Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Praise the Lord for blessing us with the privilege of seeing His regenerative power in our lives and in the lives of his people. Our constant transformation is a sign of our love and obedience to our Lord and at the same time praise the Lord because only He can produce fruit from what was dead.
Ephesians 2:1
Praise the Lord for blessing us with the privilege of helping foreigners that come to seek a better life working in Japan. Because of pride and financial stability of the Japanese people, it is almost impossible to find people in need or with the desire to be helped in Japan. But our Lord is blessing us this months with the opportunity to help immigrants from many nationalities. We had the privilege to help people from Brazil, Philippines, Peru and Bolivia in different needs, counseling, hospital visits, assisting them with translation, moving to new places, comforting them in times of loss, praying for them and using every opportunity to share the Gospel with them.
Too, the Lord for blessed us with a baptism. It was a special Day, not only at the time of the baptism, but more so to know that this moment was the fruit of what His word was doing through years in the life of an American brother. When we meet him, he didn’t have an interest in attending our services or bible studies. Now he is very committed to serve at the church. For a period of time he had to drive two hours to attend our bible study and he didn’t consider it a problem! He is now serving the church, so join us in praising the Lord for the fruit that He is producing in him and his family!
We were visited by a Japanese brother who lived in America and just moved back to Japan. He is living in another region of Japan, but he came from very far to visit us and share his great desire to preach the Gospel in Japan and to work and serve God. We talked about the need of finding a church to work with in the region where he is living right now. The design that our Lord made for us in service is to do it through a local church. Please help us to pray for this Japanese brother and his wife to find a local church where he can grow, serve his family in Christ, and afterwards share the Gospel in this country that is in desperate need of our Lord’s truth and light.
We just received great reports from the three-day evangelistic youth rally that I was invited to preach in the American Air Force base in the northern area of Japan. The pastor friend told me that many young Japanese people who attended the the rally are attending bible study, and a Japanese couple that I had the chance to share and pray for in Japanese is attending church and bible study. Also, praise God because one of the girls who attended the rally was baptized. Please continue to pray for the believers who are sharing God’s word in the northern area of Japan and for more people to be reconciled with our God.
We know that the miraculous power of the Gospel is what transforms us and saves us, but also our Lord uses His people as an example or models of what His power can do. In Japan, there are few believers, most of them are adults. We always pray to God so our children can have the influence and encouragement of seeing young Christians that they could relate to and learn from. God blessed us with the visit of two dear brothers from the USA. It was a blessing for us to see the impact that our young brother and his faith had on our children. Today, many weeks after the visit, we heard our children talking about him and the times of great fellowship. Please pray so God and his Gospel will transform and ignite faith in many children and also that God will send godly young believers that can be an inspiration and prove that a faithful and joyful life is not only for adults but also for children and the youth.
Thank you always for taking the time to read our updates and thank you for your prayers and encouragement.
God bless, Luis