Brothers and Sisters, Praise God for blessing us with the ability and command to grow in the knowledge of Him (2 Peter 3:18). Nothing in this world can satisfy us; everything is dead, horrific and dry apart from Him, but our Lord wills to fill our spirits, hearts, and minds by growing in the knowledge of His Majesty.
Praise God because over the last month our Lord has blessed our weekly Bible study for men with more participants. Please help us to pray for Elias from Peru and Otavio from Brazil, who are coming regularly, for their salvation as we share the gospel with them. Praise God also for His constant mercy and patience that leads us to repentance.
Five years ago I gave guitar lessons to a young man every Thursday followed by a Bible study. We spent a year reading about the God of the Bible and he started to attend Sunday services. I thought he was going to surrender His life to God, but he stopped attending the church because he was attracted to the world. He didn’t came back for two years but he would call me for advice and help concerning difficult circumstances. Praise God, three weeks ago he came back to our church and told me to pray for him because he wanted to know God. Pray for this young man’s salvation because we read that one day God will stop calling us (Proverbs 1:24-31). His name is Akira.
Sharing the gospel to the immigrant Peruvian community in Japan is a privilege, but also it is very challenging because of the dangerous practices and difficult backgrounds of some of the immigrants. To have an idea, there are not many Hispanic immigrants here but three of them I know, with whom I have shared the gospel on separate occasions, are now in jail. They are not in prison for petty crimes but for murder. This week, Japanese TV informed that a Peruvian man killed two children and four adults. It is shocking and this situation increases the rejection of Hispanic immigrants in this society. We ask your prayers for God’s mercy to bring these men to repentance, and for the Gospel to reach deep inside this community to bring around transformed lives for the Lord.
Praise God for commanding us to preach, baptize and make disciples to all the nations. In 2016, we are planning to be more purposeful and active in the preaching of the gospel. Next year, apart from our yearly evangelistic events, every study group is praying, planning, and asking our Lord for direction in order to preach the gospel as a team. Please pray so the Lord will bless all the groups with spiritual growth and this will be a pleasing expression of worship to Him.
We still do not have a regular place to meet as a congregation. The Lord is blessing us with different rooms that we rent each week at our city’s community center. But for the month of October we couldn’t find anywhere a place to rent and congregate. Please help us to pray so the Lord will lead us in the steps to find and get a regular place to rent. Last Sunday we had our service at the park and it was a great blessing for all of the children, and God blessed us with good weather.
I would also ask for prayer for two American military congregations without a pastor that I was supporting during the last six months by preaching and counseling them. I am joyfully supporting them and being blessed by the challenge, but please help us to by praying for God to send full-time pastors with a long term commitments to Japan. Please join us in prayer for Martel, Toshiro, Akira Otavio, and Jose, the men who are attending regularly our services, that the mercy of our Lord will bring them to salvation!
God bless you,
Luis Ramirez, Tokyo-Japan