Go and Danielle Oishi Prayer Letter: Five More Souls from Japan Added to Your Account

Glory to God! We are constantly in awe of God’s miraculous work in people’s lives. Though the ministry dynamic here in this comparatively rural town of 28,000 is certainly different from what we have seen and will see in some of the largest megacities in Japan, it has been an amazing blessing to see God working in hearts all the same. We are thrilled to give you another report of all that He has done in ways that He alone could have done!

Last month, we rejoiced about one of our highest days in terms of church attendance since coming to interim pastor the Immanuel Seisho (“Bible”) Baptist Church here in Nayoro in the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido. We asked you to pray for two children from a visiting family who expressed a desire to get saved during the invitation that day, as they had to leave before we had an opportunity to speak with them. These children come to one of our weekday English classes that we have been teaching every week, so we asked you to pray that God would give us the opportunity to speak with them in class. We are excited to report that God has answered those prayers and so much more! On the 4th of July, the older of the siblings and his friend trusted Christ as their Saviour in English class at the end of our Bible time! On July 12, three girls from one of Danielle’s classes also made the decision to trust Christ as their personal Saviour! We are truly excited about this, as this was the first time God had allowed Danielle to lead Japanese souls to Christ completely in their language! We are truly thankful for all of your prayers, both for these souls and for Danielle’s language learning leading to this amazing victory. Please pray for the younger of the siblings who responded during the invitation at the sendoff service. Unfortunately, she has seemingly lost interest since, and we have seen her struggle emotionally in class since that service. Please continue to pray for us as we do all that we can to gently show these children the love of Christ and endeavor to win the lost as we encourage the saved in the midst of this spiritual war zone.

Thank you for praying for our Vacation Bible School, which took place July 15–17. God blessed us with the Wilhite family coming all the way back from Kushiro just to help us with our VBS, as well as a new family of four whom they invited on the opening day at a local laundromat! This was a Christian family from Alaska who had moved to a town about an hour east from where we are for short-term work about a year ago. We are thankful for the Wilhite family and their faithfulness to be a witness for Christ wherever they are and always being prepared for divine appointments like these! We quickly changed the VBS format to be bilingual, as we did not have any Japanese children come. However, we are truly thankful that God used our VBS for a completely different purpose. The daughter of this family had been praying for a fellow English-speaking friend since arriving in Japan, and one of the Wilhites’ daughters became an answer to that prayer. We were encouraged as we saw all of these children, who have all faced major transitions in their lives this year, fellowship and rejoice around the Word of God. What an honor it was to see God use a work like this to answer someone’s prayer and to see His love for each soul firsthand!

One of the most encouraging blessings since coming to pastor this work has been seeing the spiritual growth of Bro. Kai, who got saved almost a year ago when we first came here to lead a special evangelistic service. He has been coming faithfully to every service. On some Wednesdays, he will come several hours early to spend time in the Word of God and to ask questions. We praise the Lord for the work He is doing! On July 21, we made another trip to Kisarazu for our final bank procedure, as well as for our final walk-through of the now completed building for our home and church office for the Kisarazu Kibo (“Hope) Baptist Church, our upcoming church plant! We are scheduled to receive the keys next month, and the outer construction is scheduled to be completed by September. We are truly thankful for all of your prayers and extra investments that went into this project!

Danielle’s Journey

This was a very full and exciting month! I was given my first opportunity to see three of my English class students accept Christ as their Saviour! Not too long after that, we held our Vacation Bible School, and we housed the Wilhite family, as they visited Nayoro to help with the event. It was so nice to see them all again, and we appreciated their help and participation during Vacation Bible School, which was held on Saturday after Bible Adventure, Sunday after the church services, and on Monday. We had a visiting American family from Alaska come as well, so Go quickly switched to doing almost everything bilingual! It was so exciting to see and to be a part of it all! Not too long after that, we got to see our house in Kisarazu for the final walk-through! I’m so excited to make our move to Kisarazu and to begin our life and ministry there. Thank you for always praying for us, as it means so much to us.

Your friends and co-laborers to Japan,

Go and Danielle Oishi