Pastor

Pastor Suzuki’s Testimony

When I was a junior in high school, I listened to gospel broadcasting, and during this time, my brother already had faith in the Urawa EVF church and invited me to attend. I was an introvert, and my older brother was diplomatic. When I was in junior high, I always did well with my grades, and I passed the exam to enter high school. But in my high school, there were lots of excellent students, and I suffered from a lowliness complex. One day, my brother came back to our house with a friend from church. I refused to see him; however, I had an interest in the church. It was when I went to church that everyone became friends with me, even though it was a time when everyone was busy with school exams.  The next time I went to church, I heard the gospel of the Bible. However, I would compare my self-centered sin to other people, and I noticed the narrowness and weakness of my personality. I spent six months and finally understood that Jesus’ death on the cross was due to my sin. From that moment, I changed.
Testimony Continued Below:

Recent Ministry:

Nagano is a very large, rich in nature, and mountainous prefecture, spanning 200 km from the northern edge to the southern edge. It is a car-oriented society. Regular home meetings are challenging to hold, and recently, I have been encouraged to use online platforms more frequently for Bible study. We have seekers from all over the region, some driving over an hour to reach the church. Keeping in touch with seekers is extremely difficult due to the small population and the challenge of evangelizing in such a limited space and distance. Mr. K has attended the Sunday service once and continues to study the Bible with Minister Naoki Suzuki online. Additionally, Ms. M, who previously visited a local psychic in the neighboring city of Ueda, is now engaging in Bible study with me online and face-to-face. I drive about an hour to reach her area when we meet in person. Ms. Y, who experienced COVID and whose family still worries about infection, has also joined our home meeting via LINE chat.

Praise the Lord for the Progress of His Church

Nagano Shinonoi Church started our worship services in April 2018. We initially held church services in a renting a meeting room in the Civic Community Hall. We started with four adults and four international students. Later on, the Lord showed us a good property, and through His provision, we were able to purchase that property. As our membership has grown, we now have a vision that we are praying about to begin our new pioneering work in an unreached community.

As I have mentioned in my earlier reports, over the years of this pioneering work, we have sent out eight young adults in their twenties to the nearby city for work, marriage, or furtherance of their education. The current church has reduced the number of worshippers a little, but those faithful servants who have moved to the city remain in service to their new churches. Since last year, there has been a steady increase in the number of hopeful seekers whom we are praying will hear and understand the gospel so they may become saved. We have initiated many creative ways to develop new relationships with neighbors so we can present the gospel. The church now regularly hosts Korean Language classes, Rose Gardening Workshops, and music concerts. Each of these events provides relationship-building opportunities to reach our community with the gospel.

While considering the current situation in Shinonoi, we decided on our next target mission field, centered on the Azumino area (southwest of Shinonoi Nagano). Minister Naoki Suzuki and his wife are looking for a residence in that area and are preparing for the next phase of their ministry. Prayer meetings and pioneer preparation meetings have begun in Shinonoi Church. Please pray for these new developments. 

Church Leadership Development

Our church currently has four married couples between 30 and 40 years old. They are attending study sessions and fellowshiping together using the Marriage Course textbook. Through my training in biblical marriage and the application of Scripture in their lives, we are praying for them to become family congregation leaders in the near future. I am glad to see those couples becoming more stable in their marriages and family relationships as they continue each studying session.  I also pray for the growth of their children.  That will also lead our church to develop a solid youth group with Sunday School and spiritual fellowship and bond among our youth in the future. We are thrilled to see young families faithfully serving in the church.

• Pray for Associate Pastor Kim as he grows into becoming more of a full-time leader for the church.
• Pray that Minister Suzuki’s family will receive good property in the Matsumoto and Azumino areas of Shinonoi’s pioneering mission field.
• Our church’s first home-style small group meeting has been going well. We were blessed to have the second meeting at the new home.
• Pray that the Lord will bless the church members who are providing the home for our study; he desired from the beginning of his construction to use his house to host a prayer meeting.
• Pray for our potential second location for another home meeting.

Ongoing Ministry for your Prayer:

We held a dedication ceremony for the new house of our church’s representative deacon, Tadayoshi Suzuki, and his wife. Tadayoshi has been involved in our mission team from the very beginning of our church plant. He is a professor at the Graduate School of Social Welfare at a local public university, where he is also a researcher and organizes support groups to help the local community and those suffering at the bottom of the economic ladder. The Lord provided land for them about a fifteen-minute walk from the church, although it is a little far from their work, and the couple built a new house to help our pioneers and form future churches in the image of Priscilla and Aquila, the couple who supported Paul in his mission to Corinth. Tadayoshi and his wife shared their vision about forming multiple churches in the immediate Nagano area. We pray for the Lord’s blessing on this couple, who have been married for three years. Church members joined them after the service to celebrate the new building.

A short-term mission team from South Korea visited.

A team of ten people from The Happy Church, pioneering in Seoul, Korea, including Pastor Chungman Kim, a tent maker, stayed at Shinanoi Church as a short-term mission group.  They helped us distribute tracts and leaflets and installed a fence in the churchyard. The young women testified to salvation at the service and sang memorable praise songs. They also participated in the youth daytime outreach on Saturday and had fun with the children playing in the water at Olympic Park. Two of our junior high school students, Suiren and Sara, who attended our church’s Korean class, joined the team welcome party on Sunday and had a fun time of fellowship. The Korean pastor and I encouraged each other as we talked about the difficulties of pioneer missions in Korea’s urban areas and rural Japan. We hope to continue ministry cooperation.

• Pray for Mr. Y., who has recently been suffering from mental weakness and tends to miss worship services.
• Pray for starting a cell group this coming month and for Chiaki, who was baptized recently and will be part of the group.
• Pray for the Lord’s guidance over Rev. Naoki and Mrs. Eiko Suzuki, who continue to do mission field research in preparation for the new stage of pioneering church planting.
• Pray for Mr. L, who lost his younger brother to a sudden illness and has not recovered from the shock, and for his seeking life and salvation.

Testimony Continued:

I’ve been involved in church planting and have served as a chairperson for the Kansai district church planting council. I’ve been a member for over 15 years of the National EVF church mission committee and serve six years as a chairperson. I was also involved with Radio evangelism and served as a chairperson for six years. In 2006 I was chairperson for the Kinki missionary church Executive committee; we had 300 pastors and 1,000 missions’ conferences. My involvement continued with the Korean CCC New Life 2000 project national headquarter general affairs for ten years. We had 13,000 Korean students dispatched to domestic churches. Lastly, I still serve on the trustee of Japan Bible seminary; this is my third term.

I want to share my family’s background further. I am seventy-five years old, and my wife Sayoko is seventy-three. We have been married for 50 years. We were saved and baptized at Urawa Evangelical Free Church in Saitama Prefecture in the Kanto area. We started our ministry career as church planters at Higashi-Omiya Church; this pioneer church was blessed, and two buildings were built in ten years.  I still worked for a company; my wife was an elementary school teacher. After that, I attended seminary for four years while my wife supported our family. We were led to the Kansai area, where I pastored three churches over 30 years: Uji Church as the first Japanese pastor in the 5th year of the church planting after missionaries founded and served; Mukaijima Church as pioneer church planting, and Kyoto Church, which had a 60-year history. God led me to Ueda Church in Nagano, where I pastored for nine years. Our ministry lives have been a series of many blessings but also hardships. I was 68 years old when we devoted ourselves to the current pioneer church plant of Shinonoi.

We have two sons, two daughters, and eight grandchildren. At the beginning of the church planting of Mukaijima Church in Fushimi Ward, Kyoto Prefecture, we had a lot of difficulties, especially in the first year. However, we had regular monthly support from other churches in the Kansai area.  I pastored this church for eight years; God blessed the group, and it became a self-supporting church of 40 members.

During the early years of raising our children, we were in financial difficulties, and my wife and I could not afford to take the train as a family, even for one station away. We encouraged our four children with inexpensive sushi rolls as a reward. We would walk hand in hand for an hour between the parsonage and church every week along the riverbank near the railroad tracks during our children’s elementary school years.

My oldest son, unfortunately, left the Church for a while because he did not fit into the churches he tried to attend during his college years away from his hometown.  We thank God that he is now gradually returning to his faith walk. My oldest daughter majored in art in graduate school and studied abroad in Korea. The Lord called her to transfer from graduate school to study at a seminary, and eventually, she married a pastor. My second son, Naoki, worked for a company in Nagano, received God’s call, and then devoted himself to pioneering evangelism. He studied at a seminary for four years, graduated last March, and was led to be involved in church planting tent-making activities at several locations in the Nagano-Shinshu area. Currently, he is preparing to be ordained as a pastor. My second daughter was working for a long time at King’s Garden, a domestically well-known elderly-care facility run by Christians. She married a welfare worker who was a member of Tsuchiura Grace Church, one of the largest evangelical churches in the Kanto, greater Tokyo, area. She moved to Nagano last year to support Nagano regional community welfare and is now part of our pioneering effort.

I have experienced the hardships of a pioneering mission with my family, but God has given us His grace to help us each season of our ministry lives. The generous support from the White Fields at the current time is an excellent help to our son Naoki’s vision and preparation for the next pioneering project along with us.

Ongoing Ministry for Prayer:

Ninth Year as a Congregation

We are in our ninth year of pioneering, and on June 2nd, we held a general assembly meeting and officially consented to a new member, Chiaki Niwano, who was baptized in April. Thank you for your prayers. We are thankful she has a new job and can attend Sunday services. She now brings her mother, Chieko Masuda, to the weekly service. Chiaki had been a seeker for over three years and was led to Christ via the Autumn Sound concert of our churches’ outreach. At her previous job at that time, at a newspaper delivery company, she oversaw printing and distributing our church leaflets and was always curious about their contents and Christianity. She attended our concerts a few times, attended church services, had one-on-one Bible study, and was baptized. Lay church members led the church’s annual general meeting as the chairman and the secretary. The general account aligned with the budget, and everyone was thankful. On the same day, Minister Naoki Suzuki also testified about his new call to pioneering work during the service. We are praying for God’s guidance and his prep in the future.

• Pray for the recovery of my wife, who suffers from shingles. She has been on block injections for over four months.
• Pray for creating cell groups within the church and establishing a mutual pastor-supporting coop system.
• Pray for the guidance of minister Naoki and his wife Eiko Suzuki, who are praying for the preparation and guidance of the immediate church planting activities in the area.
• For those who have been away from the church for some time.

One of our members had an engagement ceremony on Sunday, June 16th. At that time, another church member and his family, who were to witness the marriage in November, also attended the service at Shinonoi Church. He is a friend of mine from my youth and has been the Head Deacon of Warabi Evangelical Free Church, a leading church in the area north of Tokyo. For the first three years of my church planting pioneering work at Shinonoi, he attended worship services once every five weeks. For him, it takes three hours by car to get here, so he stayed at a different house and served as if he were a member of the Shinonoi Church. This time, his son, the current Head Deacon, drove the family to attend the service at our church, and my friend came as a church representative and a witness for the man of the marriage. This dear friend is currently recovering from a lung disease for which he is receiving anti-cancer drugs. He was also a member of the Evangelism Promotion Committee, a supporting group for Shinonoi’s pioneering work. As mentioned above, we are being taught once again that church pioneering can never be done alone and requires, and we sense many people’s prayers behind and support.

In the past, I was involved in pastoring three churches in Kyoto Prefecture, which I never thought my service was adequate. The church there was initially planted by missionaries from the United States in the 1950s. I was the fifth pastor serving there. While I was serving, we established a church building.  As Paul writes in Romans 15:23, I was led to this Nagano area to develop a new ministry and pioneering after finishing my ministry in the Kansai Kyoto area. We have been in the Ueda Church in Nagano for nine years and acquired a legal entity, a local non-profit religious corporation. Then we came to this second pioneering of Nagano region, Shinonoi area, for nine years. The Lord gave me a vision of district formation and multiple pioneering church plantings. 

Now, we have been given a few young workers and are caring for them while praying for the next area church-planting opportunity and asking for God’s guidance. In the past, we held a home meeting for seven months in the Matsumoto area near Murai Station, which is our prospective mission field. We are conducting a field survey and have visited the area several times. However, we pray for the Lord’s timing to come as we search for the place of the Lord’s heart and provision. Please pray with us.

We are in our ninth year of church planting, and our church is gradually being accepted and recognized in the community around us. Yoko, a woman in our community, joined our Rose Garden Growing Workshop. She is studying the introductory Bible course with Minister Suzuki. There also is Ms. Masuda, the mother of Ms. Niwano, who was baptized last month; she also came for the Rose Workshop.

Another outreach is Ms. Hee’s Korean language classes. We have two classes, one for adults at our church and the other at a facility for the lightly disabled youth within Nagano City. One of the students is Ms. Kumiko, as reported last month.  Personal interactions and involvement with people in the community, even compared to larger-scale concert projects, have indeed increased, and solid relationships with them have grown. Even though our area is known to be a very conservative area with tough soil for missions, we see that the Lord is at work.

The mother church of the eighteen churches of West Kanto has brought in a younger yet experienced successor senior pastor with more than ten years of pastoral experience in other churches to lead our district. We sense the new senior pastor’s openness toward our prayers and vision for multiple church plantings and formations in our district. We pray that God will work to open renewed regional cooperation, and we thank the Lord for His timing and providence.

Members of our church are moving out of our district due to marriage. We will miss them. In the past eight years of our church planting, we have said goodbye and sent eight young people in their twenties and thirties to cities in other areas due to life changes. Nurturing new Christians and seekers takes time, and it is difficult to say goodbye to these new believers. Yet we do not have many people moving in to join us from a large city due to the hardship.  Nagano’s local people are known as stubborn and argumentative. However, we believe that souls will be saved when the Holy Spirit is at work.  I am encouraged by the Word of God. 

Pray that God will lead those who attend the Korean language class to connect further with the church. Pray for Eijun, who has returned to Korea to recover from her illness and is preparing to settle in Shinonoi for the rest of her life. Pray for Yuki Fukushima, who moved from Ibaraki and started working as a welfare officer at the city office this Spring. 

Baptism

On Sunday, April 21st, Chiaki was baptized. It was a long-awaited moment of joy for all of our church members. Chiaki has been studying the Bible (via an Introductory course by Minister Naoki Suzuki) every Wednesday for over a year for training and discipleship. She started to attend church faithfully about a year ago and has been participating in worship services.  As reported in the past, when we had the Autumn Sound Concert, we asked for a local newspaper production department to design advertising flyers for the community. We also inserted newspaper ads into 12,000 households in the area. Chiaki works at this newspaper stand, and the Lord touched Chiaki while she was picking up the flier and looking at it as she was inserting them. As she was already very interested in reading the contents of the flyers, she came to the concert and was moved by the music, the praise songs, and the testimony. The following Sunday, she came to the worship service and stayed to join the Bible study. At that time, we could sense that Chiaki was a very well-groomed soul. Chiaki had been attending concerts for over two years. She was a seeker who came to worship in prayer and correspondence and was serious about learning. Lately, Chiaki has brought her mother, Chieko, 86 years old, to worship services. Chieko has already come to the service five times. Chiaki is now praying for her witnessing opportunities and sharing her testimony with her family.

Creating a comfortable place for unbelievers 

I sense it takes time for people in Nagano to open their hearts. For that respect, I have been thankful for the opportunities to use my experiences and gift in gardening for my outreach ministry.  It has been two years of holding a monthly rose-growing workshop. At a recent workshop, about ten people came, including Chiaki, who was baptized, her mother, Chieko, and another Chieko, a seeker who has been participating in the workshop for over a year. We planted various spring flowers together and set up our flowerpots this month. People all enjoy making their flowerpots and hearing short gospel messages. In the upcoming months, I plan to take the whole group to visit the famous rose garden in Shinshu Nagano during the peak season of roses to deepen the relationship further and have a fellowship lunch together.

Pray for Chiaki to find a new job where she may have Sundays off, and pray for salvation for her mother. Pray that Kumiko will be able to join the Bible Study.  Pray for my wife Sayoko for pain relief and recovery from shingles. For the health of Eijun for her recovery from insomnia and from swelling of her face.

Mrs. M.I. was not receptive to the words of the Bible and showed a strange attitude because she had visited and sought guidance from a local animist leader in the neighboring town, hidden from our church family for over a year. The animist leader is well-known in the city and has influenced many people. Mrs. M.I. had also invited several business connections to this animist leader. During a Bible study, she confessed her sin and surrendered all to Jesus, relying on Him to care for everything. She has started studying the Bible actively and has now brought her husband to church. 

Miss M.S. kept asking me to officiate at her engagement ceremony, but I first refused as her future spouse was an unbeliever. She had an ambiguous attitude toward her faith, but her attitude changed during Bible studies. She earnestly sought the Lord and prayed genuinely for his salvation. Both are Forestry Agency public servants and many officials there are often transferred and sent to remote areas, so when they decided to continue to seek the Lord’s guidance and promised in front of everyone that they would continue to study The Bible even online, I realized I could actively help this couple step forward in their relationship. On the day of the couple’s engagement ceremony, both sets of parents, all unbelievers, were moved to tears and thanked the church. The brothers and sisters of the church show such tender love for her future, and I believe that this also helped her future spouse open his stubborn heart. Her fiancé, Mr. T.S., faithfully continues his Bible study.

We are entering the eighth year of our current pioneering mission. The Lord has blessed us with more than twenty worshippers, and we have reached the point where we anticipate being financially self-reliant in two years. We have added two more to our ministry team and set up a vision for the next stage of development. As we move toward developing another church plant in the district, many Japanese church members are aging, and there are difficulties in finding a pastor willing to work with a small local church planting effort and do the hard work of local evangelism. Please pray for our ministry team’s unity and wisdom as we seek to develop our leadership team.

Pray for C.N., who is studying for baptism. Pray for the spiritual growth of the engaged couple, M.S. and T.S., as they study in preparation for marriage. Pray for the growth of a 9th-grade student who recently accepted Jesus.  Pray for the unity and wisdom of church staff.

Funeral service for Mrs. I

Thank you for your prayers. We consider hosting a funeral our opportunity to minister, preach, and share the gospel in the community with the unsaved. The mother of Mr. I, one of our members, passed away; she was 92 years old and had dementia, so she could hardly communicate with us. Mr. I is the only child in that family and has a slight developmental disability, so the church supported him and took care of all that needed to be arranged surrounding the Christian ceremony funeral service. All his relatives are unbelievers. The Christian funeral service touched the families; we saw it was a good testimony among them. We are also planning to hold a memorial service; please pray, as the family is planning to attend our church on that occasion again. 

Mengumi, whom I mentioned earlier in my prayer requests, had been dating a non-believer man but repented. She and her boyfriend are continuing their faith study with Pastor Kim. They are both initially from Kyoto, with a strong Buddhist influence. Please pray for the salvation of her boyfriend.  In my past forty-six years of ministry in pastoring, I have witnessed fifteen couples, each of which led the partner to become Christian, and women led their boyfriends for salvation fourteen out of those fifteen couples. Each shared stories of complications in their relationship and spiritual warfare. I encouraged and prayed with believer women who were in tears and advised them to lead their partners and friends to salvation by the grace and mercy of the Lord.

Bible Study and Future Marriage of Mr. S. & Ms. S

As I reported earlier, a believer and a seeker repented and confessed their sin of sexual impurity. While they were studying the Bible, they realized their sin. The believer, our church member, invited her boyfriend to church. During more than ten times of study, the two who had rebelled against the Bible yet later repented, and our member’s facial expressions changed to peace. The boyfriend continued coming to our church and has been taking the seeker’s class and marriage class. They decided to have the wedding ceremony at our church. It is so touching to see their change of attitudes and heart.  We are counseling them about their wedding, and we believe that this will lead them to a clear confession of sin and a decision of faith.

Strategy meeting for the subsequent development plan

Since our church planting ministry began, my wife and I believe the Lord has been calling us to form a new district. We have weekly staff meetings with Associate Pastor Kim and his wife and Minister Suzuki and his wife. We have come this far with our motto, “Building a flock of love to establish a missional community.” When I was transferred from Kyoto, I prayed to develop multiple churches and create a district council, an independent cooperative flock of churches. The church I was assigned to in Ueda City, Nagano Prefecture, was a young church pioneered by the mother church, Urawa Church, and the previous pastor had resigned, having some problems. After nine years of assignment, the church became self-reliant and received consent from the local government to be an independent religious non-profit legal entity, which led to the current Shinonoi Pioneer Church. We are now praying to start a third church in the Matsumoto/Azumino area after studying the population survey, economic structure, urban planning, existence of Christian churches, and the history of past missions. We aim to strategically investigate our resources in this targeted area. When Shinonoi Church is ready, we will send my son, Minister Suzuki, and his wife to promote the pioneering work. Please pray for us. In the photo on the left is Minister Naoki Suzuki and his wife, and Associate Pastor Kim and his wife on the right. They are both working and serving as tent makers.

Pray for C, who is in a baptism prep course. Pray for growth for those who continue to study the Bible faithfully. Pray for the pre-marital counseling and the salvation of Mr. S and our weekly Bible readings. Pray for our church to be self-reliant and unified in vision as we establish a stable team. Pray for Minister Suzuki and his wife’s practical preparation for their future pioneer church planting work. They are in the process of raising their child.

On Saturday, November 18, we had a rose-growing workshop and party. Aiko, a conservative peach farmer, and Chieko, who has participated in the rose-growing seminar for over a year, attended a recent concert outreach event where I shared a short message from the Bible.

Tetsuya who has been coming to our worship service periodically since this summer is the husband of Miyuki, who recently made a decision of faith in Christ. Tetsuya is about forty-five years old and is a truck driver. He comes to worship whenever he has free time on Sundays. He is a long-distance driver who travels all over the country so he says work can feel very lonely. We send him cassette tapes of my sermons so he can listen in his truck and video messages from my cell phone. He and his wife are friends of Sadao, who recently had a revival of his faith at last year’s Christmas service. Tetsuya attended the worship service with us and is becoming very attracted to a new faith in Christ.

We had a church retreat and Rev. Takashi gave a lecture on the theme of Church and Family. We learned about church formation based on the principles of worshiping with adults and children together in the same service. We have five children at our church ranging from an infant to grade three. We continue to hold services together and have not been able to do a separate Sunday school due to logistical reasons including lack of space, time, and volunteers.

However, in the past, two elderly families left the church because they were dissatisfied with not hearing the sermon well when children, especially toddlers, were incorporated into the service for adults. We are trying to form a church that nurtures children as we anticipate them being the future of the church despite a declining birth rate and aging population. We are encouraged by the fact that our church plant has four young families who are attending, supporting, and being a part of the church. In our region, there are three elementary schools with six to seven hundred students attending. The recent composition of the community reminds us that we are a city of young families, and we also need to remember to have a good balance in reaching out to the multiple generations in our community. I sense the importance of reaching the older generations who have funds and time to spare for ministry and involvement.

The last weekend of the month, there was a joint cooperative distribution of tract flyers from churches belonging to the Kanto West District Council. Pastors and members from seven churches participated, traveling three hours each way and visiting three-thousand houses with flyers. The purpose of the visit was to publicize the concert of Ryoji, a former cellist with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. A total of thirty-four people attended the event. We stopped distributing flyers for three years due to covid and are grateful to be able to continue this outreach event. We have had three people connected to the church so far through this outreach. One is Ms. Chiaki who made a clear decision about salvation and attends the introductory class. We are grateful to the participants who circulated the flyers and for their support and cooperation.

I was invited by the Yasu Evangelical Free Church in the Kansai area, the west central region of Japan, to give a sermon at their service and share my testimony of church planting during the afternoon. When I received the initial request from them, I asked why they wanted me to come to their distant Kansai region. They replied that one of their congregants remembered my involvement in resolving a church conflict and they wanted to hear my testimony as a pioneering missionary, and so invited me to the church during their pastor’s summer vacation. I also learned that my experience with an incurable disease was a great encouragement to them. A former core member of their congregation who lost his eyesight suddenly due to an incurable disease attended the service and looked up to the Lord with me. The pastor later contacted us to say it was a great encouragement. I praise God that our church planting testimony was helpful to this church group.

• Pray for the successful completion of the renovation of the parsonage for the evangelist that was approved by the church general assembly.
• Pray for God’s direction and guidance in the next Nagano church planting and development at our pastor’s meeting. A new discussion began last month, and I was getting the impression that the voice of certain generations with no experience in church planting is getting more dominant in making future decisions.

Archive

September/October 2021

Haruo and his Chinese wife started to attend our church about three years ago. They are in their fifties. When they were attending, they came on average twice a month before the covid time. We had not seen them for about a year or so. Just recently they started to attend the service twice a month again. Haruo’s wife is not very fluent in Japanese. Her proficiency is about fifty percent, and her speaking is around twenty percent. She has been very devoted to praying for her husband’s salvation and desires me to start a Bible study for them as a couple.

We decided to meet every Wednesday. I checked with Haruo about his thoughts on starting a Bible study. He said, “I think it would be good if I studied the Bible and that I enter the faith of Christianity. But what about my relationship with my relatives who are all Buddhists and my responsibilities to carry on the family tradition of rituals at the grave, etc. I am concerned about how to maintain all of these.

I see that Haruo observes conversion as switching a religious tradition rather than having a personal faith in Christ. I need to prepare good Bible study material for this couple in both Japanese and Chinese. Our main focus in the study would be on the husband, however, I sense his wife would like to confirm and reassure her faith through this process. Pray that I will be able to lead them well in this study.

• Pray for Haruo and his wife to grow in their knowledge and understanding of the Bible through this Bible study.
• Pray for the salvation of Haruo.

We received an email from Hidenori recently. He informed us unexpectedly that he wanted to withdraw his plan to attend the membership courses and even attend the service regularly. He shared about his mental health issue and that he was afraid to cause trouble to the church, which was his reason to change his plans. He was attending a church in the past yet was badly hurt by other people in that group. Then he got into Jodo-Shinshu Japanese Buddhism for a while. After that, he wanted to come back to a Christian church again.

I was not certain how much I should believe of what Hidenori was sharing. I needed to process it for myself. So, I replied to him, “Anytime you would like us to assist you or pray for you, please contact us. Also, feel free to come to church.” I now know that Hidenori is not saved yet, although I had thought he was close or had understood salvation. Pray for another opportunity to reach out to him.

• Pray for Hidenori to fully understand salvation and grace.
• Pray for his mental health and the church and pastor to have wisdom in their outreach to Hidenori.

We continue our member care by visiting church members’ homes during the week and texting each other. The men’s Bible study is continuing to meet on Wednesday evenings.

We are starting a new series for our Sunday Worship. I am preaching from the book of James. Pray for each member to clearly understand God’s Word and to be ready in their faith for His second coming.

We are preparing our hearts for Christmas. I sense we need wisdom from God on how to celebrate our Savior’s birth and impact the world during these circumstances and with the number of restrictions. More than anything, we desire our hearts to be devoted and praise the Lord throughout Advent and Christmas time. Please pray for our Christmas outreach. We are grateful for your prayer and support.

August 2021

Kazuza Christ Church has eleven church members. Our worship services averaged fifteen people this past month and there are four children in the Sunday school. We ask you to pray for these youth and children. Yutaka is a twelve-year-old boy. Niina is also twelve and my eldest daughter. Keina is nine, my second daughter. Shise is seven and my youngest son.

We had a daytime camp-style outreach using our church hall this summer. We are still under the State of Emergency, so we did all the infection control measures. The morning session was titled, “what the Bible says about love.” The youth learned concepts such as, “how to protect yourself from social media and friends at school who are harmful to you.” And “how you may prayerfully prepare for a good marriage in the future” plus “how Christians deal with temptation.”

In the afternoon, the group gathered to revise and refresh the church’s exterior notice board. They had fun practicing their musical instruments to develop the youth worship team.

Pray for our youth to stand firm on the Biblical perspectives instead of the secular worldview and to learn the joy of serving the Lord. Praise the Lord for a great youth group event.

This upcoming month we plan to continue our member care by visiting church member’s homes during the week and the Wednesday men’s Bible study. We text each other to provide additional encouragement. Sunday worship will be held on-site and online.

• Pray for our elderly members, particularly for physical and spiritual wellness.

I am making an effort to visit and call upon these believers often. They seem to be under strain from the isolation due to the pandemic and the heat.

• Pray for protection over our elderly believers.

I have been doing a Bible study with two men from our core members every Wednesday. My prayer focus lately has been that these men will eventually become elders among our group.

• Pray for their spiritual growth. We are grateful for your prayers and support.

July 2021

Keiichi is a non-believer whom we have been corresponding with via mail for the past two years. He has his own business, which keeps him busy on Sundays, and he cannot attend the church service. Lately, due to the pandemic, Keiichi has been bringing me questions even about coronavirus and vaccinations. He typically asks things like, “what would a Christian do in a certain situation? How would a Christian respond to that?” I explain to Keeichi from the Bible about topics. We have talked about man’s sinful nature, the salvation God wants to bring into our lives and how we may accept it, and the living standard of those who receive salvation. I sense that Keiichi desires to live as a Christian someday.

• I pray Keiichi himself desires to acquire knowledge of the truth and that he will respond to the truth.
• Pray for the Holy Spirit to work inside of him and for Keiichi to understand salvation.

Ms. Chin is a believer originally from China. Her husband is not yet a believer; his name is Haruo. Chin and Haruo attend our Sunday worship service when they have Sundays off. Chin has lived in Japan for about three years now, which means they are married. Yet Chin is not very fluent in Japanese, nor are any of us able to speak Chinese.
Due to this language barrier, I have not yet been able to identify clearly what Chin’s faith beliefs are or her Christian background since she is coming from mainland China. I hope that I will somehow communicate with her well enough to confirm that we share the same core basis of faith in Christ.

I used an online translator to translate my sermon script into Chinese to give to Chin. Pray for wisdom as I care for Chin as a fellow believer and her husband Haruo as a non-believer. We are praying for someone to assist us in language so we can communicate easier. Pray for Chin to have a good understanding of the Bible and for her spiritual growth.
For our summer break, we are hoping to have a day-camp outreach for the youth. We are continuing our member care by visiting church members at their homes during the week or texting with each other. Mr. Yokota has completed his medical treatment and is now able to attend the Sunday service.

We anticipate a prolonged State of Emergency, for covid, again. The situation will affect our way of doing Sunday services. We will do our best to keep both our on-site and online worship. We have an average of seventeen church attendees and eleven members.

• Pray for God’s wisdom and His peace upon us.
• Pray particularly for the physical and spiritual wellness of our elderly members, who tend to stay home longer than others, which potentially is isolating. They also tend to be affected by the summer heat.
• We are grateful for your prayer and support.

June 2021

Ken-Ichiro is forty-six, married, and a church member. He told us that his work was transferring him to another location in Fukuoka Prefecture, the far western part of Japan. Due to the timing of the transfer, the family had relatively short notice. Ken-Ichiro will live in Fukuoka by himself while his wife, Toshie, is staying where they were. This news came as a big surprise for all the church members. We hope that Ken-Ichiro’s assignment from his company to work in Fukuoka will be temporary rather than permanent. We know that Toshia is already feeling alone and anticipate that she will miss her husband. We are praying that the church will be able to support them both.

I have observed that Ken-Ichiro is trying to approach the whole process of moving positively. He appears to see it as a good challenge from God to refocus on the importance of belonging to a church. As we recently learned from the book of Esther about God’s divine providence, Ken-Ichiro desires to walk by faith with the belief that the Lord will do everything for His glory and our best.

Kenji is in his eighties, married, and a church member. He suffered from a minor medical issue late last month. He was examined and is currently receiving treatment and medications at home. He is expected to take over several weeks to heal completely. Unfortunately, Kenji will not be able to attend the onsite worship service until he completely recovers. He and his wife Sumie have been keeping Sunday worship by using online streaming. I feel for this elderly couple with such restrictions about going out; I expect this challenge to be mentally discouraging.

• Pray for Sumie, who is caring for her husband at home.
• Pray for complete healing for Kenji.
• Pray for God to strengthen their faith during this time so that Kenji and Sumie can trust Him from their heart.

We are continuing the Sunday services with an average attendance of seventeen people. We continue fellowshipping and caring for members using social networks. I intend to have more pastoral visits to church members’ homes during the week.

We had Hidetoshi’s member ceremony last month during a worship service. Praise the Lord.

Because of the covid crisis, I still face limited opportunities to meet new people, especially non-believers. Pray for God to open up opportunities to meet new people and share the gospel.

We temporarily stopped the three-men study group because Ken-Ichiro is leaving town.

• Pray for wisdom for what to do next and for opportunities for small group studying time.
• Pray for our members to truly rely on God and trust His providence during these current situations.

April/May 2021

Our average attendance this past month has been seventeen people at the Worship Service. We have ten church members.

We had some visitors this month. Hitoshi is not yet a believer, is married, and in his sixties. He is the father of Hiroshi, a new member of the church. Hitoshi and his wife live in Saitama, north of Tokyo. They visited their son’s family and attended the Sunday service while they were here. Hitoshi shared with me, “I respect the faith of my son’s family, but I am not ready to share the same faith as they have.” Hitoshi and his wife are not principally against or for Christianity.

When Hitoshi’s wife had terminal cancer three years ago, the son, Hiroshi, and Asako prayed for healing. Hiroshi and Asako are believers. Hitoshi and his wife saw her cancer miraculously being healed, which was a positive and impactful experience. We have been praying for Hitoshi to come to faith in Christ.

• Pray for Hitoshi to come to faith in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.
• Pray for Hiroshi and Asako to boldly live their faith.

We gathered for worship services at the church while still taking preventative measures. We share the joy of fellowship in one place. However, we are refraining from having the fellowship lunch together. I sense we still lack a genuine, relaxed connection in Christ.

Our new attempt to solve this challenge is to start the Sunday service a half-hour earlier at ten am to chat and fellowship with each other for a reasonable amount of time afterward before everyone’s lunch hour at home. We are praying that this change will be effective.

We are in the final sermons of our study on First John. I have been impressed and encouraged to see the eagerness and positive attitudes of learning during the fellowships.

• Pray for each member to apply what they have learned into everyday life.

We plan to start a sharing time and study group for the men one evening a week.

• Pray for the men who plan to join to be able to come despite their busy schedules.
• Pray for them to enjoy God and be blessed to know the joy of serving.

I am hoping to develop this group of men into a servant leader’s group.

I have observed that many elderly people are tired of staying at home for such a prolonged time.

• Pray for these older members to encourage each other while having fellowship within their comfort zones, possibly onsite.

I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for your prayers and support. Thank you.

March 2021

We are joyful to share that Hiroshi and Asako have officially become church members after completing their membership course. We held a special ceremony, and Hiroshi and Asako pledged in front of our congregation, expressing their future commitment to serving Jesus with our group. They also shared their testimony. We praise our Lord for His guidance upon this couple as they regained assurance of their faith after going through various hardships in their lives.

• Pray for Hiroshi and Asako to stand firm in their faith and become vital members of our church.

Hidetoshi is a Christian in his seventies and married. He has been attending our church for about a year and a half; he desires to become a full church member. We received a consent letter from his previous church in Hokkaido. So, we are scheduling the membership prep Bible study with Hidetoshi this month.

I am looking forward to having a more in-depth conversation with Hidetoshi to learn about his faith. Pray that I can help Hidetoshi have a thorough understanding of doctrines as we study our church beliefs. Unity is an integral part of the process for Hidetoshi to become a member.

Because of the current state of Emergency in our region, we cannot gather for worship at the church. It is anticipated that the authorities will extend these guidelines for a few more weeks. We send out the preacher’s message via live streaming and intend to continue this for the coming month. This month, we might have one-on-one Bible studies or small-scale fellowships while following the distancing and virus prevention code. I have been preaching from first John for our series on “fellowship.” Pray for everyone to implement the principles in their lives individually.

Thank you for your prayers and support for our church. We praise God’s good name for all the things He has done. We do not currently have newcomers at our church, and at this point, our activities are limited. However, I have observed quite a few of the regular attendees taking the opportunity to reflect on their faith walk and make decisions to commit themselves to our church and be a part of Christ’s body.

We renewed our website.

We pray for our website to be an effective way of reaching out to the community.

• Pray for our country to hear the gospel.

We plan to organize a group of four men. I pray that this group will be the launching core group for the new church leadership soon.

January 2021

Usually, we have a New Year’s Day service each year, but this year the coronavirus prevention efforts caused the event to be canceled. The numbers increase in our prefecture but are still much smaller in scale compared to the larger cities such as Tokyo. We are not too far distant from these cities, only a couple of hours by bullet train or driving on the highway.

Jae Hyen Kim is an international student at the Bible seminary. His family visited us at the Shinonoi church during the winter vacation.  I look forward to having Jae Hyen with us as a tentmaker when he graduates from the seminary next year. He is a vital part of our ministry’s plans for the future.

Yaeko is seventy-eight and was saved while living in the United States. Some years ago, Yaeko returned to Japan to the Nagano area, her husband’s hometown. About three years ago, Yaeko found our church and started coming to our group. Her husband has not supported her in attending church, so she lost opportunities to attend service for many Sundays this past year. At the end of the year, Yaeko’s attitude and perspective changed, and she decided to boldly attend the worship each Sunday, desiring to put God first. We pray Yaeko becomes a member of our church and for her to have peace from God regarding this decision. Her daughter is married to an independent missionary from America, ministering to Iruma city in the Saitma prefecture.

• Please keep Maki and her mother, Aiko, in your prayers.

They are still trying to recover from the shock and grief from the loss of Yuko, Maki’s sister, who had a mental illness. I shared their story in previous reports. We especially are praying for the salvation of Aiko; she has been more open to hearing the gospel. Aiko originally is from Tofukuji block, an extreme fundamentalist religious group and closed area.

Kim is an associate professor at Nagano University, and her daughter Sophie is in fifth grade. Pray for Kim and Sophie to connect again with the church. It appears that Kim has been extremely busy lately. My wife and I are hoping to connect with Kim and invite her to our home. They are very hesitant to come over due to the circumstances.

• Pray for Kim and Sophie to reconnect with our church.

As I have shared in past reports, we have several professors that come to our church. Our vision is to establish a college campus outreach.

• Pray for this outreach desire.

I have been praying for Mr. Yano, an associate professor who came to our recent concert. We pray that he will join our Bible study group or attend service regularly.

Brother Kim, an international Christian student, has decided to postpone his graduate studies permanently. He is looking for a position in a social welfare facility in the area. For the short term, he desires to assist our church plant while working as a young professional in the local community.

• Pray for Brother Kim to find a suitable position.

As we enter the fifth year of our church plant, we are awaiting the association assembly’s critical decision, as mentioned in our previous reports. They will review this year and consider whether to extend or reduce the funds for Shinonoi church.

• Pray for God’s call to be revealed in their decision.
• Pray that we can resume our outreach to children and young parents with children in early spring.
• Pray for wisdom from God regarding this outreach effort.
• Pray for our upcoming events. We have a joint celebration for the graduation of college students.
• Pray for our church deacon meeting and church plant committee meeting.

December 2020

We met Keiichi in person several times and have been keeping in touch via email. Keiichi is not yet a believer but has been showing interest in the gospel. He is in his sixties and married. Keiichi is reading the Bible regularly and has asked many excellent questions, such as how Christians apply the scriptures to their everyday lives. The other day, Keiichi shared with us that he had withdrawn from the Shinto religious community.  This removal from their group is a big step as his family had been connected with the Shinto religion for multiple generations. He politely refused to offer monetary gifts to the Shinto religion and has disposed of his house altar. Keiichi says he seeks to live based on the Bible and does not get any positive influence from the false beliefs or worshiping idols. We are thankful to God for Keiichi’s positive and forward-thinking attitude and desire to understand the truth. We appreciate your prayers for Keiichi.

• Pray for Keiichi to be lead and guided to true repentance by the Holy Spirit and have true faith in Christ.
• Pray for my words and that in our conversations, I will lead Keiichi with wisdom from the Lord.

Because of the current state of emergency declared in our region, we cannot gather for worship at the church. The preaching message is shared via live streaming and also recorded. We anticipate using the online method for the next month since the state of emergency has been extended. I have been preaching from First John on the topic of fellowship.

• Pray for each individual to understand the words and apply the concepts from the Bible to become part of their daily lives.

We had all of our worships online for more than the last month. We are so thankful that God has united our hearts in worship even when we are not together in one place. As the church congregation continues to learn about the concept of Biblical fellowship, I am praying that it will help us to understand the true meaning. Someday these principles will be applied when we are together again, but they also are relevant now despite being apart. I am sensing that the members are more engaged and motivated to keep in touch with each other for intercessory prayers.

We renewed our website.

• Pray us to utilize it effectively to reach the local community.

We plan to organize a group of four men. I am praying that this group will be the launching of the new church leadership shortly.

• Pray for our church as we navigate the current situation and consider the future.
• Pray for God to guide our plans.

November 2020

We praise the Lord that Hiroshi and Asako have now completed their membership course. The entire class was about three months in length. I am praying that the process has strengthened their faith from the systemic review of the truth and new perspectives learned from the scriptures. It was a symbolic moment when they vocalized their joy in coming to church, especially as they had been absent from attending church for many years in the past.

• Pray for Hiroshi and Asako as they prepare to share their testimonies in front of the congregation. We are planning to hold the membership ceremony soon.

Keiichi owns his business. He is married, in his sixties, and is not yet a believer. Because of the type of work he does, attending Sunday services is challenging. I met Keiichi several times, and we have been keeping in touch via email. He shared with me that his business has been affected by covid, and he is struggling financially. Through our email correspondence, Keiichi raised a concern. “As I continue to read the Bible, I came across a description section saying that we should not have pagan worship and idolatry. I have a small Shinto altar and plates of the ancestral spirits by the Buddhist influence in my house, which I am tending to satisfy both religions. How are Christians dealing with these?” I replied to Keiichi with wisdom from the Scriptures on how Christians are processing and disposing of such things. I invited him to contact me whenever necessary for specific help in the matter.

• Pray for Keiichi, for the Holy Spirit to be with him so he will repent and find the way and genuine faith in Christ.

Akiko was injured after falling a few months ago. She is sixty-five and a Christian. She has been in rehab and staying at her house for the rest of the time. We were able to see her again just recently after missing her for quite a while. Akiko attended our worship service twice a month after her mother moved to a care home in the same city. Before that, she was faithfully attending her mother most of the weekends.

Akiko shared with us that this was an incredible year because God’s grace was revealed multiple times amongst the difficulties and hardships. Akiko is not fully recovered but desires to attend the worship service with our group as much as possible. Pray for her faith walk and ability to commit to the church. We heard that Akiko typically is only interested in each church for a short time at each of her previous attending churches.

• Pray for the Lord to renew her faith walk so she can focus on God every day.

Our larger-scale outreach programs are still on hold due to the distancing policies from the corona preventive efforts. As such, we could not hold an outreach to the community for Christmas, but we did have joy without our group with special worship in the morning and a homey scale gathering celebration in the afternoon of the Sunday before Christmas.

Pray for us to stand firm in our faith walk and for our church to unite through our regular prayer meeting.

• Pray for God to encourage one or two men from the regular attendees to share the same heart and vision as me to serve the church. I am praying for a prospective church lay leader.

There has been an increasing number of coronavirus affected patients in our area. We hope to carry on our onsite worship services as our group averages fifteen attendees, including those online. We are considering switching back to the live streaming worship and the weekly prayer meeting online.

• Pray for discernment for holding outreach activities under these circumstances.

We set the theme and my preaching series for this year as First John.

• Pray for the church members to be firm in their faith as we learn and grow together through the Bible studies despite the unknowns of life.

We had a testimonial fellowship to reflect upon the last year. Many shared the difficulty of not meeting together during the spring. During all the corona effects, most people also shared about God’s grace and the renewed opportunity to realize His truth in all aspects of life, even during the world’s hardships. We praise God for bringing His very best upon each of us.

September/ October 2020

Our average attendance for the past month was fifteen people at the worship service, including those who participated through the online live streaming. Our church membership is now eight people. We had the membership transfer ceremony for Kenji and Sumiko, where they shared their testimony and said the pledge of commitment as official church members to God and the congregation. This moment was one of great praise for the Lord’s grace and guidance upon this couple. We rejoice to welcome them as church members and serve as Christ’s body together.

Shuji is seventy-five and a widower. He has kept his weekly attendance for the worship service online since the beginning of the pandemic. We thank you for your prayers for Shuji. He came to the church in person to welcome Kenji and Sumiko as members during the celebration. Shuji shared his reflections on the last nine months and how his faith has been affected by the coronavirus. Shuji realized that he was pushing himself to get over the coronavirus time purely by human effort. He repented for not relying on God as much as he should have been. Now Shuji is attending the worship service at church every Sunday.

• Pray for Shuji to become more confident in his faith during this time.
• Pray for the fellowship with other believers to encourage one another.

Praise the Lord that we can welcome Kenji and Sumiko as members of our church.

• Pray for their witness and testimony to others.

Emiko is a Christian in her fifties and is married. She had come to our worship service once before at our old building. She said she had visited quite a few churches but was still searching for a fellowship where she felt at home. Her husband is also a Christian. For some reason, however, Emiko does not feel comfortable attending her husband’s church; instead, she described it as painful to go to that church. Emiko is facing the reality that she and her husband are attending different churches and knows it would be ideal to be at the same church. She has expressed concern that this difference of opinion affects the unity of their faith walk and causes a lack of communication. Her prayer request is to find the best answer from God for a solution as a Christian couple. I advised Emiko to encourage opportunities to pray together with her husband.

• Pray for Emiko and her husband to find a solution to their church attendance.
• Pray for Emiko and her husband to be united in their faith walk.

Hiroshi and Asako are continuing their regular Bible study after the Sunday service along with their son Yutaka. They are Christians. The reading is an excellent opportunity for Hiroshi; he explores the Bible with eagerness and asks many questions. Asako is curious as well but has limited time each day to read the Bible as she works full-time and is busy with childcare. Some of the Bible study content is challenging for their son Yukata, but I see that he is learning during the process.

• Pray for the Bible study to be beneficial for Hiroshi and Asako’s family, to bring them together in harmony as a family.
• Pray for them to become members of our church. We rely on God’s leading but are praying to have a welcome ceremony towards the end of the year.

We still have the outreach opportunities to the community on hold for the time being due to the distance policies as corona preventive efforts. Next month, as a church group, we discuss our Christmas event and prepare for natural disasters as typhoon season is approaching. Despite the limited outreach opportunities, we are still adding new members to our church. As a group, we sense that our hearts are being renewed in serving God.

• Pray for one or more of the men who are regular attendants to step into more ministry roles. I am praying for those who share the same heart and vision to serve the church together and for a prospective church lay leader.

August 2020

Kenji and Sumiko have completed the weekly discipleship Bible studies for the membership course. They described their time as an eye-opening experience and expressed that they had never concentrated on studying the Bible in the past. I am hoping they will apply what they have learned during the study to their everyday lives.

We received consent from the pastor of their previous church to transfer their membership to our group. Once we received the pastor’s acknowledgment paper, we will be accepting Kenji and Sumiko officially as church members. We are looking forward to the occasion.

• Pray for Kenji and Sumiko to grow in their faith and rest in the comfort of God’s love.

Just this past month, I started a series of Bible studies with Hiroshi and Asako.  I heard their views and understanding about God, the Bible, their faith walk, and other topics. For several years after they were baptized, they attended a church. Somehow, they stopped attending church and have been doing their devotions and worship at home for years. I sense that this couple needs to learn and understand what church means, according to the Bible.  They have a son named Yutaka.

• Pray for Hiroshi and Asako to have a good grasp of who God is and how He loves us so that their faith will be healthier and they may serve God.

Haruo is not a believer. We have asked you to pray for him in past reports. Haruo had not been attending the church for over half the year because of COVID-19. However, he recently came for a Sunday service. I was delighted to see him again and pray that he will seek the truth and profess Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. I am hoping and attempting to get connected with Haruo more frequently. His wife is a Christian. She is originally from China and is there currently visiting family.

It is getting harder each month to plan specific outreach opportunities under the current circumstances. Entire local communities are avoiding gathering events due to COVID-19 concerns. So due to these challenges, I am focusing on contact with the faithful believers who stand firm in faith so they will be the core members of our church groups.

As we approach the typhoon season soon, we remember what we endured last year with power and water outages. We have been discussing specific items to enter this season with more preparedness.

• Pray for the two couples, Kenji and Sumiko, and Hiroshi and Asako, for their spiritual growth as they move forward to becoming members of our church.
• Pray for Hidetoshi; he has been attending our church for over two years and desires to become a full member.
• Pray that I may assist him properly in this process as he seeks the Lord’s guidance and leading.
• Pray for God to sustain each church member’s spiritual walk and for them to be witnesses.

July 2020

I have been meeting Kenji and Sumiko every week for discipleship Bible study as part of the membership course. They described our time in God’s Word as an eye-opening experience. Kenji and Sumiko appear renewed each time and are eager to have Bible-based and Christ-centered faith walks; they repented about not acknowledging God enough in their daily lives. It might take a while to complete the course as I encourage the understanding of Biblical principles and life application. I am conscious of their age and the fact that they have not had formal Bible training. The couple describes their past faith walk as not being genuine. 

We are looking forward to the time when Kenji and Sumiko will be fully ready to be our church members. 

• Pray for Kenji and Sumiko to grow in their faith and understanding of God’s Word. 

Hiroshi and Asako have been attending our church every Sunday since the summer. We have asked the family if they intend to become church members with us officially. They have decided to transfer their membership from their previous church to us and gave us the necessary papers to do this transferal of membership. We started the membership course last month. I hope they will study and apply the Bible-based ways of living and for our entire congregation to have unity in Christ. 

Their son Yutaka is in the fifth grade. He seems to be enjoying the Kids Time during the service. Yutaka intently focuses on listening to the sermon messages and is always taking notes. 

• Pray for Hiroshi and Asaka to be well-prepared and equipped with sound knowledge from the Bible as they become new church members.
• Pray for Yukata to grow in his relationship with Jesus Christ. 

It is getting harder each month to plan specific outreach opportunities as the local communities avoid group events. I am convinced that this challenge has caused us to sharpen our sense of discernment on our ministry’s essential elements and why they are crucial. We took the opportunity to review past activities as well. As a church, we feel challenged by God in the right way and are drawing closer to each other. In each process of ministry, we would like to be conscious of what God is telling us. 

• Pray for two non-believers that we met just before the coronavirus pandemic began. We are keeping in touch with them via texting.
• Pray that God will reveal Himself to them. I am praying that these two non-believers will come back to the church someday. 

• Pray for the Lord to keep each church members in spiritually healthy faith.
• Pray for each believer to be witnessing to others around them.
• Pray for discernment as we evaluate future outreach opportunities. 

June 2020

Kenji and Sumiko have been attending our worship service since last February. During the curfew, they have been worshipping the Lord via our live streaming. This couple is in the process of transferring their church membership to our group officially. They met with the pastor of their former church to discuss the transfer, and he acknowledged the request. Kenji and Sumiko said they had never received formal Bible study training before. Thus, we started to have once a week discipleship studies with the couple. They are elderly but show so much enthusiasm for studying God’s truth that they regard themselves as young new Christians.

• Pray for Kenji and Sumiko.
• Pray for their study of the Bible’s truth and for them to become firm believers and additional members to our group.

Shuji, a believer in his seventies, is a core member of our group and has been refraining from attending our onsite gathering since last spring. I understand that he is afraid of spreading the virus to other people over concerns that he might be an asymptomatic carrier. Shuji is faithful in sending the church his offerings.

• Pray for Shuji’s spiritual walk and his health.

Since late spring, we have been meeting together for worship service with those who desired the in-person fellowship. We have ten adults and four children, on average, attending the Sunday services. Five people watch our live streaming. At first, we could not identify who was watching the live streaming as it was open to the public. This situation was concerning to me, especially as someone could conclude that watching the streaming was the best and most convenient way to worship the Lord, rather than this method being a compromise during abnormal times from corona-preventive efforts. So during the summer, we switched our streaming service from being public to limited to the members who have links.

We closed the English Academy for children and Ukulele classes. However, we are praying and seeking God’s wisdom to discern what type of ministry might be more suited to this time.

Pray for the pastor’s family and for our needs to be met. Our income has decreased since we canceled the English courses, and lower offerings have also affected our church finances. We day by day walk in Christ, seeking the best in Him, and knowing that God provides for us.

• Pray for us to be faithful in the Lord continuously.

We have been focusing on member care for our regular attendants versus reaching out to the world or new people. We are thankful to God for the things He works for good among our group. Some who were not consistent attendees before are now attending the Sunday service every week as they realized what it means to “walk in faith.” Pray for our members’ spiritual growth.

May 2020

We are still refraining from official gathering for worship services due to the influence of the coronavirus. Despite this, I have had opportunities to meet in person with Kenji and Sumiko, the Christian couple in their seventies. They started to share and reveal their concerns with their previous church. The core issue has to do with a newly appointed pastor who was primarily preaching about the financial growth of the church as a priority over the general spiritual need of the whole congregation. Their concerns grew when the pastor continued to emphasize the topic of church finances rather than truth.

I anticipate having Bible study sessions with Kenji and Sumiko. Considering how the Japanese churches operate, this couple by formality needs to exit from their former church to become members of our group. I sense I need to contact and speak with the pastor of their previous church.

• Pray for wisdom in my conversation with the pastor of this other church.
• Pray for Kenji and Sumiko to be secure in their faith walk and for God’s protection.

Isao also used to attend the same church as Kenji and Sumiko but is not attending that church any longer. His testimony of how he became a professing believer was touching. Isao is an economist. While he was a scholar of economics, he found universal truth in his studies. He became a Christian when his sister, who is also a believer, reached out to him with the gospel. I hope to get to know Isao more, and there is potential that he plans to keep attending our group. I intend to talk with him about his faith.

• Pray for wisdom from God for guiding Isao in his faith walk.
• Pray for Isao and his faith walk.

The emergency declaration due to the coronavirus has been lifted, and we resumed having an on-site worship service at the end of last month. We had ten adults and four children who were comfortable enough to attend in person. On the same day, we still did the online streaming of the worship, and four people participated online. We intend to continue doing worship services in person and online streaming for this upcoming month. I suspect there are more viewers on the service than the actual count of the online attendance.

As a result of cancellations of the English classes for three months due to the coronavirus preventive effort, quite a few of the youth have left membership or called to request a status of leave. We decided to completely close the English Academy until the time that people start to feel safe interacting with others again. Despite the publicized expectations of a second and third wave of coronavirus affecting the entire world, we are praying and hoping to reopen the school someday. I intend to keep in touch with the families and check-in with their desires for opening the school again.

• Pray for the English Academy to be able to reopen as it is an excellent evangelism opportunity.

It was a great pleasure for the church when the state of emergency was declared over by the local government, and we were able to worship together again.

• Pray that each of us will continue to listen to the Word during this ordeal and that we would be more faithful in our service to God and at the church.

Due to the pandemic, many annual events we had planned were canceled or reconsidered. However, we are committed to praying and talking about what we can do in this current situation.

• Pray for us, especially that as a church, we can discern what is needed and how to best accomplish it.
• Pray for the believers to grow in their faith during this time and for the church to be united.
• Pray for discernment in planning events and the best timing.

April 2020

Kenji and Sumiko are a Christian couple in their seventies. Previously, I shared that they had recently left another church due to concerns about that church. Due to the coronavirus, they are worshiping from their home while watching our live streaming online. Recently, I had the opportunity to talk with them. We learned that Kenji had a fractured left rib and was feeling weak for a while. He also is worried about adapting himself to our new church and is worrying about his future life. I expressed to them all the possible ways we as a church can offer our assistance. Then we prayed together. They have been sharing their desire to transfer their church membership from the previous church to our group. We agreed to cover the membership course and are planning to wait until the lifting of the coronavirus-isolation mandate.

• Pray for Kenji and Sumiko

Due to the influence of the coronavirus, Morikazu continues to limit his going-out activities. Thus, we are not able to see each other. As I have shared previously, Morikazu is in his forties and is not yet a believer but is showing interest in Christianity. I added another church member in my email threads with Morikazu, and we continue to text and email regularly to encourage each other. It was good to hear that Morikazu is watching our live streaming Sunday worship from his home.

• Pray for God to comfort Morikazu and to sustain him in this current situation.
• Pray for Morikazu to continue to seek God and to one day proclaim faith in Jesus Christ.

For this upcoming month, we anticipate continuing our live streaming. Our worship service average attendance has been ten people, including those who are attending the online service. We noticed an increase in attendees that began when we went online in comparison to the number present at the church before the corona-time. The actual viewer figure on Youtube is even higher.

Due to the current situation, I am thinking more in-depth about how effectively we are reaching the people in our community. Amid all the inconveniences and gathering restrictions due to the coronavirus mandates, I have seen positive aspects and outcomes. I am seriously considering producing more messages and looking at the potential of online programs. My motivation to expand our online presence is due to the apparent increase in people we have connected with through the internet.

• Pray for wisdom as I consider increasing our online activities, programs, and messages.
• Pray for more people to come to know Jesus Christ through this situation.

We are currently not doing face-to-face meetings for the English class nor the Ukulele class; this decision is in line with the public mandate to not hold classes or courses in schools. Unfortunately, there has been a public announcement to extend this mandate. Some students have withdrawn their membership in these classes due to their family’s financial hardship. If this trend continues, we will face severe difficulties in maintaining these classes.

• Pray for the English and Ukelele classes to survive this time of turmoil. These programs are significant outreach and evangelism opportunities.

In the current situation, we have had limited opportunities to meet in person. I am praying for the members to think through the definitions of what’ church,’ ‘worship,’ and ‘faith’ mean. Please join us in prayer that God would protect us and our faith and that we hear His words and guidance.

• Pray for the church members to walk in a manner pleasing to the Lord and that we can continue our outreach.
• Pray for the gospel never to be stopped or contained by the restrictions put in place.
• Pray for courage and boldness to continue to preach the good news and for wisdom in navigating the mandates.

March 2020

Kenji and Sumiko, who I spoke of in last month’s report, have been attending our service regularly. I had the opportunity to talk with them in person, and they shared their desire to transfer their membership from their previous church to our church. They had been attending this another church nearby for quite a few years. Still, they stated that they had concerns regarding an interpersonal issue, but that the problem was more complicated, affecting quite a few of the church members and causing a group of them to leave the church. They do not desire to speak about this issue in detail. I would appreciate your prayers for discernment as I intend to have more dialogue with them regarding these events. I also plan to get in touch with a relevant person at the other church. I know this entire issue will take time and prayers. Pray for their faith walk. I have not personally been involved in a membership transfer, particularly from this other church. I am willing to proceed gradually and hope to make the whole process appropriate for all related parties.

• Pray for Kenji and Sumiko as they integrate into our church, pray for their faith and healing.
• Pray for wisdom and discernment for myself as the pastor and that I can guide them through this issue.

Morikazu has been attending worship service every week for about eighteen months. I am thankful that we have developed our relationship through fellowship and Bible study. Recently, he has been limiting his activities, including church attendance, due to concerns about the coronavirus. Pray for Morikazu to continue to seek God at this crucial time. We are continuing to communicate via email. Morikazu is in his forties and is interested in Christianity but has not yet proclaimed faith in God.

• Pray for Morikazu to take the step of faith and accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.

Haruro, not a believer, had been attending the worship with his wife, who is a believer. He is in his sixties. Communities in Japan are sheltering-in to attempt the spreading of the coronavirus.  We are unable to meet and worship together as a church. I am praying for Haruro not to become more distant from God at this time but to continue to seek Him.

• Pray for Haruro and his wife to have peace and comfort in God during this pandemic.
• Pray for Haruro to see her testimony of faith and choose to follow God as well.

We intend to continue our worship service via live streaming on the internet. We are not doing the English class or ukulele class in person. There is much uncertainty about when we will be able to resume our normal ministry activities. We are hoping and praying to meet together again soon. We had heard the local public schools were planning to resume some school activities this month, but we know that could change at any time. At the end of the month, we have an annual fun activity speech recital, but we are not confident that this will occur as planned.

• Pray for ministry activities to continue despite the unique obstacles that we currently face.
• Pray for fellowship with each other.
• Pray for us to have Godly fear and trust our Lord more through this situation.
• Pray for God’s wisdom, guidance, and protection upon all of us.

For myself, I would appreciate your prayers for clear direction and vision to reach each person individually, how to appropriately maintain our church growth and specific ideas on how to continue the same level of evangelism.

February 2020

Seiya is the husband of Kimiko; we shared about Kimiko in last month’s report. Seiya is in his twenties and not a believer. The couple came for service last month, and the entire congregation prayed for them as Kimiko is pregnant, and her due date is close. Seiya lives and works in Aomori but came to visit his wife while she’s staying with the Nara family. It was his first time to step into a Christian church to join a service. Thus, it was his first time hearing the gospel.

• Pray for Seiya and Kimiko so that the Holy Spirit will touch their hearts and bring them to faith in Jesus Christ.
• Pray for their baby to be born safe and well. As a church, we have been asking for wisdom and clarity in our conversations.
• Pray for Kimiko’s understanding of the truth to cause her to have faith in God.

Kenji and Sumiko are a Christian couple in their seventies. They visited us for the first time at the beginning of last month and have returned every Sunday. They had been attending another church on the other side of the city, Oami Shirasato, for over ten years. They shared some concerns about trouble in this church, and we are praying that we can hear more as they get more comfortable sharing. Kenji and Sumiko stated they are afraid they will lose their hope and faith in God if they continue to attend this other church. Instead, they desire to continue to fellowship with our group.

• Pray for me to have proper discernment in discovering what this couple’s needs are.
• Pray for God’s leading and guidance as I minister to Kenji and Sumiko.

Pray for Covid-19 (coronavirus) to be stabilized. So far, no one in our church or immediate area has been affected; however, we know many are concerned. We have decided to put a hold on having gatherings, including the ukulele class and Kids English class, until we find out more about COVID-19. We are praying daily for our member’s health. We also pray that each one looks to God to walk in His spirit day by day, and for God to protect each one’s faith.

January 2020

The Nara family who attended our church in the past came back. Kimiko is the second daughter of the Nara couple and is expecting a baby early in March. She is staying with the Nara’s till the time the baby is born. They are praying for her to be saved in Christ. The Naras are attending another church in Tokyo, but they thought it was too far away for Kimiko while she is pregnant.

• Pray for Kimiko to be saved, pray for health, and safe birth for her baby.
• Pray for Nara’s family faith walk.

We had our first men’s fellowship this last month. It will be a monthly gathering on the fourth Saturday in the afternoon. We had five men at this first casual meeting. We introduced each other and spent some time brainstorming the style and direction of the group. There are a couple of non-Christians in the group; with this in mind, I plan to have a good sharing time to encourage friendships and promote talk of various topics.

• Pray for this group to provide a setting for the Christians to witness to others and for the non-Christians to understand salvation.

We started another new group called Bible Reading and Discussion Time held at a local community center. This group is not actuality initiated by us as the church but is affiliated with the Civic Center community culture courses. Our church member, Araya, introduced the church to the Civic Center. The group started with four people, and I consider this a good start, although everyone in the group currently attends our church.

• Pray for more people to be led to this group so the Christians can share our testimonies to those who are interested but not yet ready to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior.

December 2019

Our Christmas service was a blessed time of fellowship with each other. We had fourteen adults and four children who attended and were genuinely worshiping our Lord and Savior.

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Keiko visited our group on the day of Christmas worship. She stayed for lunch and the afternoon fellowship and seemed to enjoy our time together. We learned that Keiko used to attend another church where she was baptized. At that time, she was unable to be actively involved in the church as she was busy with work. She recently moved to our area. Keiko seems excited about coming back to church regularly. We did not hear much about her story, but she is divorced and in her sixties. We expect to hear more sometime.

• Pray for Keiko to have God’s guidance and provision for her spiritual growth so that she is a devoted believer.

Sachiko is my mother-in-law, and we shared about her in the report last summer when she moved back to be with her older son. Her husband passed away more than four years ago. Unfortunately, she was not doing well as she was living by herself, despite being near family, and was not able to attend church very often. Sachiko moved back to Chiba, where we are located. She seems to be feeling better as she is again able to participate in church. We are praying for Sachiko to regain energy and physical strength.

Thank you for praying for my wife last month. Her second surgery went well, and the doctor says her recovery has been consistent. Our children seem to be relieved to hear this good news. Pray for complete healing, the doctor says healing takes typically eight months. Before the surgery, my wife was working full-time as a registered dietician. For her physical health, and the need to provide to our own family and church members, she reduced her work hours to part-time, less than four hours a week. Pray that my wife would receive adequate care from church fellowship and for our household finances as her earnings are reduced. Our desire is to walk in faith in Christ.

• Pray for the pastor’s family as they face these adjustments and for comfort and peace in God.

• Pray for new people to come to the church and to come to know God.
• Pray for the persistent efforts of the pastor as he shares the gospel with the Japanese people.

November 2019

Morikazu has been working on Sundays, so he has been unable to attend each week. He still comes every other week. Recently, someone asked Morikazu if he had considered and prayed about being baptized. They shared with me that he replied that baptism was something he had been thinking about. I am praying that I can lead and teach Morikazu well. He understands the concept of a true and living God. But I observe that his understanding of sin and repentance is not quite complete. I pray that the Holy Spirit will touch his heart and cause Morikazu to repent and accept Christ.

• Pray for Morikazu to completely understand his need for a Savior and pray for his interest in baptism.

We have more men than women in our church, among both the believers and those who are still considering salvation. I counted eleven men, attendees of the worship service, and others who I have contact with regularly. I have been praying about starting a men’s fellowship, and informally invited a few men to meet once or twice a month. I intend to have a time of prayer, studying the Word of God, and fellowship.

• Pray that the men would be willing to participate in this group and for God to use this opportunity to touch the hearts of the people.

We have fourteen children coming to our English class for kids. We hope for this group to grow to thirty children. We lately reorganized the English course activities with new materials and a new logo. I use some of our time to share the Bible in between the classes.

• Pray for more opportunities to meet people through the English class and for the children and parents to hear the good news.

We pray the children and their parents will desire to know the Truth and come to faith in Jesus Christ.

• Pray for my wife, she is having another surgery to repair a complication after the surgery to remove her wisdom teeth. It will be her first time undergoing general anesthesia.

Pray for her to have peace, healing, and for the pain to be more manageable.

October 2019

Keiko came to our church for the first time this month. She is a believer and was baptized ten years ago at another church. Keiko recently moved to our area and at her previous location, generally had to work on Sundays. But Keiko now has weekends off, so she can come to church. Pray for her to continue to attend the service, and have a growing faith. At her initial visit, we were not able to talk much, so we are looking forward to getting to know her more in the future.

• Pray for Keiko to make connections at the church and continue to attend.

Kenichiro and Yoshie are members of our church. They are a couple in their forties. Their house was affected by the recent typhoon, and the roof was damaged. They are making the necessary arrangements to fix this problem.

• Pray for Kenichiro and Yoshie as they face this inconvenience, and for their financial needs for their house renovation.
• Pray for them both to stand firm in their faith in Christ.

Youichi used to work for a trading company.  Now he is retired, in his eighties, and holds Chinese tea classes locally. He came to our special event about art by Pastor Atsuhiko. One of our church members, Hidetoshi, invited Youichi and his wife. We learned that Youichi attended a local drawing class and was very interested in art. He asked many questions of the pastor about the faith of Gogh.

• Pray for us to keep a good relationship with Youichi and for opportunities to share the gospel.

September 2019

Hiroshi comes for a single Sunday worship, every three months or so, with his wife and son. Hiroshi has a Buddhist background and was a staunch Buddhist. He studied in the States during high school, and his Christian host family was the first to reach out to him with the gospel. At first, Hirhosi shared with us that he rejected believing in God. Still, after he returned to Japan, he visited churches for several years despite not yet understanding the gospel. Later, he was saved and baptized along with his wife at a church affiliated with the Holiness Church group. Hiroshi was eager in his spiritual growth but seemed to have only been making a human effort at serving and ended up leaving that church. Unfortunately, he has not been attending any church regularly for a while now. We did learn that Hiroshi is reading his Bible every day. We speak about the Bible each time we see each other. He has not come back to the Sunday church fellowship yet. I desire to help Hiroshi comprehend church and the importance of fellowship with other believers.

• Pray for Hiroshi so that he understands the importance of connecting and serving in a local church.
• Pray that I would have discernment in sharing appropriate advice to Hiroshi to encourage him to have a healthy Christian walk.

My wife, Yuriko, has been working part-time as a Registered Dietician to help with our finances. Recently, the hospital she works for asked her to work full-time. We spent time in prayer to evaluate the pros and cons, especially with regards to the potential effects on our family if she increases her hours. After our prayer, we decided it would work for her to go full-time at the hospital. Her boss is understanding of her need to take Sundays off because of church activities. Yuriko is working Monday through Friday and sometimes on Saturdays. It has been ten years since she last worked full-time, and I see her exhaustion after work. Her lower back has been tight and sore.

• Pray for Yuriko’s physical strength at work and for witnessing opportunities at the hospital.

This month, a typhoon affected the Chiba area. At the church building, our water was cut off for several days, and at our residence, we were out of power for twelve days. Even despite the disaster and inconveniences, we were able to hold worship services. We are thankful for the chance to fellowship together. We sense God working in this country and have been very encouraged. Thank you all for your prayers.

• Pray for the church members to have safety and protection despite the typhoon.
• Pray for God to draw people to Him through these events.

August 2019

Morikazu is in his late forties and seeking for the truth. He actively helped with the Vacation English Church Camp and since then has been faithful in attending the church. He also participates in other church activities. Through the Sunday sermon and individual conversations during our fellowship time, he has found many of the answers to his questions. Intellectually, he has a good understanding of the truth and faith. Our prayer is for the Holy Spirit to touch his heart and lead him to realize his sin and need for true repentance.

• Pray for Morikazu to have a personal relationship with God and become a believer.

Haruo is in his sixties and he got married to a Chinese woman three years ago. He is not yet a believer but his wife is a Christian. They have been in our group for Sunday worship and fellowship for the past year and a half. Haruo continues to attend the church by himself when his wife is in China for long visits. He enjoys fellowshipping with the people at the church and does not view Christianity in a spiritual sense, but rather as an exchange of friendships. He appears to see Christianity as one of many religions. Pray for the Holy Spirit to speak to Haruo through the scripture.

• Pray for Haruo to understand that Christianity is not simply another religion but to comprehend the scriptures and see the transformation of the gospel in the lives of the people in the church.

Hiroko, a non-believer, is the wife of Hidetoshi, a believer. Hiroko invited the VECC team for a Japanese tea ceremony experience and meal. It was my first time meeting her, although she was the one who found our church on the internet and encouraged her husband to join us when they moved to the area last year. We had invited her to come to the church in the past, however somewhere it did not work out for her to join us. We know she doesn’t dislike us, but she prefers to invite people to her home. She seems hesitant to join existing church activities, but we are planning to invite her to an informal Bible study or Bible talk session. Pray for Hiroko to open her heart to the gospel.

• Pray for Hiroko to come to the church and fellowship with the believers.
• Pray for her to be open to hearing about salvation.

July 2019

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Morikazu has been attending the Worship service most Sundays. He came to help the USA team with our Vacation English Church Camp and heard their salvation testimonies. I am praying for this experience to make a big impact on him as he saw the Christians on the USA team in addition to having fellowship with Japanese Christians. We are hoping Morikazu sees the attitudes and hearts of believers towards God. One of the church members casually asked him how he felt about baptism the other day, and this believer remarked that his reply was positive. Pray with us for the Holy Spirit to lead Morikazu to true repentance and salvation.

• Pray for Morikazu to make the decision to trust and believe in God for salvation and for the realization that he needs Jesus to be his Savior.

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The Vacation English Church Camp was excellent. We had twenty-six youth total for the five-day program. Twenty of them were first-time visitors. We praise God for the White Fields team from the USA who came. We had fun activities such as English lessons, dancing and worship, arts and crafts, and games. The theme was “Live (Walk) as Children of Light” with a message from the Bible about courage, forgiveness, giving, obedience, and humility. I praise God that many of the youth were eagerly listening during the Bible message. The whole church was encouraged by the team and some of the church members were able to join the group and help with the camp. The USA team had great fellowship and were able to explore Japanese food and experience Japan. Praise the Lord.

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Sachiko is my mother-in-law. She moved in with us here in Chiba, when her husband passed away four years ago. She had been living in Kochi (Shikoku Island). Recently, my wife and her siblings had a conversation, resulting in Sachiko deciding to move back to Kochi where my wife’s older brother still lives. Pray for her new life and for this adjustment, she is moving to a new location within Kochi than where she lived before.

• Pray for Sachiko and the families involved to adjust to this change in their lives.
• Pray for Sachiko as she settles into a new area in Kochi.

• Pray for the youth who heard God’s Word to continue to think about the concepts they learned and to come again to the church to hear more about God’s Love.
• Pray for the parents to be willing to have their children attend the church.
• Pray for the influence of the church on the community.

Praise the Lord for the success of this new event and for excellent attendance.

June 2019

We are continuing our individual Bible study with Morikazu. We have covered many topics including, creation of the heaven and earth, sin, the Savior Jesus Christ, salvation, and repentance. Morikazu has many questions, and at each session, I spend time answering these questions. He seems to be understanding the Bible little by little but has not yet reached the point of understanding true repentance. He does understand that being self-centered is a sin, and he desires to help and care for others.

• Pray for Morikazu to be to repentance by the Holy Spirit and to not merely acquire an intellectual knowledge of the Bible.

The Tada family moved from Kansai in the west-central part of Japan about three years ago. The mother, Yuka, has been bringing their child to English class and ukulele class for the past two years. Sometimes the father brings their child to the English group. This family has not yet attended a worship service, but the whole family came for the candle service last Christmas.

• Pray for a witnessing opportunity so we can share the gospel with the Tada family.
• Pray for us to learn how we can support the Tada family and know what their needs are.

We are thankful for the White Fields team to come for the VEBC, Vacation English Bible School, this month.

• Pray for the gospel to touch the hearts of the children who attend the camp.
• Pray for Japanese and USA team to work together and for safe travels.

May 2019

Osamu and Noriko are believers in their fifties with a daughter, Manami, in her twenties. Osamu and Noriko have been attending church every week. Their house is so close to the church building that they state the cross on the roof is visible from their home. Manami gave birth to a baby girl in April. The whole family is quite busy every day caring for this precious child, so they leave immediately after the service. We are hoping to have more fellowship with them once they are more settled.

• Pray for Osamu, Noriko, Manami, and her baby girl, to enjoy this blessed time together.
• Pray for everyone to get enough rest.

I started an individual Bible study with an unbeliever who is curious about salvation, and we meet weekly after the lunch fellowship following the Sunday service. I had thought that Morikazu believed evolution as he has a science and technology background. But one day, Morikazu said, “all the beauty of nature and the wonder of phenomena are perhaps only by one ultimate designer, and that designer may be the Creator.” He seems to be a bit confused as we studied about sin in one of the chapters. In the Japanese language, we use the same word tsumi to mean both sin and crime.  Morikazu read tsumi in the material multiple times during our Bible study. Our prayer is that the Holy Spirit will touch the heart of Morikazu and cause him to repent and have faith in Christ, not just to have a desire to increase his knowledge about the Bible.

• Pray for Morikazu’s desire to know more about the Bible to bring forth the understanding of his need for a Savior.
• Pray for wisdom for Pastor Kubo as he teaches through the Bible with Morikazu and explains the concept of sin.

Keiichi visited us at the church once. He is in his sixties, married, and not a believer. Since his first visit, we have corresponded through email. Keiichi runs an eyeglass shop. I visited his shop the other day to buy new glasses for my mother. When I was there, I saw Keiichi and met his wife for the first time. Since it was during business hours, we could not spend much time to talk about the Bible. Keiichi continues to send me various questions while he reads the Bible. One of his recent concerns was, “do we get rid of the Buddhist altar and the Shito alter once we become Christians?” Last year, he left and cut off his relationship with the Buddhist priest at a temple where he had been connected for many years. After his mother passed away, Keiichi said he often thinks about life after death. This led to his desire to know the truth. He may be thinking about becoming a Christian, but we do not want to see him just switch from Buddhism to be a churchgoer, we desire him to have a personal relationship with God.

• Pray for Keiichi to be led by the Holy Spirit as he continues to read the Bible in search of the truth, pray for him to come to repentance leading to salvation.

We are thankful for the team being sent by White Fields this summer for our VEBC (Vacation English Bible Camp) at the end of this month. Please remember the team in your prayers, for joy and unity as a team and for the necessary preparations to take place.

• Pray for wisdom as the Japan details are completed and for more than thirty youth to sign up.

We currently have twenty children signed up. Praise the Lord!

• Pray for the gospel message to touch the hearts of those who attend the camp.
• Pray for safe travel and protection for the team and for unity as we work together.

April 2019

The Nara family have been attending the service since March, they live ten-minutes way walking distance from the church. Osamu and Noriko are both Christians.  My understanding is that they participated in a church in Tokyo in the past, they do not talk much about this church even though I have asked, I suspect they do not have good memories of this place. They had not been attending any church recently until they started joining our group. Manami is the daughter of Osamu and Noriko. She is expecting a baby and has been staying at her parent’s house in preparation for the birth. In Japan, it is common for a daughter to stay at her parent’s home when it is close to the time for the baby to be born. Manami shared with us that she wants to renew her faith since she is becoming a mother, she grew up in a Christian home. We know that her husband is not a believer.

Since writing this report, Manami had a baby girl.

• Pray for the mother and baby to have good health. We are also praying for Manami to profess faith in Christ.

• Pray for Osamu and Noriko to have a blessed faith walk and to keep up consistency with their faith.
• Pray for Manami to have good health and for her baby girl to be healthy.
• Pray for Manami to understand salvation and declare Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of her life, and also remember her husband.

Morikazu is a single male in his forties. We had been hoping to start an individual Bible study with him in April, but he was so busy at work for the entire month, so we did not have a session at all. He is at a new division in his company and decided that having a Bible study regularly on an evening weeknight would be too challenging. So we are planning to start this month after the service on Sundays. For the past six months, Morikazu has attended worship each Sunday in addition to almost all the church gatherings and activities. He has his own Bible and eagerly listens and takes notes of all the preaching. We see his intellectual desire to know more about the truth. Our prayer is that the Holy Spirit will touch Morikazu and cause him to repent and declare faith in Christ, not just for him to desire to increase his knowledge about the Bible.

• Pray for Morikazu to desire a relationship with God more than knowledge about God.
• Pray for his understanding of salvation to cause him to declare his need for the Lord Jesus Christ to be his Savior.

We are thankful for the team being sent by White Fields this summer for the VEBC (Vacation English Bible Camp).

• Please pray for joy and unity for the American team as they prepare for the camp.
• Pray for the Japan team to accomplish all the necessities as well.
• Pray for over thirty youth to attend.
• Pray for the gospel to touch the hearts of those who come and hear the good news from the Bible.

March 2019

Thank you for the past financial support and prayer we received. We are thankful for the opportunity to be supported by White Fields again. This past year I was working part-time in addition to my responsibilities at the church. Now due to your support, I can again wholly focus on my core responsibility as a pastor. Words do not express how thankful and grateful I am for your partnership. Our worship service has an average attendance of ten adults and five youth with six church members.

• Pray for our outreach to our community.
• Pray for the Japanese people to understand their need for a Savior.

Morikazu lives close to our church, about a five-minute walking distance. He first saw our tract, which prompted him to start attending our group last summer. Before that, he was going to a Mormon Church because he attended a free English conversation class at the Mormon church because he was interested in learning English. He developed a curiosity about the Bible, but Morikazu noticed that the Mormon group did not talk much about the words of the Bible; instead, they spent a majority of the time on the Mormon text. So he decided to come to our church to learn about the Words in the Bible. He has regularly been attending each week since he first started coming last September. He usually stays for the fellowship and prayer time after the morning worship. Although Morikazu is busy at work every day, we anticipate starting an individual Bible study with him soon. Marikazu is single and in his early forties.

• Pray for Morikazu to repent of his sin and accept Christ the Lord as His Savior.
• Pray for the Bible study to deepen his interest in God’s Word and for his knowledge to lead to an understanding of his need for salvation.

Haruo is in his sixties and married a Chinese believer almost two years ago. Since his wife comes to church, he also comes along. He started coming last October and is regularly attending. I am getting the impression that Haruo thinks he becomes a Christian because of his wife’s influence, someday but not soon. I have been explaining to him the importance of a personal relationship with the Savior and faith is more than merely being converted from one belief to another. We pray for the Holy Spirit to lead and guide Haruo to understand his need for a Savior.

• Pray for Hurou to grasp the concept of a personal relationship with God and understand Christianity and salvation do not rub off a person from another’s faith but requires his participation.
• Pray for him to come to an understanding of salvation through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
• Pray for the pastor to have wisdom as he shares God’s Word.

Keiichi found our church group through the internet. He came to church once, and we talked for a while. I learned that Keiichi knew a Christian group back when he was in his twenties. He is now in his sixties and married. He had read the Bible in the past but had not been to a church for quite a while. At the end of last year, Keiichi lost his mother. This started him thinking about the meaning of life and death and started him on a search for the Truth before his own physical end in this world. We learned later that Keiichi disconnected himself from all ties to the Buddhist temple of his family’s traditions and the entire method of Buddhism. He is concerned about his daughter, who is an adult, and has been withdrawn from society for a while and is deeply involved in spiritual new age ideas. Keiichi runs his own business and has not been able to attend church on Sundays due to this responsibility. We primarily keep in touch via emails.

• Pray for Keiichi to find Truth only possible through Jesus Christ.
• Pray for him to come to an understanding of the gospel and his need for a Savior, and for his repentance leading to salvation.
• Pray for Keiichi’s daughter who seems to be searching for the Truth as well.

Pray for the team from the United States that will be coming for the summer Bible camp. As this is our first year doing this program, pray for our preparations and logistics to go smoothly. Pray our outreach efforts to be successful and especially for the Japanese children who will be there to have a wonderful time and respond when they hear the gospel. Pray for the parents to be willing to allow their children to attend the camp and also to show an interest in the gospel.M

We are currently praying for the White Fields Short Term Ministry Team that will be helping us sponsor a VBS this summer during the school break. I have met with one of the White Fields Alumni Pastors, and his wife, that have a great amount of experience leading evangelistic VBS ministries. Please pray for our partnership with the team as we all prepare for some wonderful ministry together.