Dear Friends,

I’m recently returned from a significant trip to Japan. It is significant because we are entering a new phase of ministry there. I’m pulling back to give others an opportunity to lead.

I began in the frozen north, then traveled south all the way to Okinawa followed by a trek back to the frigid northern part of the country. I spent time with leaders in five key locations.

In three key cities, the message was to our pastors, asking that they would begin to function as more of a unified force to reach the country.

Teaming millions of people are waiting to hear the gospel in Japan. Churches are beginning to grow—we believe the long awaited spiritual awakening has finally begun.

A Call To A Hard Place

Becoming more unified suits our original call to Japan.

Way back in 1983, just before moving to Hawaii, I felt the Lord calling me to Japan. I was to, “Walk through the doors as I open them.”

That made sense. What I didn’t know at the time was that Japan was the toughest place on earth to evangelize. It was, and has been, the only country on earth where church attendance is actually shrinking. When I realized how hard it was, I felt honored that God would single me out to participate in a spiritual assault on that country.

It is a badge of honor to be selected for the difficult jobs. And, where there is great need there is great opportunity. We’ve been steadily making progress for the past 25 years in Japan. We can tally nearly 40 churches planted in our “network.” That ranks as the second largest number of churches planted by any movement in that country since World War II.

Passing The Baton

There is a tendency in any ministry to move forward at the direction of key leadership. But that also makes it easy to do very little if those respected leaders aren’t around to press for progress.

We know that God wants Japanese pastors to lead our movement there. To allow an ongoing dependence on Americans would be weak, if not sinful.

The wonderful news is that our pastors are up for the changes. In three cities they have begun scheduling meetings together in order to coordinate efforts and pray for each other’s success.

We believe we are passing the baton at a crucial time. Our churches are growing. One doubled within the past two years and doubled again in the past month.

I spent time in five cities in less than two weeks on this trip. It began in Hakodate in the frozen North. There I was privileged to speak at the installation of Yo Masui as senior pastor of an historic church. It was doubly good since Yo replaces his father, David who first introduced me to Japan. None of what we’ve accomplished would have happened without David.

From Hakodate I traveled to Tokyo where we have several healthy and growing churches. Aaron Suzuki and I challenged the pastors to meet together monthly to strategize coordinated activity and to pray for each other. They’ve made the commitment and are beginning to work together in our absence.

Pastor Kenji Oyama, an old friend, presents an opportunity like none we’ve ever face (keep reading for details)	The view from my hotel room. It was sooo cold. I brought what I thought were winter clothes, but nites were freezing!	Snowplows push back the snow where it sits all winter. In some places even higher than this.

I then traveled alone to Okinawa with it’s Hawaii-like weather to offer the same challenge to our pastors. After that I hooked up with Aaron again in Kobe. The leaders group is so large in Kobe/Osaka that they may need three separate circles in order to keep the meetings intimate.

Finally, I went on to Sapporo where I saw snow piled 6 feet high by the roadside. My job there was to hold a MiniChurch seminar for the one church we have in that city. They hunger to launch more churches in Japan. This church of only 50 people has planted more than 50 congregations in India during the past decade. Once they figure out how to do it in Japan, look out!

Opportunity

The final part of this letter concerns an opportunity, or a financial need depending on how you look at it.

The hearts of the Japanese people, frozen for so many years are thawing to the gospel.

On the trip, I connected with Kenji, Oyama, a pastor who works with a Christian publishing ministry operating out of Tokyo. He says his life was changed by my book “Let Go Of The Ring: The Hope Chapel Story,” when it was published in Japanese many years ago.

His ministry would like to publish three of my books in Japanese, leading up to a conference they would sponsor with 600+ pastors on the topic of church multiplication.

This could be the key to widespread disciple-making and church planting that we’ve prayed over for so long.

Theirs is a faith-mission much like Mission Hope. The market for Christian books is so small in Japan that nearly every book must be underwritten by donations. The sale of the book basically recoups the cost of the distribution. We need to raise money to cover the cost of translation, cover art, printing, etc. Any “profit” will go to the publishing ministry. I get nothing from this venture. Here is the financial breakdown:

Prayer: Dare To Ask—$5,000 Let Go Of The Ring—$9,000

Starting A New Church—$9,000 Sponsoring the seminar—$5,000

The total outlay is $28,000 for a project that could affect the spiritual well-being of Japan for many years to come. The time is ripe for evangelism, growing churches are proof of that. But, we know that the best evangelistic tool under the sun is a new church. In Japan we need lots of them.

--Ralph

David Masui is my mentor in Japan, I had the privilege of helping mentor Yo.		Not all our Tokyo pastors got to come. All their churches are growing.		John & Tosh Bacigalupo, our first team to Japan, raising their grandchildren.
The Oshiros pastor in Okinawa. Chisako is pastor.		This table springs mostly from Kobe Bible Fellowship.		Most of these churches came out of Hope Chapel Osaka.
These churches spring from KBF and from Crossroads.		The Ohigashis discuss church planting with pastor Oyama.