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Recent activities at HBC

Tue, 9 Feb 2010 21:23:37 +0900

January blew by us and things are getting quite busy, again. Pastor Kondo (our senior pastor at HBC) took an annual winter mission trip to the States for three weeks and I was busy doing more of the pastoral duties in his absence than normal weeks, the last few weeks.

I am so glad that the Lord brought many opportunities to grow as a pastor this time as I was with 90 year old brother in Christ have major surgery, removing his cancer and 98 year old brother going through heart failure then in a coma for two weeks, just after doctor decided not to open his skull to drain internal bleeding that was caused by a fall from stairs.

I visited two hospitals everyday for about a week just checking these men and caring for the family. 98 year old beloved man just went to be with the Lord today, leaving 90 year old wife of 70 years behind. Please pray for the salvation of their children and grandchildren. They will hear the Gospel the next couple of days as we have wake and memorial service.

What amazes me through all of that is the grace of God and peace of God just pouring upon the hearts of His children. Every time I spoke with the 90 year old man, he began his sentence with “I am thankful...” That was just so great to hear him say that in the midst of difficult challenge that he was facing.

Caring for their wives have been a great blessing as well. I know I am supposed to comfort them, but they ministered to me more so than me ministering to them. Our God is indeed great God who fills the hurting heart with His grace.

We just had a evangelistic event for college/single adults and about 7 non-believers showed up. I shared from Rom. 5 about the love of God and a few of them listened to me intently. Many of them stayed even after the event and went to dinner with the church people that night. We hope and pray that the Lord will draw them to Himself, as we continue to minister to them.

Spring Joy Joy is approaching quickly with a team from Valley Bible Church. We are beginning to get ready for this event. Summer mission teams are beginning to take shape at Grace Community Church and I am excited to meet with them in a few weeks.

Yes, I am going to LA for TMAI symposium and the Shepherds’ Conference from 2/22-3/8. If you like to connect with me, please email me, I will fit you in my schedule as best as I can.

Translation project is nearing the end, and I am working on the last bits. Hopefully it will be in the hands publisher by April, the Lord willing.

... posted by Daisuke

P.S.
Thank you to Steve and all the guys and gals who came for the AFF the other night to hear me. I hope the time was encouraging and of benefit for you. Your prayers and your interests for the ministry here and for our family have been nothing but great source of encouragement for us. We thank God for you and are remembering you in our prayers.

Finally an update

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:11:43 +0900

Since Thanksgiving, we had various activities and events that filled our lives and kept us busy enough to feel like things are non-stop.

December is one of the busiest time in the life of a church in Japan and HBC was no exception this past December. Various Christmas related special meetings and evangelistic concerts were help at the church and our outreach locations, bringing many non-believing friends and family to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. Our biggest event was a Christmas concert held on the 23rd, which drew over 100 non-believers to the church. We continue to pray that the Lord opens their hearts to Him to know and believe in Him.

2010 seemed to have come all too quickly and I felt like I was not ready to began a new year. I am at the final stage of translating The Gospel According to Jesus and am really ready to be doing some other things. I have learned from this project so much about myself and about the Gospel. But I will be very happy to move forward, once all is finished.

There are a few changes at the institute this coming year with the course schedules and restructuring of the curriculum is the next big thing on the table for me at this point.

We are getting ready to formerly begin a process of electing the leadership of the church under eldership rule. Change of our constitution should be approved by the government this coming week or so, so it will be official soon.

I see a lot of needs as I look at the people of the church. Though the church is over 60 years old, she is still in a child stage. Much work is needed and the Lord continues to bring great opportunities for us to do so.

I will let my wife write on our family front. She says she is meaning to write on our blog. Hope that will happen soon.

Thank you all for kind gifts and encouraging cards. We appreciate you praying for us and ministering with us.

...posted by Daisuke

Happy Thanksgiving

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:05:14 +0900

It’s been a while since the last update. We had some technical problem with the software we use to update this site, but it seems that my temporal fix is working (especially if you are reading this blog entry). A lot has happened within a last couple of months so let me list them up in bullet points.

• HBC has changed its constitution and now is an elder-ruled church.  In the end of October, the church has voted to become elder-ruled church and is now awaiting the approval from the government for the change of our constitution. This has been a long awaited move for the leadership of the church and we are very thankful that the change was accepted well in general among the congregation. There are still much to do in the process, including appointment of additional elders, etc. and drafting of bylaws.

• Translation project is now in a final editing phase.   Main portion of The Gospel According to Jesus has entered its final editing phase this month. I have printed out 250+ pages of text the other day and to see the book in front of me really felt good. The copies are passed onto several members of the church for correction and check, then I will gather them up and make the final edition. I still have a few chapters of appendices left to translate but seeing the end of the long tunnel really feels good. Thank you for your prayers and appreciate the ongoing prayers for the project.

• Change of structure at the Bible Institute  We have thought long and hard, and decided to shift the curriculum of the Institute to module based program from its current semester type program. This was due to professors schedules as well as students needs. What this really means is that I need to come up with a good strategy and plan for putting together new modular courses.

• Sunday School Teacher training  One of the things that I really enjoyed doing recently was a six-week teacher training course with about 20 adults from the church. The course was done in two parts (doctrine of salvation and how to study the Bible) and it really was fun teaching this class. Our Sunday School is in serious need of teachers and I am hoping and praying that some will be desiring to serve in Children’s ministry as a result of this class.

• Marcia’s Mother  As I wrote in the last entry, Marcia was back in the States to care and help her injured mother earlier this month. The kids and I had a good bonding time while she was gone, but we severely missed her. Marcia’s mother is currently back in the hospital, recently receiving a second surgery on her left shoulder. She is scheduled to be back home sometime either this week or the next, but we found out that she has several clots in her lungs and more in her calves. Obviously there are a lot of concerns for her because of this. Please pray that the Lord will be magnified through this whole thing and that we would know and understand His will. She is still in much pain from the original injuries so pray that it will be lessened quickly. Pray that the family will have peace and joy in the midst of the trying situation. And pray that we will have much wisdom in how to help Marcia’s parents, including sending her back to the States for another few weeks.

• Christmas  Beginning next week, Church will have special Christmas events lined up until the Christmas Eve, which will conclude series of special evangelistic ministries with a concert. Christmas is pretty much the only time when general public is interested in Christianity (though in a limited sense) and we try to take advantage of the season. Please pray that many will hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and will come to the saving knowledge of our great King.

• ESL Teachers  I mentioned this in the previous blog post, but we are in need of ESL teachers. If you know of anyone who could be a fit for this position, who can be sent to be a missionary for a year or two, please contact me.

Life goes on with challenges, but the challenges of life are designed to make us more complete in Christ (Jam. 1:2-4). Sometimes, choosing to do the will of God is difficult because what He desires and plans for us to do is not something that we desire to do. In that moment, we must remember that His perfect will is far better than our puny desires and choose to do that which we do not want to do. Life seems to be filled with decisions of this sort. I hope I can master this practice so that all that I choose to do and think would become that which God wills.

Thank you all for your prayers.
...posted by Daisuke

Prayer Needed

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:06:35 +0900

Well, I was supposed to write some upbeat updates when I get around to blog, but the Lord had a different plan for now. So I make this short and simple just asking you for prayer.

Marcia’s mom had an accident this past Saturday, in which she broke her left arm around the shoulder joint which required surgery, a few vertebrate in her lower back and a fractured pelvis. She is badly hurt and is in the hospital but the doctor believes she will recover well from it in 3-6 months.

We are not exactly sure how serious the injuries are and how much time she needs before she is able to get back to normal life, so Marcia will be heading out to Northern Cal. next week to check the situation and help her parents for a week or so. Then we have to decide what we can do to help them more during the recovery period.

Obviously, we would like to ask you guys for quick recovery, but pray also for the wisdom as we decide how best to help our parents.

I will update our life and ministry in a little while. I am sorry for the lack of activity here, but know that some good things are happening at HBC.

The Lord is good and is truly loving. It just is that His wisdom is so much beyond ours. I wish I knew all the marvelous plans of God before they unfold, but then I won’t learn to trust Him and marvel at the wonders of His plan. It really is good to know that our God is faithful and His lovingkindness is everlasting.
posted by Daisuke

Back Online, Summer Recap

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:03:38 +0900

Hello everyone. I hope you are still checking our site time to time though we have not been keeping this up for 3 months now. Summer has been busy and fun for the Okadas and we praise and thank God for fruitful ministry and relaxing break.

I will defer the report on family vacation to Marcia, since she can write much better on this. I think there are quite a bit of pictures and great memories for the boys this summer. I thank all of you who are a part of our lives this summer.

I am not even sure where to begin. Summer at HBC is highlighted by the arrival of two very special group of people, the STM teams from Grace Community Church. As I wrote in the last entry, team 1 came and did the college ministry on campus. We were able to build even deeper relationship than the previous years, and are having some of them come back to church this coming Sunday for a special event capped with Evangelistic message. We are hoping that the Lord will allow us to effectively minister to the college students and that He would draw them to Himself. Please continue to pray for these students.

Team 2 has done the VBS type ministry in the heat of the summer. This year we had over 230 children in two weeks and was in my opinion, the best overall ministry in the 9 years of this ministry. We studied the story of Joseph, and for the first time, I taught the Bible lessons to the children. It was something that I did not think I would enjoy, but the children love the story and were able to retain the truth of God’s sovereignty and Joseph’s faithfulness. We also had a JR and SR high retreat with the team and that was a good experience as well. Again, we are continuing to minister to these children. There will be a slumber party at church for the upper elementary school kids next weekend. Please pray that the children will come to love the Lord and grow in Him.

As for the book project, The Gospel According to Jesus is at the end of first editing phase. Due to several set backs, we are again forced to move the publishing date a little, but the progress is being made. Thank you for praying for me. I will be meeting with my editor sometime in October to finish up the main body of the book.

One more big item to report. Over the summer, HBC’s leadership has been working on changing the church constitution in order to fully switch to eldership rule. This has been a tedious process since we had to work with the government officials. In a couple of weeks we will have “THE FILANL” congregational meeting to vote for this change (Lord willing), and begin the official process of approval by the government. Please pray that this important process will go smoothly.

Lastly, I am looking for two ESL teachers. It has been a difficult process but I trust that the Lord would direct us to people who fit well for the ministry here. Please pray that we have wisdom in this process. If you are interested, feel free to contact me. I would love to have a file of people who are interested in serving here at HBC in this capacity, whether now or later.

We will try to keep this up again. We love you all and appreciate your prayers and support.

... posted by Daisuke

Ministering to College students

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 22:20:34 +0900

It’s been a week since the Short Term Mission team from Grace Community Church came and they have done a wonderful job so far of interacting with the students. They have visited a few schools so far and have interacted with 20+ students. While most of the time was spent on just talking to establish relationship and get to know each other, we have had a few opportunities to talk about the Gospel with them.

Many people desire to see the result in terms of saved souls in a trip like this, but as some of you know that seeing that type of fruits is very rare here in Japan. I am actually reminded of the important truth that God alone is able to save people as I am preaching from the section following the conversation of Jesus with the Rich Young Ruler. Our task is to present the truth as accurately and clearly as possible so that those who hear us will have no excuse but to know that they are choosing to disobey God. This is my prayer that as we minister to these students, we will have many opportunities to proclaim the Gospel in that way, so that God may save some.

Preaching prep and the STM made the translation go a little slower than I had originally intended it to be, but I now have four chapters left and I am hoping to finish them in a week or two. Thank you all for praying for this project. Please continue to support me through your prayers that I can finish strongly (and accurately). This is only the first phase of the project and I will move on to editing phase as soon as I finish the translation. But I am very thankful that the Lord has sustained me all this time.

Family is going back to the States for the summer in a few days. Marcia will be taking 4 kids all by herself so please pray for her as she travels. I will join them in the end of August for a few weeks, so I hope we will get to see many of you then.

There are a lot of turmoil here in Japan with political and economical situations and international issues. I am praying that the Lord will do something great in the hearts of people here.

... posted by Daisuke

Flu and ministry

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:41:01 +0900

Well, WHO has issued the phase 6 on the ongoing Swine Flu. What does this has to do with the ministry? A lot if you live in Japan and are about to have Short Term Team from US coming to do ministry with students.

Since the flu has landed here, we have had about 4 schools decline visits of the STM team because of the Flu. So now, at the last minute we are still scrambling to see what we can do with the team while guys are here.

Currently we have two schools which are willing to take people from Flu infected US. There are a couple of leads for going to a couple of new schools and we are praying hard that things will open up. Our humanly devised plan has seemingly failed at this point, but we know that the sovereign Lord controls even the flu to do His good will, so we are excited as to what He will do through the team coming this weekend.

I am finally seeing the end of the tunnel for the translation project. At least the first translation phase will be done in a coupe of weeks, Lord willing, then we will move on to editing phase and so on. Thank you all for praying.

We just had a sign up for JJ5D, 2009 this past Thursday. Amazingly, we are overfilled with 130+ in 1st week then 95 in 2nd. We are pretty overwhelmed with a good turn out this year, and praying that the Lord will draw many to Himself. Please continue to pray for the preparation for this big event of the summer.

As for the family, they all are excited about visiting States this summer. All except me will be in the States for a while this time, so that will make me a lonesome (and workaholic) guy this summer. I will pay a visit at the end of the summer. Hoping to see many of you there this summer.

Anyhow, be in prayer for the college ministry team. They will be here from 6/19 to 7/7. Pray that the Lord will use them for His glory, and by His grace many students will see the Lord as who He is and believe in Him.

...posted by Daisuke

Swine Flu and Japanese Frenzy

Wed, 20 May 2009 21:08:47 +0900

May usually is a month of good and pleasant time before the rainy season; however, this year has been an exception. The swine flu that is spreading throughout the world has landed here, and so far 99 people are identified as having the flu in Osaka. All the high schools and Junior high schools are off this week due to the flu and the our city as well as the Osaka prefecture is encouraging people not to have public gatherings.

While this is not a big deal for most Americans (as far as I can tell by the media coverage for the flu in American news), all the headlines of the newspaper and the top stories on TV news were how fast this flu is spreading. This has caused the majority of people to run to drug store and stock up protective masks and sanitizer as well as at least a week worth of groceries. I am personally quite amazed with the hysteria that many of the people are showing here in Osaka.

It is understood that this particular flu is not as dangerous as bird flu and medication is effective if taken in the early stages of infection. While this has been noted by the media many times, still a sense of serious concern permeates among the people here.

Interestingly, this whole flu issue is not only affecting the minds and bodies of people, but also economy of Kansai area (which is a greater area surrounding Osaka) as well. People are avoiding travels to this area as much as they can, and those who live here do not go out to a places where they could be infected. I am not sure how much this will go on, but certainly the way people are responding has been interesting to say the least.

Japanese are swayed easily by the opinions of people. especially by the majority opinions, perhaps more so than other people groups. You cannot leave home without having a protective mask, because everyone else is wearing one. It really is an interesting site to see when everyone around is covering their mouth and nose with a white protective mask.

This kind of tendencies has been felt among the believers as they live Christian life in Japan. Inconformity to the society has been the criticism for Christianity, and the pressure to live in such a condition become sometime extremely severe.

I have recently learned a lesson in a concrete way that no one really pursue God on their own. The only thing that draws men and women to the Lord is the work of God within their hearts. The only responsibility for us then is to be faithful to proclaim the truth of God revealed in the Scripture. In the midst of fear stricken society, there is a message of hope that we can proclaim. Hamadera Bible Church and all its ministries are about doing nothing but that. As the summer quickly approaches and the Short Term Mission teams arrive, our desire is to see lost people found by God.

Please continue to pray for the ministry, especially our outreach ministry. We will have college outreach in June and Kids programs in August. Many other outreaches are taking place continuously. May the glory of Christ be known to our neighbors and friends so that He may be even more glorified.

...posted by a little tired Daisuke

Looking for something...

Sat, 2 May 2009 21:11:37 +0900

Another 2 weeks went by so quickly and somehow the smell of the summer is approaching here in Osaka. More things about the summer missions have come to my attention in the last week or so. I needed a little more break before I dove into the thick of things, but well..., that’s my life.

Since the last update, really the only new thing for the family is that Nathan has been enjoying his school so much so that I find him singing some school songs at home. Nicki’s study at home has gone well so far and he is definitely enjoying the time with his parents, such as working on a backyard project with Marcia. Noah on the other hand had a little bit of difficulty dealing with going to school all by himself. But the other night in his prayer, he confessed that he was jealous of Nicki and repented from his sin of envy.

Sophia has gotten to the point where she is moving around and craving for attention. This brings a bit of challenge to us, but overall she has brought a lot of joy and smile to all the other family members.

Ministry has been good. We are making some changes at the church and have been busy trying to implementing them. I am now making a concentrated effort on our youth ministry and trying to energize our teens for the Lord. I have not really done any work with this age group for a long time, so I am learning new things every week. If you have any good plans, activities for kids this age, let me know.

Translation project has gone pretty well. I am about 50% done and another lady has been checking the translation for me as I finish them. My goal is to finish the first round of translation by the end of June and then correcting it during the summer. After that, we will move on to smoothing out the rough spots and the Lord willing, we will have the publisher take a look at it by late October. I sure do appreciate your prayers.

We are planning to make a family trip to the States in the summer. If you would, please pray that this will be possible without stress. We have to consider more details about the trip, but we are excited about being there together as a family.

My plan is to have Nicholas make a page for you all as a part of his project this year. Maybe that will happen sooner than later...

Well, I am really nervous about preaching tomorrow so I am going to cut this off and meditate on that again for a while. I will be preaching about the conversation between Jesus and the Rich Young Ruler. For a few good reasons, I am packing the three part series into a single sermon. I hope I can do it without putting everyone to sleep. It is such a powerful section of Scripture, I want to communicate well what I have learned from it.

...posted by Daisuke

Spring begins new life in Japan

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:25:08 +0900

So I am back on blogging now. I am hoping to update a little more frequently from now on. I think Nicki might be able to help me do that some.

Joy Joy 3 Days and the ESL program that VBC team run during the spring break were great. A lot of children came to church and enjoyed the Bible stories and activities. A few children has come to Sunday School as well. We are very thankful for their faithful work. Almost all the team members were sick while they were here, but they have served us sacrificially with joyful hearts. It was especially nice to have Dale Whitehead, an elder of VBC and his wife Lynn with us for a week. We had great time of fellowship and was very very encouraging.

Our new fiscal year began, we are making some changes at the Church. I am going to cut back my ministry tasks by much, and focus on the translation work up to the summer. Though there are a lot of miscellaneous tasks on my lap still, I now have a bit more time to actually focus on this project. We are still hoping to publish the book by the end of the year, so please be in prayer for me and those who are involved in this project.

Nathan began kindergarten, Nicki started to study at home, Noah is attending the school all by himself, and Sophie is becoming more active. Many changes have been made both in the ministry and at home, but all in all the Lord continues to bless us with abundant blessings.

On Easter, we had quite a good number of new visitors for the service and had a great time of fellowship and evangelism. Though things are not without challenges, it seems that things are moving forward.

Oh, I recently added a new title to my ever growing job descriptions. I now am a music director (though I just lead the Worship Services on Sunday mornings). This is really out of my element and I have been a bit nervous every time I get up there.

I will finish up the first big section of Gospel According to Jesus this week. I will continue to update you on this and more in a week or two.

... posted by Daisuke