PMI Missionaries
Koji & Marcia Esaki
Ministry Area: Japan
Responsibilities: Church growth
E-mail Address: marciaesaki@hotmail.com
Koji and Marcia, and their daughters Hana and Mae, have been serving in Japan since 1993. Over the years, Koji has pastured a mission planted church and co-pastored another church. In 2005, Koji and family felt led to begin a Sunday worship service in the empty room above his mother's coffee shop. This central area of Gifu, Japan is where Koji spent his formative years from age six until college.
This is the first church from the Japan Presbytery in Gifu City, population 400,000. The church has attracted mainly non-believers who have never held a Bible in their hands or attended a worship service. Growth is slow, but Koji is trying to reach out through English classes and general friendship in the community. He has a monthly study with a fellow Gifu pastor, so that they might encourage one another. Koji and a young Christian man, who commutes to Gifu for business, have a monthly evening Bible study and prayer for the Gifu area.
Latest Report: (updated 7/7/2008)
Amazing Grace Church Christmas service, 2007, was a gathering of my family (Marcia is taking the picture) and the four women in the middle, and children, who had never heard the Christmas message. My cousin, Taeko-san, in red, and my mother and I meet for monthly Bible studies. I am asking Taeko-san and her two friends to her left to make a monthly commitment to come to church.
Esaki Family
I continue to preach once a month at Nisshin Presbyterian Church in Nagoya, which, was started by an MTW team of missionaries over ten years ago. I also serve as one of their elders, and in exchange one of the team members comes monthly, to Amazing Grace Church to preach.
 Koji preaching |
 Christmas Eve Service |
 Gifu Prefecture Prison |
Updates:
Cooperation among the churches of Gifu City have brought about two developments:
- In the picture of the Amazing Grace Church Christmas service, 2007, the woman in the white jacket to the far right has asked to be baptized. Her name is Mrs. Chikako Ozawa, and she is a friend of my cousin Taeko-san. She has been coming to church monthly with my cousin (in red) and the woman in between them.
- Mrs. Megumi Nakamura, not pictured, is a Christian who has been coming for the last two months. She has decided to transfer her membership to Amazing Grace Church, since she moved to the Gifu City area in the last year. She was very instrumental in talking to Mrs. Ozawa about her own faith. This is truly amazing that there might be two new members this year.
- In June, two prison inmates attended a Bible study, and at each Bible study a guard was also present. Both men, Mr. Egarashi and Mr. Matsui, are very interested in Christianity. I met another prisoner, Mr. Suzuki, in a different holding prison, who was waiting to be sentenced. All three men have been convicted or brought up on charges of murder and/or rape. Mr. Suzuki had had a dream that he should read a "black book" which he took to mean a Bible. I spent an hour and thirty minutes to listen to his story, give my testimony and explain the "black book." He would also like to have a Bible study, but it all depends on whether the guards will allow any of these men to have a monthly or even bi-monthly study. The guard who drove me to this holding prison had attended a Christian high school, and so that was another opportunity to talk. The prison allows a larger gathering on the second Friday of every month, where 30 or so men attend a Christian worship service of singing, prayer and a gospel sermon.
New Prayer Requests:
- Pray for Mrs. Ozawa; that she will follow through with her decision to be baptized.
- Praise that Mrs. Nakamura has decided to join the church.
- Pray for the prison ministry, and that the guards would allow more opportunities for Bible studies.
- Pray for our daughters, Hana and Mae. For Mae that she would settle into her new college setting in NY, and that she would find a church home. Pray for Hana that as she finishes her last year in college that God would guide her future.
Thank you for your faithful support to this ministry in Japan.
In His Grip,
Koji, Marcia, Hana and Mae
Mae took this picture at a recent plum blossom viewing ceremony in Kyoto.
Presbyterian Mission International
12330 Conway Road
St. Louis, Missouri 63141
Telephone: (314) 434-4044
Fax: (314) 434-4819
