Pastor Kazuhiko Uryu’s Testimony
A conflict with another student in college led to my believing in Jesus as my Savior. I had a conflict with this person and had to quit extra-curricular activities at school. I was on the school’s bowling team. The bowling team was my life, and I could not forgive this person for taking that away from me. However, that incident made me realize for the first time that I had an ugliness in my heart. I began to dwell on “What an ugly person I am.” I’d also lost the purpose in life the bowling team had given me, and it felt like a big hole in my heart. I felt empty and dry inside. I was struggling with life’s emptiness, wondering why I was even alive. As I thought deeply about life, a coworker invited me to church. He quoted Isaiah 43:4: “…you are precious to me. You are honored, and I love you.” My friend said that Jesus considers me valuable and precious and loves me. He taught me that Jesus died on the cross for me. I was astonished by his words. For nearly 20 years, I had never heard that God loved and died for me. “It is amazing that God would love me so much as to lay down His life for me. But why did Jesus, God, die for me? Does God exist?” All this was running through my head, jumbled all together. At the same time, I just felt thrilled.
(Testimony Continued Below)
Recent Ministry: Please pray for these people to understand and believe in the gospel.
Ms. A.H., in her mid-50s, attended our worship service for the first time when Brother K.M. invited her while he was home visiting. We have been praying for her after learning from K.M. that she was undergoing chemotherapy. After the service, Ms. A.H. enjoyed a time of fellowship with others over tea and snacks. Later, K.M., Ms. A.H., and I had a further conversation in a separate room upstairs. Ms. A.H. has been suffering from schizophrenia for many years and has been hospitalized in the past. She had met some Christians during her stay in the hospital, so she was willing to attend church. She was overjoyed and excited about reuniting with K.M. after almost 50 years.
Ms. A.H. was quite talkative and heightened, but she became calm and serious when hearing the Gospel, showing a different, more composed expression. She was not ready to pray to accept God into her life then, but we prayed together. A few days later, Brother K.M. informed me that Ms. A.H. had been admitted to the hospital where she had previously stayed, and he shared with us more about her journey up to that point.
We are consulting a Christian doctor about the necessary discernment and appropriate care for Ms. A.H. and continue praying for her. Please pray for Ms. A.H.’s health, specifically regarding her mental illness and breast cancer. Please pray that, should any challenges arise in the future, my wife and I, as the pastoral couple, will be able to respond with wisdom and appropriate care.
Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, 2 Thessalonians 3:1
Brother K.M., in his mid-50s, is a member of another church and has a deep burden for evangelism in his hometown of Kagoshima. He attends our worship services during his visits home, which significantly encourages my wife and me. He has brought his mother and elder sister to worship services, and his kind and friendly demeanor has allowed him to become close with the members of our church.
He had requested that we provide support and share the gospel with Ms. A.H. after the worship service. Later, when Ms. A.H. was hospitalized, K.M. was shocked and blamed himself for lacking an understanding of her illness and relying too much on his judgment. I encouraged him to entrust her to the Lord and the specialized hospital and pray in faith. I also shared with him the guidance we received from the Christian physician that her condition may worsen or improve regardless of those around her, so there is no need to think that this might be our fault if her condition deteriorates. This provided both K.M. and me with time to comfort each other. Pray for K.M., who feels deep compassion for Ms. A.H. and struggles with anger and sadness over the injustice of her illness. Pray that my wife and I can offer appropriate support to K.M.
N.M., Ko.M., and Ke.M., all church members and children of church members, performed special music during the Children’s Bible Time in the worship service. They have performed special music before at special events, but this was the first time that the entire congregation sang together with them on a regular Sunday service. We pray that their praises to the Lord will continue to be their joy and that they will have more opportunities to serve actively in this way.
N.Y., a first-year graduate student, participated in a large youth gathering in Tokyo organized by the Japan Alliance Christ Church. He was deeply inspired and positively influenced by this event. After Sunday service, he shared his testimony of how he was blessed, significantly impacting our entire church congregation. In rural areas with few young Christians, holding youth gatherings is challenging. This was his first time attending such a large youth meeting, and it was an excellent opportunity for him to make many Christian friends of the same age.
Ko.M. and Ke. M., a first-year high school student, is scheduled to participate in a youth gathering at a neighboring church. We pray that, despite their busy high school lives, they can make friends who share the same faith and that youth from other churches who do not have Christian peers of their age can also participate.
In Japan, it’s common for youth to drift away from the church as they reach junior high and high school age, so we strongly feel the need for such church programs that reach out to this age group. In line with this desire and prayer, we had the opportunity to discuss this with other pastors and pastor’s wives from Kagoshima who share the same vision. Thus, we helped plan this gathering organized by the High School Evangelism Cooperation Association.
K.K., the mother of sister A.H. and for whom we had been praying, went home to be with the Lord. The wake and the funeral service were a genuinely blessed time, and we are assured that sister K.K. is now in heaven. Many non-believers were present at both the wake and the funeral, and for many, it was their first time attending a Christian-style funeral. As this was my first time officiating a funeral as a pastor, I deeply felt the responsibilities and blessings of pastoral ministry. Please pray for K.K.’s bereaved family, especially the non-believers, that they may receive comfort and guidance from the Lord.
- Pray for protection for missionary deputation travel during the typhoon season.
- Pray for the Kagoshima outreach and that the programs will be protected and blessed.
- Pray that new believers will come to be baptized.
- Pray that we may obtain a larger church building to spread the Gospel to the local community.
- Pray for my daughters Eden and Shion that their faith will continue to develop.
- Pray for my wife Sonoko as she cares for our family and for opportunities to develop and build long-lasting friendships.
Your prayers can open the eyes of these people as Pastor Uryu and his team share the gospel. You can ask the Holy Spirit to work in their understanding and allow them to come to faith.
that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, Colossians 2:2
S.H., a female in her late 50s, is a cousin of church member A.Y., who came to Kagoshima temporarily from Osaka. S.H.’s mother is a Christian, and S.H. attended Sunday school with A.Y. at a church in Osaka as a child. She sent her children to a mission-founded school, so she had a favorable view of Christianity even though she was not a believer. She is troubled about her son living in Kagoshima, and on June 9, she expressed her desire to attend our worship service, marking her first visit. After the service, we had an opportunity to read together the Campus Crusade for Christ booklet, The Four Spiritual Laws. While she did not respond by accepting Jesus Christ as her Savior, we ended by praying together. She said she would continue reading the booklet after returning to Osaka and has since read it independently. Please pray that S.H., whose Christian mother is elderly, 90 years old, and who is under daily stress and tension from caregiving, will accept the Lord and find true peace.
Y.H. is a graduate school student in his 20s and the son of S.H. He attended our worship service once about two years ago. Having participated in a mission school, he has his own Bible and seems to have no resistance to church or worship services. However, he has not attended service since then due to his busy graduate school studies. Church members K.M. and A.Y., relatives of Y.H. who live nearby, have invited him to our worship service several times. Please pray that Y.H. will recognize his spiritual hunger and thirst within himself and come to the Lord.
K.K., the mother of A.H., is a believer. She recently experienced a sudden deterioration in her condition and was rushed to the hospital, where she narrowly survived. While K.K. was hospitalized, her daughter A.H. read Scripture to her as she lay in bed, and despite being unable to speak or eat on her own, K.K. responded with “Amen” to the Word of God, listening with great effort and intensity. Witnessing this, A.H.’s older sister, a non-believer, was deeply moved.
Please pray that K.K. may fulfill her mission of testifying to the Lord through her attitude of listening to the Word of God.
Pray for a church member’s health:
A.H. has been attending our worship services for about a year and a half due to her circumstances. She is in her early 60s, a believer, and a member of another church. Since the beginning of this year, she has also begun offering a monthly tithe. Recently, she expressed her desire to transfer her membership to our church officially. We will now begin the necessary learning and procedures for this transfer, and we ask for your prayers for the Lord’s guidance. Additionally, her elderly mother, K.K., 90 years old, is living in a care facility and is in poor health. Please pray for her as well.
Special Evangelistic Service and Art Seminar
On June 23, Pastor Atsuhiko Okayama, a supporting pastor from the Japan Alliance Christ Church, delivered the sermon during our worship service and led an art seminar in the afternoon. We created a promotional flier and distributed 5,500 copies via newspaper inserts. We are thankful that two non-believing husbands of our church members, N.M. and S.Y., could attend the evangelistic service. During the service, one of our church members, A.Y., took charge of the weekly Children’s Bible Time, and four of our church’s youth performed a special song. After the service, we had a fellowship lunch with Pastor Okayama, and most attendees stayed for the afternoon seminar, which allowed everyone to engage deeply with art and the Bible. It was a wonderful time, and we look forward to those who participated enjoying art from a biblical perspective and even using it as a tool for evangelism.
Although no new visitors came due to the fliers, in the past, we have had visitors who visited the church six months after receiving such a flier. We pray that God will use this flier as well.
On June 29, a short-term Cru mission team from Singapore hosted a children’s event. Although two families who had expressed interest could not attend because their children had fevers, four children, including our daughters, were still present. Two children attended for the first time, and their parents immensely enjoyed the event. Please pray for K.N. and her mother, A.N., who visited the church for the first time, will continue to attend. How the Singapore team prepared and prayed for the event deeply encouraged and taught us.
Children’s Bible Time: We have a section for the youth during our weekly worship services. Mr. and Mrs. Y. are deeply burdened for serving in the Children’s Bible Time and expressed their desire to hold a meeting like a Sunday School teachers’ conference. After the worship service, my wife, Sonoko Uryū, along with Mr. and Mrs. Y., gathered to discuss the sharing of responsibilities for the children’s messages and to have a time of prayer together.
We pray that new individuals will join the message ministry in the future, contributing to the growth of future servants. The children become familiar with the Bible verses each week thanks to Mrs. Y., who prepares original verse-memory cards weekly. They also enjoy placing stickers on the cards after reading, making their effort to memorize scripture more engaging. We are incredibly grateful that even non-believer S.Y. has found opportunities to engage with God’s Word together with her children.
Updates of My Family
On Sunday, June 23, we had the Kyushu Mission District Pulpit Exchange Day. I had the privilege of preaching at Miyazaki Megumi Bible Church in Miyazaki City, Miyazaki Prefecture (Next Prefecture). I delivered a message from Numbers 13, titled, ‘We Can Surely Overcome.’ During the fellowship meal after the service, one of the attendees shared that he was greatly encouraged by the Word, which I was very grateful to hear. I was also profoundly thankful to learn that Miyazaki Megumi Bible Church members pray for Kagoshima Izumi Church. I am committed to continuing to pray for Miyazaki Megumi Bible Church members.
My wife Sonoko visited the meeting venue at Nakatsu Bible Church in Oita Prefecture to prepare for our denomination’s Kyushu Mission District Women’s Union, which is scheduled for October. It was her first visit to Oita. She did not realize until then how far Oita was from Kagoshima, approximately 400 km, even though Oita was still part of Kyushu. As she met people there, many for the first time, she felt deeply grateful that she and our church plant in Kagoshima are being remembered in their prayers. It was a significant and blessed time for my wife. Given that many of the eleven churches in the Kyushu Mission District have relatively small congregations, this gathering of Christian women in a significant event like the Women’s Union reminds me of the importance of fellowship among Christian women.
From June 24 to 25, a retreat for the wives of Kyushu Mission District pastors was held in Kumamoto Prefecture. It was a wonderful time spent praying and fellowshipping with six wives of preachers. We also had the opportunity to visit famous tourist spots in Kumamoto Prefecture, such as Kumamoto Castle and the crater of Mount Aso. Additionally, we were deeply moved by the history of past Christians in Kumamoto, called the Kumamoto Band, and the tremendous natural beauty. We prayed more concretely and visually for evangelism and revival in Kumamoto Prefecture.
Eden, our oldest daughter, is six and enjoys kindergarten. When she stays with her grandparents, my parents, in Aichi Prefecture, please pray that she can naturally share the gospel with her non-believing grandparents, sing hymns, and bear testimony during her stay.
Shion, our daughter, age 2, has completely adjusted to kindergarten and enjoys attending. Recently, her favorite hymn has been “Jesus Loves Me,” which she often hums. As colds and viruses have spread at kindergarten, please pray for her health. It is common for infections to start with Shion and then spread to the rest of the family. Please pray for the overall health of our family members.
- Pray for the upcoming gathering for youth and young adults. Our Theme is “Marriage and Work”.
- Pray for the salvation and baptism of our seekers.
- Progress and advancement in His Call about our Evangelism in Kagoshima.
- Pray that we will be able to acquire a larger church hall soon.
Testimony Continued
By nature, I’m cautious and do not believe everything someone tells me unless I am convinced. So, I asked the church’s pastor, Rev. Tamura, every question I could come up with. And no matter my question, he treated me with courtesy, compassion, patience, and love. Through studying the Bible, I gradually noticed changes in me. I began to think, “Maybe this world /was/ created by God.” I thought, “What the Bible says /must/ be true.” Through my ongoing study of the Bible with Rev. Tamura and through his preaching in the weekly worship service, I learned that God created heaven and earth, that I am a sinner, and that God, Jesus, could be mine. Jesus died on the cross for our sins, was resurrected, and still loves us today. I learned that if we believe in and accept Jesus as our Savior, our sins will be forgiven, and we will become children of God, receive the Holy Spirit, and be given eternal life. And I was able to believe that, and finally to believe John 1:12, “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” I was baptized on December 19, 1999, as a junior in college.
My Calling to Pioneer Church Planting
After believing in Jesus and being baptized, I graduated from college and was hired by a local company. While working, I realized I wanted to become a pastor and evangelist. At first, it was a tiny little thought. But those thoughts grew larger. God gave me verses from scripture, and I became convinced that this is what I should do. Matthew 5:13-16 were the first verses that confirmed my calling. You are the salt of the earth…. You are the world’s light, so let your light shine before me. I was taught that I do not exist for myself but that the purpose of a Christian is to convey the love of Jesus on the cross and to glorify the Lord. After receiving these verses, I decided, “I will dedicate my life to God and others.” At the same time, the words of Romans 10:14 were given to me. “And how shall they hear without a preacher?” And I was called to be a pioneer evangelist, to preach the gospel in uncharted territory. After receiving these two scriptures, I started the three-year course at Tokyo Christian Theological Seminary and became a Japan Alliance Christ Church pastor. (This is the denomination started by The Evangelical Alliance Mission – TEAM).
When the denomination’s Board gave me my ordination oral examination, I said, “I have a calling to pioneer church planting.” And so I was assigned to Izumi Church in Kunitachi City, a church plant of the established Tama Church. I served there for eight years, and then I was approached about heading up a new church plant for the denomination in Kagoshima Prefecture. At first, I struggled with that decision, but again, I was given the same verse of Romans 10:14 that I had been given when I was first called to pioneer church planting. On top of that, God also gave me Mark 16:15, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” I had assurance that this was the Lord’s will, and I decided to lead the church plant in Kagoshima.
It has now been four years and nine months since the start of the Kagoshima church plant; the work has brought us joy and hardship. I’m sure there will continue to be many challenges, defeats, and victories, but I want to always dwell in these scriptures that were my calling and continue to preach the gospel. Nine believers are church members, and four other believers attend worship here. We have had six baptisms since the church plant began in 2018. The coronavirus situation in 2020 halted outreach and church growth, but since November 2021, people have started coming to church again, and we are seeing outreach and church growth. We currently have four seekers. Two are in active Bible study; two are not in a Bible study but attend worship services regularly.
Location of Church Plant
Kagoshima Prefecture is in southern Kyushu and is separated by mountains from Kumamoto Prefecture and Miyazaki Prefecture to the north. It faces the sea to the east, west, and south. Geographically, it is an isolated prefecture. The nearby major cities are Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture, and Miyazaki City, Miyazaki Prefecture, but they are about two hours away from central Kagoshima Prefecture by train or car. Kagoshima City has little flat land; most people live on high ground. Approximately 1.6 million people live in Kagoshima Prefecture, and approximately 600,000 people live in Kagoshima City. Approximately 42% are Buddhist, 2% Shinto, 1% Christian, and the remaining 55% are non-religious. So, in Kagoshima Prefecture, the total number of Buddhist, Shinto, and non-religious people is about 98%. Still, as the well-known expression “eight million gods” suggests, most people in Kagoshima believe that gods dwell in everything surrounding them. So, as a first step in evangelism, it is essential to convey that “God is one.” (1 Timothy 2:5)
Ongoing Ministry for Your Prayers:
Pray for S.Y. to open his heart to Christ and seek God’s help and guidance. His wife is a member of our church; both work full-time and have two children, aged three and one. S.Y. understands his wife’s Christian beliefs and faith and attends our Sunday Church services with his wife. His parents have come as grandparents for the baby daughter’s dedication ceremony, held during a Sunday service. S.Y. realizes his weakness and sinful nature, and we pray to start a Bible reading with S.Y.
Pray for N.M. to open his heart to studying the Bible. N.M., his wife, daughter, and five sons are all church members. N.M. is a college professor who faces challenges at work. We pray for N.M. so he can boldly step forward to be near God, take his current situation as an opportunity, and rely on God’s wisdom. We are encouraged to see the family attending the worship service more often lately.
Pray for T.M. to grow in hope and assurance about heaven in his heart by believing in Jesus. T.M. is elderly and has health concerns. He is the husband of a church member, is friendly, and shows an understanding of Christians and Christianity, and occasionally joins his wife to attend Sunday worship. T.M. still carries deep sorrow as they lost one of their daughters twenty years ago. Please pray that he will accept God’s salvation soon.
Pray for M.N. that the Lord opens her heart. She moved to our area from another prefecture to attend medical school and is always busy with academics. M.N.’s parents are Christians, but we know that she has not professed her faith and has not been baptized. We hope to have an individual Bible study with M.N., and we pray for clarity in M.N.’s mind when she hears me preach at Church.
It has been five and a half years since we started our Church planting as Kagoshima Izumi. We are thankful for the opportunities to meet people in this area, and the church’s growth is mainly initiated via our daughters’ kindergarten connections. My wife, Sonoko, has been developing good friendships and interactions with moms of children at the kindergarten where our two daughters attend. We pray that those ladies will become seekers and attendees of our service. Our 6-year-old daughter Eden has a very cheerful personality and many friends. She brings many of her friends to our church’s events for children. Our 2-year-old daughter Shion has also started attending pre-school. We hope that she can make many friends like her sister.
I am thankful to walk my faith daily in Psalm 121 and pray while overlooking the majestic active Sakurajima volcano. Thank you for your support and prayers for our Church.
Pray for our family’s overall health, that we will be sustained by the Lord physically and spiritually, and that our faith will be passed on to our daughters in the next generation. Pray for healing over our church member H.N., who has been hospitalized, and for his wife, S.N., also a church member, as she visits her husband at the hospital. Pray for the salvation of the seekers who regularly attend church services.