Glory to God! Almost exactly a year and a half since holding our first service at the Kisarazu Hope Baptist Church, our first church plant in Japan, with just my wife and me in attendance those days, God allowed us to officially charter our church plant, complete with an official church Constitution, as well as an official member of the church! We are excited to share with you details on this and so much more that God has done this month through your investments in His work in Japan!

Spring break in Japan extends into the first week of April, which allowed me to visit the son of one of our faithful families at the campus of his university. Though he is saved, he unfortunately has left no room in his schedule to worship with us on Sundays and has not attended our services since New Year’s Day. We had a very good all-day visit on April 4, and it gave me a chance to learn more about him, give him some counsel from Scripture, and take the time to pray with him. Please pray that he would make church a priority and that his faith would be guarded throughout his years in university. On April 5, I had the privilege of witnessing to another Japanese exchange student in the United States over video call. Please pray that this young lady would get saved, as it was her first time hearing the plan of salvation in full in her own language. Some of the high schoolers in our church returned from an overseas trip on April 7, and it was a blessing to pick them and one of their friends up from the airport and take some time to fellowship with them as I drove them home. Please pray that all of these young people would choose to live for Christ!

Recently, we have been especially encouraged by two of the men in our church who have shown remarkable spiritual growth. The newest faithful face in our church is a Japanese young man who was reached during our time ministering in Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan, and had since moved to our city of Kisarazu this past February. Bro. Ben Liu, a Christian from Hong Kong who was searching specifically for a Baptist church to attend in our city when we planted our church, has been our most faithful regular, being a part of almost every one of our Sunday and Wednesday services since he came to our church as our very first visitor back in November 2023. In preparation for Resurrection Sunday, both men spent their Saturday with us on April 19 to pass out invitations around the neighborhood and stuff Easter eggs. For the Japanese young man, it was his first time serving in either of these capacities, and he ended up passing out more than any of us! It is encouraging to witness the excitement of a new Christian who is just starting to discover the joy of serving God. Since no children came on April 20, we decided to visit some people we know and give them the Easter eggs instead. God gave us an adult visitor invited by none other than Bro. Ben Liu! What’s more, he responded during the invitation and trusted Jesus Christ as his Saviour that Sunday, making him the very first salvation decision of this year and the first person who got saved in our church because of the personal invitation of someone in our church other than my wife and me or a missions-trip team! Praise God for another new brother in Christ and these two brethren growing in the Lord!

April 27, the following Sunday, was the official church Charter Service of the Kisarazu Hope Baptist Church. Bro. Ben Liu, my wife, and I became the first three to sign our church Constitution. We are excited that we have a few more on the way who are going through our membership class. Bro. Liu shared his salvation testimony in the service that day, and on the following Wednesday, when my wife and I were in the States for some necessary paperwork, he and the Japanese young man took time to pray and go through a Bible study that I had left with them. We are excited to see how God will grow and use these men! Thank you for praying for our church!

Danielle’s Journey

The first half of the month, we spent preparing for a special Easter service. I prepared special flyers and tracts, as well as a children’s lesson with coloring pages and a game, along with an Easter egg hunt. Though no children came, God blessed us with a visitor who accepted Jesus as his Saviour that day! Reaching the children of our area is still a big burden on my heart, and we continue to ask you to pray with us for God’s working in the start of a children’s ministry to reach the next generation of our city with the Gospel. Following Easter, we had our church’s Charter Service! I am so happy that one other man and I have become official church members! We pray this will quickly broaden the ways God will use our ministry. Recently, our ladies have faced difficulties in the area of health, as well as in finding the time to attend church on Sundays. Please pray with us as we strive to emphasize the importance of making God the priority in each of our lives, as well as our continued outreach and prayer for God to bring more ladies and children to His church here in Kisarazu.

Your friends and co-laborers to Japan,

Go and Danielle Oishi