Praise the Lord! This month was exactly as God had planned it—and we are excited to report how He allowed us to serve Him according to His plan!
We began our sixth cross-country trip from the Midwest to the West Coast after our last summer meeting in Wisconsin on July 1. Along the way, we had a tremendous meeting in Brookings, South Dakota. What a joy it was to celebrate Independence Day with their church by going soul winning at a fireworks show! There my wife and I had the privilege of playing patriotic hymns on our instruments and passing out Gospel tracts. During this event, I had the privilege of sharing the Gospel with Roger, who had a clear testimony of receiving Christ as his Saviour as a child but had since gotten confused after hearing many false doctrines in various churches. It was a joy to be able to review the true plan of salvation with him and to see him rejoice in the reassurance of his salvation! My wife had the privilege of witnessing to his unsaved wife Leslie, who decided to trust Christ as her Saviour! At that very same meeting, a young lady named Valy, a local exchange student who had been attending this church for over a year, brought in three of her other exchange student friends from college for the evening service. I had the privilege of spending time sharing the Gospel with her three visitors, including Risako, a Japanese exchange student! Please pray for the salvation of these three exchange students.
Along our trip across the United States, God allowed us to hear back from three churches we had presented to in the past, each calling to tell us of their church’s decision to partner with us financially! In addition, we had the privilege of being the featured missionaries for a Vacation Bible School of one of our supporting churches in Thorp, Wisconsin, by way of the Internet. We rejoice for these churches that have kept missions in front of their people in the midst of turmoil in our own nation. God allowed us to arrive safely at our home base in California at the end of that first week.
My wife and I greatly appreciate all of those who have prayed with us for God to open doors into Japan for the month of August. He made His will clear when Japan once again extended their travel ban indefinitely to the United States, with extra-strong restrictions through the remainder of August. Japan, being a country with extremely high standards of sanitation and safety, has also been the country that has held one of the strongest international travel bans since the beginning of this confusion. That being the case, my wife and I have done all that we possibly could to prepare for our entry into Japan. All of our documents have been completed, and we are now trusting my aunt in Japan to submit our visa paperwork to Japan’s Immigration Offices. Please pray that this process will go smoothly for our entry into Japan when the door is open once again!
Until the last of our meetings start back up again at the end of August, our pastor gave us the idea to track and reach out to Japanese people here in the U.S. while we are stuck here with an empty calendar. Our home base being in California, the state with the highest Japanese population in the continental U.S., God has given us a tremendous opportunity to reach the Japanese population here while we are unable to leave for Japan! We designed and printed hundreds of Japanese-English Gospel tracts and began passing them out in the parking lots of local Japanese markets. It was a joy to have my wife’s parents join in on this as well! Many gladly received the tracts at our first stop in San Diego. We are excited to report how God will continue to use these efforts!
Your friends and co-laborers to Japan,
Go and Danielle Oishi
