Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ,
Greetings to you in Jesus wonderful name. Thank you for all your prayer support and encouragement. We appreciate you.
The Lord is GOOD. We praise Him for His continual love, mercy, protection, provision and help at all times.
By God’s grace we had a 2 days meeting on 3rd and 4th of February:
On the 3rd (Sat.) the Good Lord used Yousef to bring the Lord’s message on "Loving one another", which spoke to the hearts of the people. Pastor Oliveira from Brazil was kind enough to interpret the message. At the end of the message when Yousef was about to hand over the meeting to brother Oliveira, Esther asked him to give a call for those who wished to give their lives to the Lord. As Yousef did so a lady came forward and gave her life to Jesus. Then Yousef asked if any one needed prayer and a sister came forward. Yousef asked Esther to pray for her. As she was praying for her, the Lord gave her word of knowledge and showed her that she had some worries, which she prayed for. During the ministry time, she came to Esther and admitted that she had some worries about her mother who was ill back in Brazil and asked Esther to pray with her. The Lord used Esther to help her trust the situation into the Lord’s hands. Then Esther prayed that the Holy Spirit would fill her afresh. And she fell under the power of the Holy Spirit. Seeing this her other friends too wished to have an experience with God the Holy Spirit. This also caused her unbelieving husband, Marcus to attend the next day meeting where Esther brought the word of God and received Jesus into his heart. Praise the Lord. God is wonderful.
The next day after a wonderful time of praise and worship when the Holy Spirit ministered to us, Yousef shared about “being free from our fears”. About four people came forward and together with Pr. Oliveira who is also a very gifted minister and has the calling to preach the good news in all nations, we prayed for them. God set his people free from fear, burdens of life... Then a brother came forward asking Esther to pray for a family member to get saved. The Lord gave Esther word of knowledge that he was taking revenge on his own father. As Esther spoke it out and asked him to share about his father, he began to cry and confessed that he had been hurt by his father since he was 11 and as God
In evening meeting Esther was to share the Word of God. The Lord had told her that He would be glorified. She shared the message about Mark 9:1-2.
In the beginning, some of the leadership were actually sleepy. But the Lord encouraged her to go on and at the end as she asked them to come forward if it was their wish to be used by the Lord and see the glory of God. Almost all the church came forward. Then as Esther was waiting on the Holy Spirit to move, suddenly a church leader began to boldly make the confessions to the Lord with loud voice to let Him use her for His glory. While Pastor Oliveira was interpreting it for Esther, another sister began to do the same and in a short time it was like a contagious move of the Holy Spirit and the Lord was breaking people and setting them free of spirit of religion. Few persons received baptism of the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues as the Holy Spirit had fallen on them with out any body laying hands on them. A sister who had just been baptized with water a month ago began to prophecy, “Hear my people, for what is happening is from my Spirit…”
As Yousef was praying for one brother who had been set free of spirit of revenge in the morning, he fell under the power of the Holy Spirit and his English teacher- an unbeliever from the United State asked Yousef with much surprise, “What happened to him? Why did he fall?” Yousef said, “Good question!” and turned to him and asked him, “Please tell us what happened and why you fell?” He said, “The wind, the power of the wind made me fall.” The wind of the Holy Spirit had made him lie dawn. “He makes me lie dawn in green pastures…” (Psalm 23)
Brother Oliveira prayed for Marcus whose wife had been set free of worries the previous night and gave his life to the Lord. And after the ministry time was finished, brother Oliveira asked Esther if she wanted to say anything more. The Lord gave Esther a simple and short word of prophecy for the American English teacher and as the result she too gave her life to the Lord and joined the family of God. Then Pr. Oliveira, said that the message was a confirmation for him as he'd been asking God to confirm his word, which he had spoken to his heart during the fasting time the previous week. Praise the Lord for His great love for all His children. It was because the church had been fasting for 3 days and Esther too had been fasting for a week for this meeting, that God had blessed us all. There is power in our prayers and as Dr. Cho says we can move God's hand through our prayer.
GREAT IS THE LORD AND GREATLY TO BE PRAISED.
On the 18th we were invited as the guest speakers to a Peruvian church in Yokohama-Seya city where 7 Brazilian and Spanish speaking churches had come together. The meeting was scheduled from 4 pm to 8 pm. But it actually went on until 10 pm. During the meeting every church had some short time to do ministry- preaching or sing few songs of praise and worship. It was a blessing and our privilege to join the fellowship for few hours.
The Lord almighty had told Esther that some people have been praying for the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And before the meeting began a sister told Esther that she'd had a dream about her the previous night. She explained that as Esther was fishing it turned out to be a whale. This was great encouragement to her to do what the Lord had instructed her. As we were short of time, Esther just shared that God had told her, "Some of my people had been praying for the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and I want you to pray for them to receive it." And she asked brothers and sisters who “PRAISED and WORSHIPED GOD” every day to raise their hands. About half of the people raised their hands and Esther asked them to come forward to receive the power of the Holy Spirit as God had instructed her. She prayed for them for few minutes and we were so blessed to see the result of it during the ministry time when we saw God use the same people minister to those who came forward for prayer in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Yousef shared about the Israelites crossing the Jordan River (Joshua 3). He shared about how the water stopped flowing when the priests stepped into the water. Also when he asked if there were any who wished to be set free of fear of poverty and fear of rejection, some raised their hands and as he prayed for them they testified that the fear had left them. Halleluiah!
While Yousef was sharing the message, Esther interpreting it into Persian for an Iranian non-Christian whose wife was a Spanish speaking Christian present in the meeting. She encouraged him to respond to God's word. He did so and prayed that the Lord would reveal Himself to him and enable him to know the truth. His name is Hasan. Please pray that the Lord will save him soon as his wife has been praying for his salvation.
After the preaching, we gave a call for those who wished to be prayed for. As we asked those who had been prayed for to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit to come and pray for people, God almighty gave us the joy to see the answer to Esther's prayer. As these dear brothers prayed for people God the Holy Spirit used them and released His healing, touching His people and some fell under the power of God. The good Lord used us to deliver His people from the pressures of life and anointed them for the further work He has for them.
We would like to extend our hearty thanks and gratitude for our brother Andy from Peru who so faithfully interpreted for us all along.
On 25th we were scheduled to do ministry in 2 Brazilian churches. In the morning Yousef shared on the second greatest commandment, which we all know, “Love your neighbor as yourself” and brother Oliveira was kind enough to interpret for him.
By God’s grace, the preaching was not just done in words but it came in the power of the Holy Spirit as it is the need of all Christians to love one another as the Lord loves us. As people were asked to come forward to receive fresh touch of the Holy Spirit, the Lord used Yousef and Pr. Oliviera with words of knowledge and prophecy to minister to His people. Among those who came forward, the Lord gave Yousef the word of knowledge to a Brazilian man who the Lord set free of unforgiveness in his heart and later Pr. Oliviera asked him if he wished to give his life to the Lord. He accepted Jesus into his heart and was saved that same day. praise the Lord.
Then in the afternoon, we went to the church branch in Omiya. After the praise and worship hour, Yousef asked Esther for a short time to share the word of Knowledge God had given him and said that there were few who had not relationship with the Lord ... and encouraged them to come forward to pray with them. Two brothers came forward and renewed their relationship with the Lord, Halleluiah!
Then Esther was used to bring the Lord’s message from Matthew 5: 8-12. As she shared that being persecution was actually a blessing from the Lord and asked them to stand up if they wished to preach the Gospel without fear of persecution, all the church stood up and as she prayed for them, the Lord set His people free from the fear of persecution and motivated them to diligently involve themselves in preaching of the Gospel and to put serving God first in their lives. God is Good.
On 28th Yousef left for Okinawa to visit the YWAM base there. And on the same day Esther and our youngest daughter Megumi went together with Pr. Ricardo and his dear wife, Adriana who started Living God Mission in Japan to visit some people in the prison in Ibaraki prefecture. They had already called him asking him to go visit them. By God’s grace we visited 3 Brazilian and Egyptian and Iranian men. The Lord used us and the first two men received Jesus into their hearts. We prayed for the Egyptian’s health to come back to normal. Esther gave him an English Bible and later received a letter from him saying that he had been reading the Bible. The Iranian man was to leave for Iran the next day and was so happy as he had not had any visitors during the one year he'd been there. It was the Lord’s appointed time to meet him and share the word of God with him in Persian as he did not understand much of Japanese or English. Esther gave him the address to A.G. church in Tehran for him to attend and he said that he would visit the church. Though he did not give his life to Jesus but we believe that the Lord shall shall hear our continued prayer for his salvation. Let us pray for his salvation.