OMF’s motto is ‘The Speediest Evangelisation of East Asia’s Millions’. Jesus told us to make disciples! OMF believes that the best way to do this is to incorporate the disciples in churches, which will in time become independent and be in turn be able to plant others. In other words, church planting.

Download a presentation on OMF’s Strategy with Goals for East Japan.

We came to this church in 2001 and Rod is the missionary pastor with Glenda to help him. On 11th March 2011 the whole coast of NE Japan was hit by a 10m tsunami which killed 20,000 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless or with damaged homes. From the start we viewed this as an act of God designed to bring the Japanese to repentance, and as a church we got involved in the relief effort with the emphasis on evangelism. We are able to take the gospel to non-Christians who would not normally be easy to reach. So we are involved in pastoral work, evangelism and tsunami relief work.

Pastoral Work

Preaching. The Sunday message receives a lot of attention and we are currently going through James. For members to have the confidence to bring their family and friends they must be sure that the message will be worth hearing. The style of preaching is expository. Usually I preach through books of the Bible though I feel free to preach on relevant topics as necessary. The sermon is usually about 30 minutes. Preparing a message in Japanese is time consuming. In what way is preaching to a Japanese audience different to a Western one? Well, for a start you have to take into account the background in which they live, ie Japanese society. Pressure to conform at

school and at work, fear of alienating one's family, headlong pursuit of wealth, theological relativity, pervasive pornography, moral vagueness, no biblical background, social idolatry, might-is-right mentality, few really good Christian role models etc all add up to make it hard to be a Japanese Christian. We normally have between 30-35 people.

Bible Study. On Wednesday morning 7-10 church members gather to be taught in depth the Gospel of Luke. In the evening 3-4 of us gather to pray.

Pre-baptismal classes. For those who profess faith we teach them the basics. This will last two or three months depending on progress. Receiving baptism is perceived as crossing the Rubicon. As there is no turning back it is only

for those who mean business. Not surprisingly there are many secret 'believers' who haven't been baptized and incorporated into the life of the church. Perhaps family pressure is the biggest deterrent. A 16 yr old boy is now preparing for baptism. He has been attending our English class and worship for the last 6 years. Perseverance is necessary!

Of course there are many other things to do; the young mother who has just discovered she has serious cancer, the non-Christian who wanders into church with obscure questions, the teenage boy who is causing his widowed mother heartache by mixing with the wrong crowd, the keen believer who wants some bible passage explained, the believing young woman in whose home the parents and elder brother all have mental problems etc... all these have happened recently.

Evangelism

Of course we hope that unbelievers will come to services hear the Word and get saved, but though that sometimes happens, praise God, it is not the rule so as shepherds go out to look for lost sheep and as Peter had to go out into the deep to catch fish so we have go looking for souls!

English Classes. Many are keen to learn conversational English and so to meet this need as well as to introduce the Gospel we teach English. Glenda teaches three English classes a week as well as 2 classes at a university in Sendai. Most churches will have someone saved through English classes.

Hotel weddings. Hotel weddings are now big business in Japan and most missionaries and pastors from time to time are asked to officiate at these functions. About 100 people pack into a chapel attached to a hotel see their friends or family get married. They are expecting to hear about Christianity. It is a golden opportunity to boldly tell them about God's plan for marriage and the way of salvation. Rod does about about 8 weddings a month about 800 people hear the gospel in this way.

Church events. At Christmas and Easter and at other times we will have concerts and other evangelistic events involving the whole church.  

Tracting. Once a month all the church people hand out tracts in the neighbourhood.

Pray for us!!

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