Sapporo’s name was taken from the Ainu language. “Sat poro petsu” can be translated as “dry, great river”. The summers are indeed dry, but the 248 inches of snow each year make it one of the snowiest metropolises in the world. From December through March snow falls at least 25 days each month. It is truly a winter wonderland and each February more than two million tourists crowd into the city to attend the world known Sapporo Snow Festival with its beautifully carved ice sculptures.

When the Japanese came from the main islands to settle Hokkaido, they brought the Shinto and Buddhist religions with them. The Hokkaido Temple in Sapporo was established to help spread their beliefs.  Less than 0.5 percent of the residents of Sapporo are Christian. Sapporo connects by train and highway to the rest of the island as well as by rail, ferry and air to Honshu, the main island of Japan, but there is still a feeling of isolation and separation.

The city is home to the Nippon Ham Fighters baseball team that was managed for five years by Trey Hillman, a Christian from the USA, who boldly shared his faith with both team and fans.

William Smith Clark, the former president of the Massachusetts Agricultural College (now The U of MA, Amherst) became the founding vice-president of Sapporo Agricultural College, now Hokkaido University for eight months from 1876 to 1877. He taught academic subjects in science and lectured on the Bible as an “ethics” course, introducing Christian principles to the first entering class of the College. When he left he told his students, “Boys, be ambitious (for Christ)”

Pray for “ambitious” laborers who will go and tell those isolated from God who made and desires for them to hear the good news and be saved. Pray that the people in Sapporo will open their hearts to the one who can make their hearts as white as the beautiful snow that covers their city. Pray that churches in Sapporo will grow exponentially, as people become Christians and boldly share their faith in Christ.

Pray for a Christian couple who live there to be bold in their witness to their family, friends, and neighbors. Pray they will be ambitious for Christ as well as their secular work and that they will have a vision and burden for their city.

www.outreachjapan.org

Pray for these people who live in the shadow of Mt Fuji to realize that there is a Creator God and also to realize that although any road leading up to the top of Mt. Fuji will lead you to the top, not all religions lead the way to the One True God. Pray for the Holy Spirit to have liberty in the hearts of the people. And ask God to honor this couple’s witness and answer their prayers.

Pray for Shizuoka and claim it for Christ!!!

In 2005 the city had an estimated population of 605,000. Kooriyama, Matsumoto, Kiire, Sakurajim and Yoshida towns were merged into Kagoshima City in 2004 increasing its populations significantly and nearly doubling its land size. The city is located on the bay and is surrounded by fruit producing areas.

Kagoshima City is a sight seeing center for south Kyushu and features large shopping districts and malls, is served by trams, and has many restaurants featuring Satsuma regional cuisine: kibi (a kind of tiny fish), tonkatsu (caramelized pork, as opposed to the breaded version encountered elsewhere in Japan), smoked eel, and karukan (sweet cakes made from steamed sweet potatoes and rice flour). The city of Satsuma, Alabama near Mobile gets its name from the Satsuma mandarin oranges native to Kagoshima.

A large, modern aquarium has been installed on the old docks overlooking the volcano on Sakurajima Island. One of the best places to see the city and the active volcano across the bay is from the Ferris wheel on top of ‘Amu Plaza’, the new shopping center attached to Kagoshima Central Train Station. The wheel has two completely transparent gondolas that give a 360-degree view from 91 meters above the ground. Imagine praying for the city from there!!

The beautiful Sengan Japanese garden is just outside the city and reminds visitors of the Japanese love of beauty and nature. The St. Xavier church is a reminder of those first claiming Christianity as their faith arriving in Japan. Even after many years of Christian influence less than 0.5 percent claim to be born again Christians. Most have never heard the gospel presented so they can either accept or reject it.

Prayer Request Starters:

• Pray that people when people witness the volcano erupting they will recognize there is a God and want to know Him.

• Pray for laborers to have a vision for reaching this city for Christ and come and plant the seed of the gospel.

• Pray for abundant fruit that results in thousands coming to Christ with multiplying disciples and churches all across the city and prefecture.

www.outreachjapan.org

Pray for Mr. S to be faithful to read the Bible and worship. His second grade daughter, Ha-chan, asked her homeroom teacher to ask her classmates if they loved God. The teacher did and the children answered yes. Pray that Ha will keep witnessing about Jesus and that her classmates and teacher will be saved. Mr.S’s oldest son, Ka-kun, has been reading the Bible every day with his younger brother. Pray for Ka and his brother to grow in their relationship with Christ and become bold witnesses at school. Pray for a strong church to start right in this family’s home where they already have worship.

Another Christian, Mrs.Ma, witnessed to a teacher at an elementary school where she has just started working. Pray for this young  21 year old teacher, Miss Ni, to be saved. Ask God to make all our Christians unashamed proclaimers of the gospel of Christ!!!

Pray for the eight people who profess to know Christ in baptism, to follow him totally and become faithful multipling disciples.

We have been prayer-walking in Kujukuri. We will start sowing seeds in two weeks. Pray that we will be faithful and bold , that a lot of seeds will be sown and we will have a huge harvest. Pray for all the families of our church and all the people who have heard and will hear the Gospel through our witness to be saved.

A lot of blessings on you!

E    JGPNet

We pray you are enjoying the warmth of this season, as well as the warmth of Jesus in your hearts, rejoicing in His salvation and provision in everything.

Our city celebrated the coming of spring last weekend, with food stalls, and  concerts of all styles of music (including Gospel music and hula!) on several stages in our town.  On Sunday, unfortunately, the “omikoshi” also had to come out.  Photos below show people praying as they prepared to take it out, and some of the intensity of the men carrying the shrine through the streets.

In Acts 26:17-18 Jesus says Saul, “I am sending you to the Gentiles to open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God.   Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people, who are set apart by faith in me.”

As we watched the “omikoshi” pass before us, we prayed that God Almighty would break the wooden shrine before the eyes of the people.  It didn’t happen, but you can join us in praying that the Japanese will “turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God.”

Thank you for partnering in prayer with us.   It’s surely not easy reaching the hearts of the Japanese, but we trust the Holy Spirit to do a work here.

by Bob and Gail Gierhart

Praise the Lord!  Thank you for your prayers. We had an Easter Worship service on March 28.  A little early but… Ma, a 13 year old girl, was saved then. Pray for her spiritual growth. I met Mrs.Naga on April 1 and shared the Gospel.  She came to our worship service on 14.  Pray that she will be saved too.

A’s husband, Ke, was saved on April 11.  With Mrs.Kura’s help, I invited him to have worship service and barbecue at her house.  He attended the house church today and had a great time.  He told us that he would like to come to our worship service again. Pray for this young couple to grow in the Lord.

I thought that Mi was saved six years ago, but when I asked him about it to make sure, he didn’t remember if he was saved or not.  So I asked him if he wanted to accept Jesus as his personal savior.  He said yes and prayed. Pray for his spiritual growth, his family’s worship service, and their decision on baptism.  Thank you for your prayers for his parents.

Ka is a jr. high boy who attends the children’s worship who has been trying to read the Bible everyday. Pray that he can do it. Pray for other children to be saved. Also, pray that all of our church members’ families will be saved.

A lot of blessing on you! E.

Thank you for praying for Kumamoto City. We thank God for using the last article to call out laborers to pray for Kumamoto. Some have joined our prayer team already. Thank you so much! We pray God will move others to pray for this city. Will you join us also? If so, please write and let us know!!!

Kumamoto is one of seven cities in Japan that have a population of 500,000 to 1.9 million people where we do not have personnel. Our task is to find ways to engage the cities with the gospel. We need people to adopt a city, to pray , to go and tell the good news!!!

As you pray for Kumamoto, please pray for the following request for Shizuoka City which is located on the Pacific Coast of Japan in the shadow of Mt. Fuji, the world known symbol of Japan.

In Shizuoka City, Japanese who are partnering with us are opening their home this month for a gospel concert. They have invited their friends and neighbors to come and hear the music and also the gospel message. Some have been friends and neighbors for many years and have heard the good news before. Pray that the seeds of the gospel that have been sown will sprout into fruit of faith in Christ.

Kumamoto (coo-mah-moh-toh) City, the capitol of Kumamoto Prefecture in Japan, is located in the heart of Kyushu island. Bordered on the north by Fukuoka-Kitakyushu metro, on the east by Mt Aso, an active volcano, and on the west by a natural bay port facing the East China Sea, Kumamoto seems to be quite the ordinary regional city.

The Japanese of Kumamoto are independent and very proud of their heritage. Presently, they are working hard to become one of the nationally recognized Metro Areas, with a population of  “Greater Kumamoto” projected to be 1,400,000.

The President of Kumamoto University says the city is characterized by “RGB”, the three primary colors of light: red for the active volcano (Mt Aso), green for the “City of Forests,” (the mountains within the city) and blue for water, an endless, pure supply of high quality water from an underground supply.

Kumamoto Castle is the city’s most famous landmark, known for its un-scalable J-shaped stone walls and wooden overhangs designed to repel invading ninja warriors leaving the castle virtually impenetrable. However, during the Satsuma Rebellion (the Southwest Civil War) an assault on the castle produced a 53 day long siege. The castle was sacked and burned leaving tens of thousands of civilians, sumarai, and soldiers dead.

Most people have not heard of this castle or battle but they have either seen or heard of the popular movie, “The Last Samurai”, based on this battle and filmed in Kumamoto. Just as the castle was under siege during that battle, the souls of over one million people living in Kumamoto are under siege by the one who would keep them bound in darkness and from knowing the Truth.

Prayer Requests

Pray that the light of truth will penetrate the hearts of people in Kumamoto and the City of Forests will become the City of Light, reflecting God’s glory and impacting all of Japan for Christ.

Over one million souls are in bondage and darkness. Pray that they can hear the gospel message and be delivered and set free in Christ.

Pray that Japanese in Kumamoto will embrace the Living Water who will quench their spiritually parched souls and give them life everlasting.

Spring is here, and with it come Spring Break and vacations from school and in some cases work.  One day last spring, we took one such vacation and had plans to get out of our city of service and even out of our state/prefecture to travel to the next prefecture over.  We were going to take our kids to an amusement park.  We had not expected to see anyone we knew there because of the distance and the fact that it was a weekday (the park was practically empty).  But The-God-Who-Goes-With-Us also had gone before us and had set it as a plan in the heart of a Japanese woman to take her son to that very same park on that very same day and at that very same time.  This woman was the mother of a boy from our son’s previous year’s kindergarten class.   Our sons had played together and we knew each other as well.  I had shared the gospel with her on occasion.  After graduating kindergarten, however, our boys had ended up at different elementary schools.  She and I were pleasantly surprised to see one another at the amusement park that day.  This story is just one example out of many of how we saw God at work orchestrating divine appointments between us and the Japanese among whom we served our first term in Japan.  These odd meetings not only caught our attention but even the Japanese themselves marveled at such unexpected “coincidences”.  We see God ever with us and continuously trying to capture the attention and hearts of the Japanese among whom we serve.  Please pray for God to move the Japanese beyond mere wonder at his work to a willingness to embrace Him as their Creator, Sustainer and Only Savior God.

by Donna Qualls