Go Oishi Prayer Letter: Downtown Outreach Begins!

Praise the Lord! As the State of Emergency in Osaka finally lifted at the beginning of this month, God has given us many more open doors to minister! In addition, our deputation vehicle finally sold this month as an answer to prayer. Thank you so much for faithfully praying for us!

Our first project this month was the writing and designing of our very first original, fully Japanese Gospel tract, based on my personal salvation testimony, entitled “From an Atheist to a Missionary.” We completed this project and ordered our first box of 500 tracts, which we began passing out in downtown Osaka in some of the most crowded outdoor street crossings the moment the tracts arrived. People right now seem even more reluctant than usual to take a tract from our hands. On our second night out, we had three bar advertisers join our street corner to begin their work just a few minutes after we arrived! In spite of these battles, 25 Japanese people have taken our Gospel tract so far, with many stopping to read and take an interest in the tract before leaving the area, and we look forward to the Gospel being received into the hands of many more who have never been told of what Christ can do for them as we continue to go out every week!

On the 12th, we were able to invite Mr. and Mrs. Uemura, our atheist friends, into our home this time for a meal as our first unsaved guests! They have opened up to us so much more than before, and Mr. Uemura has even admitted that our God, Whom we have been telling him about, is so much different and easier to understand than any other gods he has been told about. We were able to explain to them the purpose of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, as well as what that can do for them. Mrs. Uemura took a special interest in the testimony tract and began asking questions about our faith for the first time! They both had promised to come to the Resurrection Sunday Services at the Senri Newtown Baptist Church; however, we received the unfortunate news at the end of the month that Mr. Uemura’s health has suddenly declined, making them unable to come. Please continue to pray for the salvation and health of Mr. and Mrs. Uemura, as now the ground has been plowed and the seed has been planted!

In-person Wednesday evening services commenced this month, and I have been given the privilege of translating these services live from the English translation room. In addition, Sunday school has also restarted, and my wife and I had the privilege of playing an instrumental special and giving our testimonies in the adult class and the young singles’ class! It has been encouraging to be told by many that our miraculous entry into Japan by faith has increased their faith. Toward the end of the month, Japan announced its official banning of foreign Olympic spectators this year and that the travel ban could extend into late fall. We thus had to completely cancel the FBMI Japan Olympic Outreach. Please pray, as refund hunting has begun once again. Though right now this situation is hard to understand, we know that God is good. We can rejoice that He is working and has a perfect plan in store!

Danielle’s Journey

I feel like I am finally starting to get into a good routine of life here in Japan. Language school and church are both going smoothly. In my classes, I have been working on figuring out the difference between wa, de, e, ga, and other short conjunctions to properly form phrases by connecting the words that I already know. I am getting to know the ladies of the church better and beginning to make friends while attempting to converse with them in Japanese, which is very exciting to me. I often still struggle to find the right word or response, but I feel like I am beginning to get it! This month we also had the privilege of giving our testimonies in front of the church, as well as playing our instruments. I also had the privilege of designing a tract my husband wrote to pass out on our weekly city outreaches in downtown Osaka. This month has been busy but also exciting in so many ways!

Your friends and co-laborers to Japan,

Go and Danielle Oishi