Praise be to God! Even though there was nothing particularly unique as far as events or missions trips this month, it has been a special month nonetheless where God has allowed us to see His continued work from the seeds that have been previously sown as we joyfully prepare for the special services planned in the upcoming months. We are truly thankful for your part in it all!
God set a bright tone for this month on Sunday, September 1 as has He allowed us to see 2 first-time visitors, as well as a returning family of 4whom we have not seen since they first visited our services just twice back in May. They have been with us for every service since, and we are excited to see this family grow closer to the Lord and to one another. As we endeavor to do with every family that begins visiting our church regularly, we invited them to have dinner in our home later this month, but it unfortunately got canceled due to an emergency in their family. However, this gave birth to a new opportunity to minister to them in a deeper way, which we will write more about in our report covering October. Please keep this family in your prayers as we continue to minister to them and seek to help them.
This has been a wonderful month where God allowed us to see growth in some of our people. It was a joy to have two of our men join us for outreach on Saturday, September 7! Though it is still usually just my wife and I who go out on our scheduled church soul winning time, we praise God that some of our people now join us occasionally, and we have seen an overall growth in our congregation’s desire to serve and be used of the Lord. Please pray that God would continue to grow our people! Speaking of growth, the lady who got saved in our ministry last Christmas was finally able to come for her first Sunday service on September 8! She has attended when she could on Wednesdays, but it was wonderful to have her meet the rest of our church family. Danielle has been in regular communication with her to encourage and pray with her. Please continue to pray for her as she still faces difficulties with her family and work.
We received a very encouraging voice message on the evening of September 28 from the trip host of one of the mission trips that we hosted back in December, a faithful layman and a deacon of one of our supporting churches. He told me that he has surrendered to full-time service, impacted greatly by his mission trip to Japan! This is one of the biggest reasons why we host mission trips, and we were so excited to hear this encouraging news. Please keep this family in your prayers. On September 24, Bro. Vince Roberts, a former missionary to Japan and now a faithful staff at another one of our supporting churches, came back this year to serve another three weeks in our ministry here in Kisarazu. We are so thankful for what a blessing he has been to us already, from building a new cross for our new auditorium, to helping us prepare for our 1-year church anniversary service on October 13. We are already excited to report to you all the way God has used him to be a blessing to our church, as well as all that God has done on our 1-year church anniversary! Thank you for praying and investing in our ministry – God is making a difference here in Japan through your faithful giving!
Danielle’s Journey
This month began with a huge answer to our prayers! We have often mentioned the lady who accepted Christ as her Savior on Christmas Day but had been unable to attend church services due to family opposition. She has been able to come on some Wednesday nights, but this month, she was able to attend a Sunday service. We are praying that one day, her and her family will be able to attend every service together. We also had an opportunity to meet the wife of one of the faithful men who has been attending our church since January. We had invited her to fellowship with us through him many times, but the opportunity didn’t arise until she received one of the gifts we prepared to honor the senior citizens in our church. Soon after, she said she would join her husband to meet with us! Once we met, she said she was touched by the gift that we sent for her and that one day she hopes to join us in church as well! This was especially encouraging, as God did not allow us to see any elderly on the particular service that I had prepared the gifts for. We ended up giving them out later in the month, and I now see that the Lord has been saving them for her, to open this opportunity for us in His time! We look forward to the day we see her in church with her husband. We also got to enjoy a time of fun and fellowship with Pastor Smith and his wife, the missionaries that we were filling in for during our time in Hokkaido, along with his sister and brother-in-law who were visiting our area! It was such a refreshing time that we got to spend with them. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers, as it means so much to us!
Your friends and co-laborers to Japan,
Go and Danielle Oishi
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- Danielle and I with Bro. Vince Roberts
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- Outreach with two of our church men
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- One of our faithful men with his wife