s expected, it was an event that will linger in our minds for a long, long time! The CJM 60th anniversary celebration, held on June 24, 2006, at the Floata Seafood Restaurant in Richmond, BC, was one

of those unusual serendipitous occasions that brought surprises every few minutes during the entire evening. Guests numbering over 200 crowded the banquet hall and throughout the evening the hum and laughter in the background seemed to compete with the program at hand. It was a jubilant atmosphere. Friends from yesteryears unexpectedly found them-selves face to face, some recognizable, others needing a gentle reminder. Hugs and handshakes were prevalent throughout the evening. Following a scrumptious 10 course Chinese dinner, a very informative and an interesting program was MC’d by Paul Kariya, current CJM

Board member. Special music was brought by a Ladies Trio from the Vancouver Japanese Gospel Church, a

Youth music team from Megumi Baptist Church, Ladies Ensemble from Yonezawa Kojo Church and an old-timers quartet, reminiscent of the ’50’s

to the ’80’s camp days. Testimonies of CJM min-istry influences were shared by Mrs. Sokugawa of

(Continued on page 5)

Fall 2006 Published by the CANADIAN JAPANESE MINISTRIES YOUTH SECTION INSIDE

by Nori Kanashiro, CJM general Director

A

In 1976, Kaz and Akemi Hayashizaki became Christians through a personal witness of a Ca-nadian Christian man. Shortly thereafter, Kaz and Akemi prayed for other Japanese peo-ple to be saved. Each Sunday after they returned from the English service they opened their home to the Japa-nese and translated the English mes-sage for them. In this way, they shared God’s Word and His grace with the people.

In 1981 God sent Pastor Esther Sakamoto to assist in the Japanese meetings. This was the beginning of the Lethbridge Japanese Christian Fellowship (LJCF). Following Pastor Saka-moto, Pastor Philip Hatano and also Pastor Jun Shibata of the Calgary Japanese Gospel Church regularly came to assist in the ministry. Begin-ning in 1997, while a student at Prairie Bible College, I also took part in ministry at the LJCF for a period of three years. In the year 2001, the LJCF in consultation with CJM, received their full time missionary Pastor Yoshinosuke Na-kao, for a 3 year ministry commitment. Follow-ing this period, my wife Mari and I, as CJM missionaries, took over this responsibility of church planting in Lethbridge.

25th Anniversary service - September 24, 2006 Lethbridge Japanese Christian Fellowship - held at First Baptist Church

Between the years 1985 to 2001 when there was no resident pastoral leader-ship in Lethbridge, God continued to be faithful. Countless prayers have been offered over the years. When LJCF had special programs, many members of the Calgary Japanese Gospel Church came to encourage us. Even students from Prairie Bible College came to help us in Sunday School and as a music team. They would travel 250 km (one way) from Three Hills to assist us.

Twenty five years has now gone by. On September 24, 2006, the LJCF held its 25th anniversary special service, BBQ and fellowship with many people attend-ing. It is now five years since God gave full time workers to LJCF. On one hand, we have seen the fruits of church planting, the spiritual growth of mem-bers and outreach ministries to both Lethbridge residents and to the students. On the other hand, we have experienced difficult challenges becoming a self – supporting church. We keenly feel our weaknesses. We give thanks to God for His grace and blessing for 25 years of service. Our prayer is that the Lethbridge Japanese Christian Fellow-ship will grow to become the church He plans and that the Gospel of Jesus Christ would spread across Southern Alberta through the LJCF. ☐

by Satoshi Akiyama—CJM Missionary

Pastor Satoshi & Mari Akiyama Joshua 7 and Amy 5 years

Pastor Akiyama commenced full-time ministry in Lethbridge, Alberta under CJM on June 1, 2004. He is a gradu-ate of the Prairie Bible College, Three Hills, Alberta and also from a Masters program from Briercrest Biblical Seminary, Caronport, Sask. in April 2004. The Akiyama’s have firmly sensed a long-term call of God to a church -planting ministry in Lethbridge. The Advisory Committee to the LJCF presented both short and long-term goals to the CJM AGM in June 2006. Following a brief discussion, the membership readily endorsed the goals for church-planting in the city of Lethbridge, Alberta. Your continued prayers and faithful financial support of this ministry is deeply appreciated.

Kaz & Akemi Hayashizaki

DONATIONS:

For support of the AKIYAMA’S

or the CJM GENERAL FUND

May be sent to:

BRENDA OHARA-PETERS 669 Hillman Cres.,

Mississauga, ON L4Y 2Y1

Tel.: 905-949-4182

The POWER of Prayer BY Pastor Yuri Nakano

It was so nice to be able to attend the 60th Anniversary of CJM as it opened my eyes to the history and importance of the CJM ministry. I did not realize that the beginnings of the Edmonton Japanese Christian Church really came from the ministries of the CJM. I was not aware that Reverend Philip Hatano had been so involved with CJM until I heard the stories that were told at the Anniversary and through the testimony of Reverend Akira Takano, present pastor at Yonezawa Kojo Church in Yamagata, Japan. Apparently, before the church was started, Akira Takano had prayed over the city of Edmonton during his summer mission as a CJM worker. I only found this out last year when the prayer mis-sions team visited the Kojo Church and we heard his testimony. It is amazing how God orchestrated a prayer team from our small church to go and pray for the Kojo Church last year and find out that their pastor prayed for us many, many years ago! I was moved to tears as I thought of how God wonderfully showed us that He answers prayer. The Kojo Church sent a team of about 22 people to visit the various Japanese churches in Canada this summer and coordinated their tour so that they could attend the 60th anniversary in Vancouver. Prayer is powerful!

Another powerful testimony to prayer was the baptism of Naoya Duffy at the Sunnyside Camp this summer. He had started coming to our church around May with his family and became much more in-volved with our bible studies on Wednesday nights and attending various events. As a church, we had been earnestly praying for him and his family. God was faithful to our

(Continued on page 5)

Yonezawa Kojo Church tour and ministry group visited Edmonton in June, 2006

(L-R) Pastor Yuri Nakano, Naoya Duffy and Rev. M. Takeuchi of Seattle, WA

Pastor Yuri Nakano

Calgary japanese gospel church Website: www.calgarygospel.com

Pastor Yoichi & Miyuki Taniguchi - daughters, Agasa 17 and Mana 10 years

A Wonderful and Fruitful Summer! by Pastor Yoichi Taniguchi

We have experienced an exciting summer! First, it was at Sunnyside Camp (July 30 - Aug. 5), where we gained 10 new believers. During our baptismal ser-vice at camp, two of them confessed the Lord through the waters of baptism. Another lady who had lost hearing in her right ear one year ago miracu-lously regained it when the guest speaker Rev. Masaomi Takeuchi prayed for her. Hallelujah! Immediately after the camp, we had another baptis-mal service for five additional people at a lake in Banff National Park. The members of the Banff Grace Church assisted us on this occasion. Then, two weeks later, our third baptismal service of the summer for two additional candidates was conducted in the Bow River near our church. Even now, God’s strong hand is still at work in our church. Recently, two people for whom we have been praying for many years, received Jesus into their hearts. God is indeed at work. On the weekend of Oct.13-15, 2006, we are planning to have our annual Fall Retreat. We will be inviting Rev. Go Kaneda of Seattle to be our guest speaker. This year, our church added another Japanese prayer meeting on Tuesday evenings. This will be our third prayer meeting of the week. In addition, there are three small group meetings in separate homes each week. We will begin an Alpha Course for non-Christians hosted in a Christian home in October. Our prayer is that our church will continue to grow, as we have based our growth on the five principles of the Purpose Driven Church. ☐

Japanese-speaking Department

EDMONTON JAPANESE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

outfit wherever she went. She looked forward to the monthly “chapels” we held on the first Thursday of the month. She considered it a “home delivery” service right in her own building. But as she advanced in years, she became bed-ridden and had to be re-located back to the daughter’s home until the new Yee Hong Centre was opened for the Chinese seniors with 25 beds for the Japanese. It was here that Wesley Chapel members and her family celebrated her 100th birthday with the singing of Jesus loves me…and a lovely birthday cake in her honour. (Momiji Seniors Cen-tre also celebrated her 100th birthday a day or two earlier.) She was so delighted that she devoured a regu-lar piece of cake and even joined in the hymns. Another added joy was the presence of her oldest living daughter (herself a great grandmother) from Las Vegas. At the invitation of the church members, Reiko Peile came to Sunday Service the next Sunday, heard the message and invited Jesus into her life. So the weekend concluded with the celebration of two birthdays—one on earth and the other in heaven. ☐

WESLEY CHAPEL JAPANESE CHURCH (Toronto, ON)

WESLEY MEMBER CELEBRATES 100TH

by Pastor Edward S. Yoshida

Mrs. Araseki about to enjoy her 100th Birthday celebration cake.

More than 17 years ago, I un-expectedly met a former stu-dent of our ESL school at the Grange downtown. She was concerned about her aged mother, who had retired long ago and was staying with her and her husband. Since the two of them worked during the

day, she felt that her mother was lonely and lost, because she was unable to speak English and had no friends. For several years thereafter she joined the “Seniors Club” of our congregation whose requirement was to be 80 years of age. Annually, during the blossom season in the Niagara Peninsula, they would be driven to the Hamilton Botanical Garden, the Nipponia Home, Hank Saito’s farm, Niagara-on-the Lake and finally to Niagara Falls with a lovely obento as part of this outing. When her daughter and husband moved to their new ad-dress on Chartland Blvd., some distance from the church, her travel was longer, and her attendance became infre-quent. However, one day she dropped in at the service and wanted to be “secretly” baptized. (She did not want her daughter to know about it.) This request was granted after examination. Her next move was to the Momiji Seniors Centre. Here she was known as the little lady in a kimono. She wore her

CJM Board of Directors 2006-2007

Pastor Satoshi Akiyama - Lethbridge, AB Pastor Tetsuya Fukusaku - Vancouver, BC Mr. Ben Ichikawa - Three Hills, AB Mr. Nori Kanashiro* - Toronto, ON Pastor Yuri Nakano - Edmonton, AB Pastor Yoichi Taniguchi - Calgary, AB Edward Arinobu* - Vancouver, BC Mr. Kaz Hayashizaki - Lethbridge, AB Pastor Iwao Ikenouye - Calgary, AB Dr. Paul Kariya - Vancouver, BC Mrs. Brenda Ohara-Peters* - Toronto, ON Pastor Ray Ebisuzaki - Toronto, ON Mrs. Tina Sakon* - Calgary, AB Cathy Nakao - Edmonton, AB Pastor Masato Murai - Toronto, ON Pastor Edward Yoshida - Toronto, ON * Members of the Executive Committee

CJM AGM 2006

The Annual General Meeting 2006 was held in the spacious lower auditorium of the New Westminster Evangelical Free Church on Friday evening, June 23. Forty five people were present. Amongst a number of meaningful deci-sions that were made, I would like to draw your attention to one matter of significance. The Advisory Committee, in consulta-tion with the Lethbridge Fellowship leaders, proposed both short and long term goals for this work. In short, the overall objective is to plant a fully in-digenous church in Lethbridge which will become self governing, self propa-gating and self supporting. The Aki-

yama’s feel a strong call of God to the fulfillment of this objective how-ever long it takes and have applied for landed immigrant status. We en-courage the prayers of all CJM mem-bers to stand behind them until the mission is fulfilled. Their financial needs are reviewed from time to time. Please continue your faithful prayers and financial support. Thank you.

CJM AGM 2007 Mon. July 30, 2007

during the Sunnyside Camp week July 29 - Aug. 4, 2007 Sylvan Lake, Alberta

Please join us for the AGM and a spiritually uplifting week at camp.

Pastor Ed & Yoko Yoshida

(Continued from page 1) the Vancouver Japanese Gospel Church, Rev. Akira (Allen) Takano of the Yonezawa Kojo Church, Yamagata, Japan and Masao Morinaga of Oakridge Baptist Church in Vancouver. The crowning feature of the eve-

ning was the pictorial slide show representing 60 years of CJM, it’s people and places, presented by Bill Hoshizaki who had spent countless hours reviewing hundreds, if not thousands of photos for this memorable presentation. Appropriate closing words for this unforgettable evening was given by Miss Mary Holdcroft, a fellow worker, companion and attendant care for Margaret Ridg-way.

Those in attendance came from Japan, Okinawa, Hawaii, mainland USA and many parts of Can-ada. It is interesting to note that there were four

leaders from the initial CJM days who were present at the 60'' anniver-sary banquet and program. They were Mary (Mom) Sharples, age 101 years, from Kelowna, BC, Tats Okamoto from Winnipeg, MB and Bill and Jack Iwabuchi from Sherwood Park near Edmonton, Alberta. Amidst the jubilation and laughter, comments such as the following were abun-

dant: “What a great and memorable time, these are experiences that cannot be duplicated!” "Because of our spiritual kinship in Christ, re-connecting again was a little taste of heaven!” Another very thoughtful comment by a young man "l felt the history of CJM close up tonight ... we've taken a lot for granted, what we are inher-iting is a firm foundation built on the Gospel and the person of Jesus Christ”.

A fitting conclusion to this eventful weekend on Sunday evening under cloudless skies was a delightful barbeque at the London Heritage Farm in Richmond, BC attended by approx. 80 people.

Our scrumptious table was graced with BC white spring salmon (generously donated by Dan Nomura, President and CEO of Canfisco), sushi, salads, and much more, all supplied by the local churches and the organizing committee.

The organizing committee for the celebration, made up of CJM Board members residing in the Greater Vancouver area and Machiko (Uchida) Budai, a former Board member, who was the "workhorse" of the commit-tee, deserves all the applause and the kudos for a job well done. Other members included Ed Arinobu, Paul Kariya, Pastors Tetsuya Fukusaku and Robert Brown, both from the Vancouver Japanese Gospel Church.

Without question, those who attended experienced a long-to-be-remembered weekend during the CJM 60th Anniversary Celebration. ☐

I grew up in Toronto, Ontario and most of my formative years were spent on public transit, in orchestra, yearbook club, and Chinese restau-rants. After high school, I attended the University of Toronto, majoring in psychology, English, and minoring in East Asian Studies. Upon graduation I was accepted into the JET program, and for one year, lived in the sec-ond-largest city in Japan, Osaka City, where I spent most of my time on public transit, in classrooms with adorable (but loud!) children, and in kaiten sushi restaurants. I am currently working as the copyeditor for the eHarle-quin.com Web site, play softball and volleyball leagues year round, and volunteer occasionally with Habitat for Humanity Toronto.

I accepted Christ at the beginning of my Grade 11 year, at the bi-annual JGCT (Japanese Gospel Church of To-ronto) youth retreat. I’ve served consistently with the church since that time, starting with the Young People’s committee, up to my present responsibilities as a Board member and head of the Missions committee. I find the most joy heading up the summer softball team, which is one of the largest outreach activities at the church, and working on the Missions committee. I think it’s impor-tant to realize the importance of one’s local community when thinking about missions—there is so much one can do for their neighbours. My favorite quote to explain the way I view my faith is from John 3:30: He must in-crease, I must decrease. ☐

(Continued from page 3) prayers as Naoya accepted Christ and desired to be bap-tized at Sylvan Lake. It’s wonderful to see that prayer has been answered and continues to be answered as he has now become a member of our praise and worship team and has taken up the drums. He is now beating to the rhythm of Jesus’ plan for his life. Prayer is powerful! We know that prayer allows us to be humble and align ourselves with God’s Will. As a church we are continu-ing to pray and seek His Will for our future. We appreci-ate your prayers for us as we continue to align ourselves to His plan. Perhaps in the next issue we will have news of big changes. We look forward to how God will lead us. Let’s keep on praying! ☐

Mrs. Tats Okamoto

Miss Mary Holdcroft Naomi Ishiguro

Welcome, Naomi !

Sunday evening barbeque at London Heritage Farm

New Editor of the

an attachment to the CJM Reporter

My Reflection with CJM

by Rev. Stan Yokota—Pastor Emeritus, Japanese Gospel Church of Toronto

It was about 60 years ago, when Mr. Ed Sharples led me to the Lord. What a joy it was to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the CJM (Canadian Japanese Ministries) with “Ma” Sharples at 101 years of age and with her two daughters, Helen and Mabel. The Sharples’ home was the center of the CJM activities during my teen years. One special event in the Okanagan was a series of evangelistic meet-ings conducted by Rev. Paul Nagano and Rev. Bill Tamagi. Through these meetings many dedicated their lives for the Lord and several attended Bible College and encouraged me to think of attending as well.

During my Bible school years, (1955-58), I assisted Pastor Ed Yoshida in the CJM minis-try in Vancouver. After graduating from Bible College, I joined Hiko and Ethel Kinoshita who were CJM missionaries in Toronto. Rev. Charles Bayley, director of CJM, was living in Mississauga (Clarkson) at that time and helped provide the initial vehicles for the Toronto ministry. In the span of five decades and five different locations, the church has grown through youth activities and retreats, summer camps and various church ministries. The Fair Glen camp, which is an outreach ministry of the Japanese Gospel Church of Toronto ini-tially began as a CJM camp in 1955. From the very beginning, this min-istry has been a source of effective outreach, train-ing and maturing of youth leadership in our church.

At the CJM 60th celebrations, Aileen and I were overjoyed to meet many of the “Pathfinders” who were the teen’s group when we served with the original CJM in Vancouver in 1965-68. The ongoing ministry which later became the JCECS, and now again, bearing the same acronym, CJM, merits our prayers as the emphasis remains on the youth of this gen-erations.

We cherish a note from CJM founder, Miss Margaret Ridgway at our retirement. “To Stan and Aileen: your faithful and sacrificial devo-tion to our Lord Jesus Christ and His church these many years will always remain in the minds and hearts of those who have known you. I, myself will never forget your open home and warm hospitality, both in Vancouver and in Toronto. Your unaffected manner and Christian understanding and compassion have borne fruit in many lives and I am sure will continue to do so for many years to come. May His abiding peace and joy be yours until we see Him face to face.” ☐

Fall Youth Retreat 1988 at New Life Camp grounds. Pastor Stan front left - kneeling

Pastor Stan & Aileen Yokota

Pastor Stan’s ministry with CJM began in 1958 in To-ronto, ON. After his marriage to Aileen (Takata) in 1964, one year later, they were ap-pointed to lead the growing ministry in Vancouver, BC. In the fall of 1968, they returned to Toronto to give strength to the ministry which was being led by laymen of the church. In 1975, Pastor Stan was ap-pointed full-time pastor, the position he assumed until his retirement in the fall of 1992. He was accorded the title Pastor Emeritus of JGCT, maintaining his credentials and carrying on official func-tions of the church. He contin-ues today in this capacity as his health allows.

JOY OF CHRISTMAS

at Willowdale Pentecostal Church - 288 Cummer Ave., North York, ON Performances drawn from the Japanese Canadian community

Guest Performers: Toronto Mass Choir (Juno, Covenant & Vibe Award winners) Admission Free: Collection will be received for expenses and needy families in the community.

Child care and a Christmas party for children provided

For more info: Contact Pastor Ray Ebisuzaki 647-209-5428 or email pastorray@jgct.com

NOVEMBER 25, 2006 - 7:00 PM.

Japanese Gospel Church of Toronto

Updates: by Nori Kanashiro, Chair of the Board of Elders

The Purpose Driven Life campaign which we undertook in Janu-ary to March of 2005 was unquestionably the most significant, fruitful and lasting campaign in the life of this church. It’s impact is felt and seen today.

Small Groups: Prior to the Purpose Driven campaign, we had about 18 people who were meeting regularly in a small group sessions. As we organized the campaign, we encouraged and assigned everyone to a small group. A total of 133 became in-volved. The results, both for personal growth and evangel-ism were outstanding. Today we continue with over 80 people, some groups studying the Day 41 series and other using optional growth lessons.

Building Program: About 5 years ago, the Lord enabled JGCT to purchase 1.5 acres of prime commercial land in a developing area in the city of Scar-borough. Now, our building is about to become a reality! Our church Management Team made up of Matt Shintani, David Shih and Henry Ichikawa are in close communication with the archi-tect and our Project Manager, David Noble of Noble Missions*. Currently the preliminary plans are in the hands of the city and the detail drawings are being worked on. It is anticipated that the ground-breaking will take place in mid-spring of 2007. Pray for smooth progressive steps toward completion of the plans and that no delays will occur in the approval process at the city.

Fair Glen Summer Camp: Over the years, the camp ministry continues to be the most effec-tive evangelistic and leadership development ministry in the church. An aggressive advertising campaign to reach out to greater numbers in 2007 is currently being planned. ☐

www.jgct.com

* Noble Missions, founded by David Noble is a minis-try to men utilizing skilled volunteer tradesmen and workers to build churches around the world. His pro-jects have taken him to Japan, Korea, India, Russia and the USA. As our Pro-ject Manager, David will organize all the labor and materials and see the build-ing to completion. www.noblemissions.com

Model of the JGCT church building

The CJM REPORTER

is published semi-annually by the Canadian Japanese Ministries.

News items, reports, testimonies and notices of events are welcomed by the editors.

Next publication, April 15, 2007.

Published in Toronto, ON

CO-EDITORS: Nori Kanashiro

56 Wakefield Cres., Toronto, ON M1W 2C2 Tel: 416-321-5831 Email:

nbkan@sympatico.ca

Rev. Edward Yoshida 3650 Kingston Rd. PH-09, Toronto, ON M4C 2C4 Tel: 416-216-4302 Email: esyoshida@sympatico.ca

JAPANESE TRANSLATION:

Miki Nakano, and Minako Ebisuzaki

Under careful supervision, the Junior campers enjoy the

“monkey bars”.

To view or download this newsletter from the internet, Please log on to www.jgct.com

Seniors Small Group meeting weekly on Friday afternoons

What a wonderful glimpse of God’s faithfulness we witnessed at the CJM 60th Anniversary Celebration! It was the first of its kind for the Japanese Canadian evangelicals from across Canada, the States and other parts of the world coming together to rejoice in the Lord. May we, who were privileged to attend, continue to dwell on the Lord and enjoy His promises of “all things”. God said at the end of the 6th day of creation, “And God saw every-

thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” Life is indeed good! As I meditate upon the things of the past eighty plus years, when the Gospel was hardly

known to the Japanese Canadians, what a joy to see so many churches now where the Japanese may go to learn of eternal things and the blessed hope the Lord has promised. How blessed we are because of the CJM and their steadfast commitment and service to the Lord.

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 15:58 ☐

“...what a joy to see so many churches now where the

Japanese may go to learn of eternal things ...”

Roy Oshiro with daughter, Janice at the CJM

Anniversary Celebration

Editor’s Note: Roy Oshiro, a Canadian Nisei and teacher by profession, was called of God to Okinawa in 1953 to minister the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was the sec-ond missionary of CJM to Ja-pan. Pastor Roy has served faithfully for over 50 years and has recently retired from active ministry.

“Glimpse of God’s faithfulness” by Roy Oshiro - retired missionary