Glory to God! Six months ago, we began holding services at what we set up to be the church office of the Kisarazu Hope Baptist Church as a starting point, with a seating capacity of 10 and a parking capacity of 5, excluding my wife and me. However, God grew our congregation every month with a good mix of saved and unsaved visitors from both Japan and overseas, with at least one family staying to attend regularly. Even last month, 3 out of the 9 first-time visitors God gave us on Resurrection Sunday returned and attended faithfully this month. With that, we have officially outgrown both our parking lot and meeting space! Back in December, we mentioned that we prayed with one of our most faithful men who was also our church’s first visitor as we dedicated one of his buildings to the Lord. His building has a potential parking capacity of 9, with other available parking spaces nearby and a maximum seating capacity of 30, with rooms that can be used for nursery and children’s church. We held our Resurrection Sunday services there, and we praise God that he also offered his building to be used for our services going forward! On April 21, we took our first church vote with all of the saved and baptized regular attendees at our church, and God gave us a unanimous vote to move our weekly Sunday morning worship, lunch fellowship, and afternoon Bible class services over to his building starting in May! We stand in awe of how God orchestrated everything, and we are excited to see how God will continue to move in our midst in ways which only He can! We will still be using our church office for our Sunday morning Bible study, Wednesday evening prayer meeting, and Saturday afternoon outreach and church work for now. Praise the Lord! He is building His church!
Our final month meeting only in our church office came with many continued victories. Our regular attendees, both saved and unsaved, have remained faithful, and most of them have not missed a single week since their first visit. It has been exciting to hear of their plans to invite friends and family, as well as to see their desire not only to attend but actively serve as the church grows! As shown in our unanimous vote, God has built a very close, unified body of believers here in Kisarazu, and it has been humbling to hear these people call me their pastor. April 28 was our final Sunday in our church office, and God gave us 4 first-time visitors without any special promotions that day, nearly overflowing our church office! We praise God for His timing in providing us a new meeting space!
God has been working miracles in my (Go’s) personal life as well. My parents, still living in the United States, have not been in church for some time, mainly due to my father’s health and my mother’s work schedule. However, they decided to push themselves to return to church on April 24! I was truly challenged by their dedication to prioritize their obedience to the Lord, even with their struggles with health and work schedule. On April 26, we had the privilege of helping the Boso Grace Baptist Church, located two hours north of us, with their lawn and planned a joint VBS for the upcoming summer. Please pray that God will use the VBS to reach many children and their parents! On April 30, one of my father’s old Japanese friends, whom I have not seen in over a decade, came to visit us unannounced! Please pray that God would continue to reopen doors for us to witness to my family friends here in Japan. On that same day, I had the privilege of being interviewed on a Christian radio broadcast ministry of the First Baptist Church of Hammond, one of our supporting churches, with the guest host interviewing me being none other than Bro. Brian North, my old bus captain from Bible college! It was truly an encouragement to reconnect with a friend and mentor who has stayed faithful. Praise the Lord for His kindness and power that was shown to us this month!
Danielle’s Journey
It is so hard to believe that we have already been in Kisarazu for six months! I have been busy with designing various flyers and handouts for the church, such as tracts, event stickers, and Bible-reading schedules. As an answer to prayer, the Christian lady who visited on Easter has continued to come faithfully each Sunday. It has been so nice getting to know her, learn how I can serve her better, and become a Christian friend to her in a country where there are so few. Since then, we have actually had one more lady and a teenage girl attend the services on Sunday! I look forward to getting to know them better as well. On the very last day of this month, we had the privilege of picking up the daughter of one of the men who attends our church. She is an unsaved college student in Canada who came to Japan for a visit. Though I was able to share the Gospel with her, it was all very new to her. She said she was not yet able to put her faith in Christ, but please pray with us for God to continue to work on her heart. Thank you so much for praying for us and our ministry here, as it means so much to us.
Your friends and co-laborers to Japan,
Go and Danielle Oishi
