Celebrating New Life

Mother's Day in Japan is on 8th May. We had our service as usual at 4pm with some extra guests too. A couple of the men had made curry rice and we had eaten that and were enjoying fellowship time in various parts of the room. A lady called Hiroko who had come for the first time to our service the previous Sunday had been chatting with Kaori and Nora, reading in the Bible and praying together. Kaori then said Hiroko had something to say. She had just believed in Jesus! Hiroko has been involved with a gospel music choir for many years and had some Christian friends. She has been on a faith journey and it is with great joy that we were able to witness her commit her life to Jesus. She is really changed, knowing the joy of the Lord and was straight away sharing with family and friends. It is such a privilege to welcome a new believer into our young church and to be able to help a baby Christian to grow in these early days of faith. It is also an encouragement for us to see signs of things beginning to happen in Hiragishi. The first two years were very much a time for getting known and slowly building up relationships. Now as we are in our third year here, we look to the Lord to bring more like Hiroko and to see gradually the church being built up in this community.