To God be the glory! Thank you for all of your prayers that went into our first two evangelistic meetings in Japan! As the title suggests, God did an absolute miracle in this nation where it is not uncommon to become a social outcast for simply going to church or ostracized by family and let go from jobs for making the simple decision of placing one’s faith solely in Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour. Please continue to pray for these souls, as each one of these decisions will be followed by major battles with their families, friends, and workplaces.
Our first evangelistic meeting, “Welcome Day,” was a result of an invitation by Pastor Knight of the Faith Baptist Church of Iwakuni, Yamaguchi, Japan, a missionary ministering to the U.S. military based there. As this city does not have any Gospel-preaching church for the local Japanese people who constitute the vast majority of the city’s population, it became our third candidate location for our first church plant. As we already had plans to survey this city, we were led of God to partner with them to organize and conduct an evangelistic meeting for the local Japanese. The first week of this month was spent preparing and promoting these services by designing flyers, creating a Facebook video advertisement, and planning out the services, among many other things. We are beyond grateful and humbled by the unity and diligence shown by this military church, as they served in many ways with a united vision to reach the local Japanese people. We left for our survey on June 8, where we began scoping out what we would consider to be an outreach radius if we planted a church there. On the 19th, we had the privilege of visiting Senri Newtown Baptist Church’s first church plant in Hiroshima City, Hiroshima. This church is still being pastored by Pastor Shibayama, the first pastor raised and sent out of the Senri Newtown Baptist Church over 40 years ago. He has been driving over an hour one way to hold late-night Japanese services at 8:30 every Sunday in Iwakuni after his own services, and we were honored and humbled that we had the privilege of spending the day learning from and fellowshiping with him. Sunday, June 12, was the big day where we held four main services. I preached a total of 4 times that day, twice in each language, and provided a total of 12 special music numbers. God blessed us with 35 first-time Japanese visitors and 2 salvations that day! In addition, I had 5 people who told me that they had never considered Christ before coming up to me to promise me that they would read the Bibles we gifted them with! Please pray, as Pastor Shibayama and the Japanese-speaking members of the Faith Baptist Church of Iwakuni will be following up with these souls. To God be all the glory!
As soon as we returned to Osaka, we began preparations for our second evangelistic meeting on Tuesday, June 28. “Grace Fellowship” was a special service for ladies, held at and organized by the Senri Newtown Baptist Church. They gave my wife and me the honor of providing the music, testimony, and message for this service. We personally invited 7 people we have been praying for, and 3 of them came! God gave us a total of 4 first-time visitors and 11 returning visitors, with a total of 91 attendees that day! On the weekend prior, the church gave me the opportunity to team up with one of the faithful laymen at the church to prepare the games for the Young Family Fellowship on Sunday, the 26th, which was a great experience in learning to serve adults in Japan. As an added blessing, the Madrigal family, the missionaries form Mexico now serving in Japan, are now staying with us every weekend! Next month will be a much quieter month, where we will be fasting and praying once again for God’s peace on settling down on our church-plant location. Thank you for continuing to pray!
Danielle’s Journey
We spent most of the month either involved in or preparing for evangelistic big days. At the beginning of the month, we traveled down to Iwakuni for surveying and for “Welcome Day” at the church there. On “Welcome Day,” I had the privilege of running the Japanese children’s church and teaching the four children who came. It was so encouraging to see the English church help out in every way they could. They prayed and fasted, and God showed us that He is able to do far greater things than we could’ve possibly imagined. Then, towards the end of this month, Senri New Town Baptist Church resumed their “Grace Fellowship,” after not being able to have it for three years, and gave us the honor of leading it. I was asked to give my testimony, and I was also involved in most of the special music for that day. After the service, we had a short mealtime, where I was able to talk with our visitors who came. They were all so happy and thankful to be invited! There were also many other visitors who came, as well as people who had not come in a long time. I’m so glad we get to serve an amazing God Who shows Himself in amazing ways.
Your friends and co-laborers to Japan,
Go and Danielle Oishi
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- Danielle and I playing a string duet at “Grace Fellowship”
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- A flyer for “Welcome Day”
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- “Grace Fellowship” with two of our visitors
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- Young family fellowship
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- Danielle preparing a children’s game
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- Gift of John & Romans for “Welcome Day”
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- “Welcome Day” service
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- “Grace Fellowship”
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- Danielle giving her testimony at “Grace Fellowship”
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- Danielle and I playing a string duet at “Welcome Day”
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- Meal after the “Welcome Day” service
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- The city of Iwakuni