us to minister to. They are a saved family but have gone through much hurt in the recent years, and their son especially has been struggling mentally. God allowed me to begin Biblically counseling him on October 1, and we have been meeting every other week. It has been encouraging to see the Word of God visibly bring victory into his life as he has been absorbing and applying its truths. On October 20, we were able to have their family in our home for dinner, where we were able to learn more about them and their needs. Please pray for this dear family and that God would bring healing and victory into their lives.
We also mentioned in our previous report about the arrival of Bro. Vince Roberts from one of our supporting churches, the Faith Baptist Church of Oak Creek, Wisconsin. He is a former missionary to Japan, who also came to help us last fall. We have been blessed once again by his labor and fellowship for another three weeks. During his time here, he used his craft in carpentry to build us multiple new shelves around our house, a cross for our rented auditorium, and a custom pulpit for our services that is wide enough to support multiple Bibles and hymnals for our bi-lingual services, light enough to be portable as we switch auditoriums between our Sunday services, and short enough for my stature (which, as many of you might remember, was not always the case on deputation!) We are beyond thankful for his labor here. Sunday, November 6, [November 6 was a Wednesday.] was the first day I had the privilege of using this beautiful, brand-new pulpit. We had Bro. Vince share his salvation testimony bi-lingually, as God allowed him to retain much of his Japanese. On that day, God gave us 3 first-time visitors, as well as a returning visitor!
The following Sunday, October 13, was when we held our One-Year Church Anniversary Service. It was a special privilege to have Pastor and Mrs. Sogoro Ogawa, who had pastored the Senri Newtown Baptist Church of Minoo, Osaka, for 57 years, speak and sing for our services that day. This was the church where my wife and I began our journey in Japan, and it was special to have them speak at our church plant, which the Lord had used them to prepare us for. God gave us 20 in attendance, with 2 first-time visitors that day! On October 27, God gave us another 2 first-time visitors to our church, giving us a total of 7 first-time visitors in just one month! We watched in awe as we saw God do what only He could do this past year. We cannot wait to see all that God will do in our many years ahead! Thank you for your part in it all!
Danielle’s Journey
This month marks one year since we moved to Kisarazu, and I am so happy here. It is so exciting to think back over the many things that have happened here that only God can do! I think back to when we were praying for people to come, and now we are almost maxing out the auditorium that we rent each Sunday. We prayed for so long for God to bring ladies to our church, and now there are four who come regularly with whom I get to minister to and serve. We have had such a blessed and exciting year! The anniversary service went extremely well also! I had the privilege of cooking the meal, as well as playing the piano during the service. It was also so encouraging to have Pastor and Mrs. Ogawa join us for our anniversary service. Everyone was so encouraged by the messages that he gave and the testimonies they both shared. While Bro. Vince was here, we also had the privilege of visiting the widowed pastor’s wife up in northern Chiba. While my husband and Bro. Vince worked in the yard for the church there, I had an opportunity to visit with her, which is always encouraging! Another huge encouragement was when one of the young ladies from the church in Osaka came and visited our church in Kisarazu! Back when I could hardly speak any Japanese, she and her mom were so kind to me and patiently spoke with and encouraged me. It was so exciting to have her here. Thank you for praying for us and with us throughout this entire first year of our church plant, as well as the years of training and deputation that led up to it. Your thoughts and prayers mean so much to us!
Your friends and co-laborers to Japan,
Go and Danielle Oishi
