Praise the Lord for giving us another year to serve Him! This is an exciting year for us, as, Lord willing, this will be the year that we finish deputation, host the FBMI 2020 Japan Olympic Outreach, and make our final move to Japan. We are looking forward to an amazing year!
My wife and I began 2020 by increasing our weekly missions giving. In addition, the Lord has presented us with a special opportunity to help out our dear friends, the Bull family, as they are in the beginning stages of raising support to work somewhat closely with us in Japan. What a great answer to prayer it is to see more faithful laborers committing their lives to join us in preaching the Gospel to the Japanese people!
Our first meeting of the year took place in Atwater, California, which also was our 100th scheduled meeting since our first presentation in June of 2018. There seems to have been a fluke in our emailing system, as they only learned two weeks before our arrival that we had accepted their invitation six months before to present our ministry to their church. Needless to say, things were not looking ideal as we approached this meeting. The church was gracious enough to allow us to go through with presenting our burden to their people, and much to our surprise, the Lord laid it on their hearts to partner with us that same night! Praise the Lord that He is in control when we are most definitely not!
Soon after leaving California for our next two meetings in Arizona, we received two phone calls: one from someone from my home church in Waterford, Michigan, which I have not spoken to since high school, and another from someone we have never met, both letting us know that they have prayerfully decided to begin sending us monthly individual support! More and more, we are realizing that God often blesses in the most unexpected circumstances, and that it is always worth it to stay faithful, come what may!
We spent a total of 2½ hours going soul winning in Arizona. Unfortunately, I became very ill before our second meeting there and had to cancel our presentation. However, I was still well enough when we first arrived in town to go door knocking, and during that time, I had the privilege of leading a lady named Alejandra to the Lord! She was someone who had faced very unique and difficult trials in the last few months, and her heart was very open and tender to receive the message of hope as a result. Praise the Lord that perhaps our purpose of being there was for this particular soul all along!
From there, we traveled back to present our ministry to a Spanish church in Long Beach, California. They, too, voted to partner with us the same night we presented at their church! We then went back through Arizona to present our ministry at a church on the Hopi Reservation, and then we traveled to our final meeting of the month in Moab, Utah. While spending an hour of door knocking at that church, we had the privilege of meeting a lady named Katinka. After much confusion in her life going to various churches and hearing various messages, Katinka heard the true Gospel that night and ended up getting saved! These are all fruits that are added to your account. Thank you for your faithful part in our ministry!
Your friends and co-laborers to Japan,
Go and Danielle Oishi
