Hallelujah! Happy New Year! December 2024 was the most fruitful month in our church plant thus far in terms of souls saved! We praise God that He allowed all the unique Christmas outreaches we planned and reported on in November to come to fruition and used all 6 special services, as well as the missions trip, to do great things! Our missions-trip group of 11, this time from the Faith Baptist Church of Wildomar, California, our home and sending church, as well as the church where Danielle was raised, arrived safely on December 3. During their first few days with us, God allowed us to visit the Japanese couple who volunteer at the local historical museum who came for last year’s Christmas service, directly give out Gospel tracts to students in front of 4 different elementary school gates, and carol at the Kisarazu train station during peak hours to invite people there. Between all of these rare, unique outreach opportunities, God allowed us to give Gospel tracts directly to 500 people in what was the most successful school and station-caroling outreaches thus far! Over 1,600 invitations were given out this month alone. We are thankful for Bro. Liu, our most faithful regular at our church, who helped with rides with the group and became the first one from our church to participate in a special outreach!
December 4 marked our 4-year field anniversary, and we are thankful for all of the kind personal notes that were sent to us! What better way to celebrate than serving with our sending church during what is the most opportune season to give out the Gospel in Japan! We are in awe over all that God has done over these years and are thankful for His grace that kept us each step of the way. Saturday, December 7, was the first of our 6 special Christmas services this year, starting with “Christmas in America,” a children’s Christmas outreach where we transported them into a Christmas celebration in a Christian home in America! We praise God that through one of the families that came on the missions trip, God brought a new Japanese mother and her two children on that day! They all heard the Gospel clearly, and at least for the children, it was clear that it was their very first time. We praise God that on Sunday, December 8, they returned in the evening for the Christmas Musical service with the husband, and we rejoice even more that the daughter trusted Christ as her personal Saviour that night! The missions-trip group departed on December 12 rejoicing, but God had more in store. The new family returned yet again on December 24 for our Christmas Eve Cello Concert, which was well attended with a total of 15 people, and on that evening, the son trusted Christ as his personal Saviour! Hallelujah for these two Japanese names that are now eternally written in Heaven! We pray that they will be the beginning of the children’s program that Danielle already had prepared in anticipation for so long and that their parents who are not yet saved would also continue to come. We also rejoice that, between these special services, as well as our Christmas Worship Services on December 8 and 22, our regular church attendees truly took it upon themselves to serve. We praise God that He is truly building His church! We had a sweet fellowship with them in our home on December 25 for our Christmas Home Party that was attended by 8 of our most faithful people, as well as 2 returning visitors! God blessed our church up to the very last Sunday of this year, as we had yet another first-time Japanese visitor in our services on December 29! We finished this year with a sweet dinner fellowship that evening with our Hong Kong congregation, 2 of whom are still not saved. We cannot wait to see and to report what more God has in store for us in 2025!
Danielle’s Journey
It was so exciting to begin the month by preparing for the arrival of a missions trip from our home church, the church I grew up in. Having them here was such a blessing and encouragement to me especially. They were with us as we prepared for the Christmas events and passed out flyers to invite people to the children’s event and the Christmas Musical that would be held during the time they were here. One of the ladies who came on the trip was able to meet a young family with two children who ended up attending both the children’s event and the musical. During these events, they all heard the true story and purpose of Christmas for the first time in their lives, and the children ended up getting saved! I have been able to stay in contact with the mom, who plans to attend with her children whenever possible after the new year. I pray that these children will be the start of our church’s children’s ministry. Soon after the Christmas events here in Kisarazu, we went with the group down to the Minoo, Osaka, to visit the church where we trained. I had the opportunity to attend the Ladies’ Meeting with the missions-trip group. Another huge blessing this month was when the lady who got saved last year on Christmas night showed up to our Christmas party this year as well! Though I had been able to keep in touch with her, she has not been able to attend regular services, so it was great to see her in person again and be able to reconnect during the time we had together. Overall, it was an amazing Christmas, where we were able to see God work and continue to grow His church in unexpected and exciting ways. Thank you always for your prayers. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well!
Your friends and co-laborers to Japan,
Go and Danielle Oishi
